Eucharistic Reflections

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23rd August

Year of the Eucharist.
The Heart at Rest.

Ask the beauty of the earth, the beauty of the sea, the beauty of the sky. Question the order of the stars, the sun whose brightness lights the day, the moon whose splendour softens the gloom of night. Ask of the living creatures that move in the waves, that roam the earth, that fly in the heavens.

Question all these and they will answer, 'Yes, we are beautiful'. Their very loveliness is their confession of God: for who made these lovely mutable things, but he who is Himself unchangeable beauty?

Too late have I loved You, O beauty ever ancient ever new, too late have I loved You.

I sought for You abroad, but You were within me though I was far from You. Then You touched me, and I longed for Your peace, and now all my hope is only in Your great mercy.

Give what You command and then command what You will.

You have made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless till it rests in You. Who will grant me to rest content in You? To whome shall I turn for the gift of Your coming into my heart so that I may forget all the wrong I have done, and embrace You alone, my only good.

(Daily readings from St. Augustine - Robert Llewelyn, Templesgate Publication)
 
 

22nd August

Prayer of St. Francis

 

Lord, make me a channel of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is discord, union;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy;

for your mercy and truth's sake.

 

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

tp be consoled as to console,

to be  understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love,

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

it in dying that we are born to eternal life.

 

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Petition

I render thanks to You, O Lord, Holy Father, everlasting God, who has condescended, not for any merits of mine, but of Your great mercy only, to feed me a sinner, You unworthy servant, with the precious Body and Blood of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; and I pray that this holy communion may not be for my judgment and condemnation, but for my pardon and salvation.
Let it be unto me an armour of faith and a shield of good purpose, a riddance of all vices, and a rooting out of all evil desires; an increase of love and patience, of humility and obedience, and of all virtues; a firm defence against the wiles of all my enemies, visible and invisible; a perfect quieting of all my evil impulses, fleshly and spiritual; a cleaving unto you, the one true God; and a blessed consummation of my end when You call.
And I pray that You would bring me, a sinner, to that unspeakable Feast where You, with Your Son and Your holy spirit, are to your holy ones true light, fullness and blessedness, everlasting joy, and perfect happiness. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen

St. Thomas Aquinas.

18th August

Interior Silence
When last you went to communion, what were the dispositions of your heart as the bell tinkled in the sanctuary? Were you waiting for Him like the shepherds of Bethlehem? Were you keeping watch, as they were, over your thoughts, as they over their flocks, so that you are ready for His coming? Or was your heart like the wayside inn, too full of other guests to a give a thought to His miraculous birth?

When we make our preparation for Communion, there should be a silence as of midnight in our hearts; not a feverish activity of aspirations and petitions, but an interior silence that banishes from the mind the busy echoes of its daily preoccupations; those plans we were forming, those grudges we were nursing, those anxieties we were habouring, those fears we were encouraging - well, perhaps, it is too much to ask that we should banish them altogether, but they should be hushed, as men's footsteps are hushed outside the door of a sick-room.

It is in the silence of the heart that we shall hear the whisper, "This is my Body"... the moment at which we receive the Blessed Sacrament is the moment at which He plights His love to us in a supreme manner, making us one with himself.

Ronald A. Knox - The Window in the Wall
 

17th August

Lift Up Your Hearts

It is foolish to deceive oneself: look into your hearts and acknowledge how often useless thoughts get in the way of your prayer. You want to praise God, but you cannot find anything that will restrain your wandering thoughts, so that in all your prayers there is scarcely one that is really prayer.

Only remember that God is gentle and mild and bears with our wandering and waits for us to pray in such a way that He may perfect it. When He gives us that prayer He accepts it and does not remember how badly we have prayed before.... God puts up with prayers that are interrupted by other thoughts.

When you read, God speaks to you; when you pray, you speak to Him.

If this is so, must we despair, thinking that punishment awaits anyone whose mind wanders at his prayers? No! Let us say: "Rejoice the soul of your servant, for to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul". How shall I lift it up? As much as I can with the strength You give me; as much as I am able to keep hold of my wandering thoughts. Because You are mild and gentle You do not cast me off; strengthen me and I shall stand firm, and, until then, bear with me.

(Daily Readings from St. Augustine - Robert Llewelyn, Templegate Publishers).


 

16th August

The Life We Lead

There are three kinds of life - that of repose, that of action, and the one that combines the two. A man may attain to everlasting happiness by leading any of them, as long as he keeps to the faith.

