Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament
Pope John Paul II, Servant of God
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Eucharistic Quotes
From Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II's World Youth Day homily on Sunday, August 24, 1997 in Paris, France: "Rabbi, where are you staying?" Each day the Church responds: Christ is present in the Eucharist, in the sacrament of His death and resurrection. In and through the Eucharist, you acknowledge the dwelling-place of the Living God in human history. For the Eucharist is the Sacrament of the Love which conquers death. It is the Sacrament of the Covenant, pure Gift of Love for the reconciliation of all humanity. It is the gift of the Real Presence of Jesus The Redeemer, in the bread which is His Body given up for us, in the wine which is His Blood poured out for all. Thanks to the Eucharist, constantly renewed among all peoples of the world, Christ continues to build His church: He brings us together in praise and thanksgiving for salvation, in the communion which only infinite love can forge. Our worldwide gathering now takes on its fullest meaning, through the celebration of the Mass. Dear young friends, may your presence here mean a true commitment in faith! For Christ is now answering your own question and the questions of all those who seek the Living God. He answers by offering an invitation: This is My Body, take It and eat. To the Father He entrusts His supreme desire: that all those whom He loves may be one in the same communion. THE EUCHARIST IS THE HEART OF THE CHURCH This begins a series of excerpts from the English translation of the Homily given in Polish by the Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, at the close of the Eucharistic Congress in Wroclaw. "Mystery of Faith!" In order to examine in depth the mystery of the Eucharist, we must continually return to the Upper Room where in the evening of Holy Thursday the Last Supper took place. In today's liturgy St. Paul speaks precisely of the institution of the Eucharist. This text seems to be the most ancient one concerning the Eucharist, preceding the account itself given by the Evangelists. In his Letter to the Corinthians Paul writes: "The Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, he broke it, and said "This is My Body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My Blood. Do this, as often as you drink of it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." (1 Cor 11:23-26) THE EUCHARIST IS THE HEART OF THE CHURCH (Excerpt from Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II's homily continued.) "Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again in glory. These words contain the very essence of the Eucharistic mystery. In them we find what we bear witness to and share in every day as we celebrate and receive the Eucharist. In the Upper Room Jesus effects the consecration. By virtue of His words, the bread - while keeping the external appearance of bread - becomes His Body, and the wine - while maintaining the external appearance of wine - becomes His Blood. THIS IS THE GREAT MYSTERY OF FAITH! THIS IS THE LIVING BREAD WHICH CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN!" THE EUCHARIST IS THE HEART OF THE CHURCH (Excerpt from Our Holy Father's homily continued.) "Celebrating this mystery, we not only renew what Christ did in the Upper Room, but we also enter into the mystery of His death! "We proclaim Your death!"- redeeming death. "Christ is risen!" We are sharers in the Sacred Triduum and the night of Easter. We are sharers in the saving mystery of Christ as we await His coming in glory. Through the institution of The Eucharist we have entered the end times, the time of awaiting Christ's second and definitive coming, when the world will be judged and at the same time the work of redemption will be brought to completion. The Eucharist does not merely speak of all this. In The Eucharist - all this is celebrated - in It all this is fulfilled. Truly The Eucharist is the Great Sacrament of The Church. The Church celebrates The Eucharist, and at the same time The Eucharist makes the Church." THE EUCHARIST IS THE HEART OF THE CHURCH (Excerpt from Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II's homily continued.) "I Am the Living Bread" (Jn 6:51). The message of John's Gospel completes the liturgical picture of this great Eucharistic mystery that we are celebrating today... The words of John's Gospel are the great proclamation of The Eucharist, after the miraculous multiplication of bread near Capernaum. Anticipating as it were the time even before the Eucharist was instituted, Christ revealed what it was. He spoke thus: "I Am the Living Bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever; and the Bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My Flesh" (Jn 6:51). And when these words brought protests from many who were listening Jesus added: "Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you; he who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My Flesh is food indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in me, and I in him." (Jn 6:53-56). THE EUCHARIST IS THE HEART OF THE CHURCH (Excerpt from Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II's homily continued.) "These are words which concern the very essence of the Eucharist. Behold, Christ came into the world to bestow upon man divine life. He not only proclaimed the Good News but He also instituted