Pillars of Fire In My Soul

abundance of riches is included in the mystery of the Eucharist (See: p.173, Theological Dimension Of The Liturgy , Cyprian Vagaggini, O.S.B., The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN, 1976, from the 4 th Italian Edition): This they will in some degree accomplish, if, having explained the efficacy and nature of all the sacraments, they compare the Eucharist to a fountain, the other sacra- ments to rivulets. For the Holy Eucharist is truly and nec- essarily to be called the fountain of all graces , containing as it does, after an admirable manner, the fountain itself of celestial gifts and graces, and the author of all the sacra- ments, Christ our Lord, from whom, as from its source, is derived whatever of goodness and perfection the other sacraments possess (Part 2, ch.4, n.47; in the translation by John A. McHugh and Charles J. Collan - Catechism of the Council of Trent , New York 1934, pp. 241-242). The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council re-echos this teaching: "Especially from the Eucharist, grace is poured forth upon us as from a fountain." The centrality of the Eucharist as the fountain of all sacra- mental graces has also been clearly taught in the writings of great contemporary theologians. In Theological Dimensions of the Liturgy, for example, the great 20th century scholar Cyprian Vagaggini, OSB, argues persuasively that “the Eucharist, there- fore [is the] sacrament and sacrifice, which realizes to the full the common notion and end of all the sacraments.” He writes: All that has been said of the sacraments, that they are ordained to the Eucharistic sacrifice, can be said with even greater reason about all those rites in the liturgy which are of ecclesiastical institution: ceremonies, sacramentals, prayers, and especially the divine office. The basic reason is the same: we know that all these liturgical rites of eccle- siastical origin have no other aim than divine worship in Christ and the sanctification of man in Christ. Moreover, Essential Features of the Devotion to The Divine Mercy 129