Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament

“Indeed, this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks upon the Son

and believes in Him shall have eternal life.” (John 6:40)

Abiding in the Heart of Christ . . . in the Eucharist

by Sister Mary John, O.C.D.

Jesus, truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, body and blood, soul and divinity  . . . the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Holy Communion, Eucharist as the source and summit of Christian life.

   Theologically, we have the words to help express what we believe as Catholics — that Jesus is truly present in the bread and wine once consecrated by the priest. Having words to articulate our beliefs is especially important for our own understanding and when we are trying to share with others — believers and non-believers alike.

       Yet, when I think about falling in love with the Eucharist — Jesus, it is experiences I have at adoration or receiving the Eucharist at Mass. It is an experience of my heart beating with Heart of the Eucharist. It is an experience of an overwhelming sense of His presence, His peace. It is a yearning or drawing that quickens my feet to go to the chapel or nearby church. It is knowing that what I believe is TRUE — Jesus is truly present with us in the Eucharist. One cannot give these experiences to others to help them move from unbelief to belief or intellectual understanding to reality — but one can live it!

       Our Mother Foundress, Maria Luisa Josefa, lived this. During persecution in the Church in Mexico, churches were closed and tabernacles were empty, but Mother Luisita never lost sight of the reality of Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist. I never tire of this quote from Mother Luisita: ‘Don’t feel alone because you’re not. Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament wants to be your confidant, your friend, your consoler.’ Whether desolation or consolation, the reality remains — Jesus is present in the Holy Eucharist. Go to Him, receive Him, let Him fill your heart with His peace, joy and love.

OUR INDISPENSABLE FRIEND

Who Baptized you, making you a child of God? A Priest. Who, when you sinned, did you go to for the Sacrament of Penance for absolution, making you clean again in Gods sight? A Priest. Who offered Holy Mass and consecrated the bread and wine, that by the power of the Holy Spirit were transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, so that you could be nourished by Him in Holy Communion and consoled by Him always in this Blessed Sacrament? A Priest. Who taught you the articles of faith, preparing you for Confirmation and making you strong in your beliefs? A Priest. Who advised you on family, important relationship matters, and vocational discernment? A Priest. Who when you were ill, disturbed, or discouraged, visited you and counseled you? A Priest. Who encouraged you to sanctity by teaching and preaching? A Priest. Who will be ready to give you the last Sacrament of Anointing when you are sick and dying? A Priest. Who will say your last Mass and the last prayers of Christian Burial over your still body? A Priest. Do we not owe a debt of gratitude to always pray for such a friend? Should we not pray for his well being and forgiveness if he should fail? Should we not pray for Priests and vocations? There is no Holy Mass and no Holy Eucharist without a Priest!

World Day of Prayer for Vocations—April 21, 2024

April is the month of the Resurrection of our Lord

“Once we have seen the love of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, we burn, like Mary Magdalen, to bring all souls with us to His Sacred Heart blazing with love for us. All of the faithful, by virtue of their Baptism, are anointed and commissioned to tell the world that Jesus is here, waiting for us to behold, love, and adore Him in the Sacred Host. God’s wedding gift to man is nothing short of His complete self—infinite and eternal, personal and tangible love. May we drink from the rivers of grace which flow from His Sacred Heart in the most Blessed Sacrament and draw others to His love. May our witness be like the Easter candle, dispelling the darkness with Jesus, the Eucharistic lamb of radiant light.” (Excerpted from the book Bread of Life by Mary Beth Bracy)

Divine Mercy Sunday—April 8:

“You left us Yourself in the Sacrament of the Altar, and You opened wide Your mercy to us. There is no misery that could exhaust You; You have called us all to this fountain of love, to this spring of God’s compassion. Here is the tabernacle of Your mercy, here is the remedy for all our ills.” (St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul, 1747)

Quoted in our A-1 pamphlet “The Eucharist & Divine Mercy.” Order today at www.ACFP2000.com!

