My Eucharistic Day
Rules And Practices Recommended By Saint Peter Julian Eymard
Dedication And Acknowledgement
Into the hands of Our Immaculate Mother under the title of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament this little work is reverently surrendered. May the Mother of the God-Man, through the Most Blessed Sacrament — the Fruit of her Immaculate Womb, sanctify the souls privileged and predestined to constitute Christ's Mystical Body.
This little work was compiled from the writings of Saint Peter Julian Eymard with the permission and encouragement of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers.
The persons who are directly responsible for the selection and arrangement of this material, in deference to the Majesty of him whom they wish to give first service, ask not to be mentioned by name.
"And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." (Matt. 28, 20)
Contents
Twelve Rules For A Eucharistic Life
Practical Questions For Every Day Of The Week
. . . The Angelus
. . . An Adorer's Daily Life
. . . How To Make A Holy Hour
St. Peter Julian's Eucharistic Method
Jesus The Divine And Perfect Adorer
Suggestions For Conducting A Eucharistic Hour
. . . Act Of Adoration
. . . Act Of Thanksgiving
. . . Act Of Reparation
. . . Act Of Petition
Intentions Recommended To Adorers
Eucharistic Stations Of The Cross
Is it not true that charmed by the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we find ourselves drawn more and more to the Tabernacle where he keeps unceasing vigil, longing to bestow upon us his blessings and graces? Let us then, give ourselves up with all our hearts to the Divine attraction, for in Jesus alone is to be found all light, all strength, all consolation, and Jesus is there near us in his Eucharist.
It is the purpose of this little rule to help those who are dear to the Heart of Jesus, to go to him more regularly and to leave his presence with greater benefits.
It will help you to live a Eucharistic life, and to develop it daily to greater advantage.
We have drawn up these simple rules for all, since Jesus wishes to see all his children gathered about his tabernacle, living by him and in him.
They are within the reach and practice of all.
The young child preparing in his innocent heart a dwelling for Jesus, will learn by them to pray better and to think of his dear Savior more frequently.
The young man or girl wishing to be faithful to the God of their first Communion and to the promises of that great day, will find there in the shelter where their faith and love, perhaps already attacked by the enemy, may be made secure, and faithful souls will learn to live at the feet of Jesus Sacramental and to draw from his Heart the grace to advance rapidly in the way of holiness.
To those assailed by doubt and discouragement, absorbed by material cares and drawn into frivolous pleasures, the practice of these simple rules will be a source of strength; they will find therein the help of him who during his mortal life, commanded the winds and waves, death and Satan, and whose only desire in having his abode amongst us is to assure to us his merciful Heart in his Sacramental Presence in the Tabernacle, and to offer us a sure refuge.
Let us learn to go there to him where his love keeps him in our midst, and let us say to ourselves: If our souls are weak, if our faith is tottering, our prayers tepid, if we need courage, or are wanting in fervor and love, it is because we do not seek for the Remedy, there where it is to be found; that is to say, at the feet of that Jesus who on the roads of Judea healed all ills and who today living and glorified, is as merciful and as powerful as then, awaiting us in the Tabernacle to heal our souls and to strengthen, sanctify, guide and sustain us on the way to heaven.
Let us then, embrace with good will these few, simple and easy practices, and let us not be discouraged if led away by the weakness of our human nature or the cares of business, we may have ill observed these rules, but let us rather return to them on the morrow with greater confidence.
Let us return to them every day and take pleasure in reading them over and over. Let us carry them with us everywhere and constantly renew our desire to be faithful to them.
Above all — and these two points are absolutely essential for any Eucharistic life — never let any day pass without:
Firstly, going (if only in spirit) to lay our soul at the feet of Jesus present in the Tabernacle, to show him our miseries, as a gardener exposes a plant to the rays of the sun.
Secondly, reflecting for an instant in his presence and under his gaze, on the motives, which have induced him to dwell thus in our midst.
Let us beg him to enlighten our souls and make us understand what our true interests are, and what it is that he asks of us.
Then we may be certain that Jesus will bless us with that powerful benediction which has made saints.
Twelve Rules For A Eucharistic Life
First Rule
In the morning, when you wake, go in spirit to the foot of the Tabernacle where during the night, Jesus remained out of love for each one of us.
Make an offering of your day to this gentle Savior, ask him to bless you, to preserve you from all sin and to give you his love.
Second Rule
When beginning your morning prayer, place yourself in spirit before the Tabernacle.
Ask Jesus who is there praying for you, to present your petitions to God the Father, and under his gaze tell, him of your plans for the day, asking him to bless them.
Third Rule
If at all possible, attend Mass every morning. The days when this is impossible choose a moment — preferably after morning prayers — to be present in spirit at the Holy Sacrifice. Go in spirit before the Tabernacle and place yourself in the Heart of Jesus.
Unite yourself to the Masses which are being offered up at that moment — since there is not a minute of the day or night that the Holy Sacrifice is not being offered in some part of the world — and offer Jesus to the Heavenly Father, as a Victim, begging him to pardon in his name, all sinners, particularly yourself, and ask him to enkindle his love in all hearts to increase the number of Saints.
Fourth Rule
Never begin any work or occupation of any kind, never perform any action, nor go out mornings, afternoons or evenings, without having first gone in thought to the Tabernacle, to ask Jesus for his blessings.
Fifth Rule
Before and after your midday and evening meals, withdraw for a moment and kneel down. At least never omit to go at these times in thought, to greet Jesus, whose presence is so much forgotten by so many of our Catholic people. Recall to your mind the thoughts, which have come to you at his feet.
Sixth Rule
Send a loving thought towards the Tabernacle several times a day — for example, when the clock strikes. Tell him how much you wish to love him, ask him to help you, and say the "O Sacrament," etc. or "Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar."
Seventh Rule
Form the habit of a daily visit to the Most Blessed Sacrament even if it should have to be when you are on your way to work, so that at the hour of death, Jesus will in his turn visit you. If time permits, profit by this visit to put in practice the directions of Rule Nine.
If it should happen that you cannot make your usual visit to the Blessed Sacrament, make a spiritual visit before retiring and remain a few minutes in Adoration thinking of him who is in the Tabernacle only because of his great love for you.
Eighth Rule
When you begin your night prayers, place yourself (as in the morning) in spirit before the Tabernacle. Ask Jesus to help you pray; and then under his gaze, humbly examine your conscience. Think that it is Jesus himself who recalls to your memory what you have done during the day.
Ninth Rule
The Most Important Of All
1. Go and place yourself at least in spirit, before the Tabernacle under the gaze of Jesus.
2. Read over one of the questions, which you will find following this Rule.
3. Pause and reflect for a moment, and think of what your answer will be.
4. Then looking with the eyes of your soul at Jesus who knows your thoughts, say to him:
"Lord, make me understand, make me see, speak to my soul. Speak Lord and thy servant shall hear."
Ask the God of the Eucharist to speak to your mind and heart, even as he did to those who came to him when he was on earth, and be careful to keep in your mind the question that formed the subject of your meditation, asking Jesus to fill and penetrate your soul with it.
Tenth Rule
If during the day, some trial or trouble should come to you, go at once in spirit to the Tabernacle and confide it to Jesus. In contradictions speak to him at once, asking him to make you patient. If you should happen to be alone, go in spirit to keep him company. He is so often, abandoned by us, in his Tabernacle. Your own isolation will then seem to you less painful. If you are suffering go and rest your tired head on his Heart, and tell him your trials.
Eleventh Rule
In your thoughts, accustom yourself to stay as constantly as possible under the gaze of Jesus — under this grace, this all-powerful virtue, which comes from the Tabernacle.
Show him your soul, and with you the souls of all dear to you. As the Jews of old brought their sick to him to be healed, so will you go to him, being content to offer him from time to time the following fervent supplication:
"Lord, you know my desires, Lord, heal my soul! Lord, make me see! Lord, make me love you"
Twelfth Rule
Work without ceasing to realize in your thoughts the Real Presence of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Give him your first thought, your first glance when you enter the church. Let him be the center of all that takes place there, prayers or ceremonies, sermons or instructions.