But we must ask the man who seeks the truth in repose what he does for love of his neighbour. He must not give himself up to idle leisure; let him search for the truth, progress in his search, hold fast to what he has learnt and be generous in sharing with others. He who leads an active life must not long for honours and power - he must love the work itself if it is well and profitably done, that is, if it leads to the salvation of those under him.

Let no one be so attached to his own repose that he has no thought for his neighbour, nor on the other hand be so busy that he neglects the contemplation of God. If we are believers, we are walking in the path of faith, and if we keep to it, some of us will arrive at a certain comprehension of the unchanging truth, and at the end will contemplate 'face to face' as the Apostle says.

On the other hand there are those who, while understanding what is meant by things invisible and immutable, refuse to keep to the way that leads to everlasting happiness, the way of Christ crucified. Some rays of heavenly light have reached their souls, but only as it were from a great distance, and they will not reach Christ's hidden mansion of rest.

( Daily Readings from St. Augustine - edited by Robert Llewelyn, Templegate Publishers)

 

 15th August 

Mary Gives Thanks for the For the Favours Given to Her

And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord,
 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
 for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
] according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
Luke 1: 44-52
12th August

Works of Mercy
Two works of mercy set a man free: forgive and you will be forgiven, and give and you will receive.
When we pray, we are all beggars before god: and we stand before the great householder bowed down and weeping, hoping to be given somethng; and that something is God himself.
What does a poor man beg from you? Bread! What do you beg from God? - Christ, who said, 'I am the living bread which came down from heaven".
Do you really want to be forgiven? Then forgive. Do you hope to receive something? Then give to another. And if you want your prayer to fly up to God, thengive it two wings - fasting and almsgiving.
But look carefully at what you do; don't think it is enough to fast if if is only penance for sin, and does not benefit someone else. You deprive yourself of something, but to whom do you give what you do without?
Fast in such a way that you rejoice to see that dinner eaten by another: not grumbling and looking gloomy, giving because the beggar wearies you rather than because you are feeding the hungry.
If you are sad when you give alms, you lose both the bread and merit, because "God loves a cheerful  giver".

(From Daily readings of St. Augustine - Robert Llewelyn, Templegate Publishers)
11th August

Here Today And Gone Tomorrow

Wherever the soul of man turns, unless it turns to You it clasps sorrow to its heart. Even if it clings to what is lovely, if this loveliness is outside God, it has clung to sorrow, for these beautiful things would not exist without You. Like the sun, they rise and set; they have their beginning and then they grow old and die.

Let me praise You for these things, my god who made them all, but do not let the love of them be like glue to fix them to my soul.

In these things there is nowhere to rest, because they do not last, they pass away beyond the reach of our senses. Indeed we cannot lay firm hold on them even when they are with us.
 

In this world one thing passes away, and another takes its place. But does the Word of God pass away? Make your dwelling inHim. Entrust to Him whatever you have, for all you possess is from him. In him is the peace that cannot be disturbed, and He will not withhold Himself from your love if you do not withhold your love from Him

(Readings from St. Augustine  -  Robert Llewelyn, Templegate Publishers)

 

10th August

Martha & Mary

The Lord said "I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one shall take your joy away". Mary prefigured that joy when she sat at the Lord's feet listening to what He said.

She was silent, doing no work, she cleaved to the truth as far as can be in this life, yet it is only a foreshadowing of the joy that will last forever.

Her sister Martha was occupied with work that had to be done, but which, however good and useful, will pass away when we come to eternal rest. So the Lord said -"Mary has chosen the better part which will not be taken from her". He did not say that Martha's work was bad, only that the one which would not be taken away was the better.

For example, the work of looking after the needy will pass away, when there is no more poverty. But it is the transitory good works that will gain us eternal rest. In contemplating God each of us will find all that we desire, for He will be all in all when we see and possess Him; that is why His Holy spirit in our hearts makes us pray -"One thing I have asked, this I have longed for: to dwell forever in the Lord's house and contemplate His love". 

