Lord, We Give You Thanks!

Lord, this day we give You thanks for all that you have given us but most especially for the Gifts of Your Death and of Your Continued Presence among us:

 

Eucharistic Reflection - Adore, Give Thanks, Praise, Bless and Extol Him

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

"With lively faith adore Jesus present in the Most Holy Sacrament, in the Divine Host you are soon to receive. Adore Him outwardly by the deeply reverent attitude of your body and by the guarded purity of your senses. Adore Him inwardly by a profound humility and by the homage of all the powers of your soul, crying out to Him with Saint Thomas in a transport of faith:' My Lord and my God'.

...Give thanks for so great a gift of love from Jesus, for this invitation which He gives to you in preference to so many others who are better and more worthy to receive Him.

Praise Him for the wisdom He manifested in inventing and instituting this wonderful Sacrament for you. Praise the wisdom that has guided this river of life to you, this stream that has flowed on from generation to generation, till at last it has reached you, as pure now as its source.

Bless His omnipotent goodness that He was able to triumph over every obstacle, that He recoiled from never a sacrifice or humiliation, in order to give Himself to you.

Extol the measureless love which, for your salvation, reduced Him in this Sacrament to the state of perpetual Victim, which made Him the divine sustenance of your life and so constant and tender a friend in your exile. Let the angels join with you; invite them to give praise with you to their God and their King."

(St. Peter Julian Eymard from Holy Communion)

Eucharistic Reflection - We Are Like Children

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

"We are like children who receive money from our mother to buy her a  a birthday present when she has a birthday. When the children come with their gift, the mother does not say: 'You ought to be ashamed of yourselves to come with a gift that I myself have paid for!' No, she acts as though it were from them. That is what God does with us. Everything we give Him we have received from Him. Nevertheless He acts as though everything came from us.

Our thanksgiving consists in that we give everything back to God...It is not because God is greedy and therefor wants everything back, but rather so that we should have the joy of giving."

(Wilfrid Stinissen, O.C.D. from Bread That Is Broken)