Let all your prayers pass through his lips for he is present in the Sacred Host. Place in his Heart all your good thoughts and wishes. Learn to adore him in his Eucharist that you may know how to adore him in Heaven. Perform all your pious exercises under his gaze, for he is watching you from the Tabernacle. Under his gaze receive the Sacrament of Penance. Have but one desire, to approach the Holy Table daily and strive with all your might to realize your desire. May the Eucharistic God become daily more and more your best Confidant and your most intimate Friend. Pray, work and live in him, by him, with him, in order to live with him for all eternity.
Before The Altar Throne
Who Is There?
Let us remember that he who is in the Host is the God who made us, who has given us everything, who loves us and who alone can understand the secrets of our hearts.
Christ the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who became man, born of the Virgin Mary, is present. The same Jesus Christ still is with us, really, truly and substantially. He will remain with us till the end of the world.
Why Is Jesus There?
Jesus is in the Host because he loves us and could not leave us alone on earth, because he knows our miseries and wishes us to be able always to find therein the Heart of a friend, a Heart that will answer to ours.
What Does Jesus Do In The Host?
He adores his Heavenly Father. He thanks him for all benefits and blessings, makes reparation for our sins and prays for us, and the whole world. Because he loves us, he is thinking of each one of us in particular. He is there hour by hour, preparing for us the graces, which we need. He looks for us; he is waiting for us, ready to welcome us.
What Does Jesus In The Host Wish?
Jesus wishes us to go to Him as we would go to our Father . . . asking him for all that we need with the implicit trust of a child and confiding to him our joys, our wishes, our hopes and fears and the souls dear to us.
What Does Jesus In The Host Wish Us To Remember?
That he loves his Heavenly Father and each one of us. That all earthly things pass quickly . . . worldly positions may be lost, friends disappear, and little by little even our illusions pass, but Jesus remains in the Host, loving us always with the same affection.
What Does Jesus In The Host Teach Us?
Jesus is there to help us to go to Heaven, to find in erty nor misery is a disgrace or a misfortune, that if we possess his friendship and know that we can find him in the consecrated Host, we have found a Pearl of great price, which no man can take from us.
What Does Jesus In The Host Ask Of Us?
Let us not forget that intimacy is born of conformity. That Jesus in the Host is silent, and desires us to be silent in regard to our neighbor and ourselves, and sacrifice for him the thousand useless trivial thoughts.
Who Is There?
In the Host there is the Infant-God who came upon earth for love of us, the same Jesus who worked and suffered for us, who consoled the afflicted, pardoned sinners and did good to all.
Why Is Jesus There?
Jesus is there to help us to go to Heaven, to find in his Presence and his love the assistance we need, to purify us in his Precious Blood in the Holy Sacrifice and to nourish us in Holy Communion.
What Is Jesus Doing In The Host?
Jesus in the Host is praying for us. Every morning he offers himself on the altar for our needs. He asks the Father to have mercy on our sins . . . he intercedes for each one of us and obtains for us all graces, especially that of a happy death.
What Does Jesus In The Host Wish?
Jesus wishes that we should go to him present in the Host (as the Apostles of old went) . . . to ask of him light in times of doubt, and in moments of temptations and danger to find a refuge in his Heart . . . to ask him to teach us to accept his holy Will.
Of What Does Jesus In The Host Remind Us?
He reminds us that the free indulgence of our passions only produces sadness and bitterness, that afflictions are numerous here below, that living in the Host Jesus alone gives the only true joy, and that near him there is no sorrow without hope.
What Does Jesus In The Host Teach Us?
Let us remember that if Jesus labored it was to teach us that labor is a law of expiation, and an obligation to all and not a humiliation, that he who works while thinking of him, present in the Blessed Sacrament, proves his love to Jesus, merits his graces, and will be rewarded by him.
What Does Jesus In The Host Ask Of Us?
Jesus asks us to imitate him in his patience and meekness. He tolerates the indifferent, who pass him by without a salutation, the tepid, who approach him without love, the sacrilegious and those who profane him. For love of him, let us bear with those who weary us, those who are ungrateful, those who hurt or offend us.
Who Is There?
He who is there is the same Jesus who in the Garden of Olives, seeing in advance each one of us, wept for our miseries and suffered for our sins. The God who carrying his Cross, thought of us, and who suffered and died for each one of us.
Why Is Jesus There?
Jesus is there that we may find him who is our help in dangers and temptations. He is there to lift us after we have fallen, to offer us his love, and the courage we need.
What Does Jesus Do In The Host?
Let us remember that for each one of us and at each moment, by his abasement Jesus in the Host offers reparation to the Divine Majesty, for the revolts of our pride by his poverty, for our want of detachment and by his privations for our impatience, our indifference, and our daily faults.
What Does Jesus In The Host Wish?
He wishes that we should go to him like the sick in Judea and show him our soul and all its miseries. That we should abandon ourselves to him, and come and purify ourselves, in the Holy Sacrifice, strengthening ourselves at the Holy Table.
Of What Does Jesus In The Host Remind Us?
He reminds us that our hearts, made for God can have no satisfaction except in him, that we shall be restless until we find him, that he is in the Tabernacle to answer to this need of our hearts, to give himself to us and to bring us peace.
What Does Jesus In The Host Teach Us?
To remember that if he chose to be despised and humiliated, it was to teach us that we are wrong when we seek, above all else, the approbation of man. That what we call honor and respect are of no value before him: all that is needful is to love and serve him.
What Does Jesus In The Host Ask Of Us?
Let us not forget that Jesus accepts the abasement of his Host, the decay of his Temples and the want of care and respect on the part of those who surround him, that we may learn to imitate him by depriving ourselves of unnecessary things, and if he desires it, to accept even the privation of things necessary.
Who Is There?
He who is there is the same Jesus who in the Garden of Olives, seeing in advance each one of us, wept for our miseries and suffered for our sins. The God who carrying his Cross, thought of us, and who suffered and died for each one of us.
Why Is Jesus There?
Jesus is there that we may find him who is our help in dangers and temptations. He is there to lift us after we have fallen, to offer us his love, and the courage we need.
What Does Jesus Do In The Host?
Let us remember that for each one of us and at each moment, by his abasement Jesus in the Host offers reparation to the Divine Majesty, for the revolts of our pride by his poverty, for our want of detachment and by his privations for our impatience, our indifference, and our daily faults.
What Does Jesus In The Host Wish?
He wishes that we should go to him like the sick in Judea and show him our soul and all its miseries. That we should abandon ourselves to him, and come and purify ourselves, in the Holy Sacrifice, strengthening ourselves at the Holy Table.
Of What Does Jesus In The Host Remind Us?
He reminds us that our hearts, made for God can have no satisfaction except in him, that we shall be restless until we find him, that he is in the Tabernacle to answer to this need of our hearts, to give himself to us and to bring us peace.
What Does Jesus In The Host Teach Us?
To remember that if he chose to be despised and humiliated, it was to teach us that we are wrong when we seek, above all else, the approbation of man. That what we call honor and respect are of no value before him: all that is needful is to love and serve him.
What Does Jesus In The Host Ask Of Us?
Let us not forget that Jesus accepts the abasement of his Host, the decay of his Temples and the want of care and respect on the part of those who surround him, that we may learn to imitate him by depriving ourselves of unnecessary things, and if he desires it, to accept even the privation of things necessary.
The Desires Of Our Eucharistic Lord
"I Long To Be Loved By Men"
By his Presence among us at all times, Jesus restores to us the joys of Paradise. He permits us to speak familiarly with him, to find him whenever we desire and to remain near him as long as we wish.
Three centuries ago our Lord drew aside the veil, which hides him from us, in favor of one of his most humble servants. Our Lord showed himself to St. Margaret Mary, kneeling before the Tabernacle, and presented to her his Heart — the Heart which had led him to condemn himself to the annihilation of the Eucharist, in order to be the Friend, the Consoler, the Refuge not only of chosen souls but of all who suffer. Looking through the veil which hid the future, our compassionate Savior saw our souls beset by doubts, overcome by sadness and exhausted by the trials of life, weak and without energy like our bodies, dragging rather than walking along the way to Heaven, and Satan making every effort to have us forget the gentle words which the Divine lips had uttered — "Come unto me all you who labor and I will refresh you." "Come to me who am with you in the Eucharist until the consummation of the world. It is not those who are well but the sick who need the doctor, and I came not only for the just, but for sinners. In the Tabernacle where my love keeps me present day and night, I am still he who would not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax."