the Eucharist which is to make present until the end of time His redeeming mystery. And as the means of expressing this He chose the elements of nature - the bread and wine, the food and drink that man must consume to maintain his life. The Eucharist is precisely this food and drink. This food contains in itself all the power of the Redemption wrought by Christ. In order to live man needs food and drink. In order to gain eternal life man needs the Eucharist. This is the food and drink that transforms man's life and opens before him the way to eternal life. By consuming the Body and Blood of Christ, man bears within himself, already on this earth, the seed of eternal life, for the Eucharist is the sacrament of life in God. Christ says: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me." (Jn 6:57). THE EUCHARIST IS THE HEART OF THE CHURCH (Conclusion of the excerpts from Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II's homily.) "The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due season (Ps 145.15) In the first reading of today's liturgy Moses speaks to us of God who feeds His people on their journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land: "Remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what is in your heart... (He) fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end." (Dt. 8:2, 16) The image of a pilgrim people in the wilderness, which emerges from these words, speaks also to us who are approaching the end of the second millenium after Christ's birth. In this image all the peoples and nations of the whole earth find a place, and especially those who suffer from hunger." - L'Osservatore Romano, 4 June 1997 Prayer of our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, inaugurating Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration at St. Peter's at the beginning of Advent 1981: Lord stay with us. These words were spoken for the first time by the disciples of Emmaus. Subsequently in the course of the centuries they have been spoken, an infinite number of times, by the lips of so many of Your disciples and confessors, O Christ. As Bishop of Rome and first servant of this temple, which stands on the place of St. Peter's martyrdom, I speak the same words today. I speak them to invite You, Christ, in Your Eucharistic Presence to accept the daily adoration continuing through the entire day, in this temple, in this basilica, in this chapel. Stay with us today and stay, from now on, every day, according to the desire of my heart, which accepts the appeal of so many hearts from various parts, sometimes far away, and above all meets the desire of so many inhabitants of the Apostolic See. Stay! That we may meet You in the prayer of adoration and thanksgiving, in the prayer of expiation and petition, to which all those who visit this basilica are invited. Stay! You Who are at one and the same time veiled in the Eucharistic Mystery of Faith and are also revealed under the species of bread and wine, which You have assumed in this Sacrament. Stay! That Your presence in this temple may incessantly be reconfirmed, and that all those who enter here may become aware that it is Your house, "the dwelling of God with men" (Rev. 21:3) and, visiting this basilica, may find in it the very source of life and holiness that gushes forth from Your Eucharistic Heart... One day, O Lord, You asked Peter: "Do you love Me?" You asked him three times - May the answer of Peter, on whose tomb this basilica was erected, be expressed by this daily and day-long adoration which we have begun today. May the unworthy successor of Peter in the Roman See - and all those who take part in the adoration of Your Eucharistic Presence - attest with every visit of theirs and make ring out again the truth contained in the Apostle's words: "Every member of the Church must be vigilant in seeing that this sacrament of love shall be at the center of the life of the people of God so that through all the manifestations of worship due to it, Christ shall be given back 'love for love,' and truly become the life of our souls," - Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. "When we go before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament we represent the one in the world who is in most need of God's Mercy." We "Stand in behalf of the one in the world who does not know Christ and who is farthest away from God and we bring down upon their soul the Precious Blood of The Lamb." - Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II says in Dominicae Cenae: "The encouragement and the deepening of Eucharistic worship are proofs of the authentic renewal which the Council set itself as an aim and of which they are the central point." "Since Christ is the only way to the Father, in order to highlight His living and saving presence in the Church and the world, the International Eucharistic Congress will take place in Rome, on the occasion of the Great Jubilee. The Year 2000 will be intensely Eucharistic: in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the Savior, who took flesh in Mary's womb twenty centuries ago, continues to offer Himself to humanity as the source of Divine Life." - Pope John Paul II, "The Eucharist is the heart of the Church. Where Eucharistic life flourishes, there the life of the church will blossom." - Pope John Paul II "Every act of reverence, every genuflection that you make before the Blessed Sacrament is important because it is an act of faith in Christ, and act of love for Christ. And every sign of the cross and gesture of respect made each time you pass a church is also an act of faith." - Pope John Paul II, Phoenix Park, Sept. 29, 1979
Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II's 1996 letter to the Bishop of Liege titled The letter was written on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the first celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi. To Bishop Albert Houssiau 1. In 1246, Robert of Thourotte, your distant predecessor in the see of Liege, instituted in his Diocese the Eucharistic feast now known as Corpus Christi, at the request of Juliana of Cornillon, who had already composed an office for Corpus Christi, Eve of St. Martin and other women of Liege. A few years later in 1264, Pope Urban IV made this feast of the Body of Christ a holy day of obligation for the universal Church, thereby expressing the importance of venerating the Eucharistic Body of our Saviour. On the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the institution of this feast, as I join all the pilgrims who will be participating in the jubilee ceremonies and the faithful all over the world who ceaselessly pray before the Blessed Sacrament, I raise a fervent prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord. 2. Christ whom we adore is really present Jesus is no longer present to men in the same way that he was on the roads of Palestine. After the Resurrection, he appeared in his glorious body to the women and to his disciples. Then he took the Apostles and "led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. ...He parted from them, and was carried up into heaven" (Lk 24:50-51). But in ascending to the Father, Christ did not distance himself from men. He dwells forever in the midst of his brethren and, just as he promised, he accompanies them and guides them with his Spirit. Henceforth, his presence is of another kind. Indeed, "at the Last Supper, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples and when he was about to pass from this world to his Father, Christ instituted this sacrament as the perpetual memorial of his Passion..., the greatest of all his miracles; and he left this sacrament to those whom his absence filled with grief, as an incomparable consolation" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Office of Corpus Christi, 57, 4). Every time we celebrate the Eucharist in the Church, we recall the death of the Saviour, we proclaim his Resurrection as we await his return. Thus no sacrament is greater or more precious than that of the Eucharist; and when we receive Communion, we are incorporated into Christ. Our life is transformed and taken up by the Lord." 3. Outside the Eucharistic celebration, the Church is careful to venerate the Blessed Sacrament, which must be "reserved...as the spiritual centre of the religious and parish community" (Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, n. 68). Contemplation prolongs Communion and enables one to meet Christ, true God and true man, in a lasting way, to let oneself be seen by him and to experience his presence. When we contemplate him present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, Christ draws near to us and becomes more intimate to us than we are to ourselves. He grants us a share in his divine life in a transforming union and, in the Spirit, he gives us access to the Father, as he himself said to Philip: 'He who has seen me has see the Father' (Jn 14:9). Contemplation, which is also a Communion of desire, intimately associates us with Christ, and in a very special way associates those who are prevented from receiving it. Remaining in silence before the Blessed Sacrament, it is Christ totally and really present whom we discover, whom we adore and with whom we are in contact. However, it is not through the senses that we perceive him and are close to him. Under the appearance of bread and wine, it is faith and love which lead us to recognize the Lord, he who fully communicates to us 'the blessings of Redemption which he accomplished, he, the Master, the Good Shepherd, the Mediator of most pleasing to the Father' (Leo XIII, Mirae caritatis). As the Livre de la foi of the Belgian Bishops recalls, prayer of adoration in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament unites the faithful 'with the paschal mystery; it enables them to share in Christ's sacrifice, of which the Eucharist is the 'permanent sacrament.'" 4. In honouring the Blessed Sacrament, we also offer a profound thanksgiving to the Father, for in his Son he visited us and redeemed his people. Through the sacrifice of the Cross Jesus gave his life to the world and made us his adoptive children, in his image, establishing a particularly intimate relationship that enables us to call God by the beautiful name of Father. As Scripture reminds us, Jesus spent nights in prayer, especially at the moments when he had to make important decisions. In his prayer, by an act of filial trust and in imitation of his Lord and Master, the Christian opens his heart and his hands to receive God's gift and to thank him for his freely offered blessings. 5. It is invaluable to converse with Christ, and leaning against Jesus' breast like his beloved disciple, we can feel the infinite love of his Heart. We learn to know more deeply the One who gave Himself totally, in the different mysteries of his divine and human life, so that we may become disciples and in turn enter into this great act of giving, for the glory of God and the salvation of the world. 