The Catholic Mass Quotes

“Let everyone at this time forget the priest. It is not the priest, who in form and name is like ourselves, but it is the Supreme, Eternal High Priest Himself Who has accomplished this sacrifice, which He accomplishes eternally through His priests. On the holy table there lies not the symbol, not the appearance of the Body, but the actual Body of the Lord Who suffered on earth, endured blows, was spat on, was crucified, and buried, rose and ascended to heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. We can no longer see anything but the appearance of bread, which serves as nourishment for men, according to what the Lord himself said: “I am the bread” (John 6:35).75”
― Athanasius Schneider, The Catholic Mass: Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy

“Now comes the moment of the elevation. The altar is no longer the upper room, the holy table no longer a table; it is the place of sacrifice, that Golgotha where the Son of God offered Himself as a sacrifice for us. . . . Inside the altar the most dread and most mysterious action in the whole Liturgy takes place. What is offered as a sacrifice to the Creator becomes actually the very sacrifice which our Redeemer offered on Golgotha for all men. The bread and wine that hitherto have been only symbols of Christ’s Body and Blood become the actual Body and Blood of Christ. . . .”
― Athanasius Schneider, The Catholic Mass: Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy