Devotion for today: The Eucharistic Bread, "a medicine of immortality, an antidote to death"

Here are some excerpts from  John Paul II’s  encyclical letter
ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA (Life from the Eucharist) presented on Holy Thursday, April 17, 2003, to help us realize the power and beauty of the gift of the Eucharist.

Inward union with Christ

The saving efficacy of the sacrifice is fully realized when the Lord's body and blood are received in Communion.

The Eucharistic Sacrifice is intrinsically directed to the inward union of the faithful with Christ through Communion; we receive the very One who offered Himself for us, we receive His body which He gave up for us on the Cross and His blood which He “poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28). We are reminded of His words: “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me will live because of Me” (Jn 6:57).

 Jesus Himself reassures us that this union, which He compares to that of the life of the Trinity, is truly realized. The Eucharist is a true banquet, in which Christ offers Himself as our nourishment. When for the first time Jesus spoke of this food, His listeners were astonished and bewildered, which forced the Master to emphasize the objective truth of His words: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life within you” (Jn 6:53). This is no metaphorical food: “My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed” (Jn 6:55).

Through our Communion in His body and blood, Christ also grants us His Spirit. Saint Ephrem writes: “He called the bread His living body, and He filled it with Himself and His Spirit... He who eats it with faith, eats Fire and Spirit... Take and eat this, all of you, and eat with it the Holy Spirit. For it is truly My body and whoever eats it will have eternal life.”

Foretaste of Heaven

The acclamation of the assembly following the consecration appropriately ends by expressing the eschatological thrust which marks the celebration of the Eucharist (cf. 1 Cor 11:26): “until You come in glory.” The Eucharist is a straining towards the goal, a foretaste of the fullness of joy promised by Christ (cf. Jn 15:11); it is in some way the anticipation of heaven, the “pledge of future glory.” In the Eucharist, everything speaks of confident waiting “in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Those who feed on Christ in the Eucharist need not wait until the hereafter to receive eternal life: they already possess it on earth, as the first-fruits of a future fullness which will embrace man in his totality. For in the Eucharist we also receive the pledge of our bodily resurrection at the end of the world: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:54).

This pledge of the future resurrection comes from the fact that the flesh of the Son of Man, given as food, is His body in its glorious state after the resurrection. With the Eucharist we digest, as it were, the “secret” of the resurrection. For this reason Saint Ignatius of Antioch rightly defined the Eucharistic Bread as “a medicine of immortality, an antidote to death.”

Devotion for today: The Holy Eucharist: font of energy to live in Freedom

John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

 

At this point in the Mass the faithful are called to come forward and receive the body of Christ. Here we have a moment in our lives unsurpassed by any other. We received Christ into our bodies. We should never let the gloriousness of this moment pass us by. Our approach to the altar should be with deep reverence and awe. We should be clean of heart and mind, and concentrating on one thing only, the reception of the host. This reception will give us the power we need to become Christ to others, for once Christ enters us, we should radiate Him!

The Holy Eucharist is the font of energy to live in freedom, to love as Christ loves, purely and selflessly.

Pope Benedict XVI refers us to his encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est, in which he reminded us that participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice necessarily issues in a daily life marked by “the concrete practice of love”.

…It is our intimacy with the Lord in the Holy Eucharist which, at one and the same time, makes us conscious of our own sinfulness and inflames our desire to live always in Christ and, therefore, to love as He loves.

To help us understand the moral transformation which heartfelt participation in the Holy Eucharist brings about, Pope Benedict XVI refers us to the story of Zacchaeus (Lk 19:1-10). When Zacchaeus met our Lord he was at once moved to confess his sinfulness, to make superabundant restitution for what he had stolen, and to provide from his substance for the poor. Our Holy Father concludes: “The moral urgency born of welcoming Jesus into our lives is the fruit of gratitude for having experienced the Lord’s unmerited closeness.”

Pope Benedict XVI concludes his presentation on the moral transformation worked by the Holy Eucharist by reflecting on the public nature of our Eucharistic worship, that is, its “consequences for our relationships with others”. Receiving Holy Communion is never a merely private act. Because of our public communion with Christ in the Holy Eucharist, others rightly expect Christ-like living from us.

 

 If we receive Holy Communion and then think, speak and act in a way which betrays Christ, then we give scandal to others. We lead them to think that it is all right to receive Christ into our souls and, at the same time, to ignore or contradict His teaching by the way we live. We deceive them regarding the holiness of the Most Blessed Sacrament and its involvement in every aspect of our being and life.

Participation in the Holy Eucharist demands that all of us give witness to the truth and love which Christ teaches us. (Cardinal Raymond Burke, http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/2012/08/16/how-the-eucharist-can-change-your-life/)

 

Sweet Sacrament, We Thee Adore

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 and thought?

Sweet Sacrament, we thee adore:
Oh, make us love the more and more.

Had I but Mary’s sinless heart
to love thee with, my dearest King.
Oh, with what bursts of fervent praise
thy goodness, Jesus, would I sing.

Sweet Sacrament, we thee adore:
Oh, make us love the more and more.

Ah, see! Within a creature’s hand
the vast Creator deigns to be,
reposing, infant-like, as though
on Joseph’s arm, on Mary’s knee.

Sweet Sacrament, we thee adore:
Oh, make us love the more and more.

Thy body, soul, and Godhead, all;
O mystery of love divine!
I cannot compass all I have,
for all thou hast and art are mine;

Sweet Sacrament, we thee adore:
Oh, make us love the more and more.

Come now ye angels to our aid,
sound, sound God’s praises higher still;
‘tis God, whose power created us,
and in whose praise creation thrills.

Sweet Sacrament, we thee adore:
Oh, make us love the more and more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL6zvsRxpMo

 

 

 



Devotion for today: But only say the word…

Yesterday we took a look at the very powerful statement of faith we make to God before we approach the altar for Holy Communion. We proclaim our belief that with one word, God can take our unworthy souls and forgive our transgressions. We only need to ask. The centurion was not too proud to ask Jesus for healing for his servant, and we cannot be too proud to do the same for our souls. Once we ask for this healing, then God has great things in store for us. Take a look at what he revealed to St. Faustina, the “Divine Mercy Saint”, and what Blessed John Paul II, the Divine Mercy Pope, told us.

Matthew 8:5-8: When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.

Matthew 7:7-8: Ask and it will be given you… for everyone who asks receives”

All selections are taken from the Diary of St. Faustina

“Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion. (337)

 No soul that has called upon My mercy has been disappointed. (339)

Encourage the souls with whom you come in contact to trust in My infinite mercy. Oh, how I love those souls who have complete confidence in Me – I will do everything for them. (342)

I desire that the whole world know My infinite mercy. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy. (344)

I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain within itself, but radiates them to other souls. (345)

 I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion (1146).

Beg for mercy for the whole world (570).

No soul that has called upon My mercy has ever been disappointed (1541).

August 18, 2002: John Paul II's Homily During Beatification of 4 Apostles of Mercy

Brothers and Sisters, today I repeat this invitation: open yourselves to God's greatest gift, to his love that, through the Cross of Christ, has revealed itself to the world as merciful love. Today, living in different times, at the dawn of the new century and millennium, continue to be "ready to bear witness to the cause of man." Today, with all my strength, I beseech the sons and daughters of the Church, and all people of good will: never, ever separate "the cause of man" from the love of God. Help modern men and women to experience God’s merciful love! This love, in its splendor and warmth, will save humanity!