'Following Christ is not an outward imitation, since it touches man at the very depths of his being' (Veritatis splendor, n. 21). We are called to learn from him, gradually to be conformed to him, to let the Spirit act within us and to fulfil the mission entrusted to us. In particular, Christ's love spurs us to work constantly for the unity of his Church, to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and to serve men, 'we who are many are one body, for we all partake of one bread' (1 Cor 10:16) such is the Good News which gladdens man's heart and shows him that he is called to take part in the blessed life with God. The Eucharistic mystery is the source, the centre and the summit of the Church's spiritual and charitable activity (cf. Presbyterorum ordinis, n. 6). Model your life on the mystery of the Lord's Cross Closeness to Christ in silence and contemplation does not distance us from our contemporaries but, on the contrary makes us attentive and open to human joy and distress and broadens our heart on a global scale. It unites us with our brothers and sisters in humanity and particularly with children, who are the Lord's dearly beloved. Through adoration, the Christian mysteriously contributes to the radical transformation of the world and to the sowing of the Gospel. Anyone who prays to the Saviour draws the whole world with him and raises it to God. Those who stand before the Lord are therefore fulfilling an eminent service. They are presenting to Christ all those who do not know him or are far from him; they keep watch in his presence on their behalf. 6. On the occasion of this jubilee, I encourage priests to revive the memory of their priestly ordination, by which Christ called them to take part in a particular way in his one priesthood, especially in the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice and in building up his Mystical Body which is the Church. May they remember the words spoken by the Bishop at their ordination liturgy: "Know what you are doing, and imitate the mystery you celebrate: model your life on the mystery of the Lord's Cross"! In drawing from the source of the sacred mysteries by faithful and regular periods of contemplation, they will derive spiritual fruit for their personal life and their ministry, and, in turn, they will be able to make the Christian people entrusted to their care capable of understanding the greatness "of their own particular sharing in the priesthood of Christ" (Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday 1996, n. 2; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 27 March 1996, p. 3). 7. "When the faithful adore Christ present in the sacrament, they should remember that his presence derives from the sacrifice and is directed towards both sacramental and spiritual communion" (Sacred Congregation of Rites, Instruction on the Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery, n. 50). I therefore encourage Christians regularly to visit Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, for we are all called to abide in the presence of God, thanks to him who is with us until the end of time. In contemplation, Christians will perceive ever more profoundly that the paschal mystery is at the heart of all Christian life. This practice leads them to join more intensely in the paschal mystery and to make the Eucharistic sacrifice, the perfect gift, the centre of their life in accordance with their specific vocation, for it "confers and incomparable dignity upon the Christian people" (Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, n. 67); in fact, during the Eucharist, we are welcomed by Christ, we receive his forgiveness, we are nourished by his word and his bread, we are then sent out on mission in the world; thus each one is called to witness to what he has received and to do the same for his brethren. The faithful strengthen their hope by discovering that with Christ suffering and distress can be transfigured, for with him we have already returned from death to life. As a result, when they offer the Lord of history their own life, their work and all creation, their days are illumined by him. 8. I urge priests, religious and lay people to continue and redouble their efforts to teach the younger generations the meaning and value of Eucharistic adoration and devotion. How will young people be able to know the Lord if they are not introduced to the mystery of his presence? Like the young Samuel, by learning the words of the prayer of the heart, they will be closer to the Lord who will accompany them in their spiritual and human growth, and in the missionary witness which they must give throughout their life. The Eucharistic mystery is in fact the "summit of evangelization" (Lumen gentium, n. 28), for it is the most eminent testimony to Christ's Resurrection. All interior life needs silence and intimacy with Christ in order to develop. This gradual familiarity with the Lord will enable certain young people to be involved in serving as acolytes and to taking a more active part in Mass; for young boys, to be near the altar is also a privileged opportunity to hear Christ's call to follow him more radically in the priestly ministry. 