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Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 50

50 THE LEGIONARY AND THE EUCHARIST CHAPTER 8
How inexcusable are those Catholics who believe, but do not
practise that belief. That Jesus whom others admire, Catholics
possess — ever living in the Eucharist. They have free access
to him and can, and should, receive him even daily as the
food of their souls.
Considering these things, one sees how sad it is that such a
splen did heritage should be neglected; that persons having
the faith of the Eucharist should nevertheless permit sin and
thoughtlessness to deprive them of this vital need of their
souls, which Our Lord had in mind for them from the first
moment of his earthly existence. Even as a new-born babe in
Bethlehem (which means the House of Bread), he lay on that
straw of which he was the Divine Wheat: destined to be made
into the heavenly bread which would make men one with
him and with each other in his Mystical Body.
Mary is the mother of that Mystical Body. As she once
anxiously attended to the wants of her Christ-child, so now she
yearns to feed that Mystical Body, of which she is, no less, the
Mother. How her heart is anguished at seeing that her babe, in
his Mystical Body, is hungry — even starving — by reason of the
fact that few are nour ished as they should be with the Bread
Divine, while many do not receive it at all. Let those, who aim
to be associated to Mary in her maternal care of souls, share her
maternal anguish, and strive, in union with her, to allay that
hunger of the Body of Christ. Every avenue of legionary action
must be availed of to awaken knowledge and love of the Blessed
Sacrament and to dissipate the sin and indifference which keep
men from it. Each Holy Communion brought about is truly an
immeasurable gain. Through the individual soul, it nourishes
the entire Mystical Body of Christ, and causes it to advance in
wisdom and growth and grace with God and men. (Lk 2:52)

“This union of the Mother and the Son in the work of redemption
reaches its climax on Calvary, where Christ “offered himself as the
perfect sacrifice to God” (Heb 9:14) and where Mary stood by the
cross. (cf. Jn 19:25) “suffering grievously with her only-begotten Son.
There she united herself with a maternal heart to his sacrifice, and
lovingly consented to the immolation of this victim which she
herself had brought forth” and also was offering to the Eternal Father.
To perpetuate down the centuries the Sacrifice of the Cross, the divine
Saviour instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the memorial of his death
and resurrection, and entrusted it to his spouse the Church, which,
especially on Sundays, calls the faithful together to celebrate the