By: Laura Worhacz

"Mary was modest in the world. She eagerly sacrificed her privacy and the sweetness of heavenly contemplation in order to go to her cousin Elizabeth, to congratulate her and render her assistance… she gave heed to the call of charity and withdrew when she was no longer needed."  - Saint Peter Julian (Eymard Library Vol. 7, page 60)
 
Dearest Eucharistic Family,

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Ephesians 5:14). In a recent conversation with a dear loved one regarding the suspension of Mass, I heard the words: “My family is very happy watching the Mass on TV from our family room.” Yes, we know that some people cannot come back to church with compromised immune systems and the like. There are those who can come back to Mass and will choose not to. Perhaps it is a lack of knowledge that the Bread of Life that comes down from HEAVEN to the Altar is the flesh of the Son of God. We who have been given the gift to know Jesus Eucharistic have a responsibility to make Him known and loved. “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise” (Ephesians 5:16).

We are living through a special time of grace, one that calls for sacrifice, sacrifice to nurture others into the knowledge of the love of God found in the Eucharist. A drum roll may be necessary, a loud trumpet blast, something that will wake the still baptized life into a flame of hope. Only love can do this. Mary accomplished the waking of the Spirit when she greeted her cousin. The child leapt in Elizabeth’s womb at the sacrifice of Mary.
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Jesus is coming again and there is much to prepare. When we make provisions for a celebration, we make calls, reach out, send invitations, explain the event… To whom more is given still more is expected.  For us, faithful ones of Jesus Christ, Jesus Eucharistic, sacrifice is needed now more than ever to nurture others back into the pews. This time of sacrifice is one for us to learn from one another, a time to love one another. For some a simple response may be, “it is wonderful we have had the opportunity to live-stream and offer a spiritual Communion prayer”, however, receiving Jesus in Holy Communion is for us the greatest gift this side of Heaven. He is the healing of our souls, the life blood of our baptism, the love of our lives. Sharing the love we have for Our Holy Redeemer, our best friend, and the spouse of our soul Christ Jesus, will invite others to His banquet of LOVE. Our Father in Heaven first sacrificed His Son for love of us and Mary shows us this way to Jesus. We follow Christ Jesus and Mary in our sacrificial love for others, we do this in Remembrance of HIM.

By: Laura Worhacz

“He comes to Mary! What! So much ceremony for this unknown maiden! Yes-worldly prestige does not amount to so much, after all, does it? This rather sets at defiance our human standards! We only see things that dazzle; we only put a value on such things as gold and diamonds. But what do things amount to? In the Eternal values they are only fit to trample underfoot like worthless pebbles- hell is paved for such things.” - Saint Peter Julian Eymard (Eymard Library Vol. 7, page 39)
 
Dearest Eucharistic Family,  

In a conversation about spiritual things, someone I love very much said to me this week, “that is not the real world”. This statement came with me in prayer, where I heard God’s voice cry out, “I am with you”, “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). The promise of Our Father in Heaven to send us the Holy Spirit through the life-giving love of Jesus Christ is with us. Our spiritual reality is eternal, this life temporal. 

This Pentecost the gifts of the Holy Spirit seem more profound to me than ever. The real world is our union with Heaven now; it lives in the Eucharist. Saint Paul clearly reminds us that our faith is in vain if it does not live in the resurrection (1 Cor 15:2-4). We are invited to a banquet of love that is fashioned in trust. There is a place in the deep recesses of our being that is affixed to God Our Father by our consent. We hand over all we have to receive God’s compassion and mercy.
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We sing daily, “Our foes press on from every side…” Evil is cast upon the earth, principalities and powers wage war; however, Jesus has won for us eternal life. We are baptized into Christ’s love; this is our spiritual and earthly reality. Living in this world, with the privilege of knowing Heaven now, invites us to peace beyond our human capacities. Just as the blood of the lamb was set over the homes of the Israelites to protect, the place we will live permanently as a member of the household of God is covered now by the Blood of the Lamb of God. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has been cast over our existence. We are loved. Although we cannot control the evil of our world, we can live in the choice of our free will to correspond to the spiritual realities among us. Close your eyes and imagine the angels; picture Jesus and Our Lady preparing your room in the Halls of Heaven. Think of the Holy Spirit flashing flames of fire within your soul and the blood poured out. The winds of Heaven help the spirit fly as the blood of the lamb is continuing to come down.

