Eucharistic Reflection - The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Eucharist

(Sacred Heart Chapel-St. Vincent Ferrer Parish, NYC)

 "Devotion to the Sacred Heart should bring us to a life of intimate union with Jesus who, we know, is truly present and living in the Eucharist. The two devotions — to the Sacred Heart and to the Eucharist — are closely connected. They call upon one another and, we may even say, they require one another. The Sacred Heart explains the mystery of the love of Jesus by which He becomes bread in order to nourish us with His substance, while in the Eucharist we have the real presence of this same Heart, living in our midst.

It is wonderful to contemplate Jesus as the symbol of His infinite love, but it is even more wonderful to find Him always near us in the Sacrament of the altar. The Sacred Heart which we honor is not a dead person's heart which no longer palpitates, so that we have only the memory of him, but it is the Heart of a living Person, of One who lives eternally. He lives not only in heaven where His sacred humanity dwells in glory, but He lives also on earth wherever the Eucharist is reserved.

In speaking of the Eucharist, Our Lord says to us, 'Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world' (Mt 28, 20). In Holy Communion, then, this Heart beats within us, it touches our heart; through the love of this Heart, we are fed with His Flesh and with His Blood, so that we may abide in Him and He in us,"

(From "Divine Intimacy" by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.