537 Fathers of the Church - Justin Martyr

(First Apology, chapter 128)
. . . . After the president has given thanks, and all the people have shouted their assent, those whom we call deacons give to each one present to partake of the Eucharistic bread and wine and water; and to those who are absent they carry away a portion. We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who has been washed in the washing [baptism] which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [2 Pet 3:21], and is thereby living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread or common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him [1 Cor 11: 23-26; Lk 22; 19] and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished is both the flesh and blood of the incarnated Jesus.

538 Fathers of the Church - St Iraneus

“If the Lord were from other than the Father [and thus capable of performing miracles], how could he rightly take bread, which is the same creation of our own, and confess it to be his body and affirm that the mixture in the cup is his blood?”

539 Fathers of the Church - Tertullian (210 A.D.)

Then, again, how can they say that the flesh, which is nourished with the body of the Lord and with His blood, goes to corruption, and does not partake of life? Let them, therefore, either alter their opinion, or cease from offering the things just mentioned. But our opinion is in accordance with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn establishes our opinion. For we offer to Him His own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of the flesh and Spirit. For as the bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly; so also our bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity.

540 Fathers of the Church - Tertullian (210 A.D.)

[The Resurrection of the Dead 8]
There in not a soul that can at all procure salvation, except it believe whilst it is in the flesh, so true is it that the flesh is the very condition on which salvation hinges. And since the soul is, in consequence of its salvation, chosen to the service of God, it is the flesh which actually renders it capable of such service. The flesh, indeed, is washed [in baptism], in order that the soul may be cleansed . . . The flesh is shadowed with the imposition of hands [in confirmation], that the soul may also be illuminated by the Spirit; the flesh feeds [in the Eucharist] on the body and blood of Christ, that the soul likewise may be filled with God.

541 Fathers of the Church - Cyprian (251 A.D.)

[The Lapsed 15-16m 251 A.D.]
He [Paul] threatens, moreover, the stubborn and forward and denounces them saying, ‘Whosoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” [1 Cor 11: 27]. All these warnings being scorned and condemned [lapsed Christians will often take communion] before their sin is expiated, before confession has been made of their crime, before their conscience has been purged, by sacrifice and by the hand of the priest, before the offense of an angry and threatening Lord has been appeased [and so] violence is done to his body and blood; and they sin now against their Lord more with their hand and mouth than when they denied their Lord.

542 Fathers of the Church - St. John Chrysostom

“...You see that same Body, not in a manger, but upon the altar; not carried in His Mother's arms, but elevated in the priest's hands. Let us, therefore, be roused, and tremble, and bring with us more devotion to the altar than those Eastern kings did to the manger, where they adored their newborn Saviour.”

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