PRAYER FOR THE SPREAD OF EUCHARISTIC ADORATION

Heavenly Father, increase our faith in the Real Presence of Your Son, Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.  We are obliged to adore Him, to give Him thanks and to make reparation for sins. We need Your peace in our hearts and among nations. We need conversion from our sins and the mercy of Your forgiveness. May we obtain this through prayer and our union with the Eucharistic Lord. Please send down the Holy Spirit upon all peoples to give them love, courage, strength and willingness to respond to the invitation to Eucharistic Adoration. We beseech You to spread exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament in parishes around the world. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.  Amen

]]> http://airmaria.com/2011/11/10/we-adore-you-o-christ/feed/ 0 http://airmaria.com/2011/09/02/a-first-friday-thought-a-eucharistic-holy-hour/ http://airmaria.com/2011/09/02/a-first-friday-thought-a-eucharistic-holy-hour/#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:00:52 +0000 JosephMary http://airmaria.com/?p=20802 Ave Maria Meditations

EUCHARISTIC HOLY HOUR  

The Eucharistic Holy Hour has received the ap­proval of several Popes and is enriched with indulgenc­es. By Apostolic Letter, dated March 30, 1886, Pope Leo XIII allowed the faithful to make their “Holy Hour” on any day and hour of the week.  

Jesus made it clear to St. Margaret Mary that through this devotion, He wishes His faithful friends to become partakers of that “sorrow unto death” which He willed to suffer in the Garden of Olives and to join with Him in the humble prayer which He offered to His Fa­ther at that time. He also wishes the faithful to appease His father’s anger and to ask Him to forgive all sinners.  

It is a noble and sublime deed to keep Our Eu­charistic Lord company while meditating on His bitter Agony and consoling His most Sacred Heart. This is best done at the altar where Jesus is truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist. In His presence we can best console Him for the negligence of men; make known our needs to Him; beg graces and favors from Him ourselves and others; and assure Him of our undying loyalty to Him.  

If we do not hesitate to ask favors of the Saints, all the more we should not hesitate to go directly to the Source of Life Himself, to the Heart of God, to obtain material and spiritual help. He has promised never to turn a deaf ear to our petitions.

Let us be renewed so that we may thus attend the new feast of the new Lamb, for today we shall not be feasting on the flesh and blood of brute animals as the Jews did, but on God himself, on our Lord Jesus Christ who was sacrificed as our Passover. He is our new, completely sufficient, and rich banquet.

This banquet is new because of its nature; it is free from the staleness of sin, which is shown because it imparts its own newness to us if we eat it worthily. It is completely sufficient because Christ was sacrificed as the one true victim offered once for all in place of the many prefigurative and inadequate victims offered over and over in accordance with the Law. For although Christ is sacramentally offered, sacrificed, and broken daily on many altars, he was in fact sacrificed only once as the one true victim, for Christ, having risen from the dead, dies no more. And whereas the many sacrifices of the Jews – their sacrifices for sin, their peace offerings, their votive offerings, their victims – were insufficient, Christ is a sufficient sacrifice for everything and for everyone: to atone for sins, restore peace between God and humankind, win a hearing for human prayers, and overcome enemies.

Finally, this banquet is a rich one because our Lord Jesus Christ is, as it were, “fat” with the fullness of grace, charity, and mercy. He is the fatted calf which the father ordered to be slain when his son returned from the land of unlikeness. So now that we have been invited to this new, bountiful, and rich banquet, let us be careful to do as the wise man says: If you sit at a lavish table, know that you must prepare a sim­ilar one. Since we have been invited to the table of Christ, let us prepare a similar one for him: let us love him as he has loved us, humble ourselves for him as he humbled himself for us, and be ready to die for him as he died for us.

Ralph the Fervent  (+1101) was a priest in the diocese of Poitiers, France.

Fi News #86 – Brother Seagull perched above Procession ( 06min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

This Corpus Christi procession was the 18th year for the friars in New Bedford since 1993.

Ave Maria!

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I love You, O my God! And my only desire is to love You until the last breath of my life.  I love You, O my infinitely loveable
God and I would rather die loving you than live without loving You.

I love You, Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love You eternally…my God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love You, I want my heart to repeat it to you as often as I draw breath.

Saint John Marie Vianney Quotes on The Blessed Virgin Mary

• “To serve the Queen of Heaven is already to reign there, and to live under her commands is more than to govern.”
• “Only after the Last Judgment will Mary get any rest; from now until then, she is much too busy with her children.”
• “Christian wife! Follow in the footsteps of the ideal of all womanhood, the Blessed Mother of God; in joy and in sorrow, she will be your advocate at the throne of her Son.”
• “Jesus Christ, after having given us all he could give, that is to say, the merit of his toils, his sufferings, and bitter death; after having given us his adorable body and blood to be the food of our souls, willed also to give us the most precious thing he had let, which was his holy Mother,”
• “When our hands have touched spices, they give fragrance to all they handle. Let us make our prayers pass through the hands of the Blessed Virgin. She will make them fragrant.” 

