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By Laura Worhacz "Mary lived in the Eucharist. He who truly loves, thinks, desires, acts, rejoices or sorrows in the person loved; he is his natural center. Jesus said, "Abide in Me...Abide in my love... as I abide in my Father's love." (St. Peter Julian Eymard, Eymard Library Vol.7) Dearest Eucharistic Family, Our lives flow out of the Mass! Without the Consecration of the Host there is no life. Without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass there is no Redemption. Without the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ there is no celebration of the Eucharist! Our life, our death and our Resurrection stream out of the Institution of the Holy Eucharist. Mary, who was called by St. Peter Julian Eymard the Mother of Adorers, recognized The Father! Mary first found her life flowing out of the Mass by living in and through her Son, Jesus. Our Lady found the Will of God in her yes to His blessings upon her life. All that came through the Father’s requests were complied with by Mary, thus enabling God's life to live through her. Through the Mass we can live God's way, as children of His creation, to be made one in the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. This is our life, our yes to God's Will by our well-formed conscience. This is our death by our Baptism: to die to oneself and live for Our Lord and each other; God's Will! This is our Resurrection here and now, when we can live in the Eucharistic Mystery by BELIEVING in Miracles, the Miracle of the Eucharist. We are invited to The Eucharistic Miracle we see every day upon the Altar of the Lord! Mary's virtues attained perfect excellence through her life in the Blessed Sacrament. Mary was in Heaven while she walked the earth, blessed by the strength God gave her through His Grace. St. Peter Julian stayed very close to Our Lady and guides us to recognize too her life in Jesus by the words, "Mary lived in the Eucharist. He who truly loves, thinks, desires, acts, rejoices or sorrows in the person loved; he is his natural center." The Graces Our Blessed Mother received are waiting for us in and through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, when Jesus becomes our center. Jesus truly present remains in a humble piece of bread. He directs our hearts to the way of humility, the offering of His humanity; His Life. Our lives flow out of the Mass. There is no other way to Salvation. Jesus Christ came to earth to show us the way to The Father. He lived within the family life for thirty years. He Proclaimed the Kingdom of Heaven to us for three years. He suffered his humanity in the Will of God the Father. Jesus ROSE from the dead so we too may BELIEVE in the HOPE that awaits us in the fullness of the Eternal Love, in the Promise of Our Heavenly Father! Please offer the prayer to Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament having it direct your heart to your consecration promise. Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Blessed are you, Mary exalted daughter of Sion! You are highly favoured and full of grace, for the spirit of God descended upon you. We magnify the Lord and rejoice with you for the gift of the Word made flesh, bread of life and cup of joy. Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, our model of prayer in the cenacle, pray for us that we may become what we receive, the body of Christ your son. Amen By Ivonne Hernandez “Don’t be daunted by the cross. The surest test of love consists in suffering for the loved one, and if God suffered so much for love, the pain we suffer for Him becomes as lovable as love itself.” – St Padre Pio Meditation: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” (Rom 12:15) This instruction from the Apostle St. Paul gives us a way to practice or manifest the command we receive from Jesus, to love our neighbor as ourselves. When one part of our body hurts, let’s say our foot, we feel it, and the rest of the body compensates in some way to continue to function. When those really close to us are hurt, let’s say our children, we feel it, sometimes more than if it was ourselves, and we do whatever we can to help alleviate the pain. We experience compassion. When tragedy hits close to home, and affects our family or friends, their pain is our pain, and we weep with them. As the distance of the relation with the person experiencing pain increases, the level of compassion (usually) decreases. But as Christians we are called to “weep with those who weep”, not only with those we know and love, but with everyone. We need to close the distance between us and remember we are One Body in Christ. But this brings a dilemma. There is always someone weeping. Have you seen the news? The world is full of tragedies and pain and if we focus on that every day, on all the injustices and the pain, we would not be able to get out of bed. The answer to this dilemma is the same answer to every problem we may ever encounter, the Eucharist. We are not called to fix our eyes on the problem, but on the solution. By allowing ourselves to feel the pain of our neighbor, even when they are on the other side of the world, and remember that we are all part of the same Body, we can be moved to compassion, when not only we feel the pain, but we feel moved to do something to alleviate it. It is in this action then that we allow ourselves to be broken and shared for others. It is in the Eucharist that we find the Heart of Jesus, weeping, and we weep with Him. It is here, when our heart opens, that we ask Him to send us, to use us to share the Good News. It is from this Eucharist that we are sent forth to walk with our neighbor in their pain. We are not called to go in the pain to just stay there, but to hold the hand of the other and walk with them towards the light, to bring hope to a broken world. In our union with Christ, we can ask the Holy Spirit what He needs from us today. Sometimes the answer will be to bear our own sufferings patiently, for our own suffering is the school where we learn compassion. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.” (2 Cor 1:3-4) So let us today turn our eyes to our Mother, and ask her to turn her eyes towards us in this valley of tears, mingled with her own sorrowful tears, as she suffered with her Divine Son. We will find encouragement in her Immaculate Heart, and she will always point us to Jesus’ Sacred Heart. In those two hearts that beat as one we will find ourselves comforted. And in those two hearts we will find our neighbor. We will see that he is really not far, but that he is part of us, and we will weep with him. By Laura Worhacz "Mary came to restore the human race, to restore to motherhood that crown of honor and nobility which Eve lost by sin. Satan uncrowned our first mother; Mary reinstates her.... Behold the strong woman, "The Mother" par excellence." (St. Peter Julian Eymard Library Vol. 7) Dearest Eucharistic Family, The PEACE of Jesus Christ, this is the Promise of Our Father! " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid." (John 14:27) St. Peter Julian Eymard, who lived his life close to Mary, tells us that she came to restore the human race. Mary does this by her Fiat, her yes to the Will of God for her life. She trusted completely in her Father. Our childhood must begin in the life of our Heavenly Father. The security of our souls lives in this hope to restore our human dignity to our Divine life in God. Most of us are living in a broken world, broken dreams and promises. We experience our own pains and witness the pains of our loved ones, we look for PEACE. We, like Mary, need to restore the human race, bring back its honor and nobility. We can only enter into this restoration when we find Our relationship with Our Father who calls us like Mary to be the STRONG ONES, to live in His Love and His Will for our lives; to bring witness to the handing over of our wants to His Will for us. Without this restoration we hide like the first fallen parents who could not comply with the Will of God; they hid in shame. We shine forth with Jesus, God's Son who lives in our lives finding Redemption; begging for grace. Grace will bring us to become servants, for the servant is no greater than the Master. We walk with Mary to find Our Eucharistic King. Jesus will teach us the way to HIS PEACE, He will grant us His Divine understanding in every aspect of our lives. Time before the Blessed Sacrament is our restoration in the life of God Our Father. Make it a promise to be with Him for one hour! "And he cometh to his disciples, and findeth them asleep, and he saith to Peter: What? Could you not watch one hour with me?" (Matt 26:40) God's Love is waiting for us through our Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Behold the strong woman, "The Mother" par excellence." Mary , bring us to Jesus! Please offer the prayer to Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament having it direct your heart to your consecration promise. Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Blessed are you, Mary exalted daughter of Sion! You are highly favoured and full of grace, for the spirit of God descended upon you. We magnify the Lord and rejoice with you for the gift of the Word made flesh, bread of life and cup of joy. Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, our model of prayer in the cenacle, pray for us that we may become what we receive, the body of Christ your son. Amen By Ivonne Hernandez "We do not see the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus! But we possess it; it is ours! Do you want to know what is its life? It is divided between His Father and us. This Heart watches over us; while our Savior, enclosed in the frail Host, seems wrapped in impotent sleep, His Heart remains awake. Ego dormio, et Cor meum vigilat. "I sleep, and My Heart watches." It watches over us whether we think of it or not; it knows no rest; it pleads with the Father to forgive us. Jesus shields us with His Heart and wards off the blows of Divine wrath provoked by our repeated offenses. His Heart is there, as on the Cross, opened and letting flow upon our heads torrents of grace and love. It is there to defend us against our enemies, just is a mother to save her child from danger presses it to her heart so that one cannot strike the child unless he strikes the mother first. "And even if a mother could forget her child," Jesus tells us, "I will never forsake you.”" [1] - St Peter Julian Eymard Meditation: In the Gospel of Mark we hear the story of the time Jesus and His disciples were on a boat and wind and waves crashed against it. “Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?””(Mk 38-40) This story seems to continuously manifest in my life, as in the movie “Groundhog Day”. Time and time again, when a storm comes into my life, I look around for Jesus and panic. And without fail, He always comes to my rescue, and patiently says to me, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” Obviously, I do not have enough faith yet, not even the size of a mustard seed. “And the apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’” (Lk 17:5) This prayer needs to be on our lips and in our hearts every day. We can not give ourselves faith. It is a gift from God. This beautiful reality keeps us in a place of humility and complete dependence upon God. Every time God allows a storm to rock the boat of our lives, it is an opportunity to grow in faith. We ask again and again, and we receive again and again, until hopefully one day we can say with St Therese of Liseux: "To live of love, it is when Jesus sleeps To sleep near Him, though stormy waves beat nigh. Deem not I shall awake Him! On these deeps Peace reigns, like that the Blessed know on high. To Hope, the voyage seems one little day; Faith’s hand shall soon the veil between remove; ’Tis Charity that swells my sail always. I live of love!" [2] Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament reminds us, "I sleep, and My Heart watches." In the dark stormy days, the light from the Monstrance will be our guide. It is the Promise of the Father, “letting flow upon our heads torrents of grace and love”, saying in a still small voice, “I will never forsake you.” [1] Eymard, St Peter Julian. The Real Presence (pp. 271-272). Veritatis Splendor Publications. Kindle Edition. [2] Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897), Poems of St. Teresa, Carmelite of Lisieux, Boston, Angel Guardian Press, 1907, “To Live of Love”, n. 9 (see the book) |
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AuthorsWe are Ivonne J. Hernandez, Rick Hernandez and Laura Worhacz, Lay Associates of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, and brothers and sisters in Christ. FOLLOW IVONNE ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
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