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Solemnity of the
Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
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Father Timothy Mulcahey, LC
Luke 9:11-17
Jesus received the
crowds and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who
needed to be cured. As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached
him and said, "Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding
villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted
place here." He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves."
They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we
ourselves go and buy food for all these people." Now the men there
numbered about five thousand. Then he said to his disciples, "Have them
sit down in groups of (about) fifty." They did so and made them all sit
down. Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to
set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover
fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.
Introductory Prayer:
Oh Sacrament most
holy, oh Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment
thine!
Petition: Lord give me the Bread of Life so that I may
never hunger again. Make me worthy to receive You today and every day of my
life. I want my life to be melted into Yours. Just as bread is made from
wheat grain that dies and is ground into flour to be kneaded into a mass of
dough, shaped, and passed through fire, so I want my life to be part of Yours.
Grant me the grace to receive You often in this sacrament.
1. Give Them Some
Food Yourselves: The Apostles are
incapable of doing what Jesus did for the crowd. They could never meet this
challenge. Christ wants them to feel their helplessness in order to
illustrate his power and his care for the multitude. How often we try to fix
all of life’s problems on our own! We think that we are so powerful until we
come across a great obstacle such as the one facing the apostles. They
wondered in that moment what they could possibly give. We have received so
much from God that we can become spoiled by his gifts. He lovingly has given
us the ability to solve many problems in this life – whether our own or those
of others. But sometimes we are faced with the impossibility of independently
reaching a solution; here we can become proud and disgruntled. We often don’t
know how to put this type of problem in God’s hands.
2. They All Ate and
Were Satisfied: Christ feeds us with
the living bread. No one has a better solution to our problems than Christ.
The Apostles were thinking on a much smaller scale. Anything they could come
up with would be very small and incomplete. Christ has an abundant solution.
He feeds the multitude until they are completely satisfied. There is so much
bread left over that it fills twelve baskets – one for each apostle. Was this
perhaps a personal sign to each of them of Christ’s ability to do what they
couldn’t? One day they would also provide living bread through their
priesthood. It would still come from Christ but would be distributed through
their hands. This gift comes down to our age too. Christ has commissioned
many apostles to provide the living bread to the multitude of the members of
the Church. Today we celebrate this great sacrament as the continuing
presence of Christ among us. He continues to give himself to us as our daily
Bread.
3. Living Bread for
the Living Body: The sequence written
for today’s Mass reminds us of a reality: the Eucharist is food for the
living only. Those who would approach his altar unworthily do not receive his
love but condemnation. It seems odd that this longstanding teaching held
zealously for centuries is so hotly contested today by public figures who,
while giving complete support to intrinsically evil acts (abortion,
euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, etc.), claim to be faithful in
their love to Christ, thus having the “right” to receive Him in Communion. We
need to convert our lives and approach him in the sacrament of penance before
approaching him as the “true bread of his sons and daughters that should
never be given to dogs.”
Conversation with
Christ: Lord Jesus, You
revealed Yourself to Your Apostles through the wonders of Your miraculous
love. Help me to see You with eyes of faith, to know you in the great works You
do for me and for others through me. Teach me as You taught Your Apostles to
unite myself to You in living my life for others. I pray that You may use me
as You used them to touch the lives of many. Help me be humble and confident
in Your presence in the sacrament of the Eucharist.
Resolution: I will visit the Lord in the Eucharist this
week. I will try to spend some time before him in adoration of the Blessed
Sacrament, thanking him for the gift of himself in this sacrament and asking
him to make me his apostle.
Excerpts from the DIARY of
Saint Faustina Kowalska
91 O my Jesus, You alone know what persecutions I suffer,
and this only because I am being faithful to You and following Your orders.
You are my strength; sustain me that I may always carry out what You ask of
me. Of myself I can do nothing, but when You sustain me, all difficulties are
nothing for me. O my Lord, I can see very well that from the time when my
soul first received the capacity to know You, my life has been a continual
struggle which has become increasingly intense.
Every morning during meditation, I prepare myself for the whole day's struggle. Holy Communion assures me that I will win the victory; and so it is. I fear the day when I do not receive Holy Communion. This Bread of t lie Strong gives me all the strength I need to carry on my mission and the courage to do whatever the Lord asks of me. The courage and strength that are in me are not of me, but of Him who lives in me - it is the Eucharist. O my Jesus, the misunderstandings are so great; sometimes, were it not for the Eucharist, I would not have the courage to go any further along the way You have marked out for me.
160 +The crusade day,[54]
which is the fifth of the month, happened to fall on the First Friday of the
month. This was my day for keeping watch before the Lord Jesus. It was my
duty to make amends to the Lord for all offenses and acts of disrespect and
to pray that, on this day, no sacrilege be committed. This day, my spirit was
set aflame with special love for the Eucharist. It seemed to me that I was
transformed into a blazing fire. When I was about to receive Holy Communion,
a second Host fell onto the priest's sleeve, and I did not know which host I
was to receive. After I had hesitated for a moment, the priest made an
impatient gesture with his hand to tell me I should receive the Host. When I
took the Host he gave me, the other one fell onto my hands. The priest went
along the altar rail to distribute Communion, and I held the Lord Jesus in my
hands all that time. When the priest approached me again, I raised the Host
for him to put it back into the chalice, because when I had first received
Jesus I could not speak before consuming the Host, and so could not tell him
that the other had fallen. But while I was holding the Host in my hand, I
felt such a power of love that for the rest of the day I could neither eat
nor come to my senses. I heard these words from the Host: I desired to
rest in your hands, not only in your heart. And at that moment I saw the
little Jesus. But when the priest approached, I saw once again only the Host.
