Merry Christmas to Jesus – The Bread of Life

“You want to progress without Communion? But Christian tradition is against you! No longer say the Our Father, since you ask in that prayer for your daily Bread, the Bread you think to do without!

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(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Without Communion, one is constantly in the heat of the battle. One knows only the difficulties in the acquisition of virtue, not the sweetness of its practice – the joy of working, not simply for oneself and moved solely by the hope of reward, but purely for the glory of God, from love of Him, from affec­tion, like little children. He who receives Communion finds it easy to understand that having received much, he must give a great deal in return. That is piety – intelligent, filial, and lov­ing piety. Besides, even in the severest trials, Communion makes the soul happy, filling it with a tender and loving joy.

The height of perfection is to remain united with God in the midst of the most violent interior temptations, and it is when you are most tempted that God most loves you. Yet, in order that these storms may not overwhelm you, learn to re­turn frequently to the divine fountainhead to renew your strength and to purify yourself more and more in that torrent of grace and love.

Receive Communion therefore! Eat the Bread of Life if you wish to live well, if you wish to obtain sufficient strength for the Christian combat, if you wish to possess happiness even in the thick of misfortune.

The Holy Eucharist is the Bread of the weak and of the strong. To the weak, clearly, it is necessary; but to the strong likewise, since they bear their treasure in fragile vessels and are threatened on every hand by desperate enemies. Let us, then, take care that we have a guard, a sure escort, fortifying food for our journey; thus will Jesus be, our Bread of Life.”

(St. Peter Julian Eymard from How To Get More Out of Holy Communion)

What Does Jesus In The Host Ask of Us?

Eucharistic Lord

“Jesus asks us to imitate Him in His patience and meekness. He tolerates the indifferent who pass Him by without a salutation, the tepid who approach Him without love, the sacrilegious and those who profane Him. For love of Him, let us bear with those whose weary us, those who are ungrateful, those who hurt or offend us.”

(From My Eucharistic Day Rules and Practices Recommended by St. Peter Julian Eymard)

Who Is There?

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Let us remember that He Who is in the Host is the God Who made us, Who has given us everything, Who loves us and Who alone can understand the secrets of our hearts.

Christ the Second person of the Holy Trinity, Who became man.  born of the Virgin Mary, is present. The same Jesus Christ still is with us, really, truly and substantially. He will remain with us till the end of the world.

Jesus is in the Host because He loves us and could not leave us alone on earth, because He knows our miseries and wishes us to be able always to find therein the Heart of a friend, a Heart that will answer to ours…

(From My Eucharistic Day – Rules and Practices Recommend by St. Peter Julain Eymard)

Eucharistic Relection – Stay Near The Sacred Host

elevated host“If among those who read these words there be anyone suffering from painful, inexplicable feelings of which bind the soul, oppressing it and spreading over it profoundest darkness, if there be any one weighted down by weariness or dreadful temptations who feel that they are losing everything – Faith, Love, and Hope – that God Himself seems to be turning from them, that Heaven is closed to them and that death is in their souls, I implore you come to the Host. Throw yourself at His feet and cry out to him, “I have none but You, save me by Your love and by the Wound of your Heart.”

Then abandon yourself to Him, Leave your soul in His hands, as the Canaanite woman confided to Christ her daughter who was possessed of an evil spirit…In His name I say to you: “No, you will not perish…” Never during His mortal life nor in His sacramental state has Jesus repulsed or abandoned anyone who had recourse to Him.

However, terrible the state of your soul may seem to you, however unfortunate or even guilty you may feel, do not shy from Him, do not lose courage but cling to your Jesus even as a drowning man clings to a rope. Stay near the Host for His Heart is ever watchful. Who can tear you away if you not wish to leave? Has He not said, that He himself will be your Defender? Remember His Word has never deceived anyone.

I implore you, do not listen to Satan who wishes to drive you away. Stay with Jesus who is there in the Sacred Host, for from Him even as in the days of His mortal life, there will come forth that powerful virtue which heals and saves.

It is for you that He is there, for you that He offers His Blood, His Wounds, and His Merits. It is when you are there prostrate at His feet, that His Blood flows over your soul, that He covers you with His Merits, that He hides you in His Wounds and in His Heart.

If you but understood the gift of God, if you but knew Him who waits for you all day long even as He waited at the well of Jacob for the Samaritan woman, you would realize that it is there that He has desired to cover you with His protection and His love, it is there that He wishes to be your Savior and your Friend, it is from there that He will come to you in your last hour if you have gone to Him during your life and it is there that He will receive you into His Heart to conduct you to eternal happiness.”

(From My Eucharistic Day: Rules and Practices Recommended by Saint Peter Julian Eymard)