#theholyeucharist

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Quote/s of the Day - 7 December - Our 'Daily Bread'

Quote/s of the Day – 7 December – Our ‘Daily Bread’

Quote/s of the Day – 7 December – The Memorial of St Ambrose (c 340-397) Father and Doctor of the Church and St Maria Giuseppa Rosello FdM (1811-1880)

“Let your door stand open to receive Him, unlock your soul to Him, offer Him a welcome in your mind and then you will see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the joy of grace. Throw wide the gate of your heart, stand before the sun of the…

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Sunday Reflection – 6 January – The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord

“What other people are so fortunate as the Christian people?   What creature under heaven is so beloved as a devout soul into whom God comes, in order to feed him with His own glorious Body and Blood?   O grace unspeakable, O marvellous condescension, O love without measure, bestowed only on human beings!

There is nothing I can give to the Lord for this grace – this supreme love;  nothing acceptable I can offer Him but my heart entirely given to God and closely united to Him. Then, all that is within me will be filled with joy, when my soul is perfectly one with God.

Then He will say to me:  “If you will be with Me, I will be with you.”  And I will answer Him and say: “Stay with me, Lord, I implore You, for my desire is to be with You.”

This is my whole desire – that my heart be united to You.”

Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)

Book 4-Chapter 13 #3 Blessed Sacrament

(via Sunday Reflection - 6 January - The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord)

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Thought for the day – 19 January – The Memorial of Blessed Marcelo Spínola y Maestre, Cardinal-Priest (1835-1906)

Blessed Marcelo was a pious man, of intense prayer and mortification, extremely sensitive to the needs and suffering of his faithful and an untiring apostle.   Homes, workers’ societies, centres where food was given to those who needed it, orphanages, night schools, creation of the faculty of theology of Seville, etc., were all part of his mark. He toured all the dioceses in which he exercised his ministry, travelling on a mule, he fought against the attempt to displace the teaching of religion from public centres as a senator from Granada, consoled the afflicted and took the gospel to every corner, preaching and confessing.

And at the centre of the heart of Blessed Marcelo was the Holy Eucharist.   He wrote:

“The masterpiece of Jesus Christ’s love for humanity is the Eucharist. The Eucharist is within our reach. We can all get close to Christ the guest and talk with Him and perceive the warmth of His word. The word!   How it inflames the spirits! How will the word of Christ inflame them! We can all get to the altar when He immolates Himself and shouts at us: Look how much I have loved and loved you! And we can all sit at His table and eat the bread and drink the intoxicating wine of charity. “

Blessed Marcelo Spínola y Maestre, Pray for Us!

(via Thought for the day – 19 January – The Memorial of Blessed Marcelo Spínola y Maestre, Cardinal-Priest (1835-1906))

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Sunday Reflection – 28 October – Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Recognise in the bread, that same body that hung on the cross and in the chalice, that same blood that gushed from His side.

Saint Augustine (354-430)

Transubstantiation In the offering that Jesus makes of Himself we find all the novelty of Christian worship. In ancient times men offered in sacrifice to the divinity the animals or first fruits of the earth.   Jesus, instead, offers Himself, His body and His whole existence – He Himself, in person, becomes the sacrifice that the liturgy offers in the Holy Mass. In fact, with the consecration of the bread and wine they become His true body and blood. Saint Augustine invited his faithful, not to pause on what appeared to their sight but to go beyond:  “Recognise in the bread — he said — that same body that hung on the cross and in the chalice that same blood that gushed from His side” (Disc. 228 B, 2). To explain this transformation, theology has coined the word “transubstantiation,” a word that resounded for the first time in this Basilica during the IV Lateran Council, of which in five years will be the 8th centenary.   On that occasion the following expressions were inserted in the profession of faith:  “his body and his blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar, under the species of bread and wine, because the bread is transubstantiated into the body and the wine into the blood by divine power” (DS, 802). Therefore, it is essential to stress, in the itineraries of education of children in the faith, of adolescents and of young people, as well as in “centres of listening” to the Word of God, that in the sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ is truly, really and substantially present.

Sunday And let us also keep present that the Eucharist, joined to the cross and resurrection of the Lord, has dictated a new structure to our time.

