Prayer to Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament

Virgin Immaculate, perfect lover of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, we ask thee to obtain for us the graces we need to become true adorers of our Eucharistic Lord.

Grant us, we beg of thee, to know Jesus better, to love Him more, and to center our lives around the Eucharist, that is, to make our whole life a constant prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and petition to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Amen.

  Pray for us, O Virgin Immaculate, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament. That the Eucharistic Kingdom of Jesus Christ may come among us! (St. Peter Julian Eymard) 

Friday

 

The Mass is a Prayer for Everyone.

We come to Mass not just for ourselves but for the whole world because the world can be a difficult place to live sometimes for many people. So we pray that God might have “Mercy on us all.”

We pray to the Saints for their “Unfailing help.”

We pray for the Peace and Salvation, not just for ourselves but for the whole world.

We pray for the Pope and the bishops as like Moses they lead the Pilgrim Church

We pray for all God’s children “scattered throughout the world.”

And we pray for all our departed brothers and sister, mothers and fathers and friends,

That they might be “admitted to the Kingdom of Heaven,”

As Padre Pio said, “It would be easier for the world to exist without the sun, than without the Mass!”

For it is the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Prayers that are offered that really keep the world going!

Thursday

 

The Mass is a Memorial

As we have Memorial Day to remember the sacrifices others have made for our freedom, so we have the Mass to remember the Sacrifice Jesus made for our Ultimate Freedom. The Freedom from Sin and Death. Sin no longer controls us and Death no longer holds us in the grave.

At the Last Supper Jesus said, “Do this in memory of Me.” Because we can never forget the Sacrifice Jesus made for us and all He taught us. And at