Finally, we should realize that it is our misery and sinfulness that gives us a right to go to him, that the most miserable are always the first to be admitted to his Heart and are the objects of his tender solicitude.
He comes to humble and simple souls to remind us all that he is there in the Host and on the altar for us, who have nothing to offer to God, his Father, neither love, fervor nor courage; so it is for us to take and offer him in place of what is wanting in us.
He is there day and night pleading for us, ready to make good our weakness. He protects us from Divine Justice as soon as we take refuge in his Heart and which we should do, like a child who when ashamed, guilty or hurt, seeks refuge in the arms of its mother.
If anything could wound his Heart now, it would not be so much our failures and our daily faults, as our forgetfulness of his merciful tenderness and our want of confidence in his unchangeable love.
No one need be discouraged unless he be ignorant of the sacrifices to which Jesus submitted in order to shut himself up in the Blessed Sacrament, because in this way he could be our Friend and Mediator.
Yet we, to whom he has revealed these mysteries of his love, continue to doubt his infinite tenderness for each one of us . . . his extraordinary desire for our happiness! To doubt, we must never have fixed our gaze on the Host — never in our thoughts counted the humiliation to which our good Master has had to submit in order to remain in the fragile Host submitting to our wills and to our mercy.
Oh!, however weak, cowardly and miserable we may be, we cannot refuse him the only reward which he desires and which is to have us throw ourselves into his arms and there abandon our anguish and sorrow.
Can we be ungrateful to the point of inflicting on him the supreme humiliation of doubting the tenderness of his Heart, we the chosen confidants of his love? Such is the misery of our poor nature, for even good Christians may be heard to ask — "Of what use is my life? I do not know how to pray or to do any good."
How mistaken are these souls so dear to Jesus, in thinking they are useless! One moment's reflection would suffice to show them that love and prayer and everything good are within their reach.
Even while they give way to desolation, Jesus concealed in order to belong to them in a more tender and intimate way is waiting for them in the Host, his hands and his Heart filled with the graces which would give them courage and smooth out the difficulties of the way, if only they knew how to go to him.
Christian souls, have you ever meditated on the gentleness, which attracted little children, the sorrowful, and even sinners to Jesus?
Have you ever pictured to yourselves the welcome that Martha, Magdalen, Lazarus, the disciples and friends of Jesus gave their Divine Master? Have you read attentively those pages of the Gospel, which show them surrounding him with tender respect, sweet familiarity and entire confidence?
Why do we not go to him with the same trust, the same loving and respectful familiarity?
Is he not the same Jesus of Judea and Galilee, the same Jesus who showed himself to Magdalen, to Thomas and the others after his Resurrection? He has veiled the rays of his glory in the Blessed Sacrament so as not to frighten us, but is he not always just as indulgent, just as loving; bearing in his sacred hands and feet the marks of his unquenchable love and in his Heart the wound which laid it open to all?
Why, then, do we not recognize him? Why do we seek him in heaven, where he reigns in glory but where we cannot reach him, instead of in the Host, which is so accessible to us?
Plead with him by the tenderness of his Heart to tear from the eyes of our soul the veil of the Sacred Species which conceals him in the Sacrament, crying out like the blind man of Jericho "Lord, grant that I may see!
In the light of faith let us throw ourselves at his feet, and say to him — "I will not leave you till you have blessed me and taught me to know you."
The Friendship Of Our Eucharistic Lord
"I Will Be With You All Days."
Let us remember that near the Host we share the happiness of Mary and Joseph, the Shepherds and the Magi, the Apostles and the Holy Women, since we have the same Jesus with us in the most intimate union, and can speak to him heart to heart as they did.
And now, we recall to you, how, by his Eucharistic Presence among us, our Divine Master wishes to calm our fears and doubts, how he dispels the sad thoughts which the devil all too often suggests, to turn us from the service of God, by inspiring disgust for prayer and Holy Communion. Jesus 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.
We must accustom ourselves to see Jesus in the Host, just as he really is, a living Person with a Heart filled with love and tenderness. A real Person, who loves us, and wishes to have us come to him as to one whom we love above all others. With such reflections, love will be quickly enkindled in our hearts.
How indeed is it possible not to love with all our heart one so gentle, so defenseless and even unable to beg for the respect and love for which he longs and to which he has every right? It is his love for us, which made him choose this helpless condition, this Host, which delivers him to our love as well as to our scorn and neglect.
Let us not complain of our coldness, our distractions and frivolous or evil thoughts, which assail us in our prayers. Why not substitute for our poor, weak prayers those of our Eucharistic God? He is there in the Host, to be not only our Victim and our nourishment but also our Mediator with God the Father.
When you feel yourself incapable of prayer, instead of tiring your mind with useless efforts come to the Tabernacle. There, in your thoughts, lift up Jesus Sacramental to the Heavenly Father and say to him, "In the name of your Son, have pity on me . . . have pity on my loved ones."
Such a prayer will be all-powerful with the Heart of God. There is much virtue in these simple words . . . They are worth the most sublime prayers! These words spoken by the weakest, humblest soul, can obtain all from the Savior.
Did not Jesus promise? — "All whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give to you." . . . The Good Master does not say: "That for which you ask without distractions or . . . with the most tender devotion and sensible fervor." . . . No, he says: "What you ask in my name . . . "
Ah! Believe me, the only truly efficacious prayer is the one that feels its own weakness, and feels it deeply and which does not rest on itself but is united to the Heart of Jesus.
Do we not feel that our poor prayers in themselves are nothing? Even were we angels, could we think that our voices would have any virtue before the Infinite Majesty of God? But if our prayers pass through the Heart and lips of the hidden God of the Host, then they will be no longer the voices of only weak creatures disfigured by original sin ascend to God, but the voice of Jesus which cried to the Heavenly Father from the Cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
What prayer did the Good Master praise? Was it St. Peter's when, in ecstasy he cried out, "Lord, it is good to be here" . . .? No, the prayer which seemed to call forth his admiration was that of the poor pagan woman who brought her daughter to his feet, because she was tormented by a devil . . . that woman who apparently he rebuked but who persisted in spite of all, trusting in that kindness of which she had heard such wonders.
Another prayer praised by our Lord was that of the poor publican who, understanding his wretchedness, profoundly humiliated himself, saying from the depths of his heart, "Lord, have mercy on me a sinner . . ."
The less we trust in ourselves, and the more we trust in the mercy of Jesus, the more we shall touch his Heart. Jesus does not ask for long prayers, beautiful thoughts and well-arranged sentences. He would rather have one word from our hearts, a humble avowal of our helplessness, an appeal to his merciful tenderness, and the surrender of our hearts, our thoughts, our wishes and our will into his hands. Should the voice of Satan whisper, "Of what use is it to stay there before the Host, with your heart cold and your mind distracted, prolonging a prayer which you do not know how to say?," my answer would be to show him the humble plant which is fading at the foot of the altar, the little burning lamp consuming itself before the Host.
How much Jesus loves those souls, who knowing how weak and useless they are, remain peaceful and humble before him, saying. "Here I am, helpless, and useless but at least this hour of my life will be spent before you."
Again, you say, "I do no good . . . I always fall back into the same faults, my life is useless. Why am I not sad?"
Dear Souls, were I not afraid of hurting your feelings I would tell you to be ashamed of such words!
Does not the Blood of Jesus count? — that blood, which is offered up every day on the altar to purify your soul and to which you can unite your intention?
The Sacrificial Offering of Our Eucharistic Lord
"He loved me and delivered himself for me."
We have with us in the Host one whose presence is the unaltering bliss of the angels and the saints. To be with God is the happiness of Heaven. And here I am with him. Like the saints I praise and adore him. Like the blessed who possess him in the Beatific Union, I can possess him by the Eucharistic Union or Holy Communion.
If we only could understand the value of one Mass! The infinite value of this Sacrifice far surpasses our negligences, our miseries and even our faults.
We do not half realize how great a treasure God has placed in our hands or how great is the gift which we can offer him every time we present to him his Son on the altar, regardless of the unworthy creature who makes the offering.
We can renew this offering at all hours and at every moment of the day and night, by uniting ourselves to the priest who in some part of the world has just consecrated; or we can unite ourselves to the Heart of the great High Priest, Jesus, who in the Host offers himself to his Father without ceasing and renders him a homage which is entirely worthy of him.
