"Mary, mother of Jesus, give us your heart, so beautiful,
so pure, so
immaculate, so full of love and humility, that we may
be able to
receive Jesus in the bread of life, love him as you love
him, and serve him in
the distressing disguise of the poor."(Mother Teresa)
"Contemplate Jesus lying in His Crib,
wrapped in the might of
divine peace and redemptive suffering. Mary, kneeling,
enraptured, in
ecstasy, watches over the Child, over the Eternal One.
She meditates on another
Bethlehem, on quite another Crib, a crib of apparent repose,
but of
real and perpetual immolation, the Altar!
"Looking ahead through the centuries
to come, the loving Queen, the
sorrowing Virgin contemplates this lasting Bethlehem,
indestructible
through the ages, where this same adorable Child will
be born thousands of
times upon the Altar. She sees Him placed, like
a mild prisoner, between the
walls of a humble and silent Tabernacle. Glancing
down at her sleeping Child, she
beholds the same Jesus—her God—humbled even more in each
ciborium, than
He is in the manger.
The vision of Bethlehem has become
reality. On every altar
Jesus-Host seems to sleep, and Mary still continues to
guard this Eucharistic crib
from which Jesus constantly watches over us." (Fr. Mateo
Crawley-Boevey)
"...You, Jesus Christ become Man; You, bread! Oh,
to annihilate
oneself, how little that would be! If you had left
us a relic of Yourself it would
be a sign of love worthy of our veneration, but you yourself
remain knowing
that you would be the object of profanation, sacrilege
and ingratitude,
abandoned.
Are you, Lord, mad with love?" (St. Teresa of the Andes)
"Let all mortal flesh keep silence
And with fear and trembling stand
Ponder nothing earthly minded
For with blessing in His hand
Christ our God to earth descendeth
Our full homage to demand
"King of kings yet born of Mary
As our Lord on earth He stood
Lord of lords in human vesture
In the body and the blood
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food..."
(From the French Carol, "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence")
"The Lord whom the Mother bears and the Lord in the Host
are the same,
and this one Lord has only one thought: to give himself
away, to share his
very substance, in an infinite manner. The Mother
understood this from the
beginning and never bore anything in mind except giving
the Son to the
world." (Adrienne von Speyr)
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph had only one life, one purpose:
To glorify the
Heavenly Father. That is what we also must want.
To achieve it, we
have to enter into union with Mary and Joseph, share
their life—family life,
the intimate interior life of which God alone is the
secret. What
happiness to be called to this life. Our love will
consist in living with Mary and
Joseph on the love of Jesus Eucharistic."
(St. Peter Julian Eymard)
John is the Apostle whom Jesus brought close to Himself
on Holy
Thursday night. At the last Supper, as John reclined
near the Heart of Christ,
he experienced the deep, personal love of the God-Man.
As he rested on
the Savior's breast, he drank from the springs of salvation,
from the
living waters of eternal love that flowed from the Heart
of Christ. From that
moment on, John saw himself as "the one Jesus loved",
the Beloved
Apostle of the Lord. All of the writings of John
are animated with the theme of
the Incarnation—God becoming Man and dwelling among us—whom
we have
"heard", "seen", and "looked upon".
The Eucharist is the continuation of Christ's incarnation
on earth. In
St. John's prologue we understand the beauty and the
meaning of the
Eucharist: "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling
among us, and we have seen
His glory; the glory of an only Son coming from the Father,
filled with
enduring love." John really believed that Jesus
loved him. That is what Jesus
wants everyone to do—to really believe that He loves
us in a deep, personal,
unconditional way in spite of our sins and how many times
we have failed in
the past. John represents each and every one of
us. We are all special in
Christ. Because of the Eucharist, everyone should
see themselves as
"the one Jesus loves" (Jn 20:2). (From the book
Come to Me in the Blessed
Sacrament)
"The Birth of Jesus at Bethlehem is not an event which
can be consigned
to the past. The whole of human history in fact
stands in reference to
Him: our own time and the future of the world are illumined
by His Presence. He
is 'the living one' (Rev 1:18),
'Who is, Who was and Who is to come' (Rev 1:4)." (Pope
John Paul II)
"Our Lord is hidden there, waiting for us to come and
visit him and ask
him or what we want. He is there, in the Sacrament
of his love, sighing
and interceding unceasingly for sinners before God his
Father. He is there
to console us ... See how good he is! He
adapts himself to our
weakness... In heaven where we shall be triumphant
and glorious, we shall see him in
all his glory; if he had appeared before us now in glory,
we should not have
dared to approach him; but he hides himself like one
in prison, saying to us,
'You do not see me, but that does not matter; ask me
for all you want, and I
will grant it you.'" (St. John Vianney)
"The dynamic seed which is the Eucharist has already germinated
in the
mother of God, blossoming into a beauty beyond compare.
