September 14
"How sweet the [Eucharistic] presence of Jesus to the longing, harassed soul! It is instant peace, and balm to every wound."
-St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Today’s Reflection:
Dear Lord, How many times have I experienced the healing balm of Your Presence, both in the Eucharist and through Your Word in Sacred Scripture! Plunge me ever deeper into the Sacred Mysteries, that they may produce abundant fruit in my life. Amen.
September 13
"The assembly should prepare itself to encounter its Lord and to become 'a people well disposed.' The preparation of hearts is the joint work of the Holy Spirit and the assembly, especially of its ministers. The grace of the Holy Spirit seeks to awaken faith, conversion of heart, and adherence to the Father's will. These dispositions are the precondition both for the reception of other graces conferred in the celebration itself and the fruits of new life which the celebration is intended to produce afterward."
-Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1098
Today’s Reflection:
What is the role of the Holy Spirit in preparing us to encounter the Lord through the Sacred Liturgy?
September 12
"O fortunate witnesses to whom the Blessed God, to confound my disbelief, has wished to reveal Himself in this Most Blessed Sacrament and to render Himself visible to our eyes. Come, brethren, and marvel at our God so close to us. Behold the Flesh and Blood of our most beloved Christ."
-Brasilian Monk in 700 A.D. who witnessed the miracle of Lanciano
Today’s Reflection:
"Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." -John 20:29
Most of us will never witness something like the miracle of Lanciano, when the accidents of bread and wine were transformed into real, physical flesh and blood. But at every mass, we witness the hidden miracle of transubstantiation, when the bread and wine is transformed into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. Submit your questions and doubts to the Lord and pray for the gift of a deep and abiding faith that lacks nothing.
September 11
"The Blessed Sacrament is the first and supreme object of our worship. We must preserve in the depths of our hearts a constant uninterrupted adoration of this precious pledge of Divine Love.'"
-St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier
Today’s Reflection:
One way to preserve constant uninterrupted adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is by making spiritual communions throughout the day, turning our hearts and minds toward the Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. One favorite prayer for spiritual communion is as follows:
An Act of Spiritual Communion My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
September 10
"Our sensible appetites, inclined to sensuality and to sloth, need to be vivified by contact with the virginal body of Christ, who endured most frightful sufferings for love of us. We, who are always inclined to pride, to lack of consideration, to forgetfulness of the greatest truths, to spiritual folly, need to be illumined by contact with the sovereignty luminous intellect of the Savior, who is 'the way, the truth, and the life.'"
-Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life
Today’s Reflection:
What do we do if our faith in the Eucharist isn't very alive? Make one resolution today that you will carry through this week to increase your love and devotion.
September 8
"...Fourteen years later, God opened my heart to consider the claims of the Catholic Church. The Church taught that Jesus meant what He said to the Jews in John, Chapter 6: 'Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed' (John 6:53-55). I finally realized that if the Eucharist is Christ, there is no where else on earth to be but the Church our Savior established and for which He gave His life, and through which He gives us His very self -- Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity -- as our Food."
-Rosalind Moss, Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God, O.S.B.
Today’s Reflection:
Rosalind Moss was a Jewish convert to Christianity. Now she is Mother Miriam. How does her account enhance your appreciation of the Holy Eucharist?
September 7
"...We have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharist prayer set down by him...is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus."
-St. Justin Martyr
Today’s Reflection:
St. Justin Martyr is affirming to us that Jesus Christ himself taught us that the Eucharist is his flesh and blood. Our faith in this teaching is a gift. Spend time in gratitude for the gift of the Eucharist and the fact that you embrace this teaching. If you do not believe, ask Our Lord to unveil this gift to you
September 6
"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?"
-Romans 10:14
Today’s Reflection:
Many have never heard the Catholic Church teaching that Jesus is really and truly present in the Eucharist -- body, blood, soul and divinity. This includes many Catholics. Who can share this amazing truth with today?
September 5
"Anyone who approaches this august sacrament with special devotion...experiences how great is the value of communing with Christ...for there is nothing more effective for advancing on the road to holiness.
-Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei
Today’s Reflection:
Consider your preparation time before mass? Is it such that you may receive the Holy Eucharist with special devotion? Are you aware that you are in communion with Christ?