9. As I commend you to the intercession of the Mother of God, St. Juliana, and also St. Lambert and St. Hubert, zealous evangelizers of your country, and all the saints of your land, I cordially grant my Apostolic Blessing to you, to all the members of the diocesan community and to the faithful who during the year will take part in the various events of the jubilee. From the Vatican, 28 May 1996. Joannes Paulus II (Signed) "I hope that this form of Adoration, with permanent exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, will continue into the future. Specifically, I hope that the fruit of this Congress results in the establishment of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in all parishes and Christian communities throughout the world," - Pope John Paul II, at the 45th International Eucharistic Congress, Seville, Spain, June 1993. 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) "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 Pope John Paul II'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. "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
"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 "Only through the Eucharist is it possible to live the heroic virtues of Christianity: charity, to the point of forgiving one's enemies; love for those who make us suffer; chastity in every age and situation of life; patience in suffering and when one is shocked by the silence of God in the tragedies of history or of one's own personal existence. You must always be Eucharistic souls in order to be authentic Christians," - Pope John Paul II "Evangelization through the Eucharist, in the Eucharist, and from the Eucharist — these are three inseparable aspects of how the Church lives the mystery of Christ and fulfills her mission of communicating it to all people.... In addition to the preaching of the message, the consummation of evangelization consists in the building up of the Church, which has no real existence without the sacramental life culminating in the Blessed Eucharist," - Pope John Paul II "Every Mass is a memorial of that one sacrifice and that passover which restored life to the world. Every Mass puts us into intimate communion with her, the mother, whose sacrifice 'becomes present' just as the sacrifice of her Son 'becomes present' at the words of consecration..... At the root of the Eucharist is the virginal and maternal life of Mary," - Pope John Paul II "Our communal worship at Mass must go together with our personal worship of Jesus in Eucharistic adoration in order that our love may be complete," - Pope John Paul II, Redeemer of Man "United with the angels and saints of the heavenly Church, let us adore the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. Prostrate, we adore this great mystery that contains God's new and definitive covenant with humankind in Christ," - Pope John Paul II The following reflection is from Pope John Paul II: Together with praising Christ present in the mystery of the Eucharist, almost of necessity we recall the memory of the Mother of God. It is thanks to her generous fiat that the Word of God was made flesh by the work of the Holy Spirit. She offered her own body to the Word so that He might take it upon himself and the miracle of the divine Incarnation would be accomplished. In her virginal womb Mary bore the incarnate Word, awaiting with love beyond all telling the birth of the Savior.... Every Holy Mass makes present in an unbloody manner the unique and perfect sacrifice, offered by Christ on the tree of the cross, in which Mary participated, joined in spirit with her suffering Son, lovingly consenting to His sacrifice and offering her own sorrow to the Father (c.f. Lumen Gentium, no. 58). Therefore, when we celebrate the Eucharist, the memorial of Christ's Passover, the memory of His Mother's suffering is also made alive and present, this Mother, who, as an unsurpassable model, teaches the faithful to unite themselves more intimately to the sacrifice of her Son, the one Redeemer. Through spiritual communion with the sorrowful Mother of God, believers share in a special way in the paschal mystery and are opened to this extraordinary action of the Holy Spirit that produces a supernatural joy because of communion with the glorious Christ, on the example of the joy granted to Mary in the glory of heaven, as the first person to share in the fruits of redemption. "This worship, given therefore to the Trinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, above all accompanies and permeates the celebration of the Eucharistic liturgy. But it must fill our churches also outside the timetable of Masses. Indeed, since the Eucharistic mystery was instituted out of love, and makes Christ sacramentally present, it is worthy of thanksgiving and worship. And this worship must be prominent in all our encounters with the Blessed Sacrament, both when we visit our churches and when the sacred species are taken to the sick and administered to them," - Pope John Paul II "'Lord you know that I love you...Lord, you know that I love you' (Jn 21:15-17). The Eucharist is, in a certain way, the culminating point of this answer. I wish to repeat it together with the whole Church to Him, who manifested His love by means of the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, remaining with us 'to the close of the age'" (Mt 28:20) - Pope John Paul II, General Audience, June 13, 1979 "The Church has a special duty to safeguard and strengthen the sacredness of the Eucharist. In our pluralistic and often deliberately secularized society, the living faith of the Christian community — a faith always aware of its rights vis-a-vis those who do not share the faith — ensures respect for this