Justin Martyr seems to imply that the consecration is
effected by the Commemoration of Christ’s own words in the
Institution: “We have been taught,” he says,
“that the food which is blessed by the prayer of the word which
comes from Him (τὴν
δι᾽ εὐχῆς
λόγου τοῦ παρ
αὐτοῦ
εὐχαριστηθεῖσαν
τροφήν), and by which our
blood and flesh are by transmutation nourished, is the Flesh and Blood
of that Jesus who was made Flesh.” He gives no separate
Invocation of the Holy Ghost, but this may have been supplied in the
“praise and glory” or in the “prayer and
thanksgivings” sent up “to the Father of all through the
name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Apol. I. cc.
65–67..”