We truly receive by our belief. The life of the world to come is with us now. During this most turbulent time, more than we could ever have imagined living through, let us cling to the spiritual reality that God is with us. Let us offer our sufferings to the mystery of God’s love, a mystery that is beyond our understanding. Let us docilly fall into the Gifts of the Holy Spirit to go forth and be a living witness to all. Jesus blessed us with in His Passion, Death and Rising.  Compliant to the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, let us live in the spiritual reality on earth as in Heaven, the real world. Through the heart of Mary, we remember to believe in all the Lord asked of her and in her likeness do this in Memory of Jesus.  

By: Laura Worhacz

“She ascended Calvary with Jesus, to die with Him; she came down therefrom with the beloved disciple … Later, she would conduct them to the Eucharistic Cenacle, there to begin her Christian maternity at the foot of the Divine Sacrament.” -  Saint Peter Julian Eymard (Eymard Library, Volume 7, page 96)
 
Dearest Eucharistic Family,

We are blessed to have a mother through Our Lady’s Christian maternity. By Mary receiving the flesh of Christ at the announcement of Gabriel and birthing Jesus into the world, her maternity begins. Mary takes us as mother; she conceived us in the death of Christ; she rose with Jesus to continue to live her divine maternity.
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Through the pandemic outbreak of the coronavirus I have been intensely thinking about the Eucharistic life, especially the daily adorers and communicants since the suspension of Mass. Jesus is with us in His promise to be with us to the consummation of the world. (Matt 28:20). So where is the Lord if we are suspended from the Eucharist? It seems the grace Mary received in her espousal to the Holy Spirit is the same grace we will receive through the life of the Holy Spirit in us. We are one with God; the Holy Spirit enables life in the hearts of the believer through our consent. Our own Christian maternity thus begins.

 Our Lady truly brings us to the Eucharistic Cenacle; her yes is passed to us, her children, through divine maternity. The life of the Holy Spirit will be with us in a magnified way this Pentecost. We prepare for the gifts by remembering them, seeking them, and praying for them. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and the fear of the Lord. Mary’s Eucharistic maternity came forth from her relationship with the Holy Spirit. Mother lead us to the gifts…especially now when the Eucharist is far from reception for many.

It is in our own ascension to Calvary where we find the grace of God dwelling within, for then we call out to God in our longing and desire for peace. We each have a cross to bear this side of Heaven. In our death of self, we rise to God’s life in us. We remember our mother and the way in which she attained her Christian maternity. Mary’s desire is for us, her children, to bring the faith of the resurrection to the next generation, and to find a place of rest in her motherly arms, in her nurturing heart. This is the wisdom she received to guide us to the Eucharistic Cenacle.
 
 

By: Laura Worhacz

“Jesus in the Sacrament lives the same life of love which consumed Him in the days of His mortal life. Mary united with Jesus in prayer, adding thereto the exercise and the merit of the virtues that our Lord in His glorified state can no longer actually practice. Mary, moreover, renewed in the Eucharist all the mysteries of the Savior’s mortal life, perpetuating and renewing her gratitude with ever-increasing fervor.” Saint Peter Julian Eymard (Eymard Library, Volume 7, page 155)

Dearest Eucharistic Family,

We are living a pandemic outbreak of the COVID-19 virus; the death and suffering we are witnessing is beyond our understanding. Our sacramental lives are suspended, yet Jesus is not suspended. Our Baptism births us into the Mystical Body of Christ, and our existence is securely held within the Body of our LORD. The Body of Christ is nourished by the heart of Christ feeding His people. We do this by the Communion we receive, however, during this time, Jesus is feeding us by His beating heart. We are given life by this heart, and the Eucharistic fire of God’s love finds its way to live. In the depths of our souls, in the quiet of our interior, Our Father has created us in His love.