The Risen One was manifested the day after Saturday, the first day of the week, day of the sun and of creation.   From the beginning, Christians have celebrated their encounter with the Risen One, the Eucharist, on this first day, on this new day of the true sun of history, the Risen Christ.

And thus time always begins again with the encounter with the Risen One and this encounter gives content and strength to everyday life.   Because of this, it is very important for us Christians, to follow this new rhythm of time, to meet with the Risen One on Sunday and thus “to take” with us His presence, which transforms us and transforms our time.

Pope Benedict XVI – 17 June 2010

(via Sunday Reflection - 28 October - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B)

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Sunday Reflection – 20 January – Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

“…Let him first strive to cleanse his conscience”

St Caesarius of Arles (470-542) Bishop of Arles, Father of the Church

And so, dearly beloved brethren, let us each examine his conscience and when he sees that he has been wounded by some sin, let him first strive to cleanse his conscience by prayer, fasting, almsgiving and so dare to approach the Eucharist.   If he recognises his guilt and is reluctant to approach the holy altar, he will be quickly pardoned by the Divine Mercy, “for whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Mt 23:12).   If then, as I have said, a man conscious of his sins, humbly decides to stay away from the altar until he reforms his life, he will not be afraid of being completely excluded from the eternal banquet of heaven.

I ask you then, brethren, to pay careful attention.   If no-one dares approach an influential man’s table in tattered, soiled garments, how much more should one refrain in reverance and humility from the banquet of the Eternal King, that is, from the altar of the Lord, if one is smitten with poisonous envy, or anger, or is full of rage and fury?   For it is written, “Go first and be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift” (Mt 5:24).   And again, “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?” And when he kept silent, that man said to the attendants, ‘bind his hands and feet and cast him forth into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” (Mt 22:12,13).   The same sentence awaits the man who dares present himself at the wedding feast, that is at the Lord’s table, if he is guilty of drunkenness, or adultery, or retains hatred in his heart.

St Caesarius of Arles (470-542) Bishop of Arles, was the foremost ecclesiastic of his generation in Merovingian Gaul. Caesarius is considered to be of the last generation of church leaders of Gaul that worked to promote large-scale ascetic elements into the Western Christian tradition.   Caesarius was a “popular preacher of great fervour and enduring influence”.   Among those who exercised the greatest influence on Caesarius were Augustine of Hippo, Julianus Pomerius and John Cassian.

(via Sunday Reflection - 20 January - "...Let him first strive to cleanse his conscience")

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Quote/s of the Day – 4 January – The Memorial of St Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) and St Manuel Gonzalez Garcia (1877–1940) the “Apostle of the Abandoned Tabernacles”

“God is everywhere, in the very air I breathe, yes everywhere but in His Sacrament of the Altar He is as present actually and really as my soul within my body; in His Sacrifice daily offered as really as once offered on the Cross!”

“Our Lord Himself I saw in this venerable Sacrament . . . I felt as if my chains fell, as those of St Peter, at the touch of the Divine messenger.”

“How sweet, the presence of Jesus to the longing, harassed soul! It is instant peace and balm to every wound.”

St Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821)

“My faith was looking at Jesus through the door of that tabernacle, so silent, so patient, so good, gazing right back at me… His gaze was telling me much and asking me for more. It was a gaze in which all the sadness of the Gospels was reflected; the sadness of ‘no room in the Inn”; the sadness of those words, “Do you also want to leave me?”; the sadness of poor Lazarus begging for crumbs from the rich man’s table; the sadness of the betrayal of Judas, the denial of Peter, of the soldier’s slap, of the spittle of the Praetorium and the abandonment of all.”

“The Heart of Jesus in the tabernacle looks at me. He looks at me always. He looks at me everywhere. He looks at me as if He doesn’t have anyone else to look at but me.”

St Manuel Gonzalez Garcia (1877–1940) “Apostle of the Abandoned Tabernacles”

(via Quote/s of the Day - 4 January - Eucharistic Adoration)

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Sunday Reflection – 21 October – Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

“The secret for arriving quickly at a life centred in the Eucharist is, during a certain period of time, to make Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament the habitual object of the exercise of the presence of God, the dominant motive of our intentions, the meditation of our spirit, the affection of our heart, the object of all our virtues.