sacredness," - Pope John Paul II "May Mary, who in the freedom of her 'Fiat' and her presence at the foot of the cross, offered to the world, Jesus, the Liberator, help us to find him in the Sacrament of the altar," - Pope John Paul II "Lord Jesus, Who in the Eucharist make your dwelling among us and become our traveling companion, sustain our Christian communities so that they may be ever more open to listening and accepting your Word. May they draw from the Eucharist a renewed commitment to spreading in society, by the proclamation of your Gospel, the signs and deeds of an attentive and active charity," - Pope John Paul II "It is invaluable to converse with Christ, and leaning against Jesus' breast like his beloved disciple, we can feel the infinite love of his Heart. We learn to know more deeply the One who gave Himself totally, in the different mysteries of his divine and human life, so that we may become disciples and in turn enter into this great act of giving, for the glory of God and the salvation of the world... Through adoration, the Christian mysteriously contributes to the radical transformation of the world and to the sowing of the Gospel. Anyone who prays to the Saviour draws the whole world with him and raises it to God. Those who stand before the Lord are therefore fulfilling an eminent service. They are presenting to Christ all those who do not know him or are far from him; they keep watch in his presence on their behalf," - from Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II's 1996 letter to the Bishop of Liege, written on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the first celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi "I hope that your example attracts many souls to the adoration of Jesus Christ who is present on the altar to be of comfort and hope to those who confide in him with faith and love; they look on him as the Emmanuel, God with us, who wished to dwell amongst us: his heart in our heart," - Pope John Paul II "For 2,000 years, the Church has been the cradle in which Mary places Jesus and entrusts Him to the adoration and contemplation of all peoples. May the humility of the Bride cause to shine forth still more brightly the glory and power of the Eucharist, which she celebrates and treasures in her heart. In the sign of the consecrated Bread and Wine, Christ Jesus risen and glorified, the light of the nations, reveals the enduring reality of His Incarnation. He remains living and real in our midst in order to nourish the faithful with His Body and Blood." - From Pope John Paul II's papal bull "Incarnationis Mysterium", The Mystery of the Incarnation "Beneath the Sacred Host, Christ is contained, the Redeemer of the world," - from Redeemer of Man, Pope John Paul II "Eucharistic worship is not so much worship of the inaccessible transcendence as worship of the divine condescension, and it is also the merciful and redeeming transformation of the world in the human heart,"
The Lord will prepare a banquet for all peoples (cf. Is 25:6). The Lenten journey prepares us for the celebration of Christ's Passover, the mystery of our salvation. Anticipating this mystery, there is the banquet which the Lord celebrates with his disciples on Holy Thursday, offering himself under the signs of bread and wine. In the Eucharistic celebration, as I wrote in the Apostolic Letter Dies Domini, "the Risen Lord becomes really, substantially and enduringly present. . . and the Bread of Life is offered as a pledge of future glory" (No. 39). The banquet is a sign of joy, because in it we see the intense communion of all who take part. The Eucharist is therefore the realization of the banquet for all the peoples foretold by the Prophet Isaiah (cf. Is 25:6), and we cannot fail to see in it an eschatological meaning. Through faith, we know that the Paschal Mystery has already been accomplished in Christ; but it has still to be accomplished fully in each of us. In his Death and Resurrection, the Son of God has bestowed upon us the gift of eternal life, which begins in the Paschal Mystery but will have its definitive fulfillment in the eternal Easter of heaven. Many of our brothers and sisters can bear their situation of misery, discomfort and sickness only because they are certain that one day they will be called to the eternal banquet of heaven. Lent therefore directs our gaze beyond the present time, beyond history, beyond the horizon of this world, towards perfect and eternal communion with the Most Holy Trinity. The blessing which we receive in Christ breaks down for us the wall of time and opens to us the door which leads us to a full share in the life of God. "Blessed are those invited to the wedding-banquet of the Lamb" (Rev 19:9): we cannot forget that in this banquet – anticipated in the Sacrament of the Eucharist – our life finds its final goal. Christ has gained for us not only new dignity in our life on earth, but above all the new dignity of the children of God, called to share eternal life with him. Lent invites us to overcome the temptation of seeing the realities of this world as definitive and to recognize that "our homeland is in heaven" (Phil 3:20).
"When our whole life is one faith, hope, love, prayer and silence, a consecrated life always bound up in the Eucharist, then the urge towards God springs... "And so, like Moses (cf Ex 3, 5), in spirit we remove the shoes from our feet, on the threshold of the inner sanctuary that each of us must become as we meet the Lord."
