Eucharistic Reflection - Be His Altar, Tabernacle, and Monstrance

My child your heart must be an altar upon which the innocent Victim constantly sacrifices Himself for the sake of the world…

I do not remain in the tabernacle for any reason other than to arrive in your heart.

I do not raise myself in the monstrance for any reason other than to descend into your heart…

Then if I desire to live within you, must you be an altar, a tabernacle, and a monstrance for Me? Must not your heart be an altar on which I sacrifice Myself…a tabernacle in which I hide Myself…a monstrance in which I manifest Myself?..

Be then My altar, holy and free of every stain so that you may constantly remind yourself that ‘No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for a friend’ and if you are My altar, you will continually experience the sacrifice of the Incarnate Word within yourself…and the most intense fire of His love…

If your heart is My altar, I also want it to be the tabernacle in which I hide…My child, noise does not please Me…The brilliance and radiance of the world do not attract Me. I am at ease only in the silence of a pure and sacrificed soul…My dear child, you shall listen to Me if you are My silent tabernacle, and I will say to you, ‘Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart.’

Even if you gain the whole world, could you possess anything more than the Creator of the world?

I will be your bounty, your riches, your happiness, your treasure…If your heart is where your treasure is, ask also for that Treasure to be always where your heart is…The tabernacle is My heaven upon earth. Will you be this for Me…?

You will always be My monstrance - that is, you will be touching, in direct contact, with the Beloved of your soul...

(Jesus to Concepcion Cabrera de Armida from Holy Hours)

Monday Musings - A Corpus Christi Lament

When we entered Church yesterday on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, was it any different than walking into a movie theater, a school auditorium or other public place? 

How much consideration was given to He Who is really truly and substantially present here among us? 

Or was most of our attention showered on the people around us? Did the din of idle conversation, loud voices and banter belie any authentic belief in the Real Presence of our Lord and Savior behind the tabernacle’s locked doors?

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

How painful such conduct is to the Lord who suffered and died for us in order that we might live eternally with Him. Not even a Solemnity that He requested caused some to focus their attention on Him.

For many, Sunday is the only day they come into His Presence. Yet they act like He is not there. In far too many parishes, it is more important to be friendly and chatty with each other than to spend time in silence, prayer and preparation for the Mass. 

What an opportunity some pastors lost yesterday by failing to remind us that our living and loving Lord is in the tabernacle waiting to be acknowledged, worshiped, adored, visited and loved.

How many of us were properly prepared to receive and consume His Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity?

For another year, too many souls did not hear any of those truths.

We should have been encouraged to be silent before Mass, to worship and talk to our Savior, not to our neighbor. We should have been told how lonely Jesus is as a prisoner in the tabernacle. We should have taken Him from behind that locked door and proudly, joyfully, prayerfully, reverently and expectantly carried Jesus through the streets of our community as a witness to believer and non-believer alike of this magnificent Gift.

How many were afraid and ashamed to process publicly with Him?

Why Do We Refuse to Listen? Why Do We Mutilate Essential Truth?

"Revisiting Wednesday" - Of Priests, the Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Once again we thank Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for hosting "Worth Revisiting” every Wednesday and inviting Catholic bloggers to re-post their favorite articles there.

Go there now (and every Wednesday). You will be inspired by the variety of spiritual insights these authors share.

Visit Allison at  Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb during the rest of the week.  It will be time well spent.

Here is my contribution:

 Of Priests, the Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass 

(Slightly modified version of a March 28, 2013 post)

When Jesus told His followers that unless they ate His Body and drank His Blood, they could not have eternal life, large numbers left and never returned. Their initial repulsion to this direction was understandable: who would want to eat the flesh and drink the blood of another living human being?

Yet, many had come to believe that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. They had either heard of or actually witnessed countless miracles evidencing His Divine nature.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Why did they not realize that He would never ask the impossible of them or fail to provide them the means with which to fulfill His command?

His apostles had no greater understanding of, or fondness, for what Jesus was commanding them to do. But when Jesus asked them if they too would leave, Peter, answering for himself and for the other apostles save for Judas, replied: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
 

Eucharistic Reflection - The Master Is Calling You!

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

 “…we hear them [those present during a Eucharistic procession at Lourdes] saying to us, to every man and to every woman among us: “Come, let the Master call you! He is here! He is calling you (cf. Jn 11:28)! He wants to take your life and join it to His. Let yourself be embraced by Him! Gaze no longer upon your own wounds, gaze upon His. Do not look upon what still separates you from Him and from others; look upon the infinite distance that He has abolished by taking your flesh, by mounting the Cross which men had prepared for Him, and by letting Himself be put to death so as to show you His love. In His wounds, He takes hold of you; in His wounds, He hides you. Do not refuse His Love!”

(Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI)