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In the Eucharist, Christ is truly present and alive, working through his Spirit; yet, as Saint Thomas said so well, "what you neither see nor grasp, faith confirms for you, leaving nature far behind; a sign it is that now appears, hiding in mystery realities sublime".(16) He is echoed by the philosopher Pascal: "Just as Jesus Christ went unrecognized among men, so does his truth appear without external difference among common modes of thought. So too does the Eucharist remain among common bread".(17) - From #13 of Pope John Paul II's new encyclical Faith and Reason, (Fides et Ratio) Revelation of the Sacred Heart It was on June 16, 1675, that the last of the grand revelations relative to the Sacred Heart took place. It was to close the cycle of those solemn disclosures. Until then the humble virgin had received from the Lord only personal favors, very like those with which other holy souls had already been favored. He had only demanded of her some individual practices of devotion. Now however, the hour was come for Him to invest her with her grand, public mission. During the octave of the feast of the Blessed Sacrament, June 16, 1675, Margaret Mary was on her knees before the choir-grate, her eyes fixed on the tabernacle. She had just received "some of the unmeasured graces of His love". We have no particulars of these graces. Suddenly the Lord appeared on the altar and discovered to her His Heart: "Behold", said He to her, "this Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify its love. In return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this sacrament of love. And what is most painful to Me," added the Savior, in a tone that went to the Sister's heart, "is that they are hearts consecrated to Me" Then He commanded her to have established in the Church a particular feast to honor His Sacred Heart. "It is for this reason I ask thee that the first Friday after the octave of the Blessed Sacrament be appropriated to a special feast, to honor My Heart by communicating on that day, and making reparation for the indignity that it has received. And I promise that My Heart shall dilate to pour out abundantly the influences of its love on all that will render it this honor or procure its being rendered". - Bougaud - From the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr: "I no longer take pleasure in perishable food or in the delights of this world. I want only God's bread, which is the Flesh of Jesus Christ, formed of the seed of David, and for drink I crave His Blood which is love that cannot perish." "Be careful, therefore, to take part only in the one Eucharist; for there is only one Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and one cup to unite us with His Blood." "I am God's wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ's pure bread." A spiritual director of St. Issac Jogues writes: "It would have been well if I had learnt from Father Jogues the manner of praying and making thanksgiving (after Mass) as from a soul, if I can use the phrase, glued to the Blessed Sacrament. It was before this hidden God that he performed all his spiritual exercises, his prayers, his breviary, and he did not mind the bitterness of the cold nor the annoyance of the insects." When St. Isaac Jogues became the first white man to see the modern day Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains on Corpus Christi, he called the lake "Lake of the Blessed Sacrament." Of St. Rene Goupil, St. Isaac Jogues writes: "We begged God to accept our lives and our blood and unite them to His life and His blood for the salvation of these tribes," and "It was the Feast of St. Michael, September the 29th, 1642, that this angel in innocence and martyr of Jesus Christ, Rene Goupil, gave his life for Christ who has offered His life on the cross for him." Of her First Communion, in which Therese received Love Himself personally for the first time, she writes, "It was a kiss of love, I felt myself loved, and I replied, I love You and I give myself to You forever." In her little notebook Therese wrote down all the days on which she received Jesus in Holy Communion. Her second meeting with Jesus was equally as intimate. Of this wedding Therese recalled the words of St. Paul, "It is no longer I who life, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). "Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is the Solution to our problems of declining vocations," - Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal, Archbishop of Cebu From Mother Mary of Jesus, the Foundress of the Sisters of Marie Reparatrice: "It is there in His Eucharist that He says to me: 'I thirst, thirst for your love, your sacrifices, your sufferings. I thirst for your happiness, for it was to save you that I came into the world, that I suffered and died on the Cross, and in order to console and strengthen you I left you the Eucharist. So you have there all my life, all my tenderness.'" At another time Sister Faustina recorded these words as spoken to her by Our Lord: "I remind you, My daughter, that as often as you hear the clock strike the third hour (in the afternoon), immerse yourself completely in My mercy, adoring and glorifying it; invoke its omnipotence for the whole world, and particularly for poor sinners." What our Lord hinted of in what he said to her next is significant: "My daughter try your best to make the Stations of the Cross in this hour, provided that your duties permit it; and if you are not able to make the Stations of the Cross, then at least step into the chapel for a moment and adore in the Most Blessed Sacrament My Heart, which is full of mercy." Jesus finally added: "I claim veneration for My mercy from every creature." (DIARY, V, 145) "Before the coming of Jesus Christ, men fled away from God and, being attached to the earth, refused to unite themselves to their Creator. But the loving God has drawn them to Himself by the bonds of love, as He promised by the prophet Osee [Hosea]: "I will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bonds of love" (11:4). These bonds are the benefits, the lights, the calls to His love, the promises of Paradise which He makes to us, but above all, the gift which He has bestowed upon us of Jesus Christ in the Sacrifice of the Cross and in the Sacrament of the Altar..." - St. Alphonsus Maria Ligouri "Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament has His hands full of graces, and He is ready to bestow them on anyone who asks for them," - St. Peter of Alcantara "Nowhere does Jesus hear our prayers more readily than in the Blessed Sacrament," - Blessed Henry Suson "Let us go with confidence to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace," - (Heb. 4:16) Since Christ Himself said in reference to the bread: "This is My Body," who will dare remain hesitant? And since with equal clarity He asserted: "This is My Blood," who will dare entertain any doubt and say that this is not His Blood?... You have been taught these truths. Imbued with the certainty of faith, you know that what seems to be bread is not bread but the Body of Christ, although it seems to be bread when tasted. You also know that what seems to be wine is not wine but the Blood of Christ although it does taste like wine. - From a catechetical instruction given by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem for his successor John in the 4th century "Neither theological knowledge nor social action alone is enough to keep us in love with Christ unless both are proceeded by a personal encounter with Him. Theological insights are gained not only from between two covers of a book, but from two bent knees before an altar. The Holy Hour becomes like an oxygen tank to revive the breath of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the foul and fetid atmosphere of the world," - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen "The Eucharist is at the very center of our life; such was the teaching of Jesus. When commenting on the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves He told His apostles that He Himself is the Living Bread that came down from heaven. He called on the twelve for an act of faith and it was Peter who answered in the name of all: 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God' (John 6:69). Christian faith is faith in the Eucharistic Christ." - Jean Galot, S.J. "The Sacrament of the Body of the Lord puts the demons to flight, defends us against the incentives to vice and to concupiscence, cleanses the soul from sin, quiets the anger of God, enlightens