"In the Eucharistic Sacrifice the Church venerates the memory of Mary the ever Virgin Mother of God and the memory of Saint Joseph, because he fed Him whom the faithful must eat as the Bread of Life,"
In his encyclical to the laity Christifidelis Laici, Pope John Paul II Words of Pope John Paul II: “The Year 2000 will be intensely Eucharistic: in the Sacrament of the “For 2,000 years, the Church has been the cradle in which Mary places “The best the surest and the most effective way of establishing “Take an active, conscientious and responsible part in the mission of (The above quotations were taken from the pamphlet "Eucharistic BE NOT AFRAID! "Peoples of the entire world "The high point of the Jubilee is the encounter with God the Father, “The Eucharist is the source of the Christian life because whoever Of the Blessed Sacrament Saint Bernard has written: "The divine is "Farmers everywhere provide bread for all humanity, but it is Christ "The essential commitment and, above all, the visible grace and source "Mother, in this shrine you gather the people of God . . . and constantly point out to them Christ in the Eucharist" (Pope John Paul II). "In the Virgin's example of silent and fruitful listening, contemplation helps grasp the presence of the Living One in the Eucharist and aids in transfiguring the deaths that mark the earthly city into a commitment for life and hope in the resurrection." "Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, hours of adoration . . . . concentrate our attention on the One who is the Bread of life, life itself" (Pope John Paul II, 47th International Eucharistic Congress, June 2000). "Every Holy Mass makes present in an unbloody manner the unique and perfect sacrifice, offered by Christ on the tree of the cross, in which Mary participated, joined in spirit with her suffering Son, lovingly consenting to His sacrifice and offering her own sorrow to the Father (c.f. Lumen Gentium, no. 58). Therefore, when we celebrate the Eucharist, the memorial of Christ's Passover, the memory of His Mother's suffering is also made alive and present, this Mother, who, as an unsurpassable model, teaches the faithful to unite themselves more intimately to the sacrifice of her Son, the one Redeemer." (Pope John Paul II) "Visit the Lord in that 'heart to heart' contact that is Eucharistic Adoration. Day after day, you will receive new energy to help you to bring comfort to the suffering and peace to the world." "May a constant prayer for peace rise in the Church with the praying of the rosary, both by individuals or by communities, keeping our gaze fixed on Jesus Christ, our peace" (Pope John Paul II). "The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary.... When at last she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of her Son, as she wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger (Lk2:7). Thereafter Mary's gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him" (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II). "The Church and the world have a great need of eucharistic worship. Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love. Let us be generous with our time in going to meet Him in adoration and in contemplation that is full of faith and ready to make reparation for the great faults and crimes of the world. May our adoration never cease" (Pope John Paul II, Dominicae Cenae, Chapter I, Section 2). "Every commitment to holiness, every activity aimed at carrying out the Church's mission, every work of pastoral planning, must draw the strength it needs from the Eucharistic mystery and in turn be directed to that mystery as its culmination. 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. Were we to disregard the Eucharist, how could we overcome our own deficiency? (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 1 & 60). "May the Body and Blood of Christ be your daily spiritual food, so that you may advance further and further on the path of holiness. May it be for you, dear sick people, your support and comfort in suffering. And may it help you, dear newly-weds, to instill in your family the love to which Christ bore witness for our sake by giving himself to us in the Eucharist" (Pope John Paul II, General Audience, June 18, 2003). "To contemplate the face of Christ, and to contemplate it with Mary, is the 'programme' which I have set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium, summoning her to put out into the deep on the sea of history with the enthusiasm of the new evangelization. To contemplate Christ involves being able to recognize him wherever he manifests himself, in his many forms of presence, but above all in the living sacrament of his body and his blood. The Church draws her life from Christ in the Eucharist; by him she is fed and by him she is enlightened (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia). "What must Mary have felt as she heard from the mouth of Peter, John, James and the other Apostles the words spoken at the Last Supper: 'This is my body which is given for you' (Lk 22:19)? The body given up for us and made present under sacramental signs was the same body which she had conceived in her womb! For Mary, receiving the Eucharist must have somehow meant welcoming once more into her womb that heart which had beat in unison with hers and reliving what she had experienced at the foot of the Cross. 'Do this in remembrance of me' (Lk 22:19). In the 'memorial' of Calvary all that Christ accomplished by his passion and his death is present. Consequently all that Christ did with regard to his Mother for our sake is also present. To her he gave the beloved disciple and, in him, each of us: 'Behold, your Son!'