Replies

From the Lauda Sion sequence:

Dogma datur Christianis,
quod in carnem transit panis,
et vinum in sanguinem.
Quod no capis, quod non vides,
animosa firmat fides,
praeter rerum ordinem.

(This is a dogma given
to Christians that bread is
changed into Jesus' flesh,
and wine into his blood.
What you do not understand,
what you do not see, a lively
faith confirms in a super-
natural manner.)

Sub diversis speciebus,
signis tantum, et non rebus,
latent res eximiae.
Caro cibus, sanguis potus:
manet tamen Christus totus
sub utraque specie.

(Under different species,
which are but signs, not
real things, a priceless
treasure lies hidden.
His flesh is food, his blood
is drink: yet Christ remains
entire under each species.)

A sumente non concisus,
non confractus, non divisus,
integer accipitur.
Sumit unus, sumunt mille,
quantum isti, tantum ille,
nec sumptus consumitur.

(He who partakes of him
neither severs, nor breaks, nor
divides him; he receives him
entire.
Whether one or a thousand
receive him, one receives as
much as a thousand do: and when
received he is not diminished.)

Sumunt boni, sumunt mali:
sorte tamen inaequali,
vitae, vel interitus.
Mors est malis, vita bonis:
vide paris sumptionis
quam sit dispar exitus.

(Both the good and the wicked
receive him: but with the unequal
result of life or death.
He brings death to the unworthy,
and life to the just: see how unlike
are the effects of a like communion.)

Fracto demum sacrmento
ne vacilles, sed memento
tantum esse sub fragmento
quantum toto tegitur.
Nulla rei fit scissura:
signi tantum fit fractura,
qua nec status nec statura
signati minuitur.

(Then indeed when the bread is
broken, doubt not, but remember that
there is as much in one fragment
as lies hidden in the whole.
There is no division of the substance
itself, but only a breaking of the
species, by which neither the state
nor the size of the substance signified is altered.)

whole piece here: http://www.sjbrcc.org/praise.html