The Eucharistic Celebration, the Work of "Christus Totus"

Lately I've been reading Pope Benedict XVI's book, "The Sacrament of Charity." It is one of the most beautiful works I've read on the Eucharist. Part II discusses the Eucharist as "A Mystery to be Celebrated" and I wanted to share this litte piece of it because I find it particularly beautiful. The Holy Father says:

"The 'subject' of the liturgy's intrinsic beauty is Christ himself, risen and glorified in the Holy Spirit, who includes the Church in his work. Here we can recall an evocative phrase of Saint Augustine which strikingly describes this dynamic of faith proper to the Eucharist. The great Bishop of Hippo, speaking specifically of the eucharistic mystery, stresses the fact that Christ assimilates us to himself: 'The bread you see on the altar, sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. The chalice, or rather, what the chalice contains, sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ. In these signs, Chirst the Lord willed to entrust to us his body and the blood which he shed for the forgiveness of our sins. If you have received them properly, you yourselves are what you have received.' Consequently, 'not only have we become Christians, we have become Christ himself.' We can thus contemplate God's mysterious work, which brings about a profound unity between ourselves and the Lord Jesus: 'one should not believe that Christ is in the head but not in the body; rather he is complete in the head and in the body.'"
-- Benedict XVI "The Sacrament of Charity"

This is an interesting parallel to what we pray in the Prayer of Humble Access: "Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us." Amen!