The Annunciation of the Lord—April 7:

Since this feast, which is normally on March 25, fell during Holy Week this year it was moved to today’s date. “In an instant the Holy Spirit overshadows her [Mary], making her a living ciborium privileged to bear within herself for nine months the Guest who is the Host of the world.” (Ven. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen)

St. Gemma Galgani, Patroness of students and pharmacists, against temptations, Italy (1878-1903)—April 11:

St. Gemma is called “Gem of the Eucharist” because of her great love of Jesus in the Eucharist. God blessed her with many graces and spiritual gifts. She is also known as the patroness of pharmacists because when she was very sick once she prayed to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and was miraculously healed from her illness. (From the book Stories of the Eucharist, a wonderful gift for First Communion. Available through us.)

Pope St. Julius I, Patron of Hospitality and Travelers, Rome (280-352)—April 12:

St. Julius defended the Divinity of Christ against the Arians Heresy. “Throughout his papacy, Pope Julius I exhibited a profound reverence for the Eucharist, recognizing it as the true body and blood of Christ. He upheld the importance of the sacraments in nourishing the faithful and fostering their spiritual growth. His own participation in the Eucharistic liturgy and his encouragement of the faithful to partake in the sacraments exemplified his deep faith and understanding of their significance.” (Retrieved from saintoftheday.com/st-julius/)

St. Bernadette Soubirous, Lourdes Visionary and Nun, France (1844-1879)—April 16:

St. Bernadette had a great love for the Eucharist. She prepared hard to make her first Holy Communion even though her catechism class was very difficult for her. She once said, “The Eucharist bathes the tormented soul in light and love. Then the soul appreciates these words, ‘Come all you who are sick, I will restore your health.’” St. Bernadette loved Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist, with all her heart. (From a novena to St. Bernadette)

St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Sisters of the Good Shepherd Foundress, France (1796-1868)—April 24:

“To speak of the Blessed Sacrament is to speak of what is most sacred. How often, when we are in a state of distress, those to whom we look for help leave us; or what is worse, add to our affliction by heaping fresh troubles upon us. He is ever there, waiting to help us.” (St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier)

St. Mark the Evangelist, Martyr, Disciple of Peter, Cousin of Barnabas, Patron of Lawyers—April 25:

St. Mark was still a youth at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. Mark’s mother Mary owned the Cenacle room where the early Christians gathered. He was a close companion of St. Peter who baptized and instructed him, and St. Mark wrote the Gospel under St. Peter’s direction. O God, who raised up Saint Mark, your Evangelist, and endowed him with the grace to preach the Gospel, grant, we pray, that we may so profit from his teaching as to follow faithfully in the footsteps of Christ. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin, Doctor of the Church, Patroness of Italy (1347-1380)—April 29:

St. Catherine was a Dominican tertiary and mystically espoused to Christ. Greatly devoted to the Holy Eucharist, she wrote: “O boundless charity! Just as you gave us yourself, wholly God and wholly man, so you left us all of yourself as food so that while we are pilgrims in this life we might not collapse in our weariness but be strengthened by you, heavenly food. O mercenary people! And what has your God left you? He has left you himself, wholly God and wholly man, hidden under the whiteness of this bread. O fire of love! Was it not enough to gift us with creation in your image and likeness, and to create us anew to grace in your Son’s blood, without giving us yourself as food, the whole of divine being, the whole of God? What drove you? Nothing but your charity, mad with love as you are!”

Pope St. Pius V, Patron of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, (1504-1572), Italy—April 30:

Amid his many duties, Pope Pius V spent two periods kneeling in Eucharistic Adoration daily. He promoted devotion to the Holy Rosary which he also prayed in its entirety every day. Additionally, Pius V visited the sick and built hospitals. It is said that the Papal States soon became like a monastery.

