Visit 14 Jesus Eucharistic Our Love

I. Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is a "consuming fire." His desire is to enkindle this fire within our hearts.

II. But how often we come before Him like those tepid souls that are "neither hot nor cold " (Apoc. iii. IS).

III. Let us adore Jesus in the tabernacle, and beg of Him that we may no longer remain insensible to the ardent flames of His divine love.

CONSIDERATIONS.
Just as selfishness, severs and puts men asunder one from the other, so love is a unitive power which draws and binds them together. Charity is the social bond of the Christian family. Charity towards God and man is a fire that bums brightest on the Eucharistic hearth, and for this reason the Eucharist is called the ‘Bond of Charity’ towards God and man. The Eucharist is the bond of divine charity. How could human love ever have soared up to God, the Infinite Being, unless His divine majesty had first lovingly stooped down to us? This makes the apostle of love, St. John. cry out: "Let us love God, because God first hath loved us" (1 John iv. 19).

This same cry comes to us from the tabernacle. Could God, indeed, have stooped any lower in order to make us love Him? In the beginning, when He created the world, He veiled His likeness under the created glory of the universe; later on, in the Incarnation. He well-nigh disappeared under the obscurity of the human form; last of all He was, as it were, buried out of sight in the Eucharist, under the material and lowly appearances of bread and wine. This self-humiliation of the Godhead is the origin of our greatness and it is also our chief incentive to love God.

The Holy Eucharist is likewise the bond of fraternal charity. It makes all men neighbors, brings them near to one another, or, at any rate, gives them power to become brethren in Jesus Christ, as St. Paul says: "Now, in Christ Jesus, you, who sometime were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ" (Ephes, ii. 13). This fellowship is created by Baptism, but brought to perfection by the Holy Eucharist, in which Christ mingles His sacred flesh with ours and makes us one body with Him.

Wonderful thing! The Divine Word, in becoming incarnate of His virgin Mother, took upon Him only one human body, but in the Eucharistic communion He takes upon Him the flesh of us all, appropriates it, makes it His own, and so draws us near to one another at the Holy Table, more so even than the members of one family, even like the members of one body: "For we being many are one bread, one body, all, who partake of one bread ’" (1 Cor. x. 17). ’ —"The Names of the Eucharist."

0 most sacred Host, wherein I humbly adore the Incarnate Word! from the depth of my nothingness I raise to Thee my vows of gratitude and love. In Thee alone, 0 my God, I acknowledge my life on earth and in heaven. Thou art my nourishment, my preservation, and my comfort. Ah, my heart, how cold art thou beside this furnace of divine love!

Give back, 0 my soul, with thy fullest measure, the affection of thy Lord; turn to Him thy thoughts and thy desires. He is the bread which satisfies; He is the spring which quenches thirst; He is the treasure which forever enriches. Most foolish art thou if thou sufferest thy love to rest on any other object.

0 my Jesus! I will indeed greatly love Thee; I will love Thee with my whole heart, because Thou art the Infinite Good; I will love Thee with my whole soul, because Thou art the true God; I will love Thee with all my strength, because to Thee I owe all that I have. Jesus, my Love, my Lord, my God, and my All!

Our Lady of the Most Holy Sacrament, Mother and model of adorers, pray for us, who have recourse to thee.

St. Joseph, pray for us, that like thee, we may die in the arms of Jesus and Mary.


PRAYER TO THE HOLY GHOST
0 Holy Ghost, Thou Teacher and Sanctifier, Who givest light and strength to my soul, bless me that I may be more faithful to Jesus, my Savior and my God, Who is hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, and that I may love Him more and more. In the light of the tabernacle I ask of Thee, 0 Holy Spirit, to fill my heart with pure desire for Jesus, the Living Bread. Give me grace to adore Him with the zeal and humble ven­eration of the holy angels; grant that His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that His will be done in my soul. Help me to thank Him for all His gifts, and, most of all, for Himself. By this Holy Sacrament He strengthens souls on earth, gives rest to souls in purgatory, and gladdens souls in heaven. He is the hidden manna, promised by Himself to all who overcome them­selves and love Him. May I taste the sweetness of Jesus! Set up more and more Thy kingdom in my soul, that I may keep my body under and bring it to subjection, lest I should be a castaway from Jesus and from Thee.

SPIRTUAL COMMUNION
0 Jesus, my Savior, Who art truly present in the Blessed Sacrament for the nourishment of our souls! since I cannot now receive Thee sacramentally, I humbly and earnestly beseech Thee to re­fresh me spiritually. I love Thee above all things and I desire to possess Thee within my soul. Come into my mind to illumine it with the light of heaven; come into my heart to enkindle therein the fire of Thy love. Unite me so intimately with Thee, that it may be no more I that live, but Thou that livest and reigneth in me forever.



FRUIT OF THE VISIT.
I. Behold Christ seated in thy heart, and giving thee food which endureth to everlasting life; regard thyself as satisfied with this most sweet food, and yet out of love hungering for more (Luke xii. 37; John vi. 27; Ecclus. xxiv. 29).

II. Love Him more than all sweetness, more than all pleasant foods; that so, restraining thyself from all excess, thou mayest begin to taste and see how sweet the Lord is (Ps. xxxiii. 9).

III. Ask Him for the gift of most fervent "Love," that God only may be sweet to thee, and that everything which is not God may be distasteful.

Aspiration.
Who am I, thy servant, that Thou hast regarded such a dead dog as I am, and set me amongst the guests at Thy table? (2 Kings ix. 8; xix. 28.)

EUCHARISTIC GEMS.
No tongue can express the greatness of the love which Jesus Christ bears to our souls. Hence that His absence from us might not be an occasion of forgetting Him, before His departure from the world He left us, as a memorial of love, this Most Holy Sacrament in which He Himself has remained.—St. Peter of Alcantara.

Four Visions of St. Mechtilde.
 (About a.d. 1300.)
One day when St. Mechtilde had received holy communion, after contemplating the Sacred Passion of Our Lord, He said to her: "Wouldst thou see in what manner I am in thee and thou in Me?" But she held her peace, considering herself unworthy. In the same moment she saw the Lord under the form of a transparent crystal and her own soul like clear, sparkling water flowing through the body of Christ. As she marveled greatly at the unspeakable goodness of God towards her, the Lord said: "Remember that which the Apostle Paul hath written: ‘I am the least of the apostles . . . but through the grace of God I am what I am’ (1 Cor. xv. 9). Thou also in thyself art nothing, but whatsoever thou art, that through My grace art thou in Me."

Another time when St. Mechtilde, after holy communion, desired to know what God would have of her, she received the following reply: "Let us go out into the fields." And it seemed to her as though she were in a great field in which many plants were to be seen, roses, lilies, violets, and others. By roses were to be understood the martyrs; by lilies, the virgins; widows and the test of the saints were represented by violets and other flowers. In this field sat the Lord, as it were, surrounded on all sides with wheat heaped up; and it was revealed to her that the field represented all those fruits which the Church gathers in out of the Incarnation of Christ. Nightingales and larks also flew around the Lord, singing incessantly with sweet, glad voices. Now the nightingales signified the loving holy souls, while the larks were a figure of those who perform good works with gladness and singleness of heart.

Once, when about to go to holy communion, St. Mechtilde said to the Lord: "My sweetest Lord, write my name upon Thy heart." Then said the Lord to her: "If thou wiliest to communicate, receive Me with such intention as though thou hadst all the fervor and all the love by which a human heart was ever inflamed, and so wilt thou offer Me the highest love which it is possible for a human heart to give. This love will I accept from thee, not as it is in thee, but as thou desirest it should be in thee."

On another occasion when about to communicate she said again: " Write my name in Thy heart;" and thereupon it seemed to her as though the Lord bore certain golden letters on His breast, which were adorned with seven precious stones; and she saw the first letter of her name, and understood the signification thereof. After which when she sought for the names of some whom she had recommended in her prayers, she found the first letter of their names also, adorned with the seven precious stones. The first of these represented purity of heart; the second, steady contemplation of the Consecration; the third, humility; the fourth, increase in good works; the fifth, patience; the sixth, hope; and the seventh, divine charity. She understood therefore that one who would worthily communicate must be adorned with these seven jewels.

My soul, what dost thou? Answer me,
 Love God, Who loves thee well,
Love only doth He ask of thee,
Canst thou His love repel?

See how on earth, for love of thee,
In lowly form of Bread,
The Sovereign Good and Majesty
His dwelling-place hath made.

He aids thee now, His friendship prove,
And at His table eat;
To share the Bread of Life and Love,
His own true flesh thy meat.

What other gifts so great, so high,
Could God Himself impart?
Could Love Divine do more, to buy
The love of thy poor heart?

Though once in agonies of pain
Upon the cross He died,
A love so great not even then
Was wholly satisfied.

Not till the hour when He had found
The sweet mysterious way,
To join His heart in closest bond
To thy poor heart of clay.

How then, amid such ardent flame,
My soul, dost thou not burn?
Canst thou refuse, for very shame,
A loving heart’s return?

Then yield thy heart at length to love
That God of charity,
Who gives His very self to prove
The love He bears to thee.
                       St. Alphonsus.