[bdeaner]

Maybe you should look a little harder. I'll point out just one of the more obvious and clear ones, from St. Ignatius, among the first dozen quotes.

St. Ignatius:
"Consider how contrary to the mind of God are the heterodox in regard to the grace of God which has come to us. They have no regard for charity, none for the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, none for the man in prison, the hungry or the thirsty. They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not admit that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, the flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His graciousness, raised from the dead."

How much clearer could he be? He doesn't say the Eucharist symbolizes the body of Christ. He said it IS the flesh of Christ.

[bronxville]

Great post - a keeper. Thanks. :)

In a fifth-century homily, Theodore of Mopsuestia seemed to be speaking to today’s Evangelicals and Fundamentalists:

“When [Christ] gave the bread he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my body,’ but, ‘This is my body.’ In the same way, when he gave the cup of his blood he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my blood,’ but, ‘This is my blood,’ for he wanted us to look upon the [Eucharistic elements], after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit, not according to their nature, but to receive them as they are, the body and blood of our Lord” (Catechetical Homilies 5:1).

[Mr Rogers]

If I say my daughter is the light of my life, do I need to take her with me at night to light the path before me?