And if the soul is generous enough, one will come at length to this unity of action, to familiarity with the adorable Sacrament, to think of it with as much and even greater ease than of any other object.

Easily and gently one’s heart will produce the most tender affections.   In a word, the Most Holy Sacrament will become the magnet of devotion in one’s life and the centre of perfection of one’s love.

Eight days would be enough for a simple and fervent soul to acquire this Eucharistic spirit and even if one should have to put weeks and months to acquire it, can this ever be compared with the peace and the happiness which this soul will enjoy in the Divine Eucharist?”

St Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868)

(via Sunday Reflection - 21 October - Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B)

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Quote/s of the Day – 16 October – The Memorial of St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) and St Gerard Majella (1726-1755)

“Let us begin in earnest to work out our salvation, for no-one will do it for us, since even He Himself, Who made us without ourselves, will not save us without ourselves!”

“Let every knee bend before You, O greatness of my God, so supremely humbled in the Sacred Host. May every heart love You, every spirit adore You and every will be subject to You!

St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690)

“The Most Blessed Sacrament is Christ made visible. The poor sick person is Christ again made visible.”

St Gerard Majella (1726-1755)

(via Quote/s of the Day - 16 October - The Memorial of St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) and St Gerard Majella (1726-1755))

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Sunday Reflection – 10 June -Tenth Sunday of the Year B

“The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass gives boundless honour to the Most Blessed Trinity because it represents the passion of Jesus Christ and because, through the Mass, we offer God the merits of Our Lord’s obedience, of His sufferings and of His Precious Blood.   The whole of the heavenly court also receives an accidental joy from the Mass.

Several doctors of the Church—together with St Thomas Aquinas—tell us that, for the same reason, all the blessed in Heaven rejoice in the communion of the faithful because the Blessed Sacrament, is a memorial of the passion and death of Jesus Christ and that by means of it, men share in its fruits and work out their salvation”

St Louis de Montfort (1673-1716)

“Adore and praise the immense love Jesus has for you in this Sacrament of Himself. In order not to leave you a lonely orphan in this land of exile and misery, He comes from heaven for you personally, to offer you companionship and consolation. Thank Him, therefore, with all your love and all your strength; thank Him in union with all the saints!”…Fr Vincent M Lucia “Come to me”

(via Sunday Reflection - 10 June -Tenth Sunday of the Year B)

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Our Morning Offering – 3 June 2018 – The Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Adoro Te devote By St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Doctor of the Church Trans. Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins S.J. (1844-1889)

Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore, Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more, See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived: How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed; What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do; Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.

On the cross thy godhead made no sign to men, Here thy very manhood steals from human ken: Both are my confession, both are my belief, And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.

I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see, But can plainly call thee Lord and God as he; Let me to a deeper faith daily nearer move, Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.

O thou our reminder of Christ crucified, Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died, Lend this life to me then: feed and feast my mind, There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find.

Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican; Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what thy bosom ran— Blood whereof a single drop has power to win All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.

Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below, I beseech thee send me what I thirst for so, Some day to gaze on thee face to face in light And be blest for ever with thy glory’s sight. Amen

Original Latin

Adoro te devote, latens Deitas, Quæ sub his figuris vere latitas; Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit, Quia te contemplans totum deficit.

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, Sed auditu solo tuto creditur. Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius; Nil hoc verbo veritátis verius.

In cruce latebat sola Deitas, At hic latet simul et Humanitas, Ambo tamen credens atque confitens, Peto quod petivit latro pœnitens.

Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor: Deum tamen meum te confiteor. Fac me tibi semper magis credere, In te spem habere, te diligere.

O memoriale mortis Domini, Panis vivus, vitam præstans homini, Præsta meæ menti de te vívere, Et te illi semper dulce sapere.

Pie Pelicane, Jesu Domine, Me immundum munda tuo sanguine: Cujus una stilla salvum facere Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio, Oro, fiat illud quod tam sitio: Ut te revelata cernens facie, Visu sim beátus tuæ gloriæ. Amen

(via Our Morning Offering - 3 June 2018 - The Solemnity of Corpus Christi)

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Quote of the Day - 12 June - The Memorial of Blessed Maria Candida of the Eucharist (1884-1949) (celebrated by the Carmelite Order today)

"I want to be like Mary, to be Mary for Jesus, to take the place of His Mother. When I receive Jesus in Communion, Mary is always present. I want to receive Jesus from her hands, she must make me one with Him. I cannot separate Mary from Jesus. Hail, O Body born of Mary. Hail Mary, dawn of the Eucharist!"

