Blessing and Cursing

He took bread and blessed; and yet what blessed he? The Scripture says not that Christ took bread and blessed it, or that he blessed the bread which he had taken. Therefore it seems more that he blessed his disciples and apostles, whom he had ordained witnesses of his passion, and in them he left his blessed word, which is the bread of life.… It seems more that he blessed his disciples, and also his apostles, in whom the bread of life was left more than in material bread; for the material bread has an end.

You are going to take the high sea of the world; do not change, on that account, patron or sails, or anchor, or wind. Have Jesus always for your patron, his cross for a mast, on which you must spread your resolutions as a sail: your anchor shall be a profound confidence in him—and sail prosperously; may the favorable wind of celestial inspirations ever fill your vessel’s sails fuller and fuller, and make you happily arrive at the port of a holy eternity.

O truly blessed Cross of Christ, which did bear the King of Heaven, and which did bring to the whole world the joy of salvation! By you the devils are put to flight; the weak are cured; the timid are strengthened; the sinful are cleansed; the idle are excited; the proud are humbled; the hard-hearted are touched; and the devout are bedewed with tears. Blessed are they who daily call to mind the Passion of Christ, and desire to carry their own cross after Christ.