“Ever since that hour when, in the celebration of the first Supper on the night when He was betrayed, Jesus Christ the incarnate Word of the Father, as at once the High Priest and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, distributed His true body and His true blood to His circle of disciples under bread and wine, thereby making them members of His body and bestowing on them forgiveness of sins along with life and salvation, the heart of the church has been beating in the Lord’s Supper.  Even when we do not know it, the heart of the church is still beating today in the Lord’s Supper.  If the celebration of the Supper should cease, then the preaching of the Word would be struck dumb, with the result that faith would be quenched, love would grow cold, and hope would die.  Where the heart dies, the body dies also.  The church dies with the Supper.”

{Thanks to Pastor Cholak for unearthing this one.}