the understanding to know God, inflames the will and the affections with the love of God, fills the memory with spiritual sweetness, confirms the entire man in good, frees us from eternal death, multiplies the merits of a good life, leads us to our everlasting home, and re-animates the body to eternal life," - St. Thomas Aquinas "Ask Jesus to make you a saint. After all, only He can do that. Go to confession regularly and to Communion as often as you can," - St. John Bosco "Do you want many graces? Go and visit the Blessed Sacrament often. Do you want few graces? Visit the Blessed Sacrament rarely. Do you want none at all? Then never pay a visit to the Blessed Sacrament," - St. Dominic Savio "Salvation is from our God...on the throne, and from the Lamb!" This is the same Jesus Whom "everyone in the crowd was trying to touch...because power came out from Him that cured them all." ...From the Lamb flows a river of grace which heals every nation. Each time we look upon Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, He raises us up into deeper union with Himself, opens up the floodgates of His merciful love to the whole world, and brings us closer to the day of His final victory "where every knee will bend and proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord". "The reign of God is already in your midst." The coming of Jesus to us in the Eucharist is assurance of His promise of final victory: "BEHOLD, I COME TO MAKE ALL THINGS NEW." - Excerpts from Rosary Meditations from Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Loving Jesus With the Heart of Mary PRAYER OF ST. GERTRUDE THE GREAT OUR LORD TOLD ST. GERTRUDE THE GREAT THAT THE FOLLOWING PRAYER WOULD RELEASE 1000 SOULS FROM PURGATORY EACH TIME IT IS SAID. THE PRAYER WAS EXTENDED TO INCLUDE LIVING SINNERS AS WELL. Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. AMEN. "By His Eucharistic presence, Christ dwells in our midst. Out of love He has enriched the Church with His unceasing presence. As God in former days dwelt in the temple of Jerusalem, He now lives in our churches and chapels. He invites us to remain in close contact with Him. Through Eucharistic adoration we concentrate our attention on Him as we yield to the fascination of His invisible gaze. Opening our heart, we entrust all our petitions to Him," - Jean Galot, S.J. "[It is appropriate that the Body and Blood of Christ be truly present in this Sacrament] because of the perfection of the New Covenant. The sacrifices of the Old Covenant contained the true sacrifice of Christ's Passion only in symbol. ...Therefore it was necessary that the sacrifice of the New Covenant, instituted by Christ, have something more, namely, that it contain Christ Himself who has suffered and contain Him not only in symbol but in reality." - St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae We are made partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ, not as taking common flesh, nor as of a holy man united to the Word in dignity, but the truly life-giving flesh of the Word Himself. - Council of Ephesus 431 Sacrifice and Sacrament The Eucharist is both a Sacrifice and Sacrament. Does not nature itself have a double aspect: the sacrifice and the sacrament? The vegetables which are served at the table, the meat which is presented on the platter, are the natural sacraments of the body of man. By them he lives. If they were endowed with speech, they would say, "Unless you have communion with me, you will not live." But how do they come to be our sacrament if it was not by sacrifice? Did not the vegetables have to be pulled up by their roots from the earth, submitted to the law of death, then pass through the ordeal of fire, before they could become the sacrament of physical life or have communion with the body? - From That Tremendous Love by Fulton J. Sheen, Harper Row. 1967 "...St. John Chrysostom, who, as you know, treated of the eucharistic mystery with such nobility of language and insight born of devotion, instructing his faithful on one occasion about this mystery, expressed these most fitting words: "Let us submit to God in all things and not contradict Him, even if what He says seems contrary to our reason and intellect; rather let His words prevail over our reason and intellect. Let us act in this way with regard to the (eucharistic) mysteries, looking not only at what falls under our senses but holding on to His words. For His word cannot lead us astray." The scholastic Doctors often made similar affirmations: That in this sacrament are the true Body of Christ and His true Blood is something that "cannot be apprehended by the senses," says St. Thomas, "but only by faith which relies on divine authority. This is why, in a comment on Luke, 22,19: ('This is My Body which is given for you'), St. Cyril says: 'Do not doubt whether this is true, but rather receive the words of the Savior in faith, for since He is the truth, He cannot lie.'" Thus the Christian people, echoing the words of the same St. Thomas, frequently sing the words: "Sight, touch, and taste in Thee are each deceived, the ear alone most safely is believed. I believe all the Son of God has spoken-than truth's own word there is no truer token." In fact, St. Bonaventure asserts: "There is no difficulty about Christ's presence in the Eucharist as in a sign, but that He is truly present in the Eucharist as He is in heaven, this is most difficult. Therefore to believe this is especially meritorious." Moreover, the Holy Gospel alludes to this when it tells of the many disciples of Christ who, after listening to the sermon about eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood, turned away and left Our Lord, saying: "This is strange talk, who can be expected to listen to it?" Peter, on the other hand, in reply to Jesus' question whether also the twelve wished to leave, expressed his faith and that of the others promptly and resolutely with the marvelous answer: "Lord, to whom should we go? Thy words are the words of eternal life." - Pope Paul VI, Mystery Of Faith, (Mysterium Fidei) "The faithful are to hold the Eucharist in highest honor, taking part in the celebration of the Most August Sacrifice, receiving the sacrament devoutly and frequently, and worshiping it with supreme adoration; pastors, clarifying the doctrine on this sacrament, are to instruct the faithful thoroughly about this obligation." - (Code of Canon Law #898) "Lord Jesus Christ, pierce my soul with your love so that I may always long for you alone, who are the bread of angels and the fulfillment of the soul's deepest desires. May my heart always hunger for you, so that soul may be filled with the sweetness of your presence" - Saint Bonaventure St. Augustine of Hippo: "On the altar you are looking at the same thing as you saw there last night. You have not heard, however, what this is, what it signifies, or about the greatness of the reality of which it is a sacrament. Your eyes are looking at bread and cup. This is the evidence before your physical sight. But your faith must be instructed concerning it- this bread being Christ 's Body and the cup containing His Blood. Though perhaps these words may be enough to initiate faith, faith must be further instructed in accordance with the Prophet's words: 'Believe that you may understand' ( Is 7:9). "The Eucharist is the supreme proof of the love of Jesus. After this, there is nothing more but Heaven itself," - St. Peter Julian Eymard "All expressions of love, even the highest and the most profound, are verified in the Eucharist. Thus, it is a Love that is crucified, a Love that unites, a Love that adores, a Love that contemplates, a Love that prays, a Love that delightfully satisfies," - Fr. Stefano Manelli, O.F.M. Conv., S.T.D. St. Francis of Assisi has written: "For One in such a lofty position to stoop so low is a marvel that is staggering. What sublime humility and humble sublimeness, that the Lord of the Universe, the Divine Son of God, should stoop as to hide Himself under the appearance of bread for our salvation! Behold the humble way of God, my brothers. Therefore, do not hold yourselves to be anything of yourselves, so that you may be entirely acceptable to One Who gives Himself entirely to you." "In the presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament we ought to be like the Blessed in heaven before the Divine Essence," - St. Teresa of Avila ..."Can you feel the fragrance of Paradise which diffuses Itself from the Tabernacle?," - St. Philip "The faith of the Church is this: That one and identical is the Word of God and the Son of Mary Who