[Blessed soon to be Saint John Paul II had this to say about the Eucharist:
“This Sacrament of Love shall be the center of the life of the people of God.”]
(Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
“The
Blessed Sacrament is Jesus living in our midst to fulfill a promise made long
ago: ‘I Myself will pasture my sheep. I Myself will give them rest, says the
Lord God. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I
will bind up, the sick I will heal’ (Ezek 34:15-16).
If
a list of priorities were drawn up for a given parish, or a given diocese,
where would Eucharistic Adoration be on that list? How much time, energy, and
concentration would be devoted in establishing perpetual adoration in each
parish? In his first encyclical letter, Redemptor
Hominis, Pope John Paul II exhorted that ‘every member of the Church,
especially bishops and priests, 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.'
He
stated that ‘indeed, the Eucharist is the ineffable Sacrament! The essential
commitment and, above all, the visible grace and source of supernatural
strength for the Church as the people of God is to persevere and advance
constantly in Eucharistic life and Eucharistic piety and to develop spiritually
in the climate of the Eucharist. With all the greater reason, then, it is not
permissible for us, in thought, life, or action, to take away from this truly
most Holy Sacrament its full magnitude and its essential meaning. It is at one
and the same time a Sacrifice- Sacrament, a Communion-Sacrament, and a
Presence- Sacrament."
(From Come to Me in the Blessed Sacrament)
[Tragically, we failed to heed our deceased and beloved Holy Father's direction since the majority
of our parishes and of those claiming to be Catholic in this country have not made the Eucharist the center of their lives.]
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