Scripture for meditation: Revelation 3:20
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
Scripture for
reflection: Mark 15:37-38
Jesus breathed a loud cry and breathed his last. The veil
of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
In his book, God is Near Us: The Eucharist, The Heart of
Life (Ignatius Press, 2003) Pope Benedict XVI tells us: Communion and
Adoration do not stand side by side, or even in opposition, but are indivisibly
one. For communicating means entering into fellowship. Communication with
Christ means having fellowship with him. That is why Communion and contemplation
belong together: a person cannot communicate with another person without
knowing him. He must be open for him, see him and hear him. Love or friendship
always carries within it an impulse of reverence, of adoration. Communication
with Christ therefore demands that we gaze on him, allow him to gaze on us,
listen to him, get to know him. Adoration is simply the personal aspect of
Communion….This is at the same time a description of the most profound content
of Eucharistic piety. True Communion can happen only if we hear the voice of
the Lord, if we answer and open the door. Then he will enter in with us and eat
with us….Let us be generous with our time in going to meet him in adoration,
and let our adoration never cease…. The tearing in two of the Temple veil does
not mean that the Temple is now either everywhere or nowhere at all….Rather, (it)
means that henceforth the holy tent of God and the cloud of his presence are
found wherever the mystery of his Body and Blood is celebrated, wherever men
leave off their own activity to enter into fellowship with him….(This) demands
that we lead lives directed toward the New Jerusalem, that we bring the world
into the presence of Jesus Christ and that we purify it for this: that we take
the presence of Jesus Christ into everyday life and thereby transform it.
Prayer: Sweet
Sacrament by Father Frederick William Faber
Jesus, my Lord, my
God, my all!How can I love Thee as I ought?
And how revere this wondrous gift,
So far surpassing hope or thought?
Refrain:
Sweet Sacrament, we Thee adore!
Oh, make us love Thee more and more.
Oh, make us love Thee more and more.
My thoughts: Spending
time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament takes many forms. Maybe you have
5 or 10 minutes to stop into a church and pray before the tabernacle. Some of
us have a regular Eucharistic Holy Hour, where we spend one hour every week in
a Perpetual Adoration Chapel. Adoration can also mean we take time before
receiving communion to praise and adore the host lifted before us as the priest
proclaims, “Behold the Lamb of God. Behold Him who takes away the sins of the
world.” It doesn’t really matter how you do it; it matters that you do it. If you don’t feel like
saying a lot of prayers when you come to spend time with Jesus, that’s fine.
The Holy Father tells us we just need to be with Jesus, to see him and hear him
in our hearts. St. Jean-Marie Vianney, the Cure of Ars once asked one of his
parishioners who spent hours in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, “My good
father, what do you say to our Lord in those long visits you pay Him every
day?” “I say nothing to Him,” was the man’s moving reply; “I look at Him and He
looks at me.”
Our prayer to God: Let’s try to make more time to adore Jesus in
the Blessed Sacrament. We all pass churches along our way; why not get down on
our knees and pray? Sweet Sacrament, we Thee adore; O make us love Thee more
and more.
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