Eucharistic Reflection - Food For The Soul

“When God desired to give a food to our soul to sustain it in the pilgrimage of life, He looked upon creation and found nothing that was worthy of it. Then He turned again to Himself, and resolved to give Himself…O my soul, how great you are, since only God can satisfy you! The food of the soul is the body and blood of a God. O glorious food! The soul can feed only on God; only God can suffice it; only God can fill it; only God can satiate its hunger. Its God is absolutely necessary to it.”

“O my soul, bless this God, who is so great! Come often to this divine banquet to take your fill of justice and holiness. Those who refuse to sit at this banquet, or who partake of it only at long intervals, condemn themselves to certain death or to wasting away; for we cannot live without eating, nor enjoy vigorous health without eating frequently.”

“My God, how can it be that Christians actually remain so long without giving this food to their poor souls? They leave them to die of want.”

“They are close to this glorious Sacrament, like a person dying of thirst by the side of a river, when he has only to bend his head…like a person remaining in poverty with a treasury close beside his hand. “My God, what misery and blindness…when they have so many remedies for healing their souls, and such food for preserving their health!...Alas! let us sorrowfully admit that man begrudges nothing to a body which sooner or later will be destroyed and eaten by worms; while a soul created in the image of God, a soul which is immortal, is despised and treated with the utmost cruelty”…

“Tell me what it can profit you to leave your soul in so unhappy a state by depriving it of the food which alone can create strength and give it vigor. You are contented and at peace, you say…Is it because your soul in only awaiting the moment when death will strike it and drag it to hell? Is it because you are vegetating in mediocrity and tepidity?”

(St. John Vianney from Eucharistic Meditations)