(Daily Readings with St. Augustine - Robert Llewelyn)

 

August 9 - Jesus Remains With Us
Christ remains in our midst not only during the Mass, but also afterwards, under the species reserved in the tabernacle. The Eucharistic worship extends throughout the whole day, without being limited to the celebration of the Sacrifice. He is a God who is near, a God who waits for us, a God who has chosen to remain with us.
When one has faith in the Real Presence, how easy it is to be close to Him, adoring the Love of loves; how easy it is to understand the expressions of love with which, throughout the centuries, Christians have surrounded the Eucharist.
Not only do we receive Christ, but Christ, too, receives each of us. In this Sacrament He accepts (us) always, so to speak; He makes (us) his friend, as He said in the Upper Room: "You are My friends" (Jn. 15:14). This welcome and acceptance of (us) by Christ is an extraordinary favour. (We) feels very deeply the desire to be accepted. All (our) lives turn in this direction, that we may be welcomed and accepted by God; and the Eucharist expresses that sacramentally.
Yet, a person must, as St. Paul says, "examine oneself" (Cor 1Cor11) to be judged worthy of being accepted by Christ. The Eucharist is, in a certain sense, a constant challenge to be accepted, to adapt one's conscience to the demands of divine friendship.
Pope John Paul 11
Eucharistic Cpongress, Peru, 1988
 

8th August - Perseverance

Some of the things our Lord Jesus Christ foretold have come to pass, others we still wait for; they will all happen, whether we believe in them or not; and so, dearly beloved, nourish in your hearts the faith that is yours.
In our fathers' times the blood of the righteous was shed, and from that seed the Church grew up.
The devil then, like a lion, raged openly; mow he is like a wily serpent. We must defeat him as the martyrs did; suffering was their weapon, watchfulness must be ours.
The Church will always be persecuted, whether by the lion or the serpent, and the enemy is more to be feared when he deceives than when he rages. The Christians were pressed to deny Christ - now they are taught to: violence then, snares now.
What shall we do? With his help let us persevere to the end.
Do not be led by unbelievers, or, who are more dangerous, bad Christians. The Church is like a net cast into the sea, which gathers up all kinds of fish and is being pulled towards the shore which is the end of the world.
Separate yourselves from the evil fish; not in body but in heart; not by breaking out of the net, but by changing your way of life; so that when the fish are separated on the shore, yours may not be eternal punishment but eternal life
( Daily Readings from St. Augustine - edited by Robert Llewelyn, Templegate Publishers).                            

 

2nd August    -   Our Lord comes into us sacramentally in order to live there spiritually  - 

St. Peter Julian Eymard   

Fullness of Joy In Your Presence

Lord Jesus, make us your witnesses.
Help us spread Your fragrance everywhere.
Flood our souls with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly
that our whole life may be a witness, a radiance, of Yours.
Shine through us and be so in us
that every soul we come in contact with
may be aware of Your presence in us
Let them look at us and see no longer us,
but only You, Lord Jesus
                                               John Henry Cardinal Newman                                                    

28th July

The Eucharist Enkindles Charity

As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life; and this living charity wipes away venial sins. By giving Himself to us Christ revives our love and enables us to break our disordered attachments to creatures and root ourselves in Him.
(Catechism of the Catholic Church - #1394)
************
By the same charity that it enkindles in us the Eucharist preserves us from future mortal sins. The more we share the life of Christ and progress in His friendship, the more difficult it is to break away from him by mortal sin. The Eucharist is not ordered to the forgiveness of mortal sins; that is proper to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Eucharist is properly the sacrament of those who are in full communion with the Church.
(Ibid. #1395)
*************

The Pledge of Our Resurrection

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, St. Ignatius of antioch rightly defined the Eucharist Bread as "medicine of immortality, an antidote to death".
(Pope John Paul 11 - Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 2003)
 

26th July

If Christ has assured us of the bread and has expressly said "This is My Body", who will then dare to doubt it?  And if Christ has so emphatically said "This is My Blood", who would then make so bold as to doubt this or even to say that it was not His Blood? At Cana in Galilee He once turned water into wine, and now shall He not have the power to turn wine into His own Blood? (St. Cyril of Jerusalem)  (Update 26/7/05)

 

A Conversion of Heart

Too late have I loved You, O ancient Truth! Too late have I loved You, O Beauty ever ancient ever new! And behold You were within, and I was abroad, and there I sought You, and, deformed as I am, ran after those beauties which You have made.

You were with me and I was not with You; those things kept me far from You, which could have no being but in You.

You have called; You have cried out and have pierced my deafness and dispersed my blindness. You have sent forth Your fragrance and I have drawn my breath and pant after you and hunger after you.