Her sinless self now
represents the first fruits of her Son's Parousia.
As the New Eve,
Mary is the dawn of glorious fulfillment for her human
family, her
multitudinous human family. And her maternal heart
yearns to welcome every precious
one of them into the new world of the City of God, the
City of Mary." (Fr.
Richard Foley, S.J.)
In his encyclical to the laity Christifidelis Laici, Pope
John Paul II
repeats the words with which he began his papacy, “Open,
indeed, open
wide the doors to Christ! Open to his saving power!”
Words of Pope John Paul II:
“The Year 2000 will be intensely Eucharistic: in the Sacrament
of the
Eucharist the Savior, who took flesh in Mary's womb twenty
centuries
ago, continues to offer Himself to humanity as the source
of Divine Life,”
(Tertio Millenio Adveniente).
“For 2,000 years, the Church has been the cradle in which
Mary places
Jesus and entrusts Him to the adoration and contemplation
of all peoples.
May the humility of the Bride cause to shine forth still
more brightly the
glory and power of the Eucharist, which she celebrates
and treasures in her
heart.” (Incarnationis Mysterium)
“The best the surest and the most effective way of establishing
everlasting peace on the face of the earth is through
the great power of Perpetual
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament,” December 2, 1981
address when he
began Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in a chapel at
St. Peter’s Basilica in
Rome.
“Take an active, conscientious and responsible part in
the mission of
the Church in this great moment in history made especially
dramatic by
occurring on the threshold of the Third Millennium.”
(Christifidelis Laici)
(The above quotations were taken from the pamphlet "Eucharistic
Evangelization 2000")
"Her [Mary's] motherhood extends beyond view. In
the will of the Son,
she becomes at once mother and maid: sheltering him,
but sheltered in him,
forming him, but formed by him ... When she pronounces
the words: 'Be
it doneto me according to thy word', the Mother conceives
the mystery from
the Trinity, in order to give it to the Son. The
Son gives the word back
to the Trinity by giving everything he has back to the
Father in the Spirit.
Then, after the Father has received it again, it is distributed
to mankind by
means of that extravagant expansioning—the Eucharist
and the Holy Spirit."
(Adrienne von Speyr)
"When the shepherds and Magi came to adore Him, they brought
Him so
much joy with their humble visit to Bethlehem that their
visit has been praised
and retold down through the centuries. God has
never stopped honoring them for
honoring His Son in Bethlehem. So too, your humble
visit to Jesus
today in the Blessed Sacrament brings Him so much joy
that it will be retold for
all eternity and bring the world closer to His promise
of peace on earth.
"We are as privileged in being called to adore Him today
as were Mary,
Joseph, the shepherds and Magi then, because here Jesus
continues His
incarnation on earth. Here Jesus loses His Heart
to us in love. Love
expresses itself to the object of its affection; the
Eucharist is the
continual expression of God’s perfect, unselfish love
for man. The
Word again becomes flesh and dwells among us, veiled
under the Species of
the Sacred Host, where the same Jesus born two thousand
years ago as a
little babe in Bethlehem is truly, really, bodily, and
personally present to
us in this Most Blessed Sacrament."
(From the book Rosary Meditations: Loving Jesus With
the Heart of Mary)
"In choosing to be born for us, God
chose to be known by us. He
therefore reveals himself in this way, in order that
this great
sacrament of his love may not be an occasion for us of
great misunderstanding.
"Today the Magi find, crying in a
manger, the one they have
followed as he shone in the sky. Today the Magi
see clearly, in swaddling clothes,
the one they have long awaited as he lay hidden among
the stars.
