What I learned From a Muslim about Eucharistic Adoration

CERC ^ | Peter Kreeft

[EODGUY]

"Christ is not relative to Heaven, Heaven is relative to Christ. So Christ is not in Heaven, Heaven is in Christ, Heaven is wherever Christ is. And Christ is still here, in the Church and especially in the Eucharist. If you want to understand the Church, you have to see her as primarily a Heavenly reality."

This is one of the most brilliant and inspiring excerpts of the entire article.

Thank you for the ping.

God bless,

EODGUY

[onedoug]

Thanks you for another fascinating flag.

The Eucharistic Pesach ceder as prophecy lends itself wonderfully as well to the culimination of Jesus' rabbinic tradition in the sacrifice of himself so that others might live such an example, and hence be saved.

[Straight Vermonter]

Our parish has 24/7 Eucharistic Adoration. My understanding is that attendance is flagging, and my wife and I have been thinking that perhaps we might be called to an hour a week.

I am not the most devout Catholic in the world but I have found adoration to be a life altering experience. I first began doing it because my parish was not able to find people to do it at 2am. Since I go into work at 3am I didn't have a very good excuse NOT to do it. I hope you will find the time to start attending adoration.

[SuziQ]

If Kreeft honestly thinks that BC is one of the top "Catholic universities in America" then he's in as much trouble as his students.

But Peter Kreeft is correct. BC, along with Notre Dame, Fordham, Holy Cross and Providence College are among the nation's top Catholic Colleges. The unfortunate thing is that the colleges are no longer strongly Catholic in the campus life for their students. There are teachers at each college who are trying very hard to keep it real, but the Administrations and many professors weenie out and go for the secular in the belief that they'll be more accepted in the mainstream. And the parents of students going to those colleges do not demand anything different, and are willing to accept the watered down Catholicism on those campuses.

[SuziQ]

This is a terrific article. I've forwarded it to our Parish priests (we have Adoration on Fridays) and to my brother-in-law whose Parish has Perpetual Adoration.

[ELS]

His body may be frail, but his mind is as sharp as a tack.

Yes, I look forward to reading his encyclical on the Eucharist.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Thanks for posting that. (#77)

What needs to happen is a change in seminary training and at Catholic colleges, universities, and high schools in terms of liturgical attitudes and practices. We need a restoration of reverence, solemnity, and dignity at Mass throughout the Church's institutions. Benediction and Perpetual Adoration are good ways to get the ball rolling, so to speak.

[JMJ333]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"a top Catholic university"

I think it depends on what we mean by each word - ("top" - "Catholic" - "university"). If one is speaking in the colloquial, popular-mediocre American-style of prestige discourse, along the lines of U.S. News & World Report or The Princeton Review, the statement might be interpreted as not entirely absurd. If one is trying to get to a more intellectually serious and scholarly "Catholic" point of view, there's plenty of room for debate about what exactly it is that happens at BC or any other of the Jesuit colleges and universities in the U.S.

Talking about any university in the U.S. (Catholic or otherwise) as a "top university" engages one in a certain amount of equivocation, hyberbole, exaggeration, ambiguity, and distortion. They are all influenced by liberalism, political correctness, and various other highly absurd secular ideologies as well as the various philistinisms that contemporary teenagers bring from their parochial Bobo suburban wastelands and which their professors bring from their Gramscian postmodern graduate school safaris. All American universities and colleges suffer from the tyrannical and moronizing influence the NEA and the Demosocialists exercise over mass, secular public education in the U.S. The subcultures of the high schools influence what happens in the colleges.

Talking about BC as a "top Catholic university" does not escape from all of these modern American phenomena. It is a purely a comparative proposition limited by the banalities of the existing academic subcultures. As if having a lot of profs. with Harvard and Yale grad degrees is really some sort of prize. [irony alert] It's comparable to Georgetown and Notre Dame, yes. What that means in terms of authentic "Catholicism," well... At least Mary Daly is no longer actively haunting the hallways.

[JMJ333]

Meditating on the Sorrows of the Eucharistic Jesus

The quotations below are taken from Divine Mercy in My Soul: The Diary of Blessed Sr. M. Faustina Kowalska (Stockbridge, MA: Marian Press, 1987). [Bl. Sr. Faustina was pronounced a universal Saint of the Church by Pope John Paul II on April 30, 2000.]