 
Saint John Marie Vianney Quotes on The Blessed Sacrament

“We should consider those moments spent before the Blessed Sacrament as the happiest of our lives.”  

• “The soul hungers for God, and nothing but God can satiate it. Therefore He came to dwell on earth and assumed a Body in order that this Body might become the Food of our souls,”
• “When we go before the Blessed Sacrament, let us open our heart; our good God will open His. We shall go to Him; He will come to us; the one to ask, the other to receive. It will be like a breath from one to the other.”
• “The many wonders of creation can only fill us with astonishment and admiration. But when we speak of the most holy Eucharist we can say that here is to be found the miracle of divine love for us…. Has there been, or will there ever be, a nobler or more magnanimous love than that which He has shown us in the sacrament of love?”
• “I throw myself at the foot of the Tabernacle like a dog at the foot of his Master.”
• “If we could comprehend all the good things contained in Holy Communion, nothing more would be wanting to content the heart of man. The miser would run no more after his treasures, or the ambitious after glory; each would shake off the dust of the earth, leave the world, and fly away towards heaven,”
• “All the good works in the world are not equal to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of men; but the Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison for it is but the sacrifice of man to God; but the Mass is the sacrifice of God for man.”
• “Without the Holy Eucharist there would be no happiness in this world; life would be insupportable. When we receive Holy Communion, we receive our joy and our happiness. The good God, wishing to give Himself to us in the Sacrament of His Love, gave us a vast and great desire, which He alone can satisfy. In the presence of this beautiful Sacrament, we are like a person dying of thirst by the side of a river — he would only need to bend his head; like a person still remaining poor, close to a great treasure — he need only stretch out his hand. He who communicates loses himself in God like a drop of water in the ocean. They can no more be separated,”
• “Upon receiving Holy Communion, the Adorable Blood of Jesus Christ really flows in our veins and His Flesh is really blended with ours.”
• “What does Jesus Christ do in the Eucharist? It is God who, as our Savior, offers himself each day for us to his Father’s justice. If you are in difficulties and sorrows, he will comfort and relieve you. If you are sick, he will either cure you or give you strength to suffer so as to merit Heaven. If the devil, the world, and the flesh are making war upon you, he will give you the weapons with which to fight, to resist, and to win victory. If you are poor, he will enrich you with all sorts of riches for time and eternity. Let us open the door of his sacred and adorable Heart, and be wrapped about for an instant by the flames of his love, and we shall see what a God who loves us can do. O my God, who shall be able to comprehend?”
• “When we go before the Blessed Sacrament, let us open our heart; our good God will open His. We shall go to Him; He will come to us; the one to ask, the other to receive. It will be like a breath from one to the other.”
• “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 thereto 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.’”
• “All the good works in the world are not equal to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of men; but the Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison for it is but the sacrifice of man to God; but the Mass is the sacrifice of God for man.”
• “If we could comprehend all the good things contained in Holy Communion, nothing more would be wanting to content the heart of man. The miser would run no more after his treasures, or the ambitious after glory; each would shake off the dust of the earth, leave the world, and fly away towards heaven.”

Ave Maria Meditations

 A Eucharistic Meditation from St. Peter Julian Eymard  (feast day is August 2nd) on the Blessed Sacrament

 THE EXCESS OF LOVE 

WHAT shall we say of the Eucharistic abasement of our Lord Jesus Christ?  To remain with us Jesus Christ exposes Himself to ingratitude and insult.  Nothing disheartens Him.  Let us contemplate this good Savior Whom we ill-treat as we would no one else, and Who nevertheless persists in remaining with us.

I 

Our Lord certainly deserves our gratitude for coming to us and bringing us infinite treasure of grace.  After all, He is king; He is God! What poor or sick man could receive the visit of a grandee of this world, especially of a king, without being moved to gratitude for such condescension?  Envy, and even hatred, yields to the greatness that abases itself. 

Does not our Lord deserve to thanked and loved?  For He does not visit us only in passing; He remains in our midst.  Whether we ask for Him or not, He is there to do us good even without our desiring it. He is the only one not to be thanked for the good He does.  Through His presence in the most Blessed Sacrament He works wonders of char­ity but they are not appreciated; they are not even considered. 

Men consider it a disgrace to be ungrateful; but with regard to our Lord one would think ingratitude were a commandment.  And all this did not dishearten our Lord; He knew it all when He instituted the Eucharist.  He had but one thought: Deliciae meae, “My de­lights are to be with the children of the wretched.”  Love reaches a point where it is so strong that it wants to be with those it loves, even with no hope of return.    

II

Our Lord seems to seek outrages.  He does not take care of His honor.  It is frightful to think of it.  Ah! How terrified we will be on the day of judgment for having lived with so much love at our side and paid no heed to it!  Our Lord, in fact, comes without pomp or majesty.  Upon the altar, beneath the Eucharistic veil our Lord looks like a nondescript that has no longer any being.