suffered on the Cross, Who is present in the Eucharist, and Who rules in Heaven," - Pope Pius XII "Jesus, Food of strong souls, strengthen me, purify me, make me godlike," - St. Gemma Galgani "It is for us that, during eighteen hundred years, our divine Saviour has remained day and night on our altars, that we may have recourse to Him in all our needs; and nothing so much afflicts His divine Heart as our ingratitude for such a favor, and our neglect to visit Him and ask His blessing. If we knew how profitable those visits are, we should be constantly prostrate before the altar. The Saints understood this truth; they knew that Jesus Christ is the source of all grace, and whenever they encountered any difficulty or wished to obtain any particular favor, they ran to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. St. Francis Xavier, St. Francis Regis and others spent whole hours during the day and, frequently, a great part of the night at the foot of the altar; it was in these long interviews with Jesus Christ that they advanced the good works they had in hand, converted sinners, and obtained success in all their undertakings for the glory of God and their own sanctification," - Blessed J. B. Marcellin Champagnat (1789-1840) "My heart feels as if it were being drawn by a superior force each morning just before uniting with Him in the Blessed Sacrament. I have such a thirst and hunger before receiving Him that it's a wonder I don't die of anxiety. I was hardly able to reach the Divine Prisoner in order to celebrate Mass. When Mass ended I remained with Jesus to render Him thanks. My thirst and hunger do not diminish after I have received Him in the Blessed Sacrament, but rather, increase steadily. Oh, how sweet was the conversation I held with Paradise this morning. The Heart of Jesus and my own, if you will pardon my expression, fused. They were no longer two hearts beating but only one. My heart disappeared as if it were a drop in the ocean," - Blessed Padre Pio "The Saints, being far advanced in the practice of love, were faithful and ardent adorers of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Importantly, Eucharistic adoration has always been considered as the closest likeness we have to the eternal adoration which will make up our whole paradise. The difference lies only in the veil which hides the sight of that divine Reality of which faith gives us unwavering certainty." "Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has been the fervent devotion of the Saints. Their adoration lasted hours and hours, sometimes whole days or nights. There 'at Jesus' feet' like Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:39), keeping Him fond and intimate company, absorbed in contemplating Him, they surrendered their hearts in a pure and fragrant offering of adoring love," - Fr. Stefano Manelli, OFM Of adoring Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament St. John Vianney has written: "When we speak to Jesus with simplicity and with all our heart, He does like a mother who holds her child's head with her hands and covers it with kisses and caresses." Pope Gregory XV said that St. Teresa of Avila "saw Our Lord Jesus Christ, present in the Host so distinctly with the eyes of her spirit that she said she did not begrudge the happy lot of the Blessed who behold the Lord face to face in heaven." "Through perpetual adoration a parish gives the King all the love He truly deserves. This is why today the liturgy for Christ the King begins with this prayer: 'Worthy is the Lamb to receive honor, glory and praise.' (Rev. 5:12). Perpetual adoration is the divine romance between Jesus and His people. It is saying 'yes' to His marriage proposal. All He wants is our love. 'For it is love I desire, not sacrifice.' (Hosea 6:6). Then, He will surprise us with the inheritance of His Kingdom!" - from Letters To A Brother Priest (Msgr. Josefino S. Ramirez) "Go with Him, as His inseparable companion, to the wedding feast of Cana, and drink of the wine of His blessing. Let you have ever before you the Face of the Lord, and look upon His beauty, and let your earnest gaze turn nowhere away from His most sweet countenance. Go before Him into a desert place and see the wonder of His works, where He multiplied in His own Holy Hands the bread that sufficed to feed a great multitude. Go, my brother, go forward, and with all the love of your soul follow Christ wherever He may go... "And lovingly behold Him as taking bread into His hands, He blesses it, and breaks it, as the outward form of His own Immaculate Body; and the chalice which He blessed as the outward form of His Precious Blood, and gave to His Disciples; and be you also a partaker of His sacraments," - St. Ephrem of Syria (c. 306-73) "The Eucharist is the link that binds the Christian family together. Take away the Eucharist and you have no brotherliness left," - St. Peter Julian Eymard "Jesus healed ten lepers. Only one came back to give Him thanks for the miracle of a clean body. Jesus said: 'Were not all ten made whole? Where are the other nine?' Every Sunday Jesus performs a far greater miracle for us. The gift of the Holy Eucharist makes us immortal with divine life. Each communion will leave our soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in heaven. In spite of the fact that Jesus asks us to give thanks for this great gift by coming back during the week and visiting Him in the Blessed Sacrament, only a very few do. Your sacrifice will make up for the ingratitude of 'the other nine,' for the many who never think of visiting Him at all," - From The Value of Sacrifice "Give thanks therefore to God the Father for having given you His divine Son not only as Brother in the Incarnation, as Teacher of truth, and as Savior on the Cross, but especially as your Eucharist, your bread of life, your heaven already begun." "Thank the Holy Ghost for continuing, through the priests, to produce Him daily on the altar, as He did the first time in Mary's virginal womb." "Let your thanksgiving ascend to the throne of the Lamb, to the Hidden God as a sweet-smelling incense, as the most beautiful hymn of your soul, as the purest and tenderest love of your heart." "Thank Him in all humility of heart, like Saint Elizabeth in the presence of Mary and the Word Incarnate; thank Him with the vibrant ardor of Saint John the Baptist when he felt the closeness of his divine Master, hidden like himself in His mother's womb; thank Him with the joy and generosity of Zacheus when he received the visit of Jesus in his house; thank Him with the Holy Church and the heavenly court." "In order that your thanksgiving may never cease and go on forever increasing, do what is done in heaven. Consider the goodness, the beauty ever old and ever new of the God of the Eucharist, Who for our sake is consumed and reborn without ceasing on the altar," - St. Peter Julian Eymard "We come here to meet the Heart of Jesus pierced for us, from which water and blood gush. It is the redeeming love, which is at the origin of salvation, of our salvation, which is at the origin of the Church. Now still, today, the living Christ loves us and presents his heart to us as the source of our redemption... We are called not only to meditate and contemplate on this mystery of Christ's love; we are called to take part in it. It is the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, the center of our faith, the center of our worship of Christ's merciful love manifested in his Sacred Heart, a mystery which is adored here night and day. In the Holy Eucharist - this is also the meaning of perpetual adoration - we enter the movement of love from which all interior progress and all apostolate efficacy springs," - From the Holy Father's address at the Basilica of Montmartre in 1980, where he spoke of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament Who has been perpetually adored there for more than one hundred years. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adore and praise the immense love - From Come to Me "O marvelous Sacrament! How can I find words to praise you! You are the life of the soul, the medicament healing our wounds, our comforter when we are overburdened, the memorial of Jesus Christ, the proof of his love, the most precious precept of his testament, our companion in the pilgrimage of life, the joy sustaining us in our exile, the burning coal kindling the fire of divine love, the instrument of grace, the pledge of eternal bliss and the treasure of Christians," - Louis of Granada (1505-1588) "The Eucharist is a fire which inflames us," - St. John Damascene (d. 749) "From the Eucharist comes strength to live the Christian life and zeal to share that life with others," - Pope John Paul II, to the Bishops of India "I try to rekindle the fire of the Holy Eucharist," - St. Peter Julian Eymard "The purpose of exposition [of the Blessed Sacrament] is not only to awaken a sense of wonderment and adoration as we dwell on the reality of the presence of Christ before us. It also brings to mind the benefits that can be derived... it is often said today that through exposition we are exposed to the Blessed Sacrament in such a way as to receive the abundant fruits that come with the life-giving Presence of Christ given for the life of the world," - Rev. Roland Huot, S.S.S. Of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament exposed Br. Ephraim says: "It's as if we expose ourselves to the sun and its beneficial influence." Quotes of St. Anthony Mary Claret: "Lord, by the words of consecration the substance of the bread and wine is converted into the substance of your Body and Blood. All powerful Lord, say over me the word which will change me into You." "The faith I have when I am in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament is so strong that I find it impossible to express what I feel... When the time comes to leave I must force myself to overcome the inclination to prolong my stay with Jesus." St. Francis Xavier often spent whole hours during the day and into the night before Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, Who gave Him the grace and the strength to lead so many souls to Christ. "What shall we say of St. Francis Xavier who at times when distributing Holy Communion felt so carried away by a sense of adoration toward Our Lord Who was in his hands, that he got on his knees and in that position continued giving Holy Communion? Did that not present a witness of faith and love worthy of heaven?" Because Jesus loves you infinitely, unlimited is the joy you bring to His Sacred Heart when you come to spend an hour with Him in the Blessed Sacrament. In an apparition to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Jesus spoke these moving words: "I have a burning thirst to be honored by men in the Blessed Sacrament." - From the flyer "Come to Me - I Wait for You in This Sacrament of Love" "Eucharistic adoration is the greatest of actions. To adore is to share the life of Mary on earth when she adored the Word Incarnate in her virginal womb, when she adored Him in the Crib, on Calvary, in the divine Eucharist," - St. Peter Julian Eymard "Once for all beloved children, the surest, easiest, shortest way is by the Eucharist. It is so easy to approach the holy table, and there we taste the joys of Paradise," - Pope St. Pius X "The Pope also beatified Dina Belanger because of her devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus revealed to Dina the power of the holy hour in making reparation. One form of reparation is the ability to make up for what is lacking in the life of another. One day before her holy hour, Jesus showed Dina a multitude of souls on the precipice of hell. After her holy hour, Jesus showed the same souls in the hands of God. He told her that through holy hours of prayer a multitude of souls go to heaven who otherwise would have gone to hell as one person can make up for what is lacking in the lives of others by winning precious efficacious graces for their salvation. In other words, Eucharistic Adoration is the outpouring of God's Divine Mercy on the world!," - From "How One Soul Coming Before the Blessed Sacrament Can Change the World." The 'yes' of Mary gave us the Holy Eucharist, as the body of Jesus was formed from the Immaculate Heart of His Mother, from whose flesh Jesus took the flesh He gives us in the Blessed Sacrament... "The Virgin shall....give birth to a Son and they shall call Him Emmanuel, a name which means 'GOD IS WITH US'." This is our joy today! Jesus chose the name 'Emmanuel' BECAUSE OF HIS INFINITE DESIRE TO DWELL WITH US ALWAYS IN THIS MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT, as absolute proof of HIS EVERLASTING LOVE and CONSTANT AFFECTION for each of us. Jesus calls you to be with Him today, waiting for you with great desire. "I have called you by name...because you are precious in My eyes and glorious, and because I LOVE YOU." All the love in all the world since the beginning of time is only a drop in the ocean in comparison to the love Jesus has for you alone in this Holy Eucharist, the continuation of His incarnation on earth, the fulfillment of His name: "Emmanuel, God is with us." - From the book Rosary Meditations from Mother Teresa of Calcutta: Loving Jesus With the Heart of Mary The womb of Our Immaculate Mother Mary is - St. Irenaeus "From one grain of corn which a virgin's womb brought forth an abundant harvest of faithful souls has grown all over the world," - Blessed Gueric of Igny "O Mother of Mercy, be filled with your Son's glory, and leave what you have over to your little ones (Ps. 16:4). You are now at the table, we are dogs under the table (Mt. 15:27). Like a maid with her eyes on the hands of her mistress (Ps. 122:2) this hungry family looks to you for the food of life. Through you we have shared in the fruit of life at the table of these present sacraments. Through you may we share at the table of everlasting joys in the same fruit of life, Jesus, the blessed Fruit of your womb, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." - St. Louis de Montfort How One Soul Coming Before the Blessed Sacrament Can Change the World Saint Therese of the Child Jesus is the patroness of all missionaries, even though she never left her convent. She died at the early age of twenty-four but accomplished great things through the power of prayer. The Church made her the patroness of all missionaries to emphasize and dramatize this most important truth: All conversions and all apostolic activities in the Church are accomplished by grace generated by prayer. The Church teaches that the most efficacious form of prayer is prayer in the Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Prayer in the Divine Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament releases the power, the blessings, and the graces of God. The best example of this is from Scripture. Jesus asked His Apostles who touched Him, because He felt power go out from Him. He was referring to the woman who made an act of faith by touching the hem of His garment, knowing that by doing so she would be healed. Another time, the Gospel tells us that everyone wanted to touch Him because power and graces flowed out from Him. Each time that you go to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, you touch His Heart with your faith. Each holy hour that you make in the Presence of Jesus releases His power and graces upon you, your family, your parish, your diocese, and the world. This is why our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, said that "the Church and the world have a great need of Eucharistic Adoration." The Pope canonized Maximilian Kolbe, who made ten visits every day to the Blessed Sacrament during his adult life. The Pope beatified Sister Faustina, who wrote in her diary that each holy hour of prayer so pleases the Heart of Jesus that each man, woman, and child on the face of the earth receives a new effect of God's goodness and love because of the value of a single holy hour made in His Presence. The Pope also beatified Dina Belanger because of her devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus revealed to Dina the power of the holy hour in making reparation. One form of reparation is the ability to make up for what is lacking in the life of another. One day before her holy hour, Jesus showed Dina a multitude of souls on the precipice of hell. After her holy hour, Jesus showed the same souls in the hands of God. He told her that through holy hours of prayer a multitude of souls go to heaven who otherwise would have gone to hell as one person can make up for what is lacking in the lives of others by winning precious efficacious graces for their salvation. In other words, Eucharistic Adoration is the outpouring of God's Divine Mercy on the world! This is one reason why in the past there were so many religious communities and monasteries devoted to Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Now most of them no longer exist. God did not cause this, but He allowed it to happen because this is the age of the laity. Contemplative vocations that were once plentiful among the religious are now given to lay