The Holy Eucharist: Did You Know?

We as Catholic Christians possess a great treasure. No other denomination has been given so great a gift. This treasure is the Living God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus, who is TRULY present to us in the Holy Eucharist.

Recently, a Pew Poll found that 70% of Catholics and 80% of young Catholics do not believe in the Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. This weekly treatise will be an effort to delve more deeply into this “Mystery of Mysteries”.

We shall explore why the Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the Eucharist as “The Living Heart of the Church” and why Vatican II pronounced the Eucharist to be “The Source and Summit of the Christian Life”.  We’ll look at the graces we receive in Holy Communion.  What happens to us when we come to Mass and receive the Sacred Host. What are the eternal promises that Christ as made to those who receive Him in this Sacrament? And we shall also examine the insights which the Saints were given into the mystic realities of the Blessed Sacrament.
St. Jerome said that “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”  Perhaps ignorance of the Holy Eucharist is also ignorance of Christ….and on a most profound level. This series will hopefully enhance our love, gratitude and appreciation for this most gracious gift of Divine love.

November 27, 2022
This week’s theme:  Stay awake to Whom is Present in the Eucharist
As we begin Advent, our Mass readings emphasis the necessity of staying awake to the realities of the spiritual. As we begin our preparation for the Birth of Christ, let us strive to be more conscious of the great gift of the Incarnation: the hypostatic union of God and man in Jesus. Let us also “stay awake” whenever we receive Holy Communion and realize who is truly present to us in the consecrated Host.

Reflection: This Advent as we approach the altar to receive Holy Communion, let us take time and try to prepare for the reception of this sublime gift. Let us try to grow in goodness and grace during Advent. The Blessed Sacrament is after all the of the continuation of the Incarnation among us. In the words of St. Ephraem, “We have the chalice of your Precious Blood, filled with life and light. The purer we are, the more we receive.”

November 20, 2022
This week’s theme:  Christ, Our Eucharistic King of the Universe
Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King of the Universe. It is good to recall that we “…were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ.” (1 PT 1:18-19). He is the Beginning and the End of all that is created. Everything has been created through Him, for Him and in Him. All majesty, all thanksgiving and all glory are His.

Reflection: We know that Our Blessed Mother promised the three children of Fatima that “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” What will be the Triumph of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart? It will be the Reign of Jesus’ Sacred Eucharistic Heart. For thus all nations will adore His Divine Presence in the Holy Eucharist.  Peace and harmony will then flourish, and mankind will truly become united in the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

PREVIOUS WEEKS:
November 13, 2022
This week’s theme:  The  Eucharistic Prince of Peace
In today’s Gospel from St. Luke 21:5-19 Jesus speaks of the end times. This is an appropriate reading since we are approaching the end of the liturgical year and begin to anticipate Advent later this month.
The prophetic words that Jesus speaks today can be very troubling. However, we should not give in to fear. As St. Padre Pio wrote, “Always remain close to the Catholic Church, because it alone can give you true peace, since it alone posses Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the true Prince of Peace.”

Reflection: To have true peace of heart, mind, body and soul is to possess an intimate personal relationship with Our Lord. We can find no easier pathway to peace than in the reverent reception of the truly present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ,  which Jesus lovingly offers to us in His Blessed Sacrament.

November 6, 2022
This week’s theme: The Eucharist and the Transcendent
Our Lord teaches us in today’s Gospel that in Heaven we shall live “like angels” and “be children of God”.
(Luke 20:27-38) Our Lord gives us the opportunity to worthily receive Him in the Blessed Sacrament so that we may already here on Earth share in “the foretaste and the promise of the Pascal Feast of Heaven.”
St Jean Vianney wrote that if “The angels could envy us one thing, it would be our ability to receive Jesus in Holy Communion.”