"Today the Magi gaze in deep wonder
at what they see: heaven on
earth, earth in heaven, man in God, God in man, one whom
the whole universe
cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body. As
they look, they believe and do
not question, as their symbolic gifts bear witness: incense
for God, gold
for a king, myrrh for one who is to die.
"So the Gentiles, who were the last,
become the first: the faith of
the Magi is the first fruits of the belief in the Gentiles.
"Today Christ enters the Jordan to
wash away the sin of the world.
John himself testifies that this is why he has come:
Behold the Lamb of God,
behold him who takes away the sins of the world.
Today the servant
lays his hand on the Lord, a man lays his hand on God,
John lays his hand on
Christ, not to forgive but to receive forgiveness.
"Today, as the psalmist prophesied:
The voice of the Lord is heard
above the waters. What does the voice say?
This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased.
"Today the Holy Spirit hovers over
the waters in the likeness of a
dove. A dove announced to Noah that the flood had
disappeared from the earth;
so now a dove is to reveal that the world's shipwreck
is at an end for
ever. The sign is no longer an olive-shoot of the
old stock: instead, the
Spirit pours out on Christ's head the full richness of
a new anointing by the
Father, to fulfill what the psalmist had prophesied:
Therefore God,
your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above
your fellows.
"Today Christ works the first of his
signs from heaven by turning
water into wine. But water [mixed with wine] has
still to be changed into
the sacrament of his blood, so that Christ may offer
spiritual drink from
the chalice of his body, to fulfill the psalmist's prophecy:
How excellent
is my chalice, warming my spirit."
(St. Peter Chrysologus)
BE NOT AFRAID!
"Peoples of the entire world
need to hear these words.
Their conscience needs to
grow in the certainty that
Someone exists who holds in His Hands
the destiny of this passing world...
And this Someone is Love—
Love that became Man,
Love crucified and risen,
Love unceasingly present among men.
It is Eucharistic Love."
(Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope)
"The high point of the Jubilee is the encounter with God
the Father,
through Christ the Saviour present in his Church and
in a special way
in the Sacraments. For this reason, the whole Jubilee
journey, prepared
for by pilgrimage, has as its starting point and its
conclusion the
celebration of the Sacraments of Penance and of the Eucharist,
the
paschal mystery of Christ, our peace and our reconciliation:
this is
the transforming encounter which opens us to the gift
of the indulgence for
ourselves and for others." (Pope John Paul II, INCARNATIONIS
MYSTERIUM)
“The Eucharist is the source of the
Christian life because whoever
shares in it receives the motivation and strength to
live as a true Christian.
Christ’s sacrifice on the cross imparts to the believer
the dynamism of
His generous love; the Eucharistic banquet nourishes
the faithful with the
Body and Blood of the divine Lamb sacrificed for us,
and it gives them the
strength to follow in His footsteps.
“The Eucharist is the summit of the
whole Christian life because
the faithful bring to it all their prayers and good works,
their joys and
sufferings. These modest offerings are united to
the perfect sacrifice
of Christ and are thus completely sanctified and lifted
up to God in an
act of perfect worship which brings the faithful into
divine intimacy.”
(Pope John Paul II General audience on the Holy Eucharist
in the life
of the Church, April 8, 1992)
"At Christmas he was born a man; today he is reborn sacramentally.
Then he was born from the Virgin; today he is born in
mystery. When he was
born a man, his mother Mary held him close to her heart;
when he is born in
mystery, God the Father embraces him with his voice when
he says: This is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: listen to him.
The mother caresses the
tender baby on her lap; the Father serves his Son by
his loving testimony.
The mother holds the child for the Magi to adore; the
Father reveals that
his Son is to be worshiped by all the nations."
(St. Maximus of Turin)
The Sacristans of Carmel
St. Therese of Lisieux
Here below our sweet office
Is to prepare for the altar
The bread and wine of the Sacrifice
Which brings "Heaven" to earth!
O supreme mystery, Heaven
Hides in humble bread,
For Heaven is Jesus Himself,
Coming to us each morning.
There are no queens on earth
Who are happier than we.
Our office is a prayer
Which unites us to our Spouse.
