Eucharistic Reflection - Be His Consoler!

"We see Christians despise Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament and His Heart which has loved them and which consumes Itself with love for them! To despise Him, they take advantage of the veil which hides Him. They insult Him with their irreverences, their guilty thoughts and criminal glances in His presence. To insult Him, they avail themselves of His inalterable patience of, of the kindness which suffers everything in silence as it did with the impious soldiery of Caiphas, Herod and Pilate. They blaspheme sacrilegiously against the God of the Eucharist. They know that His love renders Him speechless. They crucify Him even in their guilty soul! They receive Him! They dare take this living Heart and bind it to a foul corpse; they dare deliver it to the devil who is their Lord! No, never even in the days of His Passion, has Jesus received so many humiliations as in His Sacrament! Earth for Him is a Calvary of ignominy.

In His agony He sought a consoler; on the Cross He asked for some one to sympathize with His afflictions. Today more than ever, we must make amends, a reparation of honor, to the adorable Heart of Jesus. Let us lavish our adorations, our love on the Eucharist. To the Heart of Jesus living in the most Blessed Sacrament, be honor, praise, adoration, kingly power forever and ever!"

(St. Peter Julian Eymard from In The Light of the Monstrance)

Eucharistic Reflection - Don't Take Away His Real Presence!

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Our Lord is in the Blessed Sacrament to receive from men the same homages He received from those who had the happiness of coming close to Him during His mortal life. He is there in order to give everybody the opportunity to render personal homage to His Sacred humanity; if that were the only end and justification of the Eucharist, we should still deem ourselves most fortunate to be enabled thereby to fulfill our Christian duties towards our Lord in person.

If you take away the Real Presence, how will you render to His sacred humanity the respect and honor it is entitled to?

Moreover, since our Lord as man is only in heaven and in the Most Blessed Sacrament, it is through the Eucharist that we can come close to our living Savior in person, see Him and converse with Him.

Through this sacramental presence we go to our Lord directly and come to Him as during His mortal life. How unfortunate it would be if, in order to honor the humanity of Jesus Christ, our memory had to travel back nineteen centuries. That would satisfy our mind, but could we render an exterior homage to a past that is so far away? We would content ourselves with giving thanks without participating in the mysteries.

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

But now we may come and adore like the shepherds and prostrate ourselves like the Magi. We no longer have to deplore our not having been at Bethlehem or on Calvary. 

In fact to adore well, we must keep in mind that Jesus, present in the Eucharist, glorifies and continues therein all the mysteries and virtues of His mortal life; that the Holy Eucharist is Jesus Christ past, present and future; that the Eucharist is the last development of the Incarnation and mortal life of the Savior; that Jesus Christ gives us therein all the graces; that all truths tend to the Eucharist, and the final word on everything is the Eucharist, since It is Jesus Christ.

(St Peter Julian Eymard from In The Light of the Monstrance)

Eucharistic Reflection - Adore Well

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

"To adore well we must, above all, talk to our Lord; He will answer us. Everybody can talk to our Lord. Is He not in the Eucharist for everybody? Does He not tell us, 'Come ye all to me'? This conversation which goes on between the soul and our Lord is the true eucharistic meditation, that is, adoration.

The grace of it is given to everybody. Go to our Lord as you are. Exhaust your own stock of piety and of love before resorting to books; cherish the inexhaustible book of humble love. It is all very well to have a devotional book with you to regain control of yourself in case the mind wanders or the senses grow drowsy, but remember that the good Lord prefers the poverty of your heart to the most sublime thoughts and affections borrowed from others.

Always begin your adoration, therefore, with an act of love, and bringing your soul under the action of God will be a joy. If you begin with yourself, you will stop half way; or if you begin with any virtue other than love, you are taking the wrong road.

Then speak to Love Itself; speak to Jesus of His heavenly Father Whom He loves so much; speak to Him of the tasks He has undertaken for His Father's glory, and you will gladden His Heart and He will love you all the more. Speak to Jesus of His love for all men;  that will make His Heart and yours expand with happiness and joy. Speak to Jesus of His holy mother whom He loves so much, and you will renew in Him the happiness of a good Son. Speak to Him of His saints so as to glorify His grace to them. The real secret of love is, therefore, to forget oneself like Saint John the Baptist so as to exalt and glorify the Lord Jesus.

Our Lord will thus be pleased with you and will speak to you of yourself. He will tell you His love for you, and your heart will open under the rays of this Sun, just as a flower, dampened and chilled by night, opens under the rays of the luminary of day.

Before leaving the presence of the divine Master, thank Him for His reception of love. Beg forgiveness for your distractions and irreverences. Offer Him a homage of fealty a flower of virtue, a nosegay of little sacrifices. Then leave the church as if were the Cenacle; leave our Lord's presence like the angel who takes his flight from the throne of God to carry out His divine commands."

(St. Peter Julian Eymard from In The Light of the Monstrance)