Reflection:  We should always keep in mind that there is a transcendent aspect present in the seven Sacraments. There is both the imminent and the transcendent present.  In the Holy Eucharist the imminent is the Sacred, consecrated Host which we see, touch and consume. The transcendent is what lies beyond our senses in the spiritual realm yet is just as real.  We should be open to an encounter with that transcendence.  The spiritual intimacy and love which Christ offers us, when we are in union with Him after Holy Communion, has a heavenly aspect which can lead us to a more profound experience of the reality of the spiritual.
As Bishop Robert Barron stated, we should strive to, “Treasure the transcendent”.

October 30, 2022
This week’s theme:  The Precious Blood of Jesus and the Holy Souls in Purgatory
St. Gertrude the Great was given the following prayer by God in a mystical vision. She was told that it would release many souls from Purgatory.  “Eternal Father, I offer You the Most Precious Blood of Your Divine Son, Jesus, in union with all of the Masses said throughout the world this day for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.”
Please note that it is the Blood of Christ and the Holy Mass, which is so efficacious that souls will be released from their suffering and gain the glory of heaven.

Reflection: This coming week on November 2^nd we officially remember our dearly beloved departed family members and friends. We should strive to pray for them during Mass and ask that Our Lord’s Most Precious Blood in the Holy Eucharist gain for them the joys of heaven.

October 23, 2022
This week’s theme:  Bearing Good Fruit
Today’s Gospel calls us to repentance and reminds us of the barren fig tree. (Luke 13: 1-9) Here we find a wonderful example of God’s merciful patience with each of us. The Holy Spirit is the sanctifier of our souls. Have you ever considered how patient God is in working within each soul to bring us to salvation? In order to produce “good fruit”, we need to become more Christlike. The Holy Eucharist was given to us by Our Lord to accomplish this transformation.

Reflection:  St. Peter Julian Eymard wrote, “Jesus has prepared not just one Host, but one for everyday of our life. The Hosts are ready. Let us not forfeit even one of them.” This saint understood the great value of Holy Communion. He knew that the principal fruit of receiving Holy Communion is our intimate union with Christ.
Through this union Jesus enables us to produce the good fruits of a Christian life including the practice of  the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.

October 16, 2022
This week’s theme:  Prayer and Faith in the Holy Eucharist
Jesus exhorts us in the Gospel this week not to lose Faith and to continue to pray always. (Luke 18:1-8). Our Lord closes this parable of the widow and the unjust judge with the words, “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” Such a sad statement!

Reflection:  We know that the Pew Pole has documented that only 30% of Catholics believe in the true Presence of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Some do not understand that the Mass is the most intense encounter between us and Our Lord that is possible this side of heaven. Some have never developed a personal relationship with Christ. To do this, prayer is needed. How important is prayer to you? St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “Love to pray. Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of Himself.”

October 9, 2022
This week’s theme: Profound Appreciation
The familiar story in today’s Gospel of Jesus healing the ten lepers (Luke 17: 11-19) gives us an insight into how profoundly thankful we should be for all our blessings. And as Catholic Christians we should be especially thankful for the Holy Eucharist.  Just as one leper returned to give praise, honor, worship and thanksgiving to Jesus for having healed him, so should we too do the same.

Reflection:  The story is told of Bishop Sheen’s travels with a Protestant Minister on a bus. As they passed a Catholic Church, Bishop Sheen made the sign of the Cross. The Minister asked him why. Bishop Sheen explained that the Church’s tabernacle contained the Living Presence of Jesus. The Minister responded, “If I believed what you believe, I would enter that church, prostrate myself and never stop adoring Christ.”
What is your response after your reception of Holy Communion, since Jesus has just come to dwell within your very being with His healing, merciful, loving graces?

October 2, 2022
This week’s theme:  Holy Communion: The Source of Our Goodness
We celebrate the Feast Day of St. Faustina, the Apostle of Divine Mercy, this coming week on October 5^th. She had a great devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Faustina attributed everything that was good in her soul to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. She wrote in her diary, “Whatever is good within me is because of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.”