This world's greatest honours
Cannot compare
To the deep, celestial peace
Which Jesus lets us savour.
We bring a holy envy
For the work of our hands,
For the little white host
Which is to veil our divine Lamb.
But His love has chosen us.
He is our Spouse, our Friend.
We are also hosts
which Jesus wants to change into Himself.
Sublime mission of the Priest,
You become our mission here below.
Transformed by the Divine Master,
It is He who guides our steps.
We must help the apostles
By our prayers, our love.
Their battlefields are ours.
For them we fight each day.
The hidden God of the tabernacle
Who also hides in our hearts,
O what a miracle! At our voice
Deigns to pardon sinners!
Our happiness and our glory
Is to work for Jesus.
His beautiful Heaven is the ciborium
We want to fill with souls!...
"To cast fire upon the earth—that is
my mission! And how I wish it
were already blazing fiercely! Nothing in the world
can set hearts ablaze
with love for God like the Blessed Sacrament. That
is why this divine bread
has been pictured as a furnace of love. Saint Catherine
of Siena saw
far-reaching flames coming from this furnace of love
and spreading
throughout the world. Seeing this, Catherine simply
could not understand how so
many people could live without loving God.
"My Lord, set me on fire with love
for you. Let me think of
nothing, crave for nothing, yearn for nothing, search
for nothing, but you. How
I wish to be caught up in this scorching fire of love!
How I wish it
would consume every obstacle that blocks my path toward
you! Make my love
for you grow stronger each day of my life." (St.
Alphonsus Liguori)
Of the Blessed Sacrament Saint Bernard has written: "The
divine is
hidden; the human is hidden; love alone is left for all
to see."
"Evangelization for the Eucharist, in the Eucharist and
from theEucharist
..."(Pope John Paul II, Seville, Spain, 1993)
"Farmers everywhere provide bread for all humanity, but
it is Christ
alone who is the bread of life....Even if all the physical
hunger of the
world were satisfied, even if everyone who is hungry
were fed by his or her own
labor or by the generosity of others, the deepest hunger
of man would still
exist....Therefore, I say, Come, all of you, to Christ.
He is the
bread of life. Come to Christ and you will never
be hungry again...."
(Pope John Paul II)
"O how unspeakable is this Sacrament which sets our affections
ablaze
with charity. ... It is the fulfillment of Christ's
Mystical Body." (St.Thomas Aquinas)
"The graces to be won through perpetual adoration are
manifold. At the
personal level, each individual watcher's hour-long vigil
before the
throne of grace strengthens their faith and invigorates
their overall
spiritual life. At the parish level, its benefits
and fruits are commonly seen
in an increased Mass attendance; a fair number of lapsed
parishioners return
to the practice of their faith; Confessions tend to go
up in numbers; marital
and family problems are in not few cases eased, if not
fully solved; and
vocations to the priesthood and religious life often
owe their origins
to this source." (Fr. Richard Foley, S.J.)
"... For everybody, Christ in the Eucharist
is the true Bread to
make them strong. It is the nourishment to make
men heroic, to sustain
martyrs, and to bring strength and peace to souls in
their last agony.
"In the Eucharist, Jesus repeats to
us, who suffer and moan in this
valley of tears, this affectionate summons, 'Come to
Me, all you that
labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you' (Matt
11:28). For certainly,
'The life of man upon earth is a warfare' (Job 7:1).
Moreover, Jesus'
followers 'shall suffer persecution' (cf. II Tim. 3:12;
Matt 5:10) ...
"It is also true that with Jesus 'I
can do all things in Him Who strengthens me'
(Phil. 4:13), for Jesus is 'all' (cf. John 1:3; Col.
1:17)." (Fr.Stephano Manelli, O.F.M.)
"What need I fear? He Who sustains the world is
within me. The Blood
of a God circulates within my veins: Have no fear, O
my soul. The Lord of
the Universe has taken you up into His Arms and wants
you to find rest in
Him." (The Servant of God, Luisa M. Claret de la Touche)
"The Bridegroom would not have his bride lonely while
he was away. He
wanted her to have a companion. And the best companion
he could leave her was
himself in this sacrament." (St. Peter Alcantara)
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