(1) Jesus living and waiting daily in the Tabernacle is being forgotten and abandoned by the vast majority of humanity, including Christians, for whom He has come.

Jesus said to Sr. Faustina: "My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls, and especially poor sinners… For whom I dwell in the tabernacle as King of Mercy. I desire to bestow My graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them. Oh, how indifferent are souls to so much goodness, to so many proofs of love! My Heart drinks only of the ingratitude and forgetfulness of souls living in the world. They have time for everything, but they have no time to come to Me for graces." (paragraph 367) "See, I have left My heavenly throne to become united with you [souls]." (paragraph 1810) "In return for My blessings, I get ingratitude. In return for My love, I get forgetfulness and indifference. My Heart cannot bear this." (1537)

Prayer after each sorrow: O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving, be every moment Thine!

(2) Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is being received in a great hurry, indifference and tepidity of heart by countless souls.

The Lord said: "But I want to tell you that eternal life must begin already here on earth through Holy Communion. Each Holy Communion makes you more capable of communing with God throughout eternity." (1811) "It pains Me very much when religious souls receive the Sacrament of love merely out of habit, as if they did not distinguish this food. I find neither faith nor love in their hearts. I go to such souls with great reluctance. It would be better if they did not receive Me." (1288) "Know, My daughter, that you caused Me more sorrow by not uniting yourself with Me in Holy Communion than you did by that small transgression." (612)

(3) Jesus is painfully wounded by our ingratitude and infidelity.

Jesus told Sr. Faustina: "Ingratitude in return for so many graces is My Heart's constant food… Their love is lukewarm, and My Heart cannot hear it; these souls force Me to reject them… This distrust of My goodness hurts Me very much… They use My graces to offend Me." (580) "The infidelity of a soul specially chosen by Me wounds My Heart most painfully. Such infidelities are swords which pierce My Heart." (367) However, "I commune with your soul in such an intimate manner because you do not steal My gifts, and this is why I pour all these graces upon your soul… You will not hoard them for yourself." (1069)

(4) The real presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is being explained away rationally by both non-Christians and Christians. In a recent poll, only about 30% of the Catholics in North America believe in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Jesus moaned: "Oh, how painful it is to Me that souls seldom unite themselves to Me in Holy Communion. I wait for souls, and they are indifferent toward Me. I love them tenderly and sincerely, and they distrust Me. I want to lavish My graces on them, and they do not want to accept them. They treat Me as a dead object, whereas My Heart is full of love and mercy." (1447) "Oh, how sad I am that souls do not recognize Love! They treat Me as a dead object." (1385)

(5) Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is being received in venial and mortal sins by many chosen souls.

Jesus said, "I am more deeply wounded by the small imperfections of chosen souls than by the sins of those living in the world." (580) "The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through." (1702) "My daughter, I want to repose in your heart, because many souls have thrown Me out of their hearts today. I have experienced sorrow unto death." (886) "My daughter, know without doubt, and once and for all, that only mortal sin drives Me out of a soul, and nothing else." (1181) "I [Sr. Faustina] felt within my soul, a great disgust for sin." (866)

(6) Jesus is unspeakably mistreated by us.

"Souls without love and without devotion, souls full of egoism and self-love, souls full of pride and arrogance, souls full of deceit and hypocrisy… There is neither penance nor atonement. O heart, which received Me in the morning and at noon are all ablaze with hatred against Me, hatred of all sorts! O heart… chosen by Me, were you chosen for this, to give Me more pain?" (1702) "Jesus gave me to know in detail the gravity of the malice of these ungrateful souls: You see, this is a torture greater than My death." (445)

(7) Eucharistic Jesus sees priceless souls perishing in sins and into Hell.