May is the month of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

St. Joseph the Worker—Feast, May 1:

“Our great saint has a part to play in the Sacred Mystery which the Church presents to us. It was the bread gained by him that formed, or at least increased, the Blood which was shed on Calvary and which today we receive at the altar. This bread, transformed into the Flesh of the Son of Man, gives us life. The Sacred Host comes to us sweetened by the thought of the guardianship which Saint Joseph exercised over it; and the chalice of the Divine Blood carries with it sacred memories of the sufferings and trials of the carpenter of Nazareth” (Bishop Peter Anastasius Pichenot). Order our St. Joseph prayer card today!

Sts. Philip (c. 4 – c. 80) and James the Lesser (First century BC – c. 62), Apostles—Feast, May 3:

“The next day he decided to go to Galilee, and he found Philip. And Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.’ But Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’” (John 1:43–46) Sts. Philip and James help us to come to Jesus and adore Him in the Blessed Sacrament.

The Ascension of the Lord—Solemnity, May 9:

“In this Mass, the love of the heart of Jesus is fully revealed—his sacrifice once and for all. You sense your own heart being drawn up into the very same desire of Jesus and realize that you, too, thirst for the complete and total communion Jesus promised, ‘that when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself’” (Jn 12:32).

–“The Ascension: The Church, the Body of Christ” from eucharisticrevival.org

St. Damien Joseph of Molokai, Apostle to the Lepers, Belgium (1840-1889)—Feast, May 10:

Born in Belgium, Fr. Damien became a priest in the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and volunteered for the Hawaiian missions. When Fr. Damien arrived at Molokai, he brought the love of Jesus in the Sacred Host to the forgotten suffering lepers. He built a Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel, where the lepers spent hours with Jesus. Damien said: “I find my consolation in my one Companion Who never abandons me.”

The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church—Feast, May 11: With Mary, let us adore Jesus Eucharistic!

“O Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, and our dear Mother! O all ye holy angels, who, by your adoration in our churches, make up for the little love which your God and our Saviour receives from men, obtain for us the grace to comprehend a little the love of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament.” (St. Margaret Mary Alacoque)

Mother’s Day: Honor your Mother, love her, pray for her!—May 12

Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady of Fatima (1917)—Feast, May 13:

Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament “is the title that St. Peter Julian Eymard gave Our Lady to honor her, for as he so often stated, the Blessed Mother was the first and most perfect adorer of Jesus. Our Lady adored Jesus from the very first moment of conception in her womb. She continued her adoration throughout His earthly life. The early Church Fathers wrote that after Jesus ascended into heaven, St. John the beloved Apostle would have provided the Eucharist for Our Lady as he cared for her. Our Lady’s daily communion and adoration united her to Jesus even more intimately than during His years with her at Nazareth.” (From “Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament” by Linda Bracy, contained in our A-13 pamphlet. Order pamphlets, cards, CDs, and posters, of Our Lady through us.)

St. Paschal Baylon, Patron of Eucharistic Congresses, Spain (1540-1592)—Feast, May 17:

“Go to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament with folded hands and say ‘Take my hands, use them as Your hands Lord.’ Go to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament with a closed mouth and listen to Him, whispering to our soul and responding with ‘Yes Lord.’ Go to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament with a fiat and say, ‘Not my will but Your will be done Lord!’” (St. Paschal, Seraph of the Eucharist)

Pentecost Sunday—May 19:

“First, the Holy Spirit teaches us how to pray, since we don’t know how to pray as we ought (Romans 8:26), which helps us to pray the Mass, to adore Jesus on the altar, in the tabernacle and monstrance, and within us in Holy Communion — and with Jesus to praise, thank, beg for mercy, intercede and petition God the Father with the confidence of beloved sons and daughters.” (Fr. Roger Landry, “Pentecost and the Eucharistic Revival”) 

St. Rita of Cascia, Wife, Mother, Nun, Patroness of Impossible Cases, Italy (1381-1457)—May 22:

“How sweet is the moment in which poor humanity, wearied and afflicted, may remain alone, with Jesus alone, in the Sacrament of Love; for there the Lord, with His flaming heart open, calls unto all, ‘You that are burdened and heavy laden, come unto Me and I will refresh you.’ Happy are those hearts that know how to satisfy the unquenchable hunger and thirst in this heavenly banquet! And in truth our Rita had such a heart. So thoroughly was it inflamed with love for the Bread of Angels that the more she partook of that Bread the more she felt new desires to partake of it more often.” (Fr. M. J. Corcoran, OSA).