At God's tribunal many good souls will be surprised to find to their credit so many good works, simply because they knew how to offer them to God the Father through Jesus. This they did regardless of their own merit and with no sensible fervor. They did this at times when it seemed to them that they were wholly undeserving but yet with childlike confidence, and so it will be that a multitude of souls will have been helped, strengthened and saved by this offering of Jesus immolated on the altar. Through him they become purified of those numberless imperfections which so greatly afflicted them on earth, and all because they understood where to go when their discouraged souls needed the Blood of the Lamb. If in addition they have offered up the many trials, sorrows and sacrifices brought to them each hour of the day, hiding and abandoning themselves in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, letting him make amends for their failures as he recommended to St. Margaret Mary then they will see their deeds so defective in themselves, all impregnated with the Precious Blood and clothed with an incomparable value. They will even as the Vilest metals dipped in gold, take on a glittering brilliance, They will see that it was not in vain that they sought refuge in the Divine Heart, that it was not in vain that they abandoned themselves to his infinite mercy. Understanding that they could not not depend on any creature here below and still less on themselves, they came to the Divine Prisoner, crying to him, "Have pity, I have no one but you."
Would we not feel moved by pity if some one came to us in deepest affliction, and said, "You are all I have?" Would we not feel obliged to help? Would we not want to prove that it was not useless to appeal to our heart? How then could it be that the most merciful, the most sympathetic Heart, the Heart of the God who put into our hearts a spark of the abundance of his own pity, could remain insensible to our cry of distress? This would be inconsistent.
If among those who read these words there be anyone suffering from painful, inexplicable feelings which bind the soul, oppressing it and spreading over it profoundest darkness, if there be any one weighted down by weariness or dreadful temptations who feel that they are losing everything — Faith, Love and Hope — that God himself seems to be turning from them, that Heaven is closed to them and that death is in their souls, I implore you, come to the Host. Throw yourself at his feet and cry out to him, "I have none but you, save me by your love and by the Wound of your Heart."
Then abandon yourself to him. Leave your soul in his hands, as the Canaanite woman confided to Christ her daughter who was possessed of an evil spirit . . . In his name I say to you: "No, you will not perish . . . " Never during his mortal life nor in his Sacramental state has Jesus repulsed or abandoned anyone who had recourse to him.
However terrible the state of your soul may seem to you, however unfortunate or even guilty you may feel, do not shy from him, do not lose courage but cling to your Jesus even as a drowning man clings to a rope. Stay near the Host for his Heart is ever watchful. Who can tear you away if you do not wish to leave? Has he not said, that he himself will be your Defender? Remember, his Word has never deceived anyone.
I implore you, do not listen to satan who wishes to drive you away. Stay with Jesus who is there in the Sacred Host, for from him even as in the days of his mortal life, there will come forth that powerful virtue which heals and saves.
It is for you that he is there, for you that He offers his Blood, his Wounds and his Merits. It is when you are there prostrate at his feet, that his Blood flows over your soul, that he covers you with his merits, that he hides you in his Wounds and in his Heart.
If you but understood the gift of God, if you but knew him who waits for you all the day long even as he waited at the well of Jacob for the Samaritan woman you would realize that it is there that he has desired to cover you with his protection and his love, it is there that he wishes to be your Savior and your Friend, it is from there that he will come to you in your last hour if you have gone to him during your life and it is there that he will receive you into his Heart to conduct you to eternal happiness.
May our sweet heavenly Mother obtain for us all the grace to understand more and more the greatness of the Gift of the Eucharist, and may these pages resound to the Glory of her Eucharistic Son.
Examine Your Conscience in the Morning
Under the Eyes of Jesus in the Host
On awakening, make the sign of the cross.
On arising say:
"O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine! All praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine. Blessed be the Holy and Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God."
Adore our Lord as your King who has called you today to work in his amiable service and for his honor and glory. Render him this day the homage of your mind, your heart, your body and your life for he deserves it all.
Thank our Lord for having kept you alive; thank him for all the graces received during your life (baptism, first communion, vocation). Rejoice at the honor and the happiness of spending this whole day in union with our Divine Lord in his Sacrament of love: such a day may be worth an entire life, the whole of Paradise.
Acknowledge your weakness and your defects in your particular vocation. Confess your offenses of yesterday. Detest the power of self-love, the feebleness of your will, the distractions of your mind. Promise our Lord that you will correct your ruling passion; foresee the occasions of relapse and the opportunities of practicing opposite virtues. Remember your resolution for this month and determine for yourself a certain penance in case of failure to keep it.
Ask our Lord for the grace of being more faithful today. Recommend yourself to the Blessed Virgin, to your Guardian Angel and begin work with the help of God's grace.
Consecrate the whole day to our Eucharistic Jesus. Place yourself in spirit, in his presence and humbly adore him on his nearest throne of Perpetual Exposition or in the nearest Tabernacle.
O sweet Jesus, your goodness and your might
Have brought me to this morning's light.
Keep and preserve me every hour,
From sorrow, sin, temptation's power.
Grant me your blessing, Lord, this day,
On all I think and do and say.
Jesus for your help I plead.
Mary for me intercede.
After making this offering, form your intention to gain all the indulgences of the day. Then hasten to the church for your morning prayers, Holy Mass and Communion.
Most holy and adorable Trinity, one God in three Persons, I believe that you are here present; I adore you with the deepest humility and with my whole heart render to you the homage which is due to your sovereign majesty.
Act of Faith
O my God, 1 firmly believe that you are one God in Three Divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe that your Divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because you have revealed them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
O my God, relying on your infinite goodness and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of your grace and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.
Act of Love
O my God, I love you above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because you are all good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me and ask pardon of all whom I have injured.
Say the Our Father, Hail Mary and the Creed.
Adorable Jesus, my Savior and Master, model of all perfection, I resolve and will endeavor this day to imitate your example; to be like you, mild, humble, chaste, zealous, charitable and resigned. I will redouble my efforts that I may not fall this day into any of those sins which I have heretofore committed (here name any besetting sin), and which I sincerely desire to forsake. I have the intention to gain all the indulgences I can in favor of the poor souls in Purgatory.
O my God, you know my poverty and weakness, and that I am unable to do anything good without you; deny me not 0 God, the help of your grace, proportion it to my necessities, give me strength to avoid anything evil which you forbid and to practice the good which you have commanded and enable me to bear patiently all the trials which it may please you to send me.
Morning Offering
O my God, in a spirit of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation and petition I offer you the actions and sufferings of this day in union with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, in order to render to that adorable Heart dwelling among us, the debt of justice and love due to his august Presence, and moreover to offer to your Divine Majesty through him, with him and in him the glory that he himself renders you here on earth. Lastly, I make this offering to obtain by means of that Almighty Mediator peace for the Church, salvation for our country and all the other graces for which we call on you.
Prayer for the Dead
May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.
The Angelus
The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary,
R. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary.
V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord,
R. Be it done unto me according to your word.
Hail Mary.
V. And the Word was made flesh,
R. And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary.
V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray. Pour forth, we beg you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts: that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Regina Coeli
During Eastertide from Holy Saturday till Trinity Sunday, instead of the Angelus the Regina Coeli is recited standing.
Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia:
For he whom you merited to bear, alleluia,
Has risen, as he said, alleluia.
Pray for us to God, alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. Because the Lord is truly risen, alleluia.
Let us pray. O God, who by the Resurrection of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, granted joy to the whole world: grant, we beg you, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, his Mother, we may attain the joys of eternal life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Holy Eucharist is the continuation of the Incarnation. — The Word made Flesh, became the Bread of our soul.
Three times a day, stop a minute to thank God for his wonderful blessing, by saying the Angelus.
An Adorer's Daily Life
When possible begin your day with Holy Mass and Holy Communion.
Remember that Jesus in the Sacred Host is the same God-Man who while on earth toiled and suffered for you. The same Jesus who consoled the afflicted, forgave sinners and was kind to all. To you also going to your various duties, Jesus should be ever present and your actions should be performed under the gaze of our Lord in his Sacrament of Love. If you have received him in the morning, as is expected of you, bring him to whatever place you go, that the Eucharistic influence may pervade all you do and all with whom you come in contact. Offer your work to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
The Eucharistic soul now and again will turn his thoughts in the spirit of faith to the Tabernacle or the Throne of Exposition, and every hour if possible will say the "O Sacrament most Holy." At noon he will keep a few minutes for his examen and give thanks to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, paying him a visit if possible.