God and
Souls. An Act of Oblation.
309 Before heaven and earth, before all the choirs of Angels, before the Most Holy Virgin Mary, before all the Powers of heaven, I declare to the One Triune God that today, in union with Jesus Christ, Redeemer of souls, I make a voluntary offering of myself for the conversion of sinners, especially for those souls who have lost hope in God's mercy. This offering consists in my accepting, with total subjection to God's will, all the sufferings, fears and terrors with which sinners are filled. In return, I give them all the consolations which my soul receives from my communion with God. In a word, I offer everything for them: Holy Masses, Holy Communions, penances, mortifications, prayers. I do not fear the blows, blows of divine justice, because I am united with Jesus. O my God, in this way I want to make amends to You for the souls that do not trust in Your goodness. I hope against all hope in the ocean of Your mercy. My Lord and my God, my portion-my portion forever, I do not base this act of oblation on my own strength, but on the strength that flows from the merits of Jesus Christ. I will daily repeat this act of self-oblation by pronouncing the following prayer which You yourself have taught me, Jesus: "O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a Fount of Mercy for us, I trust in You!" S. M. Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament Holy Thursday, during Holy Mass, March 29, 1934.
+New Year 1935
360 Jesus likes to intervene in the smallest details of our life, and He often fulfills secret wishes of mine that I sometimes hide from Him, although I know that from Him nothing can be hidden. There is a custom among us of drawing by lot, on New Year's Day, special Patrons for ourselves for the whole year. In the morning during meditation, there arose within me a secret desire that the Eucharistic Jesus be my special Patron for this year also, as in the past. But, hiding this desire from my Beloved, I spoke to Him about everything else but that. When we came to refectory for breakfast, we blessed ourselves and began drawing our patrons. When I approached the holy cards on which the names of the patrons were written, without hesitation I took one, but I didn't read the name immediately as I wanted to mortify myself for a few minutes. Suddenly, I heard a voice in my soul: I am your patron. Read. I looked at once at the inscription and read, "Patron for the Year 1935-the Most Blessed Eucharist." My heart leapt with joy, and I slipped quietly away from the sisters and went for a short visit before the Blessed Sacrament, where I poured out my heart. But Jesus sweetly admonished me that I should be at that moment together with the sisters. I went immediately in obedience to the rule.
385
With joy and longing I have pressed my lips to the bitterness of the cup
which I receive each day at Holy Mass. It is the share which Jesus has
allotted to me for each moment, and I will not relinquish it to anyone. I
will comfort the most sweet Eucharistic Heart continuously and will play
harmonious melodies on the strings of my heart. Suffering is the most
harmonious melody of all. I will assiduously search out that which will make
Your Heart rejoice today!
The days of my life are not monotonous. When dark clouds cover the sun, like the eagle I will try to brave the billows and make known to others that the sun is not dying out.
403 Once I
was in the car, I let my heart have its way, and I, too, cried like a baby,
for joy that God was granting our family so many graces, and I became steeped
in a prayer of thanksgiving.
By evening I was already in Warsaw. Firstly, I greeted the Lord of the house [Jesus in the Eucharist], and then I went to greet the whole community.
801
Today, I still managed to pay a short visit to the Lord [in the Eucharist]
before going to bed. My spirit was immersed in Him as in its only treasure.
My heart rested a while near the Heart of my Spouse. I received light as to
how I should behave toward those around me, and then I returned to my
solitude. The doctor is taking good care of me; all those around me are very
kind to me.
1037 + I find
myself so weak that were it not for Holy Communion I would fall continually.
One thing alone sustains me, and that is Holy Communion. From it I draw my
strength; in it is all my comfort. I fear life on days when I do not receive
Holy Communion. I fear my own self. Jesus concealed in the Host is everything
to me. From the tabernacle I draw strength, power, courage and light. Here, I
seek consolation in time of anguish. I would not know how to give glory to
God if I did not have the Eucharist in my heart.
1334 + In the meditation on sin, the Lord gave me to know all the
malice of sin and the ingratitude that is contained in it. I feel within my
soul a great aversion for even the smallest sin. However, the eternal truths
I have been meditating on do not bring even a
shadow of disturbance or unrest into my soul. And although I take
them very much to
heart, my contemplation is not thereby interrupted. In this
contemplation, it is not
transports of the heart that I experience, but a depth of peace and
a wonderful silence.
Although my love is great, I experience an extraordinary
equilibrium. Even receiving the
Eucharist causes no feeling, but brings me to a depth of union where
my love and God's
love are fused together as one.
1393 Jesus, delight
of my soul, Bread of Angels,
My whole being is
plunged in You,
And I live Your
divine life as do the elect in heaven,
And the reality of
this life will not cease, though I be laid in the grave.
Jesus-Eucharist,
Immortal God,
Who dwell in my
heart without cease,
When I possess You,
death itself can do me no harm.
Love tells me that
I will see You at life's end.
Permeated by Your
divine life,
I gaze with
assurance at the heavens thrown open for me,
And death will
shame-facedly go away, empty-handed,
For Your divine
life is contained within my soul.
And although by
Your holy will, O Lord,
Death is to touch
my body,
I want this
dissolution to come as quickly as possible,
For through it I am
entering eternal life.
Jesus-Eucharist,
life of my soul,
You have raised me
up to the eternal spheres,
And this, by Your
agony and death midst terrible tortures.
26 [November 1937].
(Diary of Sister
Faustina Kowalska Notebook-I-91, 160, 309, 360, 385, 403)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-II-801)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-III-1037)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-V-1334, 1393)
http://www.saint-faustina.com/Diary/DMIMS10.shtml
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