From the Passover Lamb to the Eucharist

pic: Durham Cathedral

Earlier this year, in a series of posts published under the blog label Jewish roots, I explore the Jewish roots of the Christian Eucharist.  I drew on the work of Brant Pitre among others when I wrote this:

One of the clearest places where the Jewish imprint on Christianity remains visible is in the Holy Mass, the Eucharist. Catholics believe that this sacrament was instituted at the Last Supper and marks the new covenant—the new Passover—in the blood of Jesus Christ, shed for all peoples outside the gates of Jerusalem. According to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), the Last Supper was a ritual Jewish meal, structured as a Passover celebration like those observed by thousands of Jewish families at the time.

Long before modern scholars began to emphasise the Jewish roots of the Eucharist, they were already apparent in the writings of the Anglo-Saxon theologian, Doctor and saint, Bede the Venerable (c. 673-735).  Bede understood the Eucharist as the fulfilment of Old Testament figures such as the manna and Passover lamb.  In his commentaries on the Temple, the Tabernacle and the Passover, for example, he saw the Eucharist as the completion of God's saving plan rather than as an isolated ritual. The history of Israel culminates in Christ, and Christ continues to nourish his Church sacramentally.

Recent stories of Irish women and the Eucharist

Born in 1907 in Kanturk in North Cork, Edel Mary Quinn was one of Ireland's great twentieth-century lay apostles as well as an outstanding member of the Legion of Mary which she joined in 1929.  She went as an envoy to East Africa in 1936 and died at the age of 36 in 1944. Her cause for canonisation remains active. In 1994 she was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II, recognising the heroic virtue of her life.  Although reports of favours and healings have been attributed to her intercession, no miracle has yet been officially approved for her beatification.  Many who have studied her life have remarked that her perseverance despite illness seems extraordinary, leading some to describe her life itself as a kind of miracle.

According to one source, her given name at baptism was Edelweiss (the name of a tough but beautiful white alpine flower which was shortened to Edel).  This account, however, is not confirmed by other sources as far as I can tell.  I did find her birth certificate through a public online search and it turned up as Edelle at birth.  I do like the image and some literary license seems justified in this case.

Her family moved from town to town as her father worked for a bank. It is believed that a French man named Pierre Landrin who was manager of a tile company in Dublin where Edel worked proposed marriage to her. God had other plans for Edel. She had hoped to become a nun. Yet illness redirected her vocation and ultimately prepared her for the mission that would make her known throughout East Africa.  Following a diagnosis of tuberculosis in 1932 Edel spent 18 months in a sanatorium in County Wicklow.

Reign of the Eucharist in all hearts

Servant of God Frank Duff (1889–1980) founded the Legion of Mary in 1921.  The ‘Legion’ was present in practically every parish in Ireland in the course of the 20^th Century. While I was approached more than once in the  1980s I never joined up – I was involved in another lay Catholic movement.  Yet, I retain a great respect and admiration for the work of the Legion – quiet, persistent, not ostentatious and ever faithful to Catholic tradition and present-day authority.

Frank Duff died on this day in 1980.

The Legion spread from Ireland to every corner of the globe. Its purpose and mission was to mobilise ordinary lay Catholics in works of prayer and apostolic outreach to spread love for God, Mary, the Church and the Sacraments. Where the Society of St Vincent de Paul brought material relief to the poor in each parish, the Legion of Mary brought spiritual help and encouragement.

The founder placed  great emphasis on frequent – even daily – participation in the Mass along with eucharistic spirituality. In the handbook of the Legion, Frank Duff wrote:

The Eucharist is the centre and source of grace: therefore it must be the very keystone of the Legion scheme. The most intense activity will accomplish nothing of value if it forgets for a moment that the main object is to establish the reign of the Eucharist in all hearts. For therefore is fulfilled the purpose for which Jesus came into the world. That purpose was to communicate himself to souls so that he might make them one with him. The means of that communication is chiefly in the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is the infinite good. For in that Sacrament is Jesus Himself.

The great cloud of Irish witnesses

Today we honour all the Irish saints including the many who are known to God alone in The Feast of All Saints of Ireland (Féile Naomh uile na hÉireann).  On my daily walks in the surrounding countryside I sometimes think of the people who lived and worked on this land down the centuries. From the early monks to the Cistercians who established Duiske Abbey in Graignamanagh in 1204 to those who toiled on the land and in the homestead and provided for others.  Many faced hardships, oppression and persecution that we can hardly imagine. For them, the Mass was central and some risked and gave their lives for it.

Ireland has a proud tradition of saints and monastic founders. Almost every parish has a local saint and an associated holy well or church ruin.  It is hard to believe that there is more than one local Irish saint for every day of the year.  Ranging from the early missionary period associated with Saint Patrick and those who came after him – notably Brigid and Colmcille amongst a host of others – to the martyrs and holy persons of later centuries we have a high density of sainthood per square kilometre!

Lamps lit and hearts awake

Sunday 8 November 2026

Lectio Divina:

Wisdom 6:12-16 Psalm 63 (62) 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Matthew 25:1-13

Meditatio:

‘Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.’ (Matthew 25:13)

Commentary:

Life itself is not complicated. More often than not, we are the ones who complicate it.

Among the many insights offered by the world's spiritual traditions are two simple but profound practices: mindfulness and faithful living. While these terms are often associated with Buddhism, they also lie close to the heart of the Jewish and Christian tradition. Scripture repeatedly calls us to attentiveness before God and loving action towards others.

The Book of Wisdom speaks of wisdom as something living and active, waiting to be discovered by those who seek it with an open heart. "She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her" (Wisdom 6:13). God is not distant or hidden. The challenge is not God's absence but our inattentiveness. We become distracted by the noise around us and lose touch with the presence already at work within us.

Seeing Cana through Eucharistic eyes

In common with many first-millennium Christian writers, St Peter Chrysologus (c. 380-450), Archbishop of Ravenna and Doctor of the Church, did not leave a systematic treatise on the Eucharist in the way later theologians would. Nevertheless, his sermons contain significant Eucharistic teaching. He belongs to the great patristic era often described as the ‘Golden Age of the Fathers’ (fourth and fifth centuries). Like his contemporary St Leo the Great, Chrysologus understood the Eucharist as a true sacramental participation in Christ's Body and Blood.

One of his most striking Eucharistic passages comes from a sermon reflecting on the Epiphany, the Baptism of the Lord, and the wedding feast at Cana:

More than a symbol

St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310-367), best known as a defender of the divinity of Christ against Arianism, also left an important witness to the Eucharist. He belongs to the generation of Nicene Fathers who defended the orthodox faith in the decades following the first Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.).  St Hilary’s most famous Eucharistic text appears in De Trinitate (On the Trinity), Book VIII. One of his strongest statements reads:

For if in truth the Word has been made flesh and we in very truth receive the Word made flesh as food from the Lord, are we not bound to believe that He abides in us naturally, Who, born as a man, has assumed the nature of our flesh now inseparable from Himself, and has conjoined the nature of His own flesh to the nature of the eternal Godhead in the sacrament by which His flesh is communicated to us?  (De Trinitate, VIII, 13).