How to Make a Holy Hour
The Divine King is ever ready to grant us an audience and to admit our souls to the intimacy of his love.
We come to his Eucharistic Throne to render to him our homage of adoration, receiving in return his blessing and his love, encouragement and strength, light and grace to see and follow his holy will, together with the power to practice virtue and thereby become more like unto the divine Model after whose image we have been made.
"I have given you the example that you may do likewise."
Saint Peter Julian's Eucharistic Method
There are several methods of meditation and all are good, but Saint Eymard suggests one which is truly Eucharistic since it is taken from the four ends of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. It is so simple that any Catholic practicing it, may become competent and progress in sanctity and the spiritual life. It unifies still more our life with the Eucharistic life of our Lord whose purpose in coming into this world, dying on the cross and in continuing the sacrificial act, was really to render to his Heavenly Father, the supreme duty of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation and petition which fallen humanity had failed and still fails, to adequately fulfill.
The four great acts of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation and petition comprise our entire duty towards God, the whole of Christian Life.
First Quarter — Adoration
First adore our Lord in his divine Sacrament by the exterior homage of the body. As soon as you perceive his adorable presence in the sacred Host, genuflect profoundly and with extreme reverence as an evidence of your faith and love. Adore him in union with the Wise Men when prostrating themselves to the earth, they adored the infant God, cradled in a humble manger and wrapped in swaddling-clothes. After this first silent and impulsive act of homage, adore our Lord by an act of faith. This act is needed to awaken the senses and render them susceptible to the influences of devotion. It will open to you the heart of the Divine Master and the treasures of his grace. Be faithful to it with simplicity and devotion.
Offer now to Jesus the homage of your whole being, specifying the homage of each particular faculty of your soul.
Offer him your mind to know him better, your heart to love him, your will to serve him, and your body with all its senses, that each may glorify him in its own way.
Offer him your thoughts, so that the Eucharist may be the dominating thought of your life and may reign over your heart and its affections; call Jesus your God and your King and desire no other aim in life than to serve, to love and to glorify him. Give him your memory, that it may dwell on him alone and thus desire to live but for him, in him, and through him.
Since your adoration is in itself so weak and imperfect, unite it to the adoration of the Blessed Virgin at Bethlehem, at Nazareth, in the Cenacle, on Calvary, and before the tabernacle. Unite it to the adoration of holy Church and all pious souls who are adoring our Lord at this moment, and with the heavenly court, glorifying him in Heaven; then your adoration will share in their merit and holiness.
Second Quarter — Thanksgiving
Adore the immense and personal love of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
That you might not be left lonely and orphaned in this land of misery and exile he instituted the Holy Eucharist in such a way that he abides with you always to be your consoler and comforter. Thank him then with all your heart and with all your strength. Thank him in union with all the Saints.
Wonder at and admire the fact that in his sacramental state Jesus conceals his divine and human glory that you may not be dazzled or blinded by their splendor and effulgence. He veils his majesty that you may dare to approach him familiarly and speak with him as friend to friend. He retains his power and holds it captive that he may not punish or frighten you. He hides from you his wondrous perfections that your weaknesses may not be discouraging. He tempers even the ardors of his divine love, the love of the Sacred Heart, lest you could not support its strength and its tenderness. He permits his divine goodness alone to escape and to radiate from the Sacred Host as the rays of the sun shine through a light and fleecy cloud. Oh, how good he is, your sacramental Jesus!
He receives you at all times, day or night. His love knows no repose. He is ever full of goodness to you. He forgets your sins and your imperfections when you visit him, to testify only his happiness, his delight at your visit. It would seem that he needed you to make him happy. Oh, thank this dear and loving Jesus with all the effusion of your soul. Thank the heavenly Father for having thus given you his divine Son. Thank Jesus for once more becoming present upon the altar for you personally and through the ministry of the priest.
Invite heaven and earth, angels and men, to join you in thanksgiving, in blessing, in glorifying our Lord for his marvelous love.
Contemplate with wonder the humiliations of the sacramental state which Jesus has taken upon himself for love of you. He is even poorer in the Holy Eucharist than in Bethlehem, for there he had his mother.
From heaven he has only brought his grace and his love. How obedient he is! He yields a meek, prompt obedience to every one, even to his enemies.
Admire his humility. He descends to the borders of annihilation, uniting himself to the common and inanimate appearances of the sacred species, whose frail elements have no consistency other than that given them by the word of the Almighty and which continually preserves them. His immortal love for us is the chain that binds him until the end of the world. His living presence in our midst should be our heaven on earth. Unite your thanksgiving to that of the Blessed Virgin, before the incarnation, (and above all, at Holy Communion.) With her repeat in joyous accents the Magnificat of your thanksgiving: "O Jesus, how good, how loving, how lovely you are in this Divine Sacrament!"
Third Quarter — Reparation
Adore your Eucharistic Lord and offer him reparation in the name of so many who forget to adore and ask him forgiveness.
Ask of your beloved Master forgiveness for so much ingratitude and forgetfulness, for so much lack of reverence and respect on our part and on the part of those who claim to believe in his true presence among us. It is too often those whom he has most loved, most honored and most enriched with his gifts and graces who offend and dishonor him most in his holy Temple by their irreverence — who crucify him anew by tepid or even sacrilegious Communions.
O divine Jesus, could you have believed that the very greatness of your love would furnish man with an object for his malice and that he would turn against even your most precious gifts and graces!
Have I anything with which to reproach myself? Have I ever been negligent or unfaithful to you?
Adore Jesus and seek to make reparation for the negligence, profanation and sacrilege with which he so frequently meets. With this intention offer all the sufferings that you must endure during the day or the week. Impose on yourself some penance for your own sins and those of your relations, and for those whom you have disedified by your want of devotion or even by your levity in church.
But since all your satisfactions and penances are so few and so worthless in reparation for such great sins, unite them with those of Jesus Christ, your Savior on the Cross. Gather up in spirit the Precious Blood and offer the prayers and sufferings of the crucified Jesus to the heavenly Father, and seek mercy for yourself and all sinners. Unite your reparation to that of his Immaculate Mother at the foot of the Cross, and through her you will obtain from Jesus all that you ask.
Fourth Quarter — Petition
Adore our Lord in his most divine Sacrament, pleading unceasingly for you, showing to his heavenly Father his sacred wounds, his sacred Heart pierced with the lance, in order to obtain mercy for you and yours and unite with his prayers and his intentions.
Jesus asks his heavenly Father to bless, to exalt and to defend his Church; he bids him to make it better known, better loved and served among men. Pray for the Holy Church in the person of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, so tried and so persecuted, that God may deliver him from his enemies, that he may convert them and bring them humbled and repentant, to his feet.
Jesus prays continually for the sacred priesthood, that its members may be filled with the grace and unction of the Holy Spirit: that they may grow in all virtues and be consumed with zeal for his glory and the salvation of the souls he has purchased with his death on the Cross. Pray earnestly for your Bishop (or Archbishop), that God may spare him, bless and console him and grant success to his zealous desires for God's greater glory. Pray for your pastors that they may grow in the virtues of their state and may be enlightened and strengthened in their solicitude for and direction of the flock confided to their care.
Pray that God may grant to Holy Church many saintly vocations to the priesthood. A holy priest is the greatest gift of heaven. He can bring down the blessing of God upon a whole city.
Pray for all religious orders, that they may be ever fervent and faithful in their apostolic vocation, and that all on whom the hand of God is laid may have the grace to answer the divine call to the religious life and to persevere therein. One saint may save an entire nation, and his prayers are a surer safeguard and protection to his country than the might of armies.
Pray for the fervor and perseverance of pious souls in the world who are vowed or devoted to the service of God. They too, are religious, and have greater need of prayer and assistance, because they face greater dangers and sacrifices.
Ask of God the conversion of some great sinner. Nothing gives greater glory to God as such marvelous manifestations of his mercy and grace.
Then pray for yourself, that you may spend your days in a manner pleasing to God. Pray for the holy souls in Purgatory. Make a little bouquet of your sacrifices, offer it to Jesus, and ask him in return for his loving benediction.
We apply this method to our adoration.
Now we must bear in mind that adoration is a dialogue.
The adorer must speak to our Lord, and listen to him.