In the above excerpt we read Jesus lives in the Sacrament in the same love of His mortal life. Mary affixed her existence to this love through prayer.  Our Eucharistic lives renew the mysteries of Jesus’ life on earth. Our love for one another is not bound by the suspension of Mass; it is exemplified in a Communion of love that begins with our prayer, union with God like our Mother teaches us. This is reflected in the way we live our everyday lives. There is no suspension of love. Our Eucharistic nourishment at this time is found in what we give away to every person in our lives in the way of self-giving. The Mystical Body of Christ is alive and well in its members. Jesus’ beating heart feeds our life’s breath.

Take some time to sit in the silence; call upon the Holy Spirit to be with you. It is in this spirit of love that Jesus’ breath casts a fire on the earth -- the fire of love. Jesus went through the locked doors to give. His love is descended into the depths of our being. There are no evil forces that can stop the force of graces that are cast upon us by our Savior. As we continue to suffer as a Church within the Mystical Body of Christ, let us live in the joy and hope of our Eucharistic Lord. It is there the Kingdom of Heaven exists -- here and now, in our love, in the beating heart of JESUS CHRIST. 
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By: Laura Worhacz

“He came to earth to manifest His goodness, Let us dwell on it at length when we are at His feet.” - Saint Peter Julian Eymard (Volume 7, page 120)
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Dearest Eucharistic Family,

Tomorrow is Passion Sunday. Let’s take a moment to enter deeply into Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. At every celebration of the Eucharist we proclaim, “Hosanna… blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21:9). During this moment in our Liturgy, for years I have received a grace to close my eyes and see Jesus riding into Jerusalem on an animal, riding into His Passion and Death. Palms waving over Jesus, those present are making a pathway to His Crucifixion. People crying out, begging from the depths of their being to find hope, trust, and the love of God. Holy Week is before us; Jesus weeps, cries out to Our Father, sweats blood. He agonizes looking to see if anyone is awake. He is scourged MERCILESSLY, crowned with thorns, carries the Cross, and dies for the sanctification of our lives. We are called to be made HOLY, “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord…” Now let’s take a moment to enter into our own passion with Jesus.

We are in darkness now, a time in history when the unknown is before us, unprecedented, with the threat of the Corona-virus in our midst. Anxiety and fear have entered so many people’s hearts. Jesus entered Jerusalem knowing it would bring death. Jesus united to Heaven’s love and went through His Passion with His eyes fixed on His Father.  Our prayer will keep us affixed to the security of God’s love. As our faith rises through the Cross, let us imagine ourselves standing next to Our Lady and Saint John as the blood and water pour out of our Savior. The RESURRECTION is with us now and forever. The Eucharist is the FLESH of the Son of God and we are His MYSTICAL BODY. As we look at our loved ones and all those whom we encounter, we are in the Eucharist. Our longing to receive the Sacramental species will be nourished by keeping our senses awake through our love for each other. The heart wells up with intense longing to be together again in our Churches. The Holy Spirit pours out the life-giving water we have received at our baptism as we die and rise in God’s will for our eternal salvation.

The deaths and suffering we are witnessing in all of humanity due to the Covid-19 virus are beyond our comprehension and the mystery is in the unknown. It is through our communion of love that we carry the Cross with the joy of the Gospel. A joy that lives in the HOPE of those who BELIEVE that we are blessed to come in the name of the Lord. Hosanna, we adore you O Christ and we Praise You, for by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world!