people. A growing number of lay people are experiencing a call to make a holy hour, not just weekly but daily. Bishop Fulton Sheen was the great apostle of the importance of the daily holy hour. I am convinced that if it were humanly possible to fully understand the value of a holy hour, everyone would either find time or make time to do it. The difficulty of finding time in today's busy world makes the daily holy hour that much more precious and meritorious in the eyes of God. For those who make a daily holy hour, or as a result of this article are inspired to do so, I ask you to please pray for the spread of Perpetual Adoration throughout the world. At the forty-fifth International Eucharistic Congress in June 1993 in Seville, Spain, Pope John Paul II prayed that the fruit of the Congress be the established of Perpetual Adoration in every parish throughout the world. The daily holy hour generates the graces necessary for the spreading of Perpetual Adoration. How to Find Christmas Peace How to find Christmas peace in a world of unrest? You cannot find peace on the outside but you can find peace on the inside, by letting God do to your soul what Mary let Him do to her body, namely, let Christ be formed in you. As she cooked meals in her Nazarene home, as she nursed her aged cousin, as she drew water at the well, as she prepared the meals of the village carpenter, as she knitted the seamless garment, as she kneaded the dough and swept the floor, she was conscious that Christ was in her; that she was a living Ciborium, a monstrance of the Divine Eucharist, a Gate of Heaven through which a Creator would peer upon creation, a Tower of Ivory up whose chaste body He was to climb "to kiss upon her lips a mystical rose." As He was physically formed in her, so He wills to be spiritually formed in you. If you knew He was seeing through your eyes, you would see in every fellowman a child of God. If you knew that He worked through your hands, they would bless all the day through. If you knew He spoke through your lips, then your speech, like Peter's, would betray that you had been with the Galilean. If you knew that He wants to use your mind, your will, your fingers, and your heart, how different you would be. If half the world did this there would be no war! "The Piety of the Christian people has always very rightly sensed a profound link between devotion to the Blessed Virgin and worship of the Eucharist: this is a fact that can be seen in the liturgy of both the West and East, in the traditions of religious families, in the modern movements of spirituality, including those of youth and in the pastoral practice of Marian Shrines. Mary guides the faithful to the Eucharist," - Pope John Paul II "King of Kings yet born of Mary - From "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent" (French Carol) What is better: The visit Our Lady gave to Juan Diego, or one hour in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament? Roses bloomed in the snow. A poor garment is imprinted with an image of Our Blessed Mother. It has lasted for centuries and no scientist can figure out how the image is on the cloth. She is the woman clothed with the sun. The sun is symbolic of her Eucharistic Son. Both hearts beat as one. Look at her request to the Bishop. Build a chapel. Who is in the chapel? Her Eucharistic Son! Mary brings all of her children to the Eucharist. During our holy hour of prayer there is always the beauty of Guadalupe. No matter how cold our heart, the roses of holiness bloom. The fragrance of sanctity will last for all eternity. Each moment we spend in His presence we grow, we bloom, we blossom like roses in the snow. And with each holy hour there is a new and special image indelibly imprinted on our soul. This image is far more beautiful than the one here at the shrine, where people come from all over the world and look with awe-inspiring amazement. All the angels of heaven gaze in ecstasy at the image left on your soul, dear Thomas, after each holy hour you make in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. - From Letters To A Brother Priest "The Eucharist began at Bethlehem in Mary's arms. It was she who brought to humanity the Bread for which it was famishing, and which alone can nourish it. She it was who took care of that Bread for us. It was she who nourished the Lamb whose life-giving Flesh we feed upon," - St. Peter Julian Eymard "When we worship you in the form of bread... we always see you as an adult. But every year at Christmas, you reveal yourself to us as a child born in a crib. We stand in silent amazement... In silent adoration we stand before the mystery, like Mary when the shepherd came and told her what they had seen and heard: 'She kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.' - Chiara Lubich "The shepherds - simple souls - came to adore the Infant Savior. Mary rejoiced at seeing their homage and willing offerings they made to her Jesus... How happy is the loving soul when it has found Jesus with Mary, His Mother! They who know the Tabernacle where He dwells, they who receive Him into their souls, know that His conversation is full of divine sweetness, His consolation ravishing, His peace superabundant, and the familiarity of His love and His Heart ineffable," - St. Peter Julian Eymard "In the final address of the Bishops at the Extraordinary Synod held to celebrate the Second Vatican Council, the whole Church was reminded of the need to keep the cross at the center of the Christian life. The Pope himself has said that the Catholic's point of contact with the cross is the Eucharist. This cross is the cross of sacrificial love, and it is precisely this love which will renew the Church..." "The power of the Eucharist, whether it be for healing, renewal, spiritual growth or the creation of peace and justice comes from who, and not only "what" the Eucharist is. In the Eucharist Christ feeds His Church with His own sacrificial love..." "Adore the mystery who is Christ Himself, the reality, the beauty and the power of love," - Rev. John Abberton - From the writings of Blessed Katherine Drexel, the first Sister of the Blessed Sacrament: "My sweetest Joy is to be in the presence of Jesus in the holy Sacrament. I beg that when obliged to withdraw in body, I may leave my heart before the holy Sacrament. How I would miss Our Lord if He were to be away from me by His presence in the Blessed Sacrament!" "The Eucharist is a never-ending sacrifice. It is the Sacrament of love, the supreme love, the act of love." "Christ wishes the Christian Community to be a body that is perfect because we work together towards a single end, and the higher the motive which actuates this collaboration the higher, no doubt, will be the union. Now the end in question is supremely exalted: the continuous sanctification of the Body for the glory of God and the Lamb that was slain [Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament]." Virgin Immaculate, you are the perfect model of adorers of the Blessed Sacrament. You adored Jesus in the little white Host with the same faith, reverence and wonder with which you adored Him on the first Christmas night and during all the years you lived with Him. Teach us not to forget that the small white Host is truly our God, infinite, eternal and omnipotent. Help us to conduct ourselves at all times in His presence with the modesty and reverence we owe to our God... Virgin Immaculate, perfect lover of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, we ask you to obtain for us the graces we need to become true adorers of our Eucharistic God. Grant us, we beg of you, to know Him better, to love Him more, and to center our lives around the Eucharist, that is, to make our whole life a constant prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and petition to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Amen. V. Pray for us, O Virgin Immaculate, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament. R. That the Eucharistic Kingdom of Jesus Christ may come among us! - From "Treasury of Prayer: Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament" "Bishops are testifying," Archbishop Justin Rigali of St. Louis, Missouri writes, "to the clear relationship between Eucharistic devotion and an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life."