"There are souls who despise My graces as well as all the proofs of My love. They do not wish to hear My call, but proceed into the abyss of hell. The loss of these souls plunges Me into deadly sorrow. God though I am, I cannot help such a soul because it scorns Me; having a free will, it can spurn Me or love Me. You, who are the dispenser of My mercy, tell all the world about My good, and thus you will comfort My Heart." (580) "Oh, if sinners knew My mercy, they would not perish in such great numbers. Tell sinful souls not to be afraid to approach Me; speak to them of My great mercy." (1396) "The loss of each soul plunges Me into mortal sadness… The prayer most pleasing to Me is prayer for the conversion for sinners." (1397) "I want adoration to take place… for the intention of imploring mercy for the world." (1070)

[JMJ333]

"The Angel of th Eucharist," by St Therese of Lisieux

Gaze on, dear Angel, heavenward flown,
Gaze, while our King ascends on high;
But I, to seek His altar throne,
Down to the distant earth will fly.
Veiled in His Eucharist I see
The Almighty Lord, the Undefiled,
The Master of all things that be,
More tiny than the humblest child.

Here will I dwell in this blest place,
The sanctuary of my King;
And here, before His veiled Face,
My hymns of ardent love will sing.
Here, to my heaven strung angel lyre,
My praise I'll chant, by night, by day,
To Him, the Feast for saint's desire,
To Him, the sinner's Hope and Stay.

Would that by miracle, I too
Could feed upon this heavenly Bread;
Could taste that Blood forever new,
That Blood which was for all men shed!
At least, with some pure longing soul,
I'll share my fires of love divine,
That so, all fearless, glad and whole,
It may approach its Lord and mine.

[RobbyS]

Go for the secular in the belief that they'll be more accepted in the mainstream.

JFK Catholics?

[SuziQ]

JFK Catholics?

You got it! Massachusetts (and the entire Northeast, it seems) is LOUSY with them!

[johniegrad]

From the treatise “On the Mysteries” by Saint Ambrose, bishop
(Nn. 43, 47-49, SC bis, 178-180, 182)

To the newly baptized on the Eucharist

Fresh from the waters and resplendent in these garments, God’s holy people hasten to the altar of Christ, saying: I will go in to the altar of God, to God who give joy to my youth. They have sloughed off the old skin of error, their youth renewed like an eagle’s, and they make haste to approach that heavenly banquet. They come and, seeing the sacred altar prepared, cry out: You have prepared a table in my sight. David puts these words into their mouths; The Lord is my shepherd and nothing will be lacking to me. He has set me down there in a place of pasture. He has brought me beside refreshing water. Further on, we read; For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I shall not be afraid of evils, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff have given me comfort. You have prepared in my sight a table against those who afflict me. You have made my head rich in oil, and your cup, which exhilarates, how excellent it is.

It is wonderful that God rained manna on our fathers and they were fed with daily food from heaven. And so it is written; Man ate the bread of angels. Yet those who ate that bread all died in the desert. But the food that you receive, that living bread which came down from heaven, supplies the very substance of eternal life, and whoever will eat it will never die, for it is the body of Christ.

Consider now which is the more excellent; the bread of angels or the flesh of Christ, which is indeed the body that gives life. The first was manna from heaven, the second is above the heavens. One was of heaven, the other is of the Lord of the heavens; one subject to corruption if it was kept till the morrow, the other free from all corruption, for if anyone tastes of it with reverence he will be incapable of corruption. For our fathers, water flowed from the rock; for you, blood flows from Christ. Water satisfied their thirst for a time; blood cleanses you for ever. The Jew drinks and still thirsts, but when you drink you will be incapable of thirst. What happened in symbol is now fulfilled in reality.

If what you marvel at is a shadow, how great is the reality whose very shadow you marvel at. Listen to this, which shows that what happened in the time of our fathers was but a shadow. They drank, it is written, from the rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. All this took place as a symbol for us. You know now what is more excellent; light is preferable to its shadow, reality to symbol, the body of the Giver to the manna he gave from heaven.

[JMJ333]

Thanks! I appreciate your contribution!

[ELS]

Thanks for posting that. I'll have to add that book to my list of saints' writings to read.

(4) The real presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is being explained away rationally by both non-Christians and Christians. In a recent poll, only about 30% of the Catholics in North America believe in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

[Siobhan]

[dsc]

Ever have a mystical experience during those times?

[Straight Vermonter]

Not exactly mystical. Since I have always been more of a "frequent prayer" than a "lengthy prayer" person this was a new experience for me. I find that I can find a higher level of connection with the lord at these times than is ordinarily possible for me. Not sure if that answere your question.

Thanks for digging up this old thread.

[Salvation]

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