As in everything else we must prepare ourselves for adoration —
"My Son, before meditation prepare thy soul."
Prepare, therefore, the day of your appointment with our Lord. Read over the subject of your meditation before going to church and endeavor to be practical and consistent with your devotions toward your God.
Every Christian should reproduce in himself this ideal of the life of Christ.
"I seek not my own will, but the will of him that sent me." (St. John, 8, 29)
"For I do always the things that please him." (St. John, 5, 30)
Speak to Our Lord
Eucharistic Adoration has for its object the Divine Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. In this Sacrament he lives, he wishes us to speak to him and he will speak to us.
Everyone may speak to our Lord. Is he not there for all? Does he not say: Come ye all to me?
This familiar converse between the soul and our Lord is true Eucharistic meditation; it is adoration. Everyone has the grace for it. To succeed in it, and to shun routine and dryness of the heart, however, the adorers should draw their inspiration from their own attraction of grace or from the different mysteries of our Lord's life: from the Blessed Virgin or the virtues of the saints, in order to honor and glorify the God of the Eucharist by all the virtues of his mortal life, as well as by those of the saints, of whom he was the means and the end, and of whom he is today the crown and the glory. Look upon your hour of adoration as a heavenly hour, an hour in Paradise. If you go to it as if you were going to heaven to the Divine Banquet, you will long for this hour and hail it with joy.
Quietly nourish in your heart the desire for it. Say to yourself: "In four hours, in two hours, in one hour, I shall go to an audience with the Lord of grace and love. He has invited me." If the hour proves difficult to nature, rejoice even more. Your love will be increased on account of the hardship it entails. That is a privileged hour. It will count for two. If through infirmity, sickness or any other impossibility you cannot make your adoration, be sad for a moment. Then adore in spirit and in union with the other adorers of that hour.
Come As You Are
Go to our Lord just as you are. Make a simple meditation. Exhaust your own fund of piety and love before you make use of books. Love the inexhaustible book of humility and charity. However, it is well to take with you a pious book, in order to recall your thoughts when your mind wanders or when your senses are dull. Remember that our good Master prefers the poverty of our heart to the most sublime thoughts and affections borrowed from others. Understand well that our Lord desires our own heart, and not that of others. He wants the thought and the prayer of your heart as a natural expression of love for him. To be unwilling to go to our Lord with one's misery and one's humiliating poverty, is often the fruit of subtle self-love, of restlessness or tepidity, and yet that misery and poverty are what our Lord prefers to every other gift. He loves it. He blesses it.
Glorify the grace of God, without which you can do nothing. Open your heart to heaven as the flower opens its chalice to the rising sun, to catch its beneficent dew.
You are entirely powerless to act? Your mind is in darkness? Make the adoration of the poor mendicant of the Gospel. Rise out of your poverty that he may enrich it, for that is a masterstroke worthy of his glory.
You are in a state of temptation and distress? You are urged in thought to forego your adoration under the pretext that you are offending God and that you dishonor him more than you serve him? Hearken not to so groundless a temptation. Make the adoration of fidelity to Jesus against self-love. No! You do not displease him. You rejoice your Master who is looking at you and who has permitted satan to tempt you. He expects from you the homage of perseverance up to the last moment of the time that should be consecrated to him.
Let confidence, simplicity and love lead you to adoration.
Do you wish to be happy`? Live then, continually in the goodness of Jesus Christ, which is ever longing for you. Contemplate in Jesus the work of his love for you, the beauty of his virtues and the light of his love. With us the fire of love passes quickly, but Jesus' truth remains forever.
Begin By Loving Him
Begin all your hours of adoration with an act of love: this will open your soul to his divine action. It is because you begin by self that you pause on the way or if you commence by any other virtue other than love, you wander from the true path. Does not the child embrace the mother before obeying her? Love is the only portal to the heart. Do you wish to rise high, in the realms of love? Speak to Love of himself. Speak to Jesus of his heavenly Father whom he loves infinitely. Speak to him of the labors that he undertook for his Father's glory, and you will rejoice his Heart. He will love you more. Speak to Jesus of his love for all men. That will dilate both his Heart and your own with joy and happiness. Speak to Jesus of his holy Mother whom he loves so tenderly, and you will renew for him the happiness of a good Son. Speak to him of his Saints, in order to glorify his grace in them. The true secret of love is likened to that of St. John the Baptist, to forget self, in order to exalt and glorify the Lord Jesus.
True love looks not at what it gives but only at what the beloved merits. Jesus, pleased with you, will speak to you and your heart will open to the rays of that Sun as the flower bathed and refreshed by the dews of night, opens under the beams of the radiant orb of day. His encouraging voice will penetrate your soul like fire consuming the substance which offers no resistance. Like the Spouse in the Canticle, you will exclaim: "My soul melts with joy at the voice of my beloved." You will hear him in silence or rather in the sweetness and most powerful action of love. You will become one with him. What most unfortunately checks the growth of grace and love in our soul is that hardly have we reached the feet of our good Master before we begin to speak to him of ourselves, our sins, our defects, our spiritual poverty. In doing so we tire our minds by the sight of misery, our heart grows sad under the thought of our ingratitude and infidelity. Sadness gives rise to pain, pain to discouragement, and it is only by humility in bearing our trial that we escape from this labyrinth in the freedom of God.
Let us avoid this imperfection, and as the first movement of the soul ordinarily determines the following action, we must direct our first movement to God and say to him: "O my good Jesus, how glad I am to see you! What satisfaction I find in spending this hour with you and in telling you my love! O how good of you to call me! How sweet of you to love so poor a creature as I am! O yes! I, too, wish to love you!"
Live His Life
Love then opens to you the door to the Heart of Jesus. Enter and remain therein; love and adore the Master.
In order to adore Jesus well, we must remember that he is really present — as a living person — in the Most Blessed Sacrament. There he glorifies, and continues all the mysteries and virtues of his mortal life. We must remember that the Holy Eucharist is Jesus Christ, past, present and future; that the Holy Eucharist is the highest development of the Incarnation and the mortal life of the Savior; that Jesus Christ therein gives us all graces; that all truths culminate in the Eucharist; and that in naming the Holy Eucharist we have said all that can be said since the Holy Eucharist is Jesus Christ.
Let the Holy Eucharist be the beginning and end of the meditation of the mysteries, the virtues, the truths of religion. It is the furnace though truths are only the flames. Let us start from the furnace and we shall spread abroad its flames. What is more simple than to find resemblance between the birth of Jesus in the stable and his sacramental birth on the altar and in our hearts?
Who does not see that the hidden life at Nazareth is continued in the Host of the Tabernacle, and that the Passion of the Man-God is renewed in the Holy Sacrifice at every moment of time and in all places of the world?
Is not our Lord meek and humble in the Blessed Sacrament as he was during his mortal life?
Is he not always the Good Shepherd, the Divine Consoler, the Friend of the heart?
Happy the soul who knows how to find Jesus in the Eucharist and in the Eucharist all things else!
Jesus the Divine and Perfect Adorer
Adoration
See with what perfection Jesus renders to his Father the duty of adoration.
To adore is to recognize by works and with mind, heart and will, the excellence of God; that is to say his supreme majesty, his infinite perfection of greatness and of power. No one knows, sees or comprehends all these perfections as Jesus does. "No one knows the Father except the Son," says Jesus. What praises escape from his Soul to the Glory of his Father. Jesus sees all, praises and reveres, honors and exalts all that is in the Divinity of his Father. What a perfect Adorer in spirit and in truth! God sees his own Son — equal to him in all things — as the divine Victim who renders him more honor and glory than all angels and saints together. How great is the glory which redounds to him from the voluntary subjection of this King of Kings, of this Lord of Lords, true God of true God, annihilated before him through love for you and for me. Oh, all you who might be afraid to come to adoration, because you feel so unworthy, or because you experience difficulty, you have no reason for not fulfilling your duty of adorers. Here is Jesus Christ who is infinitely worthy. Offer to God, therefore, his adoration, his praise, his love to supply what is wanting in your adoration as God deserves to be adored in spirit and truth.
