Eucharistic Reflection – Why Do We Feel Jesus Here?

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You can feel Him...0h yes, here you can feel God... you can inhale and breathe Him, filling this humble cenacle of the earth, impregnating the atmosphere with celestial perfume. This tabernacle bears the fragrance of Jesus; one enters here as if entering Jesus' innermost being; with that same respect...that same confidence...that same love. The light, the warmth, the fire of the Eucharistic Jesus fills everything, and thus, in this beloved enclosure, the thorns are roses...sacrifice is not felt...pain and martyrdom are sweet because they are suffered for His sake and in His intimacy.

If the altar is poor, Jesus is its richness...its most delicate embellishment. Without being fully aware of it, one enters into profound concentration and prayer because one leaves earthly things at the door, and the soul is engulfed in the possession of its Beloved.

Here - all alone, He and I - He, with all His greatness, and I with all my miseries - He, all fire; and I, burning in the midst of His divine Passion! ...My darkness is lost in the midst of His light...,and my icy heart melts inside of His. Here my sins are forgiven and my sorrows - 0! my sorrows are united to His own, giving them value...How many treasures are enclosed in this holy place, consecrated through the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament! Heaven is here, because He is here!

I would not exchange these four walls for the most glorious palace on earth! You can feel Him, yes... here the Lord can be felt.., here He can be found...here the soul loses itself in His arms. It cries out contritely, is anxious to suffer, and loves Him!

Jesus inflames us in the nearness of that Holy Host. This is the enclosed garden, the place selected for divine appointments... for holy conversations... for divine loves...Here, at the foot of this altar, the palpitations of the heart are also supernatural, desiring the possession of God, celebrating the Mysteries of the life of the heart with Him.

Here the tongue truly occupies itself only in praising... the eyes in crying...and the heart in loving the One Who is all lovable...Here love grows and grows until it has no other wish or desire but the will of God. Here, Jesus of my soul, I love oblivion, scorn, and obscurity; and the world and worldly things are removed from my heart according to the measure that my spirit possesses You! You are the glory of my life, Eucharistic Jesus. I am happy here, consuming myself in Your presence like the candles on the altar...I languish from the love of possessing You, with an insatiable hunger for a greater union and more sacrifices.

But why is it that we feel Jesus here? Because of the emptiness of the soul, because the world is very far away, because we have no witnesses and the solitude of the heart is complete.

And this is why my love grows according to the measure that I empty myself... that I humble myself... that I sink.., that I lose myself in my unworthiness and in my nothingness.

(From Holy Hours by Concepcion Carbrera de Armida)