5/17/2021 Why it’s important to keep the devotion to the Blessed Eucharist continually? Because God’s love demands love in return.Read Now
Answer:
Alone, in a quiet moment, in silence, ponder on the great almighty God who loves us so much, so immensely, so inestimable, who loved us from the moment He thought of creating us, and who loves us in all eternity; despite His Ascension, had Himself remained with us, conveniently accessible to us in all the Catholic churches. How wonderful and great is this love!
Love as we all know comes from the heart, like the deep love of a mother for her child, imagine how big her heart is, that encompasses every aspect of life to do all for the love of her family; the deep, all-embracing, all-accepting, nourishing, nurturing, warm, safe, supportive love that soothes our hearts when we need it. God’s love is immensely greater, as He is almighty and omniscience; to have become man to be with us, born in a stable, all His life He suffered for us, shedding every drop of His precious blood unto death to save us. Imagine this immensely loving heart is “imprisoned” in every tabernacle of every Catholic church patiently waiting, waiting for us to visit Him to express our love for Him in return.
It is God, Jesus Christ in the Blessed Eucharist. He has left us this beautiful sacrament, an inestimable gift of love, pure and undeserved love, to continually be with us until the end of time. Matthew 28:20: ”'Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” It is the little heaven on Earth that He has gifted us out of His love. This is where He continues to apply the fruits of His Redemption by drawing souls to Him to bless them and shower them with His graces; to enable them to persevere in their lives to merit heaven. All one needs to do is to visit Him with the right dispositions - humility, contrition, and confidence. The Blessed Eucharist is the source of our lives to draw strength and vigor to walk continually in the way of virtue. Therefore, we need to keep this devotion going to draw strength and to reciprocate God’s love for us, to be in union with Him in His love.
How can we not do it, to show our gratitude and to draw strength from Him? If your father hugs you, in expressing his love, won’t you hug him back? Of course, you would; so all the more we should love God in return. (Hugs comfort and strengthen the person being hugged.) God out of His excessive love, deigns to remain in permanent residence among us. present in the tabernacles of churches waiting patiently for our visits. “It is my delight to be with the children of men,” says our Divine Saviour in Holy Writ. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”: Matthew 11:28. Venite omnes, "come ye all," without exception; come ye poor and suffering; come ye rich and prosperous; come ye despised; come ye honored ones of the earth; come ye servants and slaves; come ye princes and masters; come ye husbands and wives; come ye parents and children; come ye young men and young women; come ye great and small; come all, without any exception; come ye My beloved children whom I have redeemed; expose to Me your wants and your troubles! Ego reficiam vos, "I will refresh you," I will console you. Venite, "come," then, come without fear! I am waiting for you at all hours. We should look upon this as a great grace to be able to be invited into His presence. Surely, like Him, we should be delighted to be in His company. Jesus Christ, the King of Heaven, has gone so far in His love to take up abode in our churches for our convenience, and how happy and thankful we should be to avail ourselves to visit Him frequently. We ought to visit Him as often as we can, and our visits ought to be made not only from a sense of duty, but also from motives of love and devotion.
The Saints have done it. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi visited Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament 30 times a day. St. Alphonsus was accustomed to visit the Blessed Sacrament daily and when he was aged and had difficulty walking, he had himself carried to visit his beloved Saviour. St. Wenceslaus, King of Poland, even during the winter he used to go at night to visit the church in which the Blessed Sacrament was kept. Every day of the life of Saint Louis, King of France, was centered in the Sacred Liturgy, and above all, the Holy Eucharist. St. Vincent de Paul, before transacting in any important business, he would go before the Blesses Sacrament and recommend his affairs to Jesus.
St. Francis Xavier found strength for all his toils by passing nights in prayers in front of the Blessed Sacrament. All the saints found time to visit Our Lord daily, and it is these daily visits that strengthened them to saintly sanctity. The Saints understood the value of visiting the Blessed Sacrament; as they knew that everything depends very much on God’s blessing; they knew that if God did not bless their temporal affairs, they would not succeed or without the blessings, be hurtful to their souls. How did the Saints obtain such a great love for God? It is from conversing frequently with Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. The more often and longer they conversed with Him, the more they felt their hearts inflamed with love for Him. St. Alphonsus, the great lover of the Blessed Sacrament, said: “Nowhere have holy souls made more admirable resolutions than at the feet of their hidden God, in the Blessed Sacrament…” One can be assured, that by remaining with any degree of recollection before the Blessed Sacrament, one would receive more comfort from Jesus than the world with all its allurements and pleasures can ever afford. The time spent devoutly before this divine Sacrament will be the most useful in your life and that which will most console you in death and for eternity. Every tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament is a little heaven, whereby to pray, to make petition, to ask pardon, and to make acts of love to this Lord who remains on the altar praying to His Eternal Father for us and burning with love for us. God does indeed grant, the petitions of those who pray to Him; He has promised to do so: “Ask, and it shall be given you.” (Matt.7:7) In the Most Holy Sacrament, He dispenses favors more abundantly to those who visits Him; but what use are these mere words? “Taste and see.” Go often with devotion to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and after a while you will experience the truth of what the Saints experienced in their lives. “Taste and see.” If you do not visit Jesus Christ at all, or if you visit Him but seldom, your love and affection for Him are not great. Do not become lukewarm …”because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16 Love your Lord and God in the Blessed Sacrament a little more, and you will be found visiting Him more often. Know that, were you to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, even for only 15 minutes each day, from how many trials and hardships would you be delivered, from how many accidents, misfortunes, temptations and attacks of the devil would you be preserved; how few sins would you commit, and how much more consolation and peace of heart would you enjoy. Instead of spending time idling away on talk, games or some amusements, is it not better to go to church to pray for a while in order to draw down blessing from God upon you and your family? Rest assured that you will be happier in the company of Jesus rather than man, as Our Lord delights in having us visit Him, He will bless you with abundant divine graces and lasting consolations upon your soul, when you present yourself before Him.
