Day #25: The Eucharist
MARY: Jesus was not content merely to open to you the channels of grace with the Sacraments; he wished to give you himself so that you could live totally by him and in him. At the vigil of his sufferings he wished to leave you a perpetual reminder of love; he took some bread, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying: ?Take this and eat it, this is my Body.? Likewise he took the chalice with wine, blessed it and gave it to his disciples saying: ?Take and drink, this is my Blood.? From that moment the world possessed the greatest marvel: bread transubstantiated into his Body and wine transubstantiated into his Blood! With the Body and with the Blood are also the soul and the divinity, in such a way that when you eat of this bread of life, you receive the whole Jesus as he is now, glorious in heaven.
Jesus did not give himself to you in vain: he comes to you in order to incorporate you into himself, to give you his very life, to supply for your weakness, to sustain your soul. You should not, then, complain uselessly of being destitute of every virtue, but you must go to the banquet of life to be healed of your spiritual sicknesses. Jesus is not upset to see you cold when he sees you humble and constant … He is there precisely to warm your coldness. Don?t put obstacles before him, but offer yourself to him totally and rest in his goodness. Certainly your Communion will not remain fruitless when you go to Jesus with at least a humiliated heart, but you cannot always be aware of the fruitfulness of your Communion.
Alas! Your miseries are so many and you do not know them, but Jesus patiently eliminates a few of them each time. You are not aware of this secret work and you would just like to be conscious of sensible fervor and thus to please yourself. Thus you believe that your Communion is without fruit and that is not true! If Jesus gave you the relish and the fervor without first rooting love in you, you would be a barren soul, a fantasy flame! …
Entrust yourself to him, never back away from him. The more you are in his company, the sooner you will be filled with his life. Don?t satisfy yourself merely with receiving him; go to visit him, prostrate yourself before his glorious throne, implore his blessing, direct your thought to him during the day, desire him spiritually in your heart, pray, pray that he may reign in you.
ASPIRATION: O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine!
LITTLE WORK: Make a Communion of reparation for one who is far from the Holy Eucharist.
About the Meditations
The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary, written by a holy Italian priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.
Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God, pp. 1140ff (cf. Epistolario 1:212n, 218n). This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a ?Way of the Cross? ? But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary. These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ. (90pp. laminated gloss, saddle stitch)
To obtain a copy of A Month with Mary or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy
Ave Maria!
