Eucharistic Reflection - Treasure The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

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"… I will treasure more than anything else the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is often said that it is the Mass that matters. This means that Mass is the most important thing in the world. It is very true. But I really think that sanctifying grace matters most of all. Still, where do I get that from if not through the Sacrifice of the Cross which is continued in the Sacrifice of the Mass. I am afraid.  I do not think as highly of Holy Mass as I should. And this reminds me of a story I have often read about the Sacred linen in Greenland. It was in the sixteenth century. There had been a religious persecution in the island and all priests had been killed or driven out, so that for fifty years there was no Mass at all in Greenland.

After fifty years, there were still some scattered Catholics left. They used to meet every year for a Christmas celebration in a lonely house almost covered by snow. On one such night they all gathered together in the house. First, they said some prayers. Then an old man arose, went to a bureau, and took from it what used to be a white cloth, like a big, square napkin. Now it was yellow with age and tattered. It was a corporal, that linen cloth on which, during Holy Mass, rest the Body and Blood of Christ. The old man said: ‘Brethren, fifty years ago Mass was last said in this country. I served that last Mass. Let us kneel down and thank God for this precious relic, on which rested the Body and Blood of Jesus. And let us pray that God may send us priests to offer the Holy Sacrifice in our midst again.’

Tears streamed from all eyes as they knelt to pray. And all around me there are now so many churches and so many Masses are being offered. I do not think I value enough the chances that I have to assist at Holy Mass. Where there is a persecution and hearing Mass is forbidden under pain of torture or death, good Catholics nevertheless go to Mass, even if it is in caves under the ground.

Those good people in Greenland knelt down and thanked God for that precious Sacred linen. How happy and how devout they would have been if they could have bowed down before Jesus Himself in the Blessed Sacrament! And I am often so careless and thoughtless in my genuflections and in my way of kneeling or sitting or standing in the presence of my Eucharistic Savior. And it seems that the more I have to do around the Blessed Sacrament, the more like a pagan I become."

 

(The Way to God - Father Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S.)

 

 

Monday Musings - Do WE Also Make So Little of It?

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[Father Windrid Herbt, S.D.S.(1891- 1988), was a renown spiritual writer and  included the following story about St. Alexis in his most excellent book, The Way To God, copies of which are difficult to find.

I received permission to include this poignant tale in my book, Stirring Slumbering Souls - 250 Eucharistic Reflections.

This story was intended when Father first shared it and is still intended now, to challenge each us to take an honest look at our relationship with our Lord and Savior present among us.]

"I recall the strange and touching story of Saint Alexis. When he was young he left home and then, because God inspired him to do so, came back to the house of his parents in Rome dressed up like a poor and unknown beggar. There he lived in some miserable old corner of the house for seventeen years; and his parents never knew that it was he.

But when he died they found out. It seems he left a note or something telling them what he had done in penance for his sins, because God wanted him to. How that mother wept when she found out that the beggar was her son. She had missed him so much and had so longed to see him. In agony, she cried out: ‘0 Alexis, my son! My son Alexis! Had I only known it was you! How I would have loved you and enjoyed your company! Now, alas! it is too late.’ 

This is a sad story. But I am afraid that if I do not appreciate my Eucharistic Savior here on earth, where He is hidden away in  the  poor tabernacle, where  He is in my very midst and I do not seem to know Him, the time will come, after my death, when I will cry out, seeing His adorable beauty in the life to come: ‘0 Jesus, if I had only known it was You!  How I would have loved You, Jesus all beautiful!.  How I would have enjoyed Your company! Oh, if I had only known!’

But I do know.

Faith tells me.

And I make so little of it…"

  

Eucharistic Reflection - I Visit For Love

Plan on visiting our ever-present and loving Lord:

"I visit for love. To both give my love and to receive His love.  This all-knowing Love that embraces, corrects, restores, and sees exactly who I am.  I come to remember John 3:16: “For God so loved the world”…and the love that He gives is here in the Blessed Sacrament, His Son Jesus Christ. 

When I enter, the Church aura is heavy with love.   His love for us His adorers. Our love for Him the One adored.  The love shared between fellow adorers, and the love of the Heavenly adorers for Him and for us.

I am here both alone in love with Him, and yet in a cherished communion with all who seek to adore.

When I am a lover, at my very best, I approach with gratitude, praise, and thanksgiving. I wish to give love for Love, no matter what the time 5 minutes or 3 hours. I give my love, as best I can, yet often a cacophony of need can consume me. My thoughts burst into the silence with my challenges, sorrows, needs, and desires.

His love and tender embrace hear my every cry, expression, and concern, and when I leave I am a better version of myself.  I have been fully and completely loved, and nothing is lacking." 

Joanna Mary Ladipo, Our Lady of Providence/St. Thomas Aquinas Fraternity, Providence, RI

(Excerpted from Godhead Here In Hiding Whom I Do Adore - Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration)

Monday Musings - Do Not Fear Conflict

Eucharistic Reflection - Listen To What God Says

"When you have received Holy Communion, rise up reverently, return to your place and kneel down; do not at once take your book or your beads. I do not like to see people begin to read as soon as they have come from the altar. 

Oh no, of what use are the words of men when it is the good God who speaks? We must be like someone who is curious and who listens at doors. We must listen to what the good God says at the door of our heart."

(From The Eucharistic Meditations of the Cure of Ars)

Monday Musings - What Two Things Is The Devil Deathly Afraid Of?

 

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - October 31, 2024

Pondering Tidbits of Truth is my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time.

Father Jose Gonzalez

"Reflect upon the scenario in which you were supposed to receive a very large inheritance but were cheated out of it. How would you react? The right reaction would be to care more for the soul of the person who cheated you than to care about actually being cheated. A person who is fully detached from material possessions will care little about losing such an inheritance or gaining one. It will truly matter not. If that is hard to accept, know that this is a sign that your soul is too attached to the things of this world. Pray for freedom from all greed. That is the only way to obtain the true riches of God."

(From Daily Reflections - October 21, 2024)

 

St. Teresa of Calcutta

"How did Christ love us? He made Himself the Bread of Life. He made Himself a living bread that you and I may eat and live. He made himself so small, so weak, just bread to satisfy our hunger for God.” 

(From Kathy Snider He Comes in Grandeur and Humility published in the Oct 2024 issue of Restoration)

 

Peter Kreeft, Ph.D.

"Of course, technology itself is innocent. It is the worship of it, the idolization of it, that is evil. Adam tilling the garden was technology. Noah's ark was technology. Solomon's temple and Notre Dame Cathedral were technology. So was Cain's rock and the Roman art of crucifixion and the gas chambers in Auschwitz and the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

(From How to Destroy Western Civilization and Other Ideas from the Cultural Abyss)