. To each of us he also says: 'Behold your mother!' (cf. Jn 19: 26-27). Experiencing the memorial of Christ's death in the Eucharist also means continually receiving this gift. It means accepting--like John--the one who is given to us anew as our Mother" (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 56 & 57). "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 (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 62). "There is a profound analogy between the Fiat which Mary said in reply to the angel, and the Amen which every believer says when receiving the body of the Lord. Mary was asked to believe that the One whom she conceived 'through the Holy Spirit' was 'the Son of God' (Lk 1:30-35). In continuity with the Virgin's faith, in the Eucharistic mystery we are asked to believe that the same Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary, becomes present in his full humanity and divinity under the signs of bread and wine. "God is Emmanuel--God with us. For this reason, we must never feel alone . . . He is close to us, he became one of us being born in the virginal womb of Mary. He shared our pilgrimage on earth, enabling us to attain that joy and peace, to which we aspire from the depth of our being . . . . God took the initiative to come to meet us. Becoming a baby, Jesus assumed our nature and established his covenant with the whole of humanity forever . . . . He came to Bethlehem to stay with us forever" (Pope John Paul II, General Audience, Dec. 17, 2003). "At the dawn of this third millennium, we, the children of the Church, are called to undertake with renewed enthusiasm the journey of Christian living. As I wrote in my Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, "it is not a matter of inventing a 'new programme'. The programme already exists: it is the plan found in the Gospel and in the living Tradition; it is the same as ever. Ultimately, it has its centre in Christ himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with him transform history until its fulfilment in the heavenly Jerusalem". The implementation of this programme of a renewed impetus in Christian living passes through the Eucharist." " I wish once more to recall this truth and to join you, my dear brothers and sisters, in adoration before this mystery: a great mystery, a mystery of mercy. What more could Jesus have done for us? Truly, in the Eucharist, he shows us a love which goes 'to the end' (cf. Jn 13:1), a love which knows no measure" (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 60 and 11). "If we truly understand the Eucharist; if we make the Eucharist the central focus of our lives; if we feed our lives with the Eucharist, we will not find it difficult to discover Christ, to love him, and to serve him in the poor" (Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta). "Through adoration, the faithful can enjoy a particular experience of 'abiding' in the love of Christ (see John 15:9), entering ever more deeply into His filial relationship with the Father" (Pope John Paul II). Many who attend Eucharistic adoration report miracles and healings, for themselves and their loved ones, such as: the strengthening of marriages and families, personal peace and spiritual growth. Parishes experience increased mass attendance, service, unity, conversions, the return of fallen away Catholics as well as vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and many blessings. "Jesus waits for us in this sacrament of love" (Pope John Paul II, Dominicae Cenae, 3). "The Eucharist is the sacramental presence of the gift that the Father makes of his Divine Son to mankind. For this reason the Eucharist, celebrated, received, adored and lived, is objectively mans most perfect act of love for God to respond to the highest manifestation of his love" (Pope John Paul II). "From the perpetuation of the sacrifice of the Cross and her communion with the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, the Church draws the spiritual power needed to carry out her mission. The Eucharist thus appears as both the source and the summit of all evangelization, since its goal is the communion of mankind with Christ and in him with the Father and the Holy Spirit" (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Pope John Paul II). When we gaze upon the Sacred Host, the Holy Eucharist, we gaze upon Jesus Himself! "Before this extraordinary reality we find ourselves amazed and overwhelmed, so deep is the humility by which God 'stoops' in order to unite himself with man! If we feel moved before the Christmas crib, when we contemplate the Incarnation of the Word, what must we feel before the altar where, by the poor hands of the priest, Christ makes his Sacrifice present in time? We can only fall to our knees and silently adore this supreme mystery of faith." "During the recitation of the Rosary, the fifth mystery of light leads us to contemplate with Mary's eyes the gift of the Eucharist, to marvel at the love that Jesus showed 'to the end' (Jn 13:1) in the Upper Room, and at his humble presence in every tabernacle. May the Blessed Virgin obtain for you the grace never to take for granted the mystery put in your hands. With endless gratitude to the Lord for the amazing gift of his Body and Blood, may you persevere faithfully in your priestly ministry. Mary, Mother of Christ our High Priest, pray that the Church will always have numerous and holy vocations, faithful and generous ministers of the altar!" "We were born from the Eucharist. If we can truly say that the whole Church lives from the Eucharist ('Ecclesia de Eucharistia vivit'), as I reaffirmed in my recent Encyclical, we can say the same thing about the ministerial priesthood: it is born, lives, works and bears fruit 'de Eucharistia' (cf. Council of Trent, Sess. XXII, canon 2: DS 1752). 'There can be no Eucharist without the priesthood, just as there can be no priesthood without the Eucharist' (cf. Gift and Mystery, On the Fiftieth Anniversary of My Priestly Ordination, New York, 1996, pp.77-78). (From Pope John Paul II's Holy Thursday 2004 Letter to Priests) |
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