The Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation

The Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation...

"Remember, My children, and I repeat again, that My Son is with you in the Eucharist. He is present with you in Body and Spirit. He will be brought to you by a legally-ordained priest, a man of God. Do not judge My Son's Church or its structure by the ways of man. The Spirit will work miracles over the corruption of the man. A legally-ordained priest is a priest for life." - Our Lady, March 25, 1978

The following is an article on Transubstantiation by Frank Sheed:

Besides the Real Presence which faith accepts and delights in, there is the doctrine of transubstantiation, from which we may at least get a glimpse of what happens when the priest consecrates bread and wine, so that they become Christ's body and Christ's blood.

At this stage, we must be content with only the simplest statement of the meaning of, and distinction between substance and accidents, without which we should make nothing at all of transubstantiation. We shall concentrate upon bread, reminding ourselves once again that what is said applies in principle to wine as well.

We look at the bread the priest uses in the Sacrament. It is white, round, soft. The whiteness is not the bread, it is simply a quality that the bread has; the same is true of the roundness and the softness. There is something there that has these and other properties, qualities, attributes--the philosophers call all of them accidents. Whiteness and roundness we see; softness brings in the sense of touch. We might smell bread, and the smell of new bread is wonderful, but once again the smell is not the bread, but simply a property. The something which has the whiteness, the softness, the roundness, has the smell; and if we try another sense, the sense of taste, the same something has that special effect upon our palate.

In other words, whatever the senses perceive--even with the aid of those instruments men are forever inventing to increase the reach of the senses--is always of this same sort, a quality, a property, an attribute; no sense perceives the something which has all these qualities, which is the thing itself. This something is what the philosophers call substance; the rest are accidents which it possesses. Our senses perceive accidents; only the mind knows the substance. This is true of bread, it is true of every created thing. Left to itself, the mind assumes that the substance is that which, in all its past experience, has been found to have that particular group of accidents. But in these two instances, the bread and wine of the Eucharist, the mind is not left to itself. By the revelation of Christ it knows that the substance has been changed, in the one case into the substance of his body, in the other into the substance of his blood.

The senses can no more perceive the new substance resulting from the consecration than they could have perceived the substance there before. We cannot repeat too often that senses can perceive only accidents, and consecration changes only the substance. The accidents remain in their totality--for example, that which was wine and is now Christ's blood still has the smell of wine, the intoxicating power of wine. One is occasionally startled to find some scientist claiming to have put all the resources of his laboratory into testing the consecrated bread; he announces triumphantly that there is no change whatever, no difference between this and any other bread. We could have told him that, without the aid of any instrument. For all that instruments can do is to make contact with the accidents, and it is part of the doctrine of transubstantiation that the accidents undergo no change whatever. If our scientist had announced that he had found a change, that would be really startling and upsetting.

The accidents, then, remain; but not, of course, as accidents of Christ's body. It is not his body which has the whiteness and the roundness and the softness. The accidents once held in existence by the substance of bread, and those others once held in existence by the substance of wine, are now held in existence solely by God's will to maintain them.

What of Christ's body, now sacramentally present? We must leave the philosophy of this for a later stage in our study. All we shall say here is that his body is wholly present, though not (so St. Thomas among others tells us) extended in space. One further element in the doctrine of the Real Presence needs to be stated: Christ's body remains in the communicant as long as the accidents remain themselves. Where, in the normal action of our bodily processes, they are so changed as to be no longer accidents of bread or accidents of wine, the Real Presence in us of Christ's own individual body ceases. But we live on in his Mystical Body.