Thanksgiving
The second duty of religion consists in acknowledging by the act of thanksgiving, the liberality of God and all his benefits which the creature receives without ceasing, from the inexhaustible source of all Good. To properly accomplish this duty we should understand how good, how beneficial, how generous and how merciful is God who owes nothing to anyone. It is necessary moreover, to understand his gifts, their excellence, their value, their extent and their number and lastly how to use these gifts of God for his glory. But Jesus alone is capable of paying to God the whole debt of gratitude which he merits. He alone has sounded the depths of his mercy, the riches of his treasures. He sees all his gifts in all creatures. He sees them in himself and yet he says, "I seek not my glory but the glory of the Father who sent me."
From tabernacles all over the world rises an incessant hymn of thanksgiving to God and it is Jesus who chants it in the name of all creatures of whom he is the Head, and all of whose graces are the fruit of his Blood, of his suffering, of his death. Give thanks, therefore, with Jesus Christ. Your gratitude united to the gratitude of Jesus will then be infinite. Think of all the supernatural gifts received from the time of Baptism until now, of all the Sacraments received; think of the Gift of Gifts, the Holy Eucharist.
"—How wonderful the Church is to give us God and to keep him for us. How can we ever thank God for it? Of ourselves we cannot, but with our Lord himself who has given us this Gift above all Gifts, himself in the Blessed Sacrament, we can."
Reparation
The third great duty of religion is reparation.
Since sin entered the world, it is not possible to have religion toward God which does not contain reparation and expiation of sin. In order to offer to God a reparation equal to the infinite offense, there must be a victim of infinite price and a priest whose holiness is also infinite. The Priest and Victim is Jesus Christ; he offered himself upon the Cross; he offers and immolates himself upon the Altar every day as the Victim of expiation destined to appease the anger of God, to satisfy his justice and to obtain mercy, pardon, merit and graces for us. What a perfect and sweet Victim offering the most holy, the most perfect of lives to immolation. The life of Jesus from the beginning to the end is that of a Victim delivered up to the divine Justice, a Victim of poverty and labor, a Victim at Bethlehem and Nazareth, a Victim in the desert and on the banks of the Jordan asking Baptism, as if a sinner. St. John the Baptist exclaims, — "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," victim on Calvary and on the altar. Oh, what humiliation, what annihilation for the Master of the world, for the creator of heaven and earth. "Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
If only the horrible, unspeakable torture of Gethsemane had ended there, but no, — all the causes of his suffering and death are renewed every day, — disguised Pilates and Herods are still raging against him. The cry is heard again and again in our day, "We don't want him to reign over us"; the rods of heresy and schism would tear his sacred flesh anew; the thorns of pride and indifference, flourishing as never before, would again pierce his brow; the nails of concupiscence of the flesh, of the eye, of desire that bind so many to a sinful world would once more nail him to the Cross and have, as it were, tied him to the Host of sacrifice to save others from the tyranny of a sensual world. Truly can we not hear the cry from the tabernacle, — O, my people, what is there that I should have done for you that I have not done?
We were present in his three hours of agony; we were the criminals; we are the guilty ones.
In his infinite love he offers the means to make reparation. In the Most Blessed Sacrament Christ, the glorious King of Angels and of men, our good Lord, adores, appeases and satisfies the justice of his Father, offers him his past sufferings, his present humiliations, his poverty, his obedience and his love to compensate for the injury, for the crime, for the ingratitude and for the sins that are rampant in the world.
Come and unite your meager atonement to that of the Divine One and you will be made clean and pleasing to God. Come and make reparation for your sins and the sins of the world. Will you not come and make reparation for all the ingratitude of the world; for those who do not love him, who do not want to serve him and who refuse to come to him?
Petition
The fourth great duty is that of prayer and supplication. Man refuses to render the duty of supplication. He trusts in himself and his strength, and does not pray. But the Word Eternal became incarnate that he might pray to God. He prayed on his knees with sighs and tears, day and night. Our tabernacles are now the sanctuaries of his prayer: I pray for those you have given me, O Father, that where I am they also may be. This prayer is for you, adorers of the Blessed Sacrament. Whatever you will ask the Father in my name it will be granted to you; until now you have not asked anything; ask and you shall receive.
Complete this meditation with your personal thoughts. Remember when you come to adore our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, you may unite yourself to him. Be you poor or rich, saint or sinner, he welcomes you all, wants you all. Listen to what he says to you — "Because you have confessed me before men I will confess you before my Father in heaven."
By your adoration, not only do you perform a sacred and sweet duty, not only do you come and draw at the source of all grace and life but you will also have the glory which Christ himself has promised, the glory to be proclaimed and recommended to his Father in Heaven, — "I will confess to you before my Father" — the grace I wish you all in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Suggestions For Conducting A Eucharistic Hour
In dividing the Eucharistic Hour into four parts or quarters, consider in each quarter one of the four ends of the Sacrifice.
Appropriate hymns may be sung at regular intervals as will be arranged by the priest in charge.
This method will shorten the sermons or spiritual readings for each quarter if so desired, but if preferred a meditation may be read by the priest and the thoughts therein suggested may be developed to suit individual requirements. Also, the Eucharistic Hour may comprise a sermon only.
Silent meditation may be practiced for a short period after each quarter and Benediction may be given at the end.
Much depends on the efforts of the one conducting the Eucharistic Hour, to make it interesting. The singing of well-known hymns, a short heart-to-heart talk and the recitation of one decade of the Rosary for each quarter may be a favored method.
The hour spent at the feet of our Lord will be found delightful and productive of great spiritual blessings.
Open my lips, O Lord, for the praise of your Holy Name, and cleanse my heart from all vain, perverse and idle thoughts, that I may enter upon this hour of adoration with reverence, attention and devotion and may be made worthy of your favors and blessings.
I desire to unite my poor prayers with those sacred intentions with which you offered to your Eternal Father the all-pleasing homage of adoration, praise, thanksgiving and supplication while you were still on earth and which you offer him even now in the most adorable mystery of your sacramental presence.
Keep us, O Lord, in your holy love and preserve our souls from the voluntary defilements of sin. Let your holy will be accomplished in our regard that we may ever grow in knowledge and love and that we may be made worthy to behold you face to face in the kingdom of your glory.
"Contemplating, Lord, your hidden presence,
Grant me what I thirst for and implore,
In the revelation of your essence
To behold your glory evermore."
We offer you, dear Jesus, this hour of adoration and prayer for the welfare of our Holy Mother the Church: "Your kingdom come!"
O Lord we pray for our Holy Father the Pope. Preserve him, O Lord, and give him length of years, bless him upon earth and deliver him not into the hands of his enemies.
We offer you our humble prayers for the hierarchy and the clergy of the Holy Catholic Church. Bless them and keep them faithful and true in your holy love.
Prayer For Priests
O Jesus, Eternal High Priest, keep your servants within the shelter of your sacred Heart where none may harm them. Keep unstained their consecrated hands which daily touch your sacred body.
Keep unsullied their lips purpled with your precious blood. Keep pure and holy their hearts sealed with the sublime character of your priesthood.
Let your holy love surround them and shield them from the world's contagion.
Bless their labors with abundant and lasting fruit. May they to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here on earth and their beautiful crown and everlasting glory in heaven.
O Lord, we pray for the conversion of all those who do not know you or who are held in the slavery of heresy and schism.
Look down, O Lord, with favor upon the little ones of the flock that they may grow in innocence and purity of heart and in your holy grace.
Protect the youth of our land that, steadfast in temptations, they may lead holy lives and make a right choice of a state of life.
Bless, O Lord, our married people that they may live in Christian peace and harmony, helping one another on the road to heaven and rearing their children to a solid Christian life.
Give patience and resignation to the old and infirm that they may seek the things that are above and bear with their fortitude the trials of life.
Assist, O Lord, by your mighty grace the souls struggling with the demons of temptation and aid the dying that they may conquer and win the crown of eternal life.
We recommend to your tender mercy, O Blessed Jesus, the sinners of the world that moved by your mighty grace they may enter into themselves, turn away from their evil ways and return to the Father's house.
O Lord, we pray for the civil authorities of our land that guided by your wisdom they may preserve the peace.
Bless, O Lord, our country and its free institutions and preserve them unto us.
O Lord, we beg your tender mercy for the holy souls in purgatory.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let the perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace! Amen.