Bl Maria Candida of the Eucharist OCD (1884-1949)

(via Quote of the Day - 12 June - The Memorial of Blessed Maria Candida of the Eucharist (1884-1949) (celebrated by the Carmelite Order today))

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Sunday Reflection – 22 April – The Fourth Sunday of Easter – Good Shepherd/Vocations Sunday – Year B

“There flowed from His side water and blood.   Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolised Baptism and the Holy Eucharist.   From these two sacraments the Church is born:- from baptism, the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit and from the holy Eucharist.

Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from His side, it was from His side that Christ fashioned the Church, as He had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam. Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim:- Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!   As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from His side to fashion the Church.   God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after His own death.

Do you understand, then, how Christ has united His bride to Himself and what food He gives us all to eat?   By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished.   As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with His own blood those to whom He himself has given life.’”

St John Chrysostom (347-407) – Father & Doctor

(via AnaStpaul – Breathing Catholic)

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Quote/s of the Day – 24 April – Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Eastertide and the Memorial of St Mary Euphrasia Pelletier (1796-1868)

“Draw near to our Lord, thoroughly aware of you own nothingness and you may hope all things from His Goodness and Mercy. Never forget that Jesus Christ is no less generous in the Blessed Sacrament than He was during His mortal life on earth.”

“The Blessed Sacrament is the first and supreme object of our worship. We must preserve, in the depths of our hearts, a constant and uninterrupted, profound adoration, of this precious pledge, of Divine Love.”

“To speak of the Blessed Sacrament, is to speak of what is most sacred. How often, when we are in a state of distress, those to whom we look for help leave us; or what is worse, add to our affliction by heaping fresh troubles upon us. He is ever there waiting to help us.”

“May your heart be an altar, from which the bright flame, of unending thanksgiving ascends to heaven.”

“It is human to fall but angelic to rise again.”

“One person is of more value than the whole world.”

“Do well ALL that you do!”

St Mary Euphrasia Pelletier (1796-1868)

(via Quote/s of the Day - 24 April - Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Eastertide and the Memorial of St Mary Euphrasia Pelletier (1796-1868))

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Sunday Reflection – 8 April – Low Sunday the Octave Day of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday

He is not past, He is present now.” – Bl John Henry Newman (1801-1890) on the Eucharist

In every Mass Christ comes to us, in the Blessed Eucharist, Christ remains with us – Christ counteracts Time and the World

What makes Christianity in its fullness, much more than a historical religion – though Protestants claim their religion to be just that, and, indeed, Christ died long ago – is the fact that He is “living among us with a continual presence”.

In every Holy Mass we are touched by Christ’s spiritual presence when the Gospel is proclaimed.   We are touched by His real, full and personal presence in the Eucharist. When we walk up to receive the Eucharist, Christ Jesus comes to us.   He remains with us in the Blessed Sacrament, whether in the tabernacle or exposed for our adoration.   With Newman’s words from a sermon of 25th May 1858:

“He is not past, He is present now.   And though He is not seen, He is here.   The same God who walked the water, who did miracles, etc., is in the Tabernacle. We come before Him, we speak to Him just as He was spoken to … years ago.”

We receive Christ Jesus, when we receive the consecrated host.   We adore Him, we listen to Him and we dare to speak to Him.   When we receive Holy Communion, He wants to grow in us and wants us to grow towards Him:

“In every holy mass and especially in communion but also whenever we adore Christ Jesus, kneeling before the tabernacle or before the exposed Blessed Sacrament, our fleeting lives touch eternity as the living God touches us.   God, does not merely present Himself before us as the Object of worship but God actually gives Himself to us to be received into our breasts. wonderful communion”!