... "Recently I learned that a chapel for perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has been inaugurated in one of our parishes. Particularly encouraging was the spirit of collaboration which has characterized this initiative which includes more than 600 people from six parishes, all of whom have committed themselves to one hour of prayer in the chapel each week." "There are already a number of parishes in the Archdiocese which have offered the opportunity for perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament..." "Young people, the sick, mothers and fathers of families and many other categories of God's people have discovered anew in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament a wonderful opportunity for praying the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest." "For this reason I have asked that every parish participate...". - "Signs of the Times", Archbishop Justin Rigali, St. Louis Review, December 15, 1995, p.6 "Where is the new-born King of the Jews?" inquired the three Magi of Herod, king of Jerusalem. "Where is He?" they repeat in their great desire to find Him. "We have seen His star in the East, and we have come to adore Him. Ah, tell us where He is; we desire so much to see Him; we have made so long a journey in order to become acquainted with Him!"... But now there is no need of traveling far or of making many inquiries to find Him. He is, as we know by faith, in our churches, not far from our homes. The Magi could find Him in one place only; we can find Him in every part of the world, wherever the Blessed Sacrament is kept. Are we then not happier than those who lived at the time of our Saviour Himself? - From The Blessed Eucharist, by Fr. Michael Muller, C.S.S.R. This is the joy of the Visitation mystery: As John the Baptist recognized Jesus hidden in the womb of Mary, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit - Excerpts from the book Come to Me - Excerpts from an article by Archbishop Joseph Raya: "It is this Real Presence, and the witnessing to it that inflames every page of the Gospel. At the birth of Christ, nothing could blind the inner eyes of the evangelists from seeing invisible realities, and penetrating the Real Presence. Luke saw angels coming down from heaven, singing and dancing in the very place where their Lord and Master was seen in human flesh. He heard the song of the angels: Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth (Luke 2:14). The invisible God now is visible; impossible events become realities. This is celebration! Matthew was seized by this Real Presence turned into celebration when he saw kings coming from the farthest corners of the earth to adore their King. There are here more miraculous events then the miracle itself. Matthew saw the stars and galaxies send one of their own, a special Orion, to illuminate the roads of the earth, and light the way to Christ, so that the world could see the face of God and not die." Bethlehem The little town of Bethlehem is taken from two Hebrew words which mean "House of Bread." He Who called Himself "the Living Bread descended from Heaven" was born in the "House of Bread" and was laid in the place of food, the manger. The first temptation Christ had in the beginning of His public life was to become a bread King, and to win men by supplying them with food. On one occasion when they attempted to make Him King after multiplying the bread, He fled into the mountains. Rome once rang with the cry: "Bread and circuses." But the Bread that was brought at Bethlehem was an entirely different kind: "Not by bread alone does man live." The body has its bread. Shall not the soul have its food too? Those who have nourished themselves solely on the bread of the stomach and ignored the Bread of the soul have cried out with some of the bitter disappointment of the Lord Chesterfield: "I have seen the silly rounds of business and pleasure, and have done with them all. I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world and consequently know their futility, and do not regret their loss. Their real value is very low; but those who have not experienced them always over-rate them. For myself, I by no means desire to repeat the nauseous dose." "If He is within me - From the song "He Is Truly Present", sung by Mary Welch Rogers "God was not content with giving us His only Son once for all, willing Him to take flesh in the womb of a Virgin - flesh like ours, so that He might suffer and die for us on the Cross - but He wished Him to remain with us forever, perpetuating His real presence and His sacrifice in the Eucharist. Had we nothing but the Gospel... we would have only nostalgic memories; Jesus would no longer be with us, but only in heaven at the right hand of the Father... With what regret we would think of the thirty-three years of our Savior's earthly life passed centuries ago! Oh, how different the reality! The Eucharist makes the presence of Jesus with us a permanent one." - Divine Intimacy by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. Jesus, what made You so small? LOVE! - St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) St. T. Benedicta, Edith Stein: "'And the Word became flesh'. That truth became a reality in the manger at Bethlehem. But it was to be fulfilled in yet another form: 'Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life.' The Savior, who knows that we are human beings and will remain human beings who have to struggle daily with weaknesses, comes to our assistance in a truly divine manner. Just as the human body is in need of daily bread, so also does the divine life in us require constant nourishment." "Whoever really takes this as his daily bread, experiences EACH DAY the mystery of Christmas, the Word made flesh." "And that is doubtless the surest way to maintain constant union with God, to grow each day more firmly and deeply into the mystical Body of Christ. I am well aware that for many that is an all too radical request. In a practical sense, it will mean for most--when they first start--a complete change in their external and internal life. But that's exactly what it is supposed to be! To make room in our life for the Eucharistic Lord, so that he can change our life into His, is that asking too much? One has time for so many useless things: all sorts of stupid stuff gathered from books, newspapers and magazines; sitting around in bars and gabbling on the street for a quarter-or half-hour; all these are diversions which waste time and energy like crumbs. As a challenge to the whole day, should it not be possible to put aside a morning hour in which one is not distracted but recollected, in which energy is not wasted but gained? "But, of course, this requires more than just one hour. From one such hour to the next, one must so live that it may come again. It is no longer possible to 'let yourself go', even if only for a time. One cannot escape the judgment of those with whom one daily associates. Even if no word is spoken, one senses how the others feel towards him." "He may try to adapt himself to his companions, and if it is not possible, their common life becomes a torture. "It's the same in our daily encounter with the Lord. One becomes more and more sensitive to that which pleases Him or not." "If, on the whole, one was previously quite satisfied with himself, it will now take a different turn. One will find much that is bad and will change it as far as he chooses." "And he will discover many things he cannot consider well and good, but which are nevertheless hard to change. Then gradually, he becomes very small and humble; he grows patient and indulgent toward the splinter in strange eyes because the beam in his own is brought into being; and, finally, he also learns to be patient with himself in the inexorable light of the divine Presence and to surrender himself to the divine mercy which can take care of all that ridicules our energy. The road is long from the smugness of a 'good Catholic' who 'does his duty', reads a 'good newspaper', 'does the right thing', etc. but on the other hand does what he pleases, "to a life in God's hand, in the simplicity of a child and the meekness of the tax collector. BUT WHOEVER HAS ONCE WALKED IT, WILL NOT GO BACK AGAIN." - "Who can sleep on the night that God became man?" St. T. Benedicta, Edith Stein Merry Christmas! A holy night, a silent night with Mother and child, all is calm, all is bright. This inspiring hymn came to us because an organ in Germany broke down about one hundred years ago. Without an organ the parish priest in this small country church said it would be a "Silent Night". The organist would compose a melody. The priest would write the lyrics and the choir would just sing the soft praises of this hymn for midnight Mass. That is all it was meant to be, just a simple hymn sung once and forgotten. Then