Ancient Roman Catholic ritual making a comeback in Minnesota
Adoration for Vocations to be Promoted Worldwide
New Plenary Indulgence to Mark Year of the Eucharist
POPE GRANTS PLENARY INDULGENCE FOR YEAR OF THE EUCHARIST
2.2 Million hours of prayer, and counting
The Adoration of the Name of Jesus (El Greco)
Adoration Tally Presented to Pope by Vocation.com
Eucharistic Adoration or Abortion?
Bishop Calls for Perpetual Adoration of Eucharist
I eagerly await the Catholic bashing.
As I was growing up we had 40 Hours Devotion. Even as a child you couldn't miss His Presence and the peace. To me Eucharistic Adoration is the perfect prayer.
When, in 1234, the army of Frederick II was devastating the valley of Spoleto, the soldiers, preparatory to an assault upon Assisi, scaled the walls of San Damiano by night, spreading terror among the community. Clare, calmly rising from her sick bed, and taking the ciborium from the little chapel adjoining her cell, proceeded to face the invaders at an open window against which they had already placed a ladder. It is related that, as she raised the Blessed Sacrament on high, the soldiers who were about to enter the monastery fell backward as if dazzled, and the others who were ready to follow them took flight. It is with reference to this incident that St. Clare is generally represented in art bearing a ciborium.
The early Church Fathers interpreted these passages literally. In summarizing the early Fathers teachings on Christs Real Presence, renowned Protestant historian of the early Church J. N. D. Kelly, writes: "Eucharistic teaching, it should be understood at the outset, was in general unquestioningly realist, i.e., the consecrated bread and wine were taken to be, and were treated and designated as, the Saviors body and blood" (Early Christian Doctrines, 440).
From the Churchs early days, the Fathers referred to Christs presence in the Eucharist. Kelly writes: "Ignatius roundly declares that . . . [t]he bread is the flesh of Jesus, the cup his blood. Clearly he intends this realism to be taken strictly, for he makes it the basis of his argument against the Docetists denial of the reality of Christs body. . . . Irenaeus teaches that the bread and wine are really the Lords body and blood. His witness is, indeed, all the more impressive because he produces it quite incidentally while refuting the Gnostic and Docetic rejection of the Lords real humanity" (ibid., 19798).
"Hippolytus speaks of the body and the blood through which the Church is saved, and Tertullian regularly describes the bread as the Lords body. The converted pagan, he remarks, feeds on the richness of the Lords body, that is, on the Eucharist. The realism of his theology comes to light in the argument, based on the intimate relation of body and soul, that just as in baptism the body is washed with water so that the soul may be cleansed, so in the Eucharist the flesh feeds upon Christs body and blood so that the soul may be filled with God. Clearly his assumption is that the Saviors body and blood are as real as the baptismal water. Cyprians attitude is similar. Lapsed Christians who claim communion without doing penance, he declares, do violence to his body and blood, a sin more heinous against the Lord with their hands and mouths than when they denied him. Later he expatiates on the terrifying consequences of profaning the sacrament, and the stories he tells confirm that he took the Real Presence literally" (ibid., 21112).
"Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. . . . They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes" (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6:27:1 [A.D. 110]).
"He has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be his own blood, from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, he has established as his own body, from which he gives increase unto our bodies. When, therefore, the mixed cup [wine and water] and the baked bread receives the Word of God and becomes the Eucharist, the body of Christ, and from these the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they say that the flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of God, which is eternal lifeflesh which is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord, and is in fact a member of him?" (ibid., 5:2).
"Do not, therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that; for they are, according to the Masters declaration, the body and blood of Christ. Even though the senses suggest to you the other, let faith make you firm. Do not judge in this matter by taste, but be fully assured by the faith, not doubting that you have been deemed worthy of the body and blood of Christ. . . . [Since you are] fully convinced that the apparent bread is not bread, even though it is sensible to the taste, but the body of Christ, and that the apparent wine is not wine, even though the taste would have it so, . . . partake of that bread as something spiritual, and put a cheerful face on your soul" (ibid., 22:6, 9).
"I promised you [new Christians], who have now been baptized, a sermon in which I would explain the sacrament of the Lords Table. . . . That bread which you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. That chalice, or rather, what is in that chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ" (Sermons 227 [A.D. 411]).
...
"What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the body of Christ and the chalice is the blood of Christ. This has been said very briefly, which may perhaps be sufficient for faith; yet faith does not desire instruction" (ibid., 272).
Nice article - and I love that quote from St. Clare. That's one to copy down!
Thank you Salvation. Our parish offers perpetual adoration in the chapel and it is indeed comforting and spiritually fulfilling. I need to do it regularly.
By the way, speaking of adoration for vocations, I know a young man named Ryan who is contemplating a vocation to the priesthood. If anyone reading this thread could pray for him, I'm sure it would help him discern what God intends for his life. Thanks! GG
Excellent article.