"I ask you all not to abandon My Church. Do not judge My Church by the priest, for in his human nature he can err. But I assure you, I am using him, as a legally-ordained priest, to bring you My Body and Blood. Do not go seeking elsewhere, for you will lose your baptismal right, and you will no longer be accepted as a Roman Catholic, and you will not enter into the highest place of Heaven, the Kingdom of Paradise." - Jesus, October 6, 1980

The amazing Bayside prophecies... http://www.tldm.org/Bayside/default.htm

INSTRUMENT
"During the consecration of My Body, regardless of his human nature, whether it be saint or sinner, I come to you in full Body and Spirit. I come to you through him as a medium from God, through him as an instrument from God." - Jesus, June 18, 1977

MOCKED AND ABUSED
"You cannot worship, you cannot follow two masters, for one you will love, and the other you will hate or learn to hate. And is there not much hate against My Son in the world now? Is there not much derision and laughter and abominations against His divinity? Do you not take His sacred, purified Body and cast it into the water font? Do you not, in your arrogance, do you not, O pastors, protect My Son's Body, His Body that is being carried to be mocked and abused in a form of worship from satan?
"O pastors, evil men of the cross, whatever shall become of you?" - Our Lady, February 1, 1977

LAX
"My child, please, you must make it known to Our clergy that they are defiling My Son's Body in many ways. Disrespect and dishonor—how many tears have I shed at the sight! Only consecrated hands shall give and bring My Son to the peoples of earth, legally ordained and given the Holy Spirit—the clergy chosen by the Father to bring His Son to you! Unclean hands shall not touch My Son's Body! You must not allow My Son to be defiled any longer. No children shall carry My Son's Body in the hands!
     "Know, My child, that only one exception can be made: when a legally ordained priest is unable to reach the dying, he will send his deacon to bring My Son to him. But only in severe trial and need, I say! Only to the dying. All others, My child, will be given the needed grace if they pray.
     "If Our clergy become deluded by satan and lax in their responsibility to My Son, they will be set in judgment before the Father for their part in the defilement of My Son's Body.
     "You must warn My clergy, My child, with your message. We are not pleased by the manner in which they honor the Son of God.
     "A thorough cleansing must be made within the House of God, the Church. Women shall not receive My Son dressed as pagans—naked, and without absolution! Many have made a farce and a meal of My Son. They come to receive Him without penance. What manner of abomination is this, My child? Mankind must do penance and prepare himself for the reception of the Host, My child." - Our Lady, December 31, 1974

FOUL DEEDS
"I repeat again and again that none but a duly-ordained, legally-ordained priest in My Son's House shall bring His sacred Body in the Host to another. Foul deeds are being committed upon My Son's Body! And you allow them, neither caring..."
Veronica - Our Lady is now reaching down to Her mantle. She is bringing it up to Her eyes, placing it over Her eyes.
Our Lady - "My child, My heart is torn. It feels as though a thousand knives have pierced My heart. Every day another enters. How many shall console Me in My sorrow? I am truly the Mother of Sorrows. And why? Because My eyes look and watch the multitudes of My children entering into hell day by day! I cannot stem the tide now. I ask, I beseech, I plead with you as your Mother, to hold back the darkness. Fight the forces of darkness and evil that have entered upon your world." - Our Lady, November 1, 1977

Directives from Heaven... http://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm

D1 The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
D2 The Holy Eucharist

D3 Communion in the Hand

D146 - Honor the Eucharist, Part 1
D147 - Honor the Eucharist, Part 2

Other Links

The Host turns into the Flesh of a human heart
http://www.tldm.org/misc/holyhour.htm

Proof of the Real Presence
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05573a.htm

Rethinking Communion in the hand
http://www.tldm.org/news2/cih.htm

"I wait for you."
http://www.tldm.org/News3/i_wait.htm

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
http://www.tldm.org/News3/sheen.htm

Transubstantiation and reason, Homiletic & Pastoral Review, January 1998
http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Homiletic/Jan98/transubstantiation.html

The Holy Eucharist, Catholic Encyclopedia
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05573a.htm

We encourage everyone to print or email copies of this web page to all the Bishops and all the clergy. Also, send this page to as many people as possible.

The electronic form of this document is copyrighted. http://www.tldm.org
Copyright © These Last Days Ministries, Inc. 1998 - 2003 All rights reserved.
P.O. Box 40
Lowell, MI 49331-0040
Revised: February 11, 2003