a snowstorm prevented the man who fixed the organ from coming until the snow melted in the spring. After he finished he noticed the music left on the organ since Christmas night and took it back to Munich. The rest is history. "Silent Night" has reverberated throughout the ages. With its quiet sounds of love and peace it has inspired millions and millions, touching the lives of countless people. It is the same with a holy hour. We leave it in the chapel like the music to "Silent Night," and God turns our hour of prayer into a never-ending stream of graces for His people. A single holy hour of prayer touches more hearts through God's grace, than all the people who have ever been touched by "Silent Night". From a single holy hour of prayer God's graces reverberate throughout the world until the end of time and will continue for all eternity. This is because of the divine appreciation God has for those who love His Son in the Blessed Sacrament. The Father will spend all eternity thanking you and loving you in heaven because you have honored His Son on earth in the Blessed Sacrament. The Blessed Sacrament is the continuation of Christ's Incarnation on earth. Coming to the Blessed Sacrament we find the same humility and gentleness that the shepherds found in "the babe lying in a manger". (LUKE 2:15). The hunger in the heart of God for the love of man is expressed in the profound humility of these two words, Baby Jesus. How great is God's desire for intimacy with man! Jesus came as a Babe, because no one is ever afraid to come close to a baby. A baby is lovable in its vulnerability. A baby reaching our for love with open arms is irresistible. The Sacred Host embodies the Divine Tenderness of the Incarnation. So gentle and humble, so loving and small and vulnerable, the Blessed Sacrament is Jesus saying "Come to Me...for I am gentle and humble of Heart". (Mt. 11:30). Only the humble hear His voice. Only those with a childlike heart seek His Heart in the Blessed Sacrament. This is why Jesus says: "Let the children come to Me; do not prevent them for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these." (Mk 10:13). - Excerpts from Letters To A Brother Priest The Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem The Joy of Adoration The Holy Eucharist is the continuation of Christ's incarnation on earth. The mystery of the Eucharist gives us the joy of having Christmas everyday. When we come to the Blessed Sacrament we come to Bethlehem, a name which means house of bread. Jesus chose to be born in Bethlehem because He would dwell with us forever as the "Living Bread" come down from heaven. When the shepherds and Magi came to adore Him, they brought Him so much joy with their humble visit to Bethlehem that their visit has been praised and retold down through the centuries. God has never stopped honoring them for honoring His Son in Bethlehem. So too, your humble visit to Jesus today in the Blessed Sacrament brings Him so much joy that it will be retold for all eternity and bring the world closer to His promise of peace on earth. We are as privileged in being called to adore Him today as were Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and Magi then, because here Jesus continues His incarnation on earth. Here Jesus loses His Heart to us in love. Love expresses itself to the object of its affection; the Eucharist is the continual expression of God's perfect, unselfish love for man. The Word again becomes flesh and dwells among us, veiled under the Species of the Sacred Host, where the same Jesus born two thousand years ago as a little babe in Bethlehem is truly, really, bodily, and personally present to us in this Most Blessed Sacrament. The greatest love story ever told is contained in the Sacred Host. Here we see His glory in the depth of His humility, for God Who created the whole world and Whom the whole world cannot contain, contains Himself in the Blessed Sacrament for love of us, to be our Good Shepherd who leads us to life-giving waters, to be our Divine Physician who heals the brokenhearted, to be our Divine Companion in our pilgrimage throughout life. Here you behold His glory IN THE MIRACLE OF HIS LOVE, for He becomes small in the Sacred Host that He may give Himself to you where "you are filled with the fullness of God." Jesus becomes poor in the Blessed Sacrament, "emptying Himself" of His glory and majesty, that He may make you rich with the abundance of His grace, "transforming you from glory to glory" and making your soul everlastingly more beautiful with each communion and each visit you make to Him in the Blessed Sacrament. "For your sake He made Himself poor though He was rich, so that you might become rich by His poverty." The Eucharist is Divine Love made visible in the Sacred Host! This is why the angels continue to sing to Him here as they did in Bethlehem: "Glory to God in the highest and peace to men of good will." COME LET US ADORE HIM for here Jesus continues to come to us "filled with enduring love" as the Word becomes flesh in the Holy Eucharist and makes His dwelling among us. "IT IS HE WHO IS OUR PEACE." - From Rosary Meditations from Mother Teresa of Calcutta , Loving Jesus With the Heart of Mary "The Bethlehem of that night...has never passed away. It lives a real life, - not the straggling Christian village on which the Mussulman yoke seems to sit so lightly, on its stony ridge, but the old Bethlehem of that momentous hour when the Incarnate God lay on the ground amid the Cattle in the Cave. It lives not only in the memory of faith, but in faith's actual realities as well. It lives real, unbroken, unsuspended life, not in history only, or in art, or in poetry, or even in energetic fertile worship and fleshly hearts to the faithful, but in the worshipful reality of the Blessed Sacrament. Round the tabernacle, which is our abiding Bethlehem, goes on the same world of beautiful devotion which surrounded the new-born Babe, real, out of real hearts, and realized by God's acceptance." - From Bethlehem by Fr. Frederick William Faber "Let every knee bend before Thee, O greatness of my God, so supremely humbled in the Sacred Host. May every heart love Thee, every spirit adore Thee and every will be subject to Thee!" - From the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Quotes of St. Therese of Lisieux, The Little Flower: "By our little acts of charity practiced in the shade we convert souls far away, we help missionaries, we win for them abundant alms; and by that means build actual dwellings spiritual and material for our Eucharistic Lord." "My patrons in Heaven and my chosen favorites are those who have stolen it - like the Holy Innocents and the Good Thief. The great Saints have earned it by their works; as for me, I will imitate the thieves, I will have it by ruse, a ruse of Love which will open its gates to me and to poor sinners. The Holy Ghost encourages me, saying in the Book of Proverbs: "O little one, come, learn subtilty of Me." (Prov. 1:4)" - From Counsels and Reminiscences "The Christ of Bethlehem - John Cardinal O'Connor ..."The Eucharist completes the restoration begun in the Crib. Make merry therefore on this beautiful day, on which the sun of the Eucharist is rising. Let your gratitude never separate the Crib from the Altar, the Word made flesh from the God-Man made Bread of Life in the Most Blessed Sacrament," - St. Peter Julian Eymard We say a person has a "sense of humor" if he can "see through things"... God made the world with a "sense of humor," in the sense that we were to see Him through His creation: to see His Power in the mountains, His Beauty in the sunset, His Wisdom in a snowflake, His Love in the human heart. Poets have inherited this sense of humor for, like Thompson, they can look at the sun and see in it the Host that is raised in Benediction over the world, and at night set in the Flaming Monstrance of the west. Saints must have a sense of humor, so as to be able to see a resurrection through the trials and sorrows of life. Man loses his sense of humor through sin. He begins to take money seriously, flesh seriously, business seriously, food seriously. These have no other purpose than just to satisfy him. Now Christmas Day was the restoration of humor, and those who displayed it most were the shepherds and the wise men. They came to this little Babe and "saw through Him" - God Himself. His Flesh was the Sacrament of His Divinity. When the Babe grew, He taught parables in or with a sense of Divine Humor. Salt and camels, sheep and goats, patches on old clothing, wine in old bottles, businessmen, traders, were