Is there need of greater self-abasement?  In order to abase Himself thus, our Lord has to display all His power. He sustains the accidents by a miracle.  He contradicts all the laws of nature in order to humble and abase Himself.  Who could envelop the sun in a cloud thick enough to intercept its light and heat? That would be a very great miracle.  Our Lord performs it in His own Person beneath the Eucharistic Species, which in themselves are so frail and common, He is glorious and luminous; He is God… 

Oh! Let us not put our Lord to shame for His being so lowly and little!   His love has willed it! 

III 

Our Lord could have a whole retinue of visible and armed angels for His protection, but He is unwilling to have it: these angelic armies would frighten us or humiliate us with their faith and their respect.  Our Lord comes alone and abandoned in order to abase Himself the more.  Love never ceases condescending to the one loved. 

IV 

Our Lord denies Himself personal glory in the Most Blessed Sacrament.  He veils His beautiful countenance.  He imposes silence on His divine lips, the lips of the Word, because these things would bring Him honors and would place Him too far above us.  He wants to come down to our level.  Oh! Let us then respect the lowliness of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. 

V 

Our Lord gives Himself without any defense whatever.  He loses His own power of action.  No longer can He complain or flee or call for help.  He has forbidden His angels to help Him or to punish those who insult Him.  We instinctively run to help one who is being attacked or is in danger; but no one will help our Lord.  He is Man and He is God; but He retains only the power to love and to abase Himself.

 VI 

But, Lord, why dost Thou do this?  Why this excess?  (Jesus replies): “I love them; I see them; I am wait­ing for them; I am coming to them; My delights are to be with the wretched.” 

In the meantime people attend to their pleasures, their ambitions, their friends, their business; to everything before our Lord.  He is the last to be attended to, perhaps by way of Viaticum-if there is time for it-is not that enough?  Lord, why dost Thou come to those who do not care for Thee?  Why dost Thou insist on remain­ing with those who reject Thee? 

VII

Who would agree to do what our Lord does:  He institutes His Sacrament to be honored therein by man, and He is more insulted than hon­ored; the bad Christians outnumber the good.

Our Lord is taking in only losses. Why does He keep up this business?  Who would want to run a business at a total loss?

Ah, the Saints who see and understand so much love and abasement must be seized with a holy anger and feel indignant at seeing us so ungrateful!  And the Father says to His Son, “We must put a stop to this; You are getting nothing out of it. Your love is lighted; Your abasements are made nothing of.  You are losing out of it; let us be done with it!”

But Our Lord will not listen.  He stays on; He hopes, He contents Himself with the adoration and love of a few good souls.  Oh! We at least, let us not fail Him.  Does he not deserve by His abasements that we honor and love Him?

Homily #100606t ( 08min) Play – When we look at the Cross we see how much God loved us, and we look at the Holy Eucharist we see how much God LOVES us. Jesus gives us His very self in this Blessed Sacrament and He wants to draw us up into Himself.
Ave Maria! Mass readings

Audio (MP3)

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With each sacramental communion Jesus writes afresh the new law on our hearts. Here we touch upon an important point for the celebra­tion of the Eucharist…To participate in the Eucharist, to communicate with the body and blood of Christ, demands the liturgy of our life, a sharing in the passion of the Servant of God. In this participation our sufferings become “sacrifice” and so we can complete “in [our] flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col. 1:24).

It seems to me that this aspect of Eucharistic devotion has been somewhat obscured in the liturgical movement and that we ought to recover it. In the communion of suffering, sacra­mental communion is actualized; we enter into the riches of the Lord’s mercy, and from this compassion springs up anew the capacity to be merciful from which come the vocations which make mercy their aim and which are lacking today in the Church.

One final observation. If we have at length interpreted the connection between Supper and Cross, we have in fact all the time been speaking also of the Resurrection. Not only are Supper and Cross inseparable: Supper, Cross and Resurrec­tion form the one indivisible Paschal Mystery. The theology of the Cross is the Resurrection; therefore the Resurrection is the divine response and the divine interpretation of the Cross. The theology of the Cross is a paschal theology, a theology of joyous victory even in this valley of tears. We have shown that the Last Supper was the anticipation of the violent death of Jesus, and that the Cross without the Supper, the Supper without the reality of the Cross, would remain void. Now we have to add that the Last Supper also antic­ipates the Resurrection, the certainty that love is stronger than death. This act of love to the last is the transubstanti­ation of death, its radical transformation, the power of the Resurrection already present in the shadow of death.

The Supper without the Cross, the Cross without the Sup­per, would be void, but the two without the Resurrection would be the wreck of hope. The image of the pierced side, fount of water and blood, is also the image of the Resurrec­tion, of love stronger than death. In the Eucharist we receive this love – we receive the medicine of immortality. The Eu­charist guides us to the fount of true life, of invincible life, and shows us where and how true life is to be found – not in riches, not in having. Only if we follow Jesus on the way of His Cross do we find ourselves on the road to life.

Pope Benedict XVI: Journey to Easter