Jesus longs for your gaze….upon Him

PSALM 25:15

Permanently my eyes are on Yahweh,
for He will free my feet from the snare. 

 Permanently, unwaveringly, immovably, let my eyes be fixed on You alone, O Most Blessed Jesus! In Your Divinely Beautiful Gaze, I find all love, all peace, all strength, all wisdom, all joy.

Like Peter who was privileged to walk on water, I can do all things in You. It is only when I look away for a moment, that I too begin to perish.

O Eternal Beauty, let no creature, no earthly attraction draw my gaze away from Your Loveliness. But when in my foolishness, I am distracted from the incomparable Glory of Your Face, grant that I may turn again immediately to You, Who have promised to free my feet from the snares of this world.

O my Adorable Jesus, the more I look upon You in the Most Blessed Sacrament, the more intimate this gaze we share becomes. My poor heart is drawn ever deeper into Your Flaming One. In silent adoration, I come to know You, and to experience that I am known and loved beyond my most daring desires.

I make my own the prayer of St. Therese: “Jesus, grant that I may be fascinated by Your Gaze, and be the prey of YOUR LOVE!”

(First published, June 5, 2011)

After This….nothing more but Heaven

“The Eucharist is the supreme proof of the love of Jesus. After this, there is nothing more but Heaven itself.”

St. Peter Julian Eymard

“When we go before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament we represent the one in the world who is in most need of God’s Mercy.” We “Stand in behalf of the one in the world who does not know Christ and who is farthest away from God and we bring down upon their soul the Precious Blood of The Lamb.”

Pope St. John Paul II

 “O Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I would like to be filled with love for You; keep me closely united with You, may my heart be near to Yours. I want to be to You like the apostle John. O Mary of the Rosary, keep me recollected when I say these prayers of yours; bind me forever, with your rosary, to Jesus of the Blessed Sacrament. Blessed be Jesus, my love..,” 

Pope St. John XXIII, Journal of a Soul

 “For One in such a lofty position to stoop so low is a marvel that is staggering. What sublime humility and humble sublimeness, that the Lord of the Universe, the Divine Son of God, should stoop as to hide Himself under the appearance of bread for our salvation! Behold the humble way of God, my brothers. Therefore, do not hold yourselves to be anything of yourselves, so that you may be entirely acceptable to One Who gives Himself entirely to you.”

St. Francis of Assisi

“O Sisters, if we would only comprehend the fact that while the Eucharistic Species remain within us, Jesus is there and working in us inseparably with the Father and the Holy Spirit and therefore the whole Holy Trinity is there…,” 

St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

Tuesday Adoration – at home

Tuesday adoration will be at home today.  I awoke this morning with an excruciating migraine.  What I call a “five star” headache.  The kind which requires prescription medication and bed rest.

I am so disappointed, but still grateful that this doesn’t happen to me as often as it did a few years ago.  I called a substitute, a lovely lady who has several committed holy hours each week, and is always happy to fill in for others.  I know that Jesus will be well “cared for” in my absence.

Yet, I miss my “prayer power” day so much.  On Tuesdays, I am blessed to spend from 4pm to 6pm with Jesus in the adoration chapel, followed by 6pm Mass.  (Yes, I am always 5 minutes late as I rush from chapel to Mass in the main church.)

No matter what happens the rest of the week, that extended visit in the Real Presence of Jesus is like an anchor for me.  I will miss Him today.

Still, I remember the quiet resignation of Therese, who was unable, because of her illness, to receive Holy Communion for the last several weeks of her life. What a sacrifice!  Far from feeling sorry for herself, she graciously accepted God’s Will.  She liked to repeat, “I love whatever He does.”

In fact, when Therese made her offering of herself as a “Holocaust to Merciful Love,” she asked Jesus:  “..remain in me as in the tabernacle; never leave Your little victim.”

Therese did not say meaningless things.  I am quite sure that she meant what she asked.  I also cannot believe that Jesus would deny her anything, and it is my personal belief that she did receive such a great Grace.

When we are (seemingly) denied opportunities for Grace and communing with the Lord, it is tempting to ask, “But why, Jesus?” 

How well Therese teaches us to simply accept what God permits, and do the best we can.  I know I often forget how very much He values obedience.

Meanwhile, I can be grateful that the pain has backed off a bit, and although I wouldn’t drive while on medication, I can still pray here at home.  And I can still make a spiritual Communion, and Jesus will come as He promised.  Hopefully I can spend at least one holy hour with Him later this week.

As for my friend, Marie, she will be kneeling in my place today with her beautiful heart, but also with the good deed she did for me.  And Jesus will be pleased.

And does anything else really matter?

Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us!

Many know that today is the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, but it is also the Feast of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament.  

  Recall how intensely Eucharistic were the apparitions of Fatima, particularly those of the Angel, who brought the children the very Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, and taught them to prostrate themselves before Him, and pray beautiful prayers of adoration.

O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.  I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended.  By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.

With Mary Let Us Adore Him
St. Peter Julian Eymard

     Mary devoted herself exclusively to the Eucharistic Glory of Jesus.  She knew that it was the desire of the Eternal Father to make the Eucharist known, loved and served by all men; that need of Jesus’ Heart was to communicate to all men His gifts of grace and glory.  She knew, too, that it was the mission of the Holy Spirit to extend and perfect in the hearts of men, the reign of Jesus Christ, and that the Church had been founded only to give Jesus to the world.
All Mary’s desire, then, was to make Him known in His Sacrament.  Her intense love for Jesus felt the need of expanding in this way, of consecrating itself — as a kind of relief, as it were — because of her own inability to glorify Him as much as she desired.
Ever since Calvary, all men were her children.  She loved them with a Mother’s tenderness and longed for their supreme good as for her own; therefore, she was consumed with the desire to make Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament known to all, to inflame all hearts with His love, to see them enchained to His loving service.
To obtain this favor, Mary passed her time at the foot of the Most Adorable Sacrament, in prayer and penance.  There she treated the world’s salvation.  In her boundless zeal, she embraced the needs of the faithful everywhere, for all time to come, who would inherit the Holy Eucharist and be Its adorers…
Her prayers converted countless souls, and as every conversion is the fruit of prayer, and since Mary’s prayer could meet no refusal, the Apostles had in this Mother of Mercy their most powerful helper.  “Blessed is he for whom Mary prays!”
Eucharistic adorers share Mary’s life and mission of prayer at the foot of the Most Blessed Sacrament.  It is the most beautiful of all missions, and it holds no perils.  It is the most holy, for in it all the virtues are practiced.  It is, moreover, the most necessary to the Church, which has even more need of prayerful souls than of powerful preachers; of men of penance rather than men of eloquence.  Today more than ever have we need of men who, by their self—immolation, disarm the anger of God inflamed by the ever increasing crimes of nations.  We must have souls who by their importunity reopen the treasures of grace which the indifference of the multitude has closed.  We must have true adorers; that is to say, men of fervor and of sacrifice.  When there are many such souls around their Divine Chief, God will be glorified, Jesus will be loved, and society will once more become Christian, conquered for Jesus Christ by the apostolate of Eucharistic prayer.