O Jesus, O most sweet Jesus, hidden under the sacramental species, give me now such love and humility, that I may be able lovingly to speak of this invention of boundless love, that all who hear of it, may begin to love Thee in reality.
O Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, and our dear Mother; O all ye holy Angels, who, by your adoration in our churches, make up for the little love which your God and our Saviour receives from men, obtain for us the grace to comprehend a little the love of Jesus Christ in the most Holy Sacrament.
"Behold," said Jesus, "behold this heart which loves men so excessively, this heart which is always pouring out graces upon them, this heart so full of pity to receive sinners, to help the poor and indigent, to cure the sick, to console the afflicted, to hear the prayers of all men, at what time soever they come to ask-----this heart is not known; it is despised and (what is the most piercing grief) even by those souls into which I have so often entered in Holy Communion." Jesus said to St. Margaret Mary
Ah, dear Christian, have you a heart? Well, if it is not of stone or iron, may it be touched by this touching complaint of the heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Give to your God and Saviour what is due to Him. Repay Him for the benefit of your creation; repay Him for the benefit of your redemption; for the benefit of the preservation of your life; for the pains of His great sufferings of His Passion; but, above all, repay Him, in some measure, the excessive love and affection which He bears us in the Blessed Sacrament. "But how," you will ask; "how shall I pay my Jesus for His love to me? What can I give Him in return?" Nothing but love. Love demands love and is contented only with love. But it must be true love, that is, such love as animates you to keep His Commandments and to avoid sin; such love as impels you to receive Him often in Holy Communion and still to visit Him frequently in the church. Ask of Him then to detach your heart from all creatures and that you may live only for Him. In so doing, you may expect with all confidence that in your last hour your dear and amiable Saviour, will come to meet you, calling you to Him by these sweet and consoling words: "Come, thou good and faithful servant, come; because thou hast been faithful in little things, I will place thee over many." "Come and see what thine eye has never seen; come and hear what thine ear has never heard; come and enjoy what on earth thy heart has never conceived; come, enter into the joy of thy Lord forever and ever."
At Holy Mass in the coming Sundays, let us reflect on the role that the Eucharist plays in our lives. The Sunday Mass must become the pivotal point of our week. It is not only recommended but required by our commitment to Our Lord. The Sunday Eucharist must be non-negotiable. We draw our strength for the entire week from the blessings and graces that God gives us at Mass.
For those who are fortunate to attend Mass this weekend, do thank the Lord for the great gift of His Presence. Let us show our gratitude by living our lives centered on the Eucharist. In the current pandemic situation where churches are closed in many places all over the world, travel restrictions imposed and consequently Mass and the Sacraments are being restricted, resulting in the drought in blessings and graces. Whether you see it or not, it is a diabolical time for us Christians being deprived of our rights to practice our faith as we ought to. Although it had been since June 29, 1972 when Pope Paul VI wrote “...the smoke of Satan had entered the Church of God.”, that evil has increased significantly since. Catholicism now is nothing compared to the great period of the Catholic Church during the 12th and 13th century, especially under Pope Innocent III, thanks to the decline of fervour due to worldliness, corruption within the Church and political conflicts. It has been more than a year now that many of us have been deprived of Mass and the sacraments, which also means the honour to God has also been greatly diminished. We ought not to allow it to decline further and should sort other ways to make up for this deprivation. May I propose to do the following:
We need to do all these, and more if possible, in order to increase God’s graces and blessings in the world against the diabolical forces that are ruining our lives. For those who have had their confirmations remember that we are soldiers of Christ and ought to be in His service. We need to increase our fervour, to love God more and to serve Him more, around the world and in our communities. Let us pray that good Catholic priests continue to have Masses, if not publicly, to at least offer it privately to continue to diminish the diabolical forces. When possible, may priests offer Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament; solemn processions, which passes through cities and villages; and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament publicly exposed. “These exercises of piety have brought a wonderful increase in faith and supernatural life to the Church militant upon earth and they are re-echoed to a certain extent by the Church triumphant in heaven, which sings continually a hymn of praise to God and to the Lamb 'Who was slain.” Pope Pius XII. May we imitate St. Louis, finding in the Holy Eucharist the grace to live every moment of our lives in and with Christ for the glory of God and for the good of our neighbor, especially our neighbor who is in most need. Imitating St. Louis, let us, each day, lift up our poor, sinful and doubting hearts to the Lord, placing them into His glorious pierced Heart. May we live every moment of our lives in communion with the Lord, and devoted to the Holy Eucharist. “O my Jesus! grant that Thou mayest be the object of my thoughts and affections, the subject of my conversations, the end of my actions, the companion of my life, the companion of my death, and my reward eternally in thy Heavenly Kingdom. Amen.”
E-book : The Blessed Eucharist Our Greatest Treasure
Special Price : $3.49 or |
Details
AuthorAn artist, entrepreneur, a loving family man, 30 years a Catholic traditionalist upholding traditions for the love of God. Shop for Catholic giftsArchives
January 2024
Categories
All
|