The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary—Feast, May 31: “Blessed is she who believed” (Lk 1:45)

June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

St. Justin Martyr, Philosopher, Lay apologist, writer (100 – 165)—Feast, June 1:

“This food is called among us Eucharistia [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.” (St. Justin, First Apology, 66)

Corpus Christi, The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ—June 2: Adore Jesus in the Holy Eucharist!:

“We bring Christ, present in the form of the bread, along the streets of our city. We entrust these streets, these houses, our daily lives, to His goodness. May our streets be Jesus’ streets! May our houses be for Him and with Him! May our daily lives be penetrated by His presence. With this gesture we place the suffering of the sick, the solitude of the young and the old, temptations and fears, all our lives, under His gaze. This procession seeks to be a great and public blessing for our city. Christ in person is the divine blessing for the world —may the rays of His blessing extend over us all” (Pope Benedict XVI, Corpus Christi 2005).

The Most Holy Trinity—Solemnity, June 4:

“From the heights of the Trinity, the incarnate Word descends to man in the Eucharist so that through Communion man might rise up to his final end, the adorable Trinity.” (Bernadot)

St. Norbert, Apostle of the Eucharist, Patron of safe childbirth, Germany (1075 – 1134)—Feast, June 6:

“Norbert is known as the Apostle of the Blessed Sacrament and is often portrayed holding a ciborium. This portrayal is fitting because Norbert spent his life promoting devotion to the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist during an age in which this truth was challenged.” (“St. Norbert,” Rose Folsom)

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus—Solemnity, June 7:

“Jesus [in the Holy Eucharist] wishes to save us from our present trials and from discouragement, which is truly the greatest of all evils. We desire particularly to draw your attention to the manifestation of his Sacred Heart, which serious reflection will show us, is not merely a shining revelation but the sweetest encouragement, since in it we can clearly see the beginning of an era of mercy, of tenderness and love for poor humanity” (St. Peter Julian Eymard).

Immaculate Heart of Mary—Feast, June 8:

“No invocation responds better to the immense desire of my Eucharistic Heart to reign in souls than: Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, may your kingdom come through the Immaculate Heart of Mary” (Jesus to Bl. Dina Belanger).

St. Anthony of Padua, Doctor of the Church, Patron of the Poor, Italy (1195-1231)—June 13:

“Delight of the Blessed Virgin, Pray for us. Most chaste youth, Pray for us …Desirous of the salvation of souls, Pray for us. Perpetual adorer of the Holy Eucharist, Pray for us” (Litany).

Sts. John Fisher (1469-1535) and Thomas More (1478-1535), Martyrs, England—June 22:

Devoted to the Eucharist, Sts. John and Thomas gave their lives for Christ and the faith. “Let us with Mary [Magdalene] also sit in devout meditation [with Jesus in the Holy Eucharist], and hearken well what our Savior, being now our guest, will inwardly say unto us” (St. Thomas More).

The Birth of St. John the Baptist—June 24:

 “Lord, may we always recognize with joy the presence of Christ in the Eucharist we celebrate, as John the Baptist hailed the presence of our Saviour in the womb of Mary” (Visitation liturgy).

Sts. Peter and Paul—June 29:

“St. Paul tells us that when he was in Athens he found written on an altar: To the unknown God. But I, alas! might say the contrary to you. I preach to you a God whom you do not adore, and whom you know to be your God. Alas! how many Christians are pressed for time, and only condescend to come for a few short moments to visit their Saviour who burns with the desire to see them near him and to tell them that he loves them, and who wants to load them with blessings” (St. John Vianney).

We wish you a Blessed and Joyous Easter season!