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| (Tabernacle-St. Agatha's Canastota, NY) |
“In our visits
to the Divine Solitary, we can with intense devotion prepare ourselves to
receive Him sacramentally. Poor, wretched, miserable, blind, and naked, we
cannot alone make ourselves fit for the reception of our God. He must clothe
our souls with the wedding garment of divine grace, and adorn them with virtue.
As we kneel
before the Eucharistic Savior, the Eternal Father will draw us closer to His
Divine Son. Christ will so influence us as to bring out the best that is in
us. The Holy Spirit will calm us with the peace of God, and thus remove the obstacles
to our loving advance in intimate conversation with the sacramental King. Our
very nearness to Christ will dispel our diffidence at the thought of too hasty
an approach to the God who has found sin among the angels. Breathing the spiritual
air of the tabernacle, illumining our souls with the light reflected from His
earthly dwelling, strengthening our wills for conflict with temptation,
deepening our faith in His almighty power, and purifying our desire to love
Him more unselfishly - how can we better prepare ourselves to receive our God
with a fervor that will ever inflame us with eager enthusiasm in His service?
The peace of
soul that is ours in our moments of adoration is a blissful exaltation above
the turmoil of time, an anticipation of the eternal peace of Heaven. Our union
with the Eucharistic worshipers, the myriad hosts of angels that surround the
tabernacle, adoring in Heaven as they gaze forever on His soul-stirring
divinity, humbly prostrate before Him in His sacramental lowliness as He hides
the beauty that would overwhelm us - what is this but paradise on earth?
Thus raised
above the visible, we can forego its claims and honor Christ for His own dear
sake. We can compensate for the irreverences of those who believe, but do not
realize, the mystery of His Real Presence, and for the profanations of those
who absolutely deny it. If we love Christ, we will gladly spend ourselves
trying to repair the dishonor which He so patiently endures in the sacrament
of His love. The conscious recognition of what He suffers will help us to
increase our love of Him.
Our reparation
does not remove the injuries, nor do we absolve the offenders by offering our
love as compensation for their want of love. But heart speaking to heart in understanding
sympathy gives to the heart’s desires an additional value…”
(From Transforming
Your Life through the Eucharist by Father John A. Kane)
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