The Eucharist brings Christians of all times, whether in the action of holy Mass or in the stillness of the Blessed Sacrament into the presence of Christ and is the living reminder that we live at all times in the presence of God and have the presence of God within us and before us in a passing world.   It makes us realise that although every day and hour passes and will never come back, we are held and find our stay in the presence and love of God.   The real presence of God in the Holy Eucharist makes us realise that eternal life, our life with God, has begun for us with baptism and cannot be lost to us by any outward force, only by severe sin.   Therefore Newman can say that by the Holy Eucharist “We are brought into the unseen world.” (Excerpted Sr Brigitte Maria Hoegemann FSO)

(via AnaStpaul – Breathing Catholic)

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Quote/s of the Day – 31 January -The Memorial of St John Bosco (1815-1888)

“Do you want our Lord to give you many graces? 

Visit him often. Do you want him to give you few graces? Visit him seldom. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament are powerful and indispensable means of overcoming the attacks of the devil. Make frequent visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and the devil will be powerless against you.”

“I beg you to recommend to everyone, first, adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and then reverence for most holy Mary.”

“Take refuge often at the feet of Jesus… My dear ones, the Visit to the Blessed Sacrament is an extremely necessary way to conquer the devil. Therefore, go often to visit Jesus and the devil will not come out victorious against you.”

“Jesus could have limited His presence only to the celebration of Mass, but no! He wanted to make a permanent dwelling among us. Night and day He awaits us and offers Himself to us at all times. Like a most tender mother, He opens His arms to us. He is there generously to give us His gifts. He is there to draw us to Him and lead us to paradise with Him.

Oh! Let us go visit Him often.”

“I beg you to recommend to everyone, first, adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and then reverence for most holy Mary.”

“Ask the Blessed Virgin for the grace to receive Communion frequently and worthily… Try to imagine, that the Blessed Virgin herself, will give you the Sacred Host. No one would dare strike at the Heart of Jesus while He is in Mary’s hands.”

“The power of evil men lives on the cowardice of the good.”

“The fullness of love, in all the mothers of this earth, could never equal, the love Mary has, for each one of us.”

St John Bosco (1815-1888) Founder of the Salesians

(via AnaStpaul – Breathing Catholic)

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Sunday Reflection – 25 February 2018 – Second Sunday of Lent, Year B

Referring to the Emmaus event, Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890) reminded his congregation:

“Only by faith is He known to be present;  He is not recognised by sight.   When He opened his disciples’ eyes, He at once vanished.   He removed his visible presence and left but a memorial of Himself.   He vanished from sight that He might be present in a sacrament;  and in order to connect His visible presence to His presence invisible, He for one instant manifested Himself to their open eyes;  manifested Himself, if I may so speak, while He passed from His hiding place of sight without knowledge, to that of knowledge without sight.”

What He left to the disciples in Emmaus is what He left to us:  His memorial and more than that:  His living presence spiritually in the Church and – through the Holy Spirit – in each of its members through baptism and His Real Presence, communion with Himself, the living God and man in the Blessed Eucharist and in the Christians who have just received Him in the Blessed Eucharist and adore Him in this Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.   Christ’s real presence is given to each communicant in a most personal and if accepted with a sincere and humble heart, transforming way.   With Newman’s own words:

“Christ then took on our nature, when He would redeem it;  He redeemed it by making it suffer in His own Person;  He purified it, by making it pure in His own Person.   He first sanctified it in Himself, made it righteous, made it acceptable to God, submitted it to an expiatory passion and then He imparted it to us.   He took it, consecrated it, broke it and said, “Take, and divide it among your-selves.”

Newman was convinced that no one “realises the mystery of the Incarnation but must feel disposed towards that of the Holy Communion.”   Both are mysteries of the coming of Christ, longed for as the hope of mankind for salvation.   If we accept that God unites Himself, His divinity and His spirit, to humanity, nature and matter in His birth as man, then we can also accept that He binds His presence to the species of bread and wine.   When Jesus says, “This is my body, this is my blood”, this remains a mystery but our faith in it is not against our reason.

Years later this Catholic priest wrote:

“O wisest love! That flesh and blood Which did in Adam fail, Should strive afresh against the foe, Should strive and should prevail.” “And that a higher gift than grace Should flesh and blood refine, God’s presence and His very Self, And Essence all-divine.”

(via AnaStpaul – Breathing Catholic)