Great Throughts Treasury

"Whoever has the symbol has thereby the beginning of the spiritual idea; symbol and reality together furnish the whole."

"The saving acts which belong to the historical past are objectively and really re-presented in the liturgical mysteries. It is not a question of merely 'intentional' re-actualization being produced by a celebration; the saving acts are truly posited anew in the present. And these saving acts -- the incarnation, death and resurrection, to restrict ourselves to the most important -- are the proper content and object of the sacraments; they form the interior reality of the mysteries of worship... this real representation of the saving deed cannot not be, because the saving acts of Christ are so necessary to the Christian that he cannot be a true Christian if he doesn't live them after Him and with Him. It is not the teaching of Christ which makes the Christian. It is not even the simple application of his grace. It is the total identification with the person of Christ obtained by re-living His life."