not to be taken seriously. All were telltale of something else. Christmas then is a romance and a joy only to those who have a sense of humor, whose vision is not opaque when they look at a Babe, but can see through Him all the problems of life answered in the vision of God Who appeared as a Man. They who pass through this life with that sense of humor, which is faith, will one day be rewarded by the one thing that will make heaven Heaven - His Smile. - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen "Happy is the soul that knows how to find Jesus in the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in all things!," - St. Peter Julian Eymard. "But God loved us so much that He was not satisfied with looking upon us only in a divine manner. In order to adapt Himself to our weakness and conform Himself to the demands of our own way of loving, He wanted to look upon us also with human eyes like ours, with eyes that can radiate joy, reflect sadness, and shed tears, revealing all the tenderness of a heart as sensitive as ours." "The gaze of Jesus! Who could describe its wonderful sweetness, its great tenderness, its endearing gentleness, its inscrutable depth and irresistible attraction?" "When Jesus was a little babe, His eyes radiated treasures of candor, innocence, and purity, enough to wrap the whole world in their brilliancy. When they were mirrored in the immaculate Mary's eyes, the radiance of the two purest souls the world has ever known was merged in one, and the flame burning in the two most loving hearts the world has ever known united in one great blaze of love." "The eyes of the boy Jesus reflected His grace and wisdom more and more every day. And the eyes of Jesus, the man - with what kindness and compassion they rested on children, on the sick, on the afflicted, and on sinners!" "Emboldened by the friendly glance of His eyes, the little ones would climb up on His knees and nestle against His breast; and He would look upon them with deep tenderness, caress them, and enfold them in His arms..." "Those who love and see each other feel irresistibly attracted to each other; they cannot bear to be separated. This, we may believe, was one of the reasons why Jesus invented the Eucharist. He wanted to shorten the distance; to look on us, not alone from far-off heaven, but from near by, so near that, if the sacramental veils of the Mystery were rent, we should be able to hear His throbbing Heart and see ourselves mirrored in the pupils of His eyes." - From The Holy Eucharist, by Jose Guadalupe Trevino New Year Wishes to Our Eucharistic Lord May Thy kingdom come! May it spread far and wide; may it gain prestige; may it progress in every way! That is what we must wish our Lord on this New Year's Day. May He be known and loved by those who neither know or love Him! May everyone complete in himself the work of the Incarnation and of the Redemption! And where is our Lord known and loved? Ah! How very small is the kingdom of Jesus Christ! So many of His rights and those of His Church have either been taken away or curtailed during the last three centuries! They drive out our Lord and deprive Him of His people and His churches. How numerous are these Eucharistic ruins! So many nations have never had the Faith! How will our Lord establish His kingdom among them? One saint could do it. Wish our Lord some good priests, some real apostles. That ought to be the constant object of our prayer... To work for the preservation of the Faith, speak the language of a Christian, the language of faith. Transform the speech of the world. Through a sinful tolerance, we have allowed our Lord to be banished from customs, laws, and good manners; in a mixed social gathering one would not dare speak of Jesus Christ. Even among practical Christians we should seem peculiar if we spoke of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament... There may be talk about religious art, moral truths, the beauties of religion; but about Jesus Christ, about the Eucharist, never. Well, change all that. Profess your faith openly. Be bold enough to say, "Our Lord Jesus Christ," never just "Christ"! We must prove our Lord's right to live and to rule in the language of society. It is a disgrace for Catholics to keep our Lord under a bushel the way that they do. We must manifest Him everywhere. The one who professes his faith boldly and dares speak out the name of Jesus Christ, places himself in the power of His grace. In public, everybody must know what we believe. ...Finally, may the kingdom of our Lord come within you, in your soul. Our Lord is in you, but He has much to do before He can reign completely therein. You have been barely vanquished; our Lord's kingdom of peace and love is not yet established in you; the boundary lines are not yet all His; and what sovereign can rule supreme if he does not control all the frontiers of his state? Get to know our Lord better. Study His life, His sacrifices, and His virtues in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Study His love. Instead of always remaining within ourselves, let us go up to Him; it is all very well to see ourselves in Him, but to see Him in us is better. Instead of attending to yourself, attend to our Lord and make Him grow in you. Think of Him; study Him in Himself; penetrate into Him. You will find the food of your life in Him; for He is great and infinite. That is the broad and royal road to holiness and the way to the ennobling of our lives. Moreover, you must console our Lord. He expects consolation from you and will receive it with pleasure. Ask Him to prepare good priests for Himself; priests who are apostolic and zealous for the salvation of souls; priests who are the glory of their age and who present God with kingdoms. Beg Him to take ownership of everything, and to be not only a Savior, - that supposes nothing but sacrifice, - but a King, and a King of peace with absolute power. Console Him for His being so little treated as a King in His own kingdom. Alas! Our Lord is vanquished! In heaven He is an all-powerful Ruler Who commands saints and angels and is faithfully obeyed. Not so here below. Men, - the children He ransomed, - have got the best of Him. He no longer rules over Catholic peoples. Let us establish His kingdom in us at least, and work at restoring it everywhere. Fine monuments mean much less to our Lord than do our hearts. And since the nations have driven Him out, let us raise Him a throne on the altar of our hearts... Let us proclaim Jesus Eucharistic our King by lifting Him up on our hearts and by serving Him with fidelity and devotedness. Ah! How fond our Lord is of our hearts! How He longs for them! He pleads for them like a beggar! He begs, He implores, He insists. He has already been refused a hundred times; it does not matter; He keeps holding out His hand. ...What outrages He submits to in His quest for our hearts! He seeks in a special way the Catholics, the devout souls, the religious who do not want to give Him their whole heart. Our Lord wants the whole of it. His love for us is the only reason for this ardent quest and the only interest He has in it. Out of two hundred million Catholics, how many love Him with the affection of a friend? How many live of His love, of a love that springs from the heart? Let us then love Him for our own sakes. Let us love Him for those who do not love Him, for our relatives and our friends. Let us pay our family's debt and our countrys. That is what all the saints do; they thus imitate our Lord Who loves His Father for all men and becomes surety for the whole world. May our Lord, the gentle Savior Who loves us so much, become at long last the King, the Master, and the Spouse of our soul! "Come, let the kingdom of Jesus Christ be established in you! Public Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament is God's last grace to man. After Exposition, there is only heaven or hell. Man is attracted to what glitters. Our Lord has ascended a throne; He can be seen and is radiant. We no longer have any excuse. If we forsake our Lord, if we pass by Him without amending our lives, our Lord will go away, and we shall be done for forever. "Serve our Lord, therefore, and console Him; light the fire of His love wherever it is not yet burning; work at the establishment of His reign of love. Adveniat regnum tuum, regnum amoris. "May Thy kingdom come, Thy kingdom of love!" If you would like to be on a mailing list to receive a quote on the Blessed Sacrament by E-mail each day, please write toinfo@ACFP2000.com |
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