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“Contemplate it…the sanctuary lamp in your church…it is the silent friend of Jesus and of all Eucharistic souls…
Father Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S. – Eucharistic Whisperings)
Tag: Father Winfrid Herbst
Had I Only Known It Was You!
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)
“I recall the strange and touching story of St. Alexis. When he was young he left home and then, because God inspired him to do so, came back to the house of his parents in Rome dressed up like a poor and unknown beggar. There he lived in some miserable old corner of the house for seventeen years; and his parents never knew that it was he.
But when he died they found out. It seems he left a note or something telling them what he had done in penance for his sins, because God wanted him to. How that mother wept when she found out that the beggar was her son. She had missed him so much and had so longed to see him. In agony she cried out: ‘O Alexis, my son! My son Alexis! Had I only known it was you! How I would have loved you and enjoyed your company! Now, alas! it is too late.’
This is a sad story. But I am afraid that if I do not appreciate my Eucharistic Savior here on earth, where He is hidden away in the poor tabernacle, where He is in my very midst and I do not seem to know Him, the time will come, after my death, when I will cry out, seeing His adorable beauty in the life to come: ‘O Jesus, if I had only known it was You! How I would have loved You, Jesus all beautiful!. How I would have enjoyed Your company! Oh, if I had only known!’
But I do know.
Faith tells me.
And I make so little of it…”
(From The Way to God by Father Winfrid Herbst S.D.S.)
It Would Be So Easy…
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“Ah, how it hurts to see in what manner our Savior is treated! There He is in the tabernacle, the Prisoner of Love, waiting for souls to come and visit Him. But who ever gives Him even a thought, one only thought?…It would cause so very little trouble to go to Him…for just a sweet moment. It would be so very easy to cast a tender glance upon that tiny door…to send a loving thought a-speeding towards that tabernacle…to breathe a few whispered words of affection…but, alas! When it comes to doing something for Jesus that something, no matter how small, becomes at once irksome and grievous-so weak are we!”
(Eucharistic Whisperings, Father Winfrid Herbst, SDS)
Eucharistic Reflection-Mendicant Divine
“O my Savior, what a revelation of conscience to me! With hellish insistency Your sworn enemy and mine demands of me each day that I bring him sacrifice, at the cost of virtue!…and alas! It is sadly true that seldom, very seldom, does he not get a bit of impatience, vanity, pride, self-love from me; seldom, very seldom, is it that he fails to entice me to curious glances, uncharitable words, dangerous thoughts, sinful inclinations!
And to You, O God of my soul, to You I refuse the very alms of a prayer, of an act of contrition, of a purpose of amendment!…I dare to refuse You one quarter of an hour’s adoration, the hearing of Holy Mass, the reception of Holy Communion…How lamentably considerate I am as regards my unruly passions; only in Your regard am I inconsiderate and hard of heart!
While In The Presence of Jesus
“In the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I invariably find something that the world always hides from me, namely, knowledge of self. In the light of the Holy Eucharist all my faults and failings and all my sins, past and present, become clear to me; and then from the very depths of my heart there wells up a cleansing, purifying font of sorrow. Oh, how poor and miserable I appear to myself when in the presence of Jesus! And yet how sweet and salutary are the tears that I shed at the sight of transgressions!
If I cannot find it here, then where in the world can I find it – a little patch of earth, I mean, one to be watered by my tears so that thereon the tender blossoms of hope may germ and grow? Who, if not Jesus, can say to me, “Go in peace, thy sins are forgiven thee”?
(Eucharistic Whisperings, Father Winfrid Herbst, SDS)
Don’t Die Of Hunger!
“…Jesus has been the Bread of life for so many centuries, and yet during all those centuries countless souls have died of hunger. Many never knew Him, many never saw Him again once the day of their First Holy Communion was over. Even now there are many who are at once sick and tired of it, not to say disgust
ed, when you begin to speak to Him; many only then make up their minds to receive Him when a threatening voice speaks within them and fills them with fear…So there He is, the God who has loved them from all eternity and Who ceases not to love them now; and He must look upon them while they waste away and die of hunger. He can do nothing for them; their sad indifference repels Him when He would approach, bind those divine hands that would bless and do good. The Savior without souls! Poor Jesus!”
(From Eucharistic Whisperings by Father Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S.)
I Thirst for Your Love! 