Act of Adoration
O most loving Jesus in the Divine Sacrament of the altar, True God and True Man, I believe that you are personally present here under the appearance of bread consecrated by your sacred minister; I believe also that this Mystery was accomplished in memory of you and since you have revealed it I am ready if necessary to lay down my life to uphold it. Out of the abyss of my own nothingness behold me then, prostrate before you to raise my voice in praise of you. Filled with ingratitude and sin I am unworthy to address you except that I am truly sorry for what I have done or left undone, and beg your pardon and mercy.
I beseech you O my God and my Redeemer, to strengthen my faith and my will and to give efficacy to my resolutions, for you know my weakness and instability and that I can do nothing good without your aid. All my hope is in you, for you have done and suffered so much for my redemption and salvation. Behold me then, O my Savior, at your feet like Magdalene; grant that I may wash them with tears of repentance so that you may console me as you filled her with consolation. Convert me entirely to you as you converted her, and do not send me away until you have blessed me and filled my soul with heavenly food. Crush my stony heart and strip it of all its sinful inclinations.
"Blot out, O Lord, blot out my iniquity. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin."
Strike off the chains of my sins that oppress me and that keep me from you and grant that I may be freed from them and return to you, never more to depart from you or deprive myself of your grace.
O my Jesus, I hope in you for you are almighty and infinitely merciful; I know that you love me with an ineffable love and that you seek my eternal happiness. I offer to you, my will, all my senses and my whole being. May you aid me and so order the rest of my days that, persevering unto death in the observance of your holy law and the counsels of your Gospel, I may be able to say with truth, as David said:
"In you, O Lord, have I hoped, I shall not be confounded forever."
I unite O my Savior, my feeble tribute of praise to that of your holy Mother in heaven, of the angels and saints in paradise and of all fervent souls in the world, who know how to love and honor you far better than I do, that through their merits I may atone for the displeasure I have so often caused you by my sins. By this visit, O my Savior, I intend to adore you wherever no one offers you the homage of adoration you so much deserve. I desire ardently to make you known and loved by all men and to spend myself for their souls. I beseech you to convert all sinners, to enlighten all heretics and schismatics and to spread your Holy Faith among the heathen and the infidel.
O Holy Mary, be a help to the helpless, strength to the fearful, a comfort to the sorrowful; pray for the people, plead for the clergy, make intercession for all women vowed to God; may all feel the might of your assistance. O angels and saints in heaven, my angel guardian, St. Peter and St. Paul and my patron saints, to you I recommend myself; intercede for me and help me during this holy hour of adoration. Amen.
Act of Thanksgiving
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
I adore you Eternal Father. I give you thanks for the infinite love with which you sent your only begotten Son to redeem me and to become the food of my soul. I offer you all the acts of adoration and thanksgiving that are offered to you by the angels and saints in heaven and by the just on earth. I praise, love and thank you with all the praise, love and thanksgiving that are offered to you by your own Son in the Blessed Sacrament; and I beg you to grant that he may be known, loved, honored, praised, and worthily received by all in this most divine Sacrament.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
I adore you Eternal Son, and I thank you for the infinite love which caused you to become man for me, to be born in a stable, to live in poverty and to suffer hunger, thirst, heat, cold, fatigue, hardships, contempt, persecutions, the scourging, the crowning with thorns and a cruel death upon the hard wood of the Cross. With the Church militant and triumphant I thank you for the infinite love with which you instituted the most Blessed Sacrament to be the food of my soul.
I adore you in all the consecrated Hosts throughout the whole world and I return thanks for those who do not know you and who do not thank you. Would that I were able to give my life to make you known, loved, and honored by all in this Sacrament of love, and to prevent the irreverences and sacrileges that are committed against you. I love you divine Jesus, and I desire to receive you with all the purity, love and affection of your own most pure Heart. In coming to me in this most holy Sacrament grant, O most amiable spouse of my soul, that I may receive all the graces and blessings which you come to bestow on us, and let me rather die than receive you unworthily.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
I adore you Eternal Holy Spirit and I give you thanks for the infinite love with which you worked the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation, and for the infinite love with which you formed the sacred body of our Lord Jesus Christ out of the most pure blood of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and which in this Sacrament becomes the food of my soul. I beg you to enlighten my mind and to purify my heart and the hearts of all men, that all may know the benefit of your love and worthily receive this most Blessed Sacrament.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
Act of Reparation
O Divine Lord who out of the great love you bear mankind, dwells in the most Holy Sacrament of the altar and where instead of the reverence and adoration due to you, you frequently receive only indifference, contempt and insult, I cast myself at your feet and offer reparation. I offer you reparation for all the irreverences of which I myself have been guilty in your presence, for all the bad example I may have given and for the little devotion I have shown to you in this Most Holy Sacrament. Furthermore, I offer you reparation for all the sacrileges that have been committed against you in this great Mystery since its first institution and for all that may be committed in the future ages.
Prostrate at your feet I most humbly ask your pardon, and acknowledge that hidden in this Sacrament, you are the King of heaven and earth.
I offer you my homage and adoration and I consecrate myself to you, desiring to adore you wherever you reside sacramentally throughout the world, and unite myself to the worship offered you by all creatures in eternity.
To the Lamb slain for us, be glory, honor, praise, power and blessing for ever and ever. Amen.
Act of Petition
O Jesus, I thank you for all the graces I have received through your real presence in the tabernacle; grant me an ardent love for the Sacrament of your love; grant that my visits to you in the blessed Eucharist may sanctify and render me more pleasing and make me resemble you.
Dispose me more fittingly for the worthy and fruitful reception of holy Communion and increase in me the desire of honoring you and of causing others to love and honor you more in the Blessed Sacrament.
I recommend to you the wants of my soul, those of my family, of my friends and benefactors, and of all who have asked me to pray for them. Preserve us from all deliberate sins, forgive us those that we have committed and fill us with the spirit of sincere repentance. Send your aid to the Holy Church, the Sovereign Pontiff, the bishops, priests, religious and all the faithful: direct the labors of apostolic missionaries; convert infidels, heretics and sinners, and lead them to sincere repentance.
O my Jesus, grant me the inestimable gift of final perseverance. Let me attain to that degree of virtue which is requisite for obtaining the degree of glory to which you have destined me. Preserve me from a sudden and unprovided death and let me be fortified in my departure for eternity by the grace of the Sacrament of Anointing and Holy Viaticum. Save me through the mercy of your divine Heart; at the hour of my death grant me the grace to love you with a disinterested love like that with which you loved me in your last hour on the Cross. Amen.
Recite the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory be to the Father, in order to gain all the indulgences attached to the Hour of Adoration.
Intentions Recommended to Adorers
In order to carry out as perfectly as possible the touching and beautiful idea of perpetual adoration and supplication, we should certainly not terminate the hour with merely personal demands, hence the following intentions are suggested to adorers:
From Midday or Midnight to One O'clock — Pray for the Holy Church: — the Pope, cardinals, bishops, religious orders, as well as all priests, seminarians and novices.
From One to Two. — For our own country and all nations: for those who govern; for universal peace and concord; for civil administration and those who are in office.
From Two to Three. — For political institutions. The President, Congress and the Supreme Court; the military; for Christian laws; for the keeping holy of the Lord's Day; for zeal for the glory of the Blessed Sacrament.
From Three to Four. — For the family: Christian marriage and faithfulness to its holy laws; for the rejection of artificial birth control, abortion, and that desire for possessions which are an attack on the family; for all temporal needs.
From Four to Five. — Christian education and training of children: for all who teach; for educational institutions; for vocations.
From Five to Six. — For all who work, that they may labor in a truly honest and Christian spirit. For employers, for those employed and for the fulfillment of their mutual duties; for travelers by air, land and sea.
From Six to Seven. — For afflicted persons: the poor, the sick and the prisoners; for all exposed to trials and temptations; for the persecuted, those in jail or concentration camps because of their belief in God.
From Seven to Eight. — For the propagation of the Faith; the conversion of pagans, schismatics and heretics; for missionaries and for all pious works.
From Eight to Nine. — For the conversion of sinners and all who have abandoned the true Faith: reparation for blasphemies and the injuries which Jesus receives in the Sacrament of his love.
From Nine to Ten. — For all who are in their agony: for final perseverance and the grace of a happy death.
From Ten to Eleven. — For the souls in purgatory: for those who have none to pray for them.
From Eleven to Twelve. — For the reign of the Heart of Jesus! For all Eucharistic works; the prosperity and spread of Perpetual Adoration. Thanksgiving for graces received.
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