Eucharistic Reflection - Sitting Before the Lord

"The monstrance often resembles the sun with rays bursting from the center. Have you ever gone outside and turned your face toward the sun and soaked in its rays? I close my eyes and thrust out my chin and try to absorb the sun's warmth, light, and life-giving qualities.

This metaphor would dim eventually because you can spend too much time in the sun, but taking in moderate amounts of sun can teach us something about anytime we spend in front of Christ. We are changed. We are warmed, even baked, by the sun. Taking in the sun can be a Eucharistic image. Sitting before the Lord in the Eucharist, we are similarly changed, but spiritually speaking. We can receive greater hues of color and greater depths of warmth. Life abounds. We are like Moses on the mountain whose face was radiant or like Christ at the Transfiguration."

 (Father Justin Kizewski from Face to Face and Eye to Eye: A Reflection on Eucharistic Adoration, Adoremus Bulletin, January 2023 issue)