I have tasted you and I hunger and thirst after you.  Yu have touched me, and I have burned for your peace.   (St. Augustine of Hippo  -  The Confessions)

Jesus Satisfies All Our Longings

Arouse in the hearts of those under your care, Venerable Brethren, an eager and almost insatiable hunger for Jesus Christ; as a result of your teaching let the altars be thronged with children and adolescents, offering themselves, their innocence and their energetic enthusiasm to the divine Redeemer.

Let married people come in their crowds, so that from the food they receive at the sacred Table they may derive the power to train their children to be like Jesus and to love Him.

Let workers be urged to receive the food that will effectively and unfailingly restore their strength and prepare an everlasting reward in heaven for their labours.

Invite them all, men and women, of every class and degree, and compel them to come in, for this is the Bread of Life of which they all stand in need.  This is the only bread the Church of Christ has at her disposal; a bread to satisfy all the longings of our souls, to unite them slosely to Jesus Christ, to form into 'one body' and one community of brethren all those who sit at the same heavenly Table, so that breaking one bread, they may receive the medicine that gives immortality.

(Pope Pius X11 - Mediator Dei, 1947)  - "I the Lord am With you Always".

Prayer from an Eastern Liturgy

Filled with the deepest awe, let us pray before the altar of God with faith and holiness; with a pure conscience, cleansed by contrition; without hypocrisy or deceit; not with a wavering spirit, lacking in faith, but with upright actions, sincere thoughts, submissive hearts and complete trust.

Filled with charity and fruitful in good works, let us be constant in prayer before the holy altar, and we shall find grace in the day of the God's manifestation and in the second coming of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who is pitiful towards us and redeems us. 

(Armenian Liturgy  - from "I the Lord Am With you always")

"The ministerial priesthood has an integral relationship with the Body of Christ in its twofold and inseparable dimension of Eucharist and Church, of the Eucharistic body and the ecclesial body.  I repeat, therefore, with you dear brothers in the priesthood, the unforgettable words of John Paul II -'The Holy Mass, absolutely, is the centre of my life and of every day"  

(Benedict XVI, in his meeting with the Clergy of Rome ) 

"If the Church is lacking in priests, Jesus is lacking .A community poor in vocations impoverishes the Church. A community rich in vocations enriches the whole Church .

 (Pope John Paul 11, Melbourne, 1988.)

 

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Petition

I render thanks to You, O Lord, Holy Father, Everlasting God, Who has condescended, not for any merits of mine, but of Your great mercy only, to feed me a sinner, Your unworthy servant, with the precious Body and Blood of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ; and I pray that this holy communion may not be for my judgment and condemnation, but for my pardon and salvation.

Let it be for me an armour of faith and a shield of good purpose, a riddance of vices, and a rooting out of all evil desires; an increase of love and patience, of humility and obedience, and of all virtues, a firm defence against the wiles of my enemies, visible and invisible, a perfect quieting of all evil impulses, fleshly and spiritual; a cleaving unto You, the one true God; and a blessed consummation of my end when  You call.

And I pray that You will bring me, a sinner, to that unspeakable feast where You, with Your son and Your holy Spirit, are to Your holy ones true light, fullness and blessedness, everlasting joy and perfect happiness.  Through the same Christ our Lord. 

(St. Thomas Aquinas, from Prayers and Meditations for Eucharistic Adoration)

 8th August - Perseverance

Some of the things our Lord Jesus Christ foretold have come to pass, others we still wait for; they will all happen, whether we believe in them or not; and so, dearly beloved, nourish in your hearts the faith that is yours.
In our faithers' times the blood of the righteous was shed, and from that seed the Church grew up.
The devil then, like a lion, raged openly; mow he is like a wily serpent. We must defeat him as the martyrs did; suffering was their weapon, watchfulness must be ours.
The Church will always be persecuted, whether by the lion or the serpent, and the enemy is more to be feared when he deceives than when he rages. The Christians were pressed to deny Christ - now they are taught to: violence then, snares now.
What shall we do? With his help let us persevere to the end.
Do not be led by unbelievers, or, who are more dangerous, bad Christians. The Church is like a net cast into the sea, which gathers up all kinds of fish and is being pulled towards the shore which is the end of the world.
Deparate yourselves from the evil fish; not in body but in heart; not by breaking out of the net, but by changing your way of life; so that when the fish are separated on the shore, yours may not be eternal punishmeny but eternal life
( Daily Readings from St. Augustine - edited by Robert Llewelyn, Templegate Publishers).