“What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?” (John 11:45-56)

“I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Thus the nations shall know that it is I, the LORD, who make Israel holy, when my sanctuary shall be set up among them forever.” (Ezekiel: 37:21-28)
 
 
 

By: Laura Worhacz

Genuine progress: You say that you are not improving? Know that genuine progress consists in doing God’s holy will, in forever plucking up one’s courage, in rising after every fall, and in always saying, “I’ll do better.” -  Saint Peter Julian Eymard (Eymard Library, Volume 6, page 239)

Dearest Eucharistic Family,

“Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:48) Here again we find an invitation from Jesus to enter into His holy life, “be perfect”. In opposition to these words lives a force that is constantly trying to vacuum us into winds of destruction, yet there is a mounting reality that comes from the Altar of God, a place to secure our souls in the Holy Eucharist.
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This Lenten season I asked Jesus to refresh my love for Him. Jesus prayed; He prayed to transmit LIFE from Our Father’s creative love. Jesus’ perfection was formed in His Triune existence. Mary, our mother, was incarnated into this holy place. She lived in the Trinity and espoused herself to the Holy Spirit; her perfections were enabled by this gift. The interior consent to Our Father’s love enfolds us into His gracious will. Our choices to freely love flow out of our reception of Communion. Our trust and security in God’s love will be nourished in our prayer time.

In my younger years I remember a time in life when I felt very far from perfect. God seemed far away.  I knew He was in existence yet could not touch Him. The pure gift we have in the Blessed Sacrament and our grace to know Jesus in this intimate way brings God’s love to us. My imperfections are made ever more present to me now, yet the gift embraced in the Eucharist enables us to take courage.

Saint Peter Julian was proclaimed at his canonization to be “An Outstanding Apostle of the Eucharist”. He lived in the gift of God’s perfections, God’s life, love, and gift of His Son in the Blessed Sacrament. Saint Peter Julian’s counsel to remain in God’s holy will, to take courage and rise when we fall seem like a perfect reminder during this holy season of Lent.  May Jesus make us His holy people, those who strive to be perfect by loving Him ever more -- PERFECT by serving Jesus and thanking Him for His Passionate death that has granted us eternal life.
 

By: Laura Worhacz

“Mary adored the hidden state of Jesus’ Divinity and Humanity in His Sacrament, veiled that man might not attach himself to the glory and beauty of His person, but should go freely to the Divinity of the Word.” - Saint Peter Julian Eymard (Eymard Library, Volume 7, page 129)
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Dearest Eucharistic Family,

In the above excerpt the word hidden seems to be prominent to my thoughts. Saint Peter Julian goes on that we “should go freely to the Divinity of the Word.”  The letter of the law is written on the heart and we are asked to lift up our hearts at every celebration of the Eucharist. In the depths of the heart is the hidden life of God within, the place of our souls where we are in relationship with Jesus, freely.  The Divinity of God reigns in this place and we are made “right and just”.

The Lenten season is almost upon us; Ash Wednesday is this coming week. What is going through our minds to offer to God?  Perhaps our hearts are the place to begin our Lenten offering. Opening up to the Divine life may be an expression of deep soul searching, a place where we see our faults and failures. Releasing the negativity and embracing the positive is transformative. Lord help me to see the good in everything, I mean everything, everything! God is working in all. Jesus has shown us the way to this Divine/Human life. He was tempted; however, He did not sin. Jesus remained hidden in His Father’s love, veiled in the holy will of God. The freedom to choose the good is strengthened by our self-sacrifice. Lent offers us an opportunity to grow in grace, God’s strength.

Today we celebrate the Chair of Saint Peter. We focus not on his martyrdom, but rather on his Seat of Authority. The unity in which St. Peter was called to lead us in is exemplified in his role as Pope.  St. Peter was called to build our Church on the foundation (rock) of his hidden life with Jesus. St. Peter’s relationship with Jesus, his love for Jesus, and his commitment to return charity to Jesus, all formed his leadership. May our Lenten season be blessed by the offering of our hearts and an openness to God’s life in us. Let us be receptive and consciously aware of the Divine life in us as we live in the humanity of our Eucharistic lives -- hidden and then seen!

“I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers” (Lk 22:32).