Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament

“Know that I am with you always” (Mt 28:20).

We dedicate this issue to our dearly beloved Holy Father, Pope John Paul II (1920-2005).

“Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To His saving power” (JP II, 10/22/78).

One of Our Holy Father’s greatest and last gifts to us was declaring this Year of the Eucharist. In his apostolic letter Mane Nobiscum Domine (Stay With Us Lord), he wrote: “This year let us also celebrate with particular devotion the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, with its traditional procession. Our faith in the God who took flesh in order to become our companion along the way needs to be everywhere proclaimed, especially in our streets and homes, as an expression of our grateful love and as an inexhaustible source of blessings” (18).

Pope John Paul II proclaimed in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (On The Eucharist In Its Relationship to the Church), “In the humble signs of bread and wine, changed into his body and blood, Christ walks beside us as our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become, for everyone, witnesses of hope. If, in the presence of this mystery, reason experiences its limits, the heart, enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, clearly sees the response that is demanded, and bows low in adoration and unbounded love” (62).

“Dear brothers and sisters, the Word and the Bread of the Eucharist, ... remain down the centuries as a constant memorial of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ! .... Together with all Christians throughout the world, we too repeat those words:

Jesus, crucified and risen, stay with us!

Stay with us, faithful friend and

sure support for humanity

on its journey through history!

Living Word of the Father,

give hope and trust to all who are searching

for the true meaning of their lives.

Bread of eternal life, nourish those who hunger

for truth, freedom, justice and peace” (Pope John Paul II, March 27, 2005).

Pope John Paul the Great, pray for us!

Ideas inspired by Ecclesia de Eucharistia to help celebrate the Year of the Eucharist:

Week 30 “Together they devoted themselves to constant prayer” (Acts 1:14).“Mary can guide us towards this most holy sacrament, because she herself has a profound relationship with [the Eucharist]” (53). Give prayers, pamphlets, or pictures of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament to parishioners to pray for an increase in Adoration throughout the world!

Week 31 “Eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Cor 11:28).“Participate fully in the Eucharist by receiving the body and blood of Christ” (36). Receive Communion for the Pope.

Week 32 “Through these you . . . might become sharers of the Divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4).“The Eucharist thus appears as the culmination of all the sacraments in perfecting our communion with God the Father by identification with his only-begotten Son through the working of the Holy Spirit” (34). Offer a special parish Holy Hour for a new Pentecost!

Week 33 “Once I am lifted up . . . [I] will draw all men to Myself” (Jn 12:32).“The devout participation of the faithful in the Eucharistic procession on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is a grace from the Lord which yearly brings joy to those who take part in it” (10).Organize a procession and Eucharistic Adoration for the Feast of Corpus Christi.

Week 34 “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (Jn 6:53).“Mass [is] fundamental for the life of the Church” (41). Offer a Mass and Holy Hour in thanksgiving to the Holy Trinity for the gift of the Holy Eucharist.

Ascension of Our Lord—May 5

“Jesus is present with us . . . . Jesus rose again, He ascended into heaven: but He willed to remain with us and for us, in every place on earth. The Eucharist is really a divine invention!” (Pope John Paul II, June 14, 1979).

Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady of Fatima—May 13

“I place . . . [my life] in the hands of the Mother of my Master: Totus Tuus [Totally Yours]”(Pope John Paul II, Spiritual Testament). When Pope John Paul II was shot on May 13, 1981, he attributed his miraculous survival to the intervention of Our Lady. “May we be helped above all by the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose whole life incarnated the meaning of the Eucharist. ‘The Church, which looks to Mary as a model, is also called to imitate her in her relationship with this most holy mystery’.(26) The Eucharistic Bread which we receive is the spotless flesh of her Son . . . . In this Year of grace, sustained by Mary, may the Church discover new enthusiasm for her mission and come to acknowledge ever more fully that the Eucharist is the source and summit of her entire life” (Pope John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum Domine, 29).

Pentecost—May 15

“By the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the Church was born and set out upon the pathways of the world, yet a decisive moment in her taking shape was certainly the institution of the Eucharist in the Upper Room....In this gift Jesus Christ entrusted to his Church the perennial making present of the paschal mystery” (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 5).

Trinity Sunday—May 22

“In the Eucharist we have Jesus, we have his redemptive sacrifice, we have his resurrection, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have adoration, obedience and love of the Father” (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 60).

Corpus Christi, Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ—May 29

“Before dying on the Cross, offering His life to the father as a sacrifice of adoration and love, Jesus instituted the Eucharist, changing the bread and wine into His own Person

...Jesus, therefore, willed to remain with us forever! Jesus willed to be closely united with us in Holy Communion, to prove His love to us directly and personally. Each one of us can say: ‘Jesus loves me!’.... Jesus is present in the Eucharist to be met, loved, received and consoled ....Receive Jesus often!...Jesus is your greatest Friend....In all the situations of your life, turn to the Divine Friend...present with us and in us in the Eucharist” (JP II, June 14, 1979).

The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary—May 31

“‘Blessed is she who believed’ (Lk 1:45). Mary also anticipated, in the mystery of the incarnation, the Church's Eucharistic faith. When, at the Visitation, she bore in her womb the Word made flesh, she became in some way a ‘tabernacle’–the first ‘tabernacle’ in history–in which the Son of God, still invisible to our human gaze, allowed himself to be adored by Elizabeth, radiating his light as it were through the eyes and the voice of Mary. And is not the enraptured gaze of Mary as she contemplated the face of the newborn Christ and cradled him in her arms that unparalleled model of love which should inspire us every time we receive Eucharistic communion?” (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 55).

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Our Dearest Holy Father Pope John Paul II!

Intentions: Please remember the following Mothers, Grandmothers, Godmothers,

and Spiritual Mothers in your prayers to Jesus Eucharistic and Our Blessed Mother:

Start Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in your parish and community today!

Your monthly prayers and donations of $10, $25, $100 or more help us continue our most important work!

M.B.S., P.O. Box 1701, Plattsburgh, NY 12901 (518) 561-8193 www.ACFP2000.com