Reflection:  Reflect upon the last words of today’s Gospel from Luke 17:10, “So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say ‘We are worthless slaves; we have only done what we ought to have done.”  We can appreciate why St. Faustina attributed everything positive and good to Jesus Eucharistic. Because of the Incarnation an abundance of grace flows to us. Whatever we accomplish as followers of Christ is due to that grace.  It is God’s grace which enables us to live our lives and become Christ to others.

September 25, 2022
This week’s theme: The Importance of Receiving Holy Communion
There are two different saints quoted here this week.
St. Teresa of Calcutta taught, “We must not separate ourselves from The Eucharist. The moment we do so, something shatters.” St. John Vianney penned, “Not to go to Communion is like someone dying of thirst beside a spring.”
Reflection:  Both saints are emphasizing the tremendous value of the worthy reception of Jesus in Holy Communion.  What is “shattering” is the precious, loving bond of grace between us and our Loving God. We spiritually die by choosing to live apart from God, when we chose serious sin. To receive Jesus worthily, we must be in the state of grace with no serious, mortal sin unconfessed. When was the last time you received the sacrament of penance? Why not come home to the loving embrace of Jesus, who is passionately longing for you to return to Him?

September 18, 2022
This week’s theme: Battle Fatigue
There was a recent news story about some in the secular media calling the Holy Rosary an instrument of violence and terrorism against society. A Catholic artist published a cartoon showing a caricature of “Dirty Harry”, who was holding a rosary up to a cowering figure of Satan with the caption, “Go ahead. Make my day!”.
YES indeed! The rosary is our weapon for the battle against evil, as was proclaimed by Our Blessed Mother, St. Pio and Pope St. John Paul II among many other saints.

Reflection:  Are you praying the rosary daily? Perhaps what is needed is a spark to light our hearts on fire with a love for Our Lady and her daily rosary request for world peace. If you need some inspiration, please consider the words of St. John Damascene, “The Eucharist is a fire which inflames us.” Why not turn to Jesus in prayer after Holy Communion and ask for this grace, which will so please His Mother.

September 11, 2022
This week’s theme: Adoration and Prayers for the World
We are all familiar with the parable of the Lost Son in today’s Gospel. (Luke 15: 1-32)
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could reach out and touch each lost soul with Divine grace and cause them to return to the arms of Our Loving Heavenly Father?

Reflection:  Are you aware that Jesus made such a promise to St. Faustina, as recorded in her writings, “The Diary of Saint Faustina”? He promised that for every hour a person spends in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, He would give a grace to EACH SOUL in the WORLD!
Pope St. John Paul II confirms this outpouring of Christ’s Mercy in the Holy Eucharist. He wrote, “Anyone who prays to the Savior (before the Blessed Sacrament) draws the whole world with hm and raises it to God.”  When was the last time that you stopped in for a visit to Jesus Eucharistic present to us and for us in the tabernacle of every Catholic church?

September 4, 2022

This week’s theme: The tender graces of the Eucharist
“If I can give you any advice, I beg you to get closer to the Eucharist and to Jesus. We must pray to Jesus to give us that tenderness of the Eucharist.” St. Teresa of Calcutta

Reflection:  In today’s Gospel Luke 14:25-33 we see Jesus using the image of constructing a tower and the calculations that are needed to accomplish the task. This is a symbol of how we need to prepare to accomplish the task of following Jesus in our lives.
Where can we find the riches of grace, which will enable us to do this?  St. Teresa’s quote above answers that question: It is in the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.  To live the Gospel, we must have a true tenderness of heart towards others. Recently Father McHugh gave a homily at daily Mass. He described the Christian Faith as being “an interior Faith from the heart”.  i.e. What pours out from our hearts generates our actions.
As Blessed Pope Paul VI commented, “Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the LIVING HEART of each of our parishes.” Currently we especially need to recognize that Christ is truly present to us in the tabernacle to teach us love, kindness , compassion and tenderness of heart to all whom we meet each day.