Worth Revisiting - Imagine

Thank you Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for another opportunity to re-publish our favorite posts on Worth Revisiting.

 

Go there now and be nourished spiritually. Be sure to visit Allison at Reconciled to You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb during the rest of the week. You will be glad you stopped by.

Here is my contribution:


Imagine 

(Originally posted on March 28, 2011) 

Imagine what we, our families, our priests, our Church, our communities and our world would be like if the Eucharist was, in fact, the source, center and summit of our daily lives.

The following two men have something significant to share with all of us, be we lay men and women, priests or religious, about the value of Eucharistic Adoration. May our spiritual journey and desire for holiness be enriched by reading and reflecting on what they have said.

Father James M. Sullivan, O.P. – “Adoration is not just one more thing to do, like going to the store, the doctor, etc.  It is an encounter with Christ.  His love changes and orders our life.”

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Venerable Fulton J.Sheen – “The priest should think of the practice of the daily Holy Hour, as something to continue for his whole life…the daily Holy Hour gives us wisdom…The mind of the priest who lives close to the tabernacle door gains a special illumination.  The priest's mind and heart are best guided when they seek the Eucharistic Lord at dawn…Daily exigencies demand a daily Holy Hour…Vitamins cannot be stored up.  Spiritual energy has to be renewed; today's strength must come from the Lord today.  Thus the monotony of life is broken, and there comes to the priest new power for each day's apostolate.  The Holy Hour each day also destroys in the priest forebodings and worries about the future.  Kneeling before the Eucharistic Lord, he receives the rations for each day's march, worrying not at all about tomorrow...The Holy Hour should be a daily event because our crosses are daily, not weekly…These daily crosses will sour us, sear our souls and make us bitter, unless we turn them into crucifixes; and how can that be done except by seeing them as coming from the Lord?  That we can do only if we are with Him.  The Holy Hour may be a sacrifice, but the Lord does not make the week the unit of sacrifice.  He tells us our cross is daily.”

Yes, let us imagine…