This same Body that we receive at the altar...

I beseech you, my beloved brethren, to ponder how much we are indebted to the Blessed Mother of God, and what thanksgiving we owe her, after God, for such a great benefit. For this Body of Christ, which she begot and carried in her womb, which she wrapped in swaddling clothes, which she nourished with her milk with such maternal solicitude, it is this same Body that we receive at the altar; it is his Blood that we drink in the sacrament of our redemption.

This is what the Catholic faith holds, and this is what the Holy Church teaches. No, there is no human word that can adequately praise the one from whom the Mediator between God and men took his flesh. Whatever honor we may give her, it is beneath her merits, since it is she who has prepared for us from her chaste womb the immaculate flesh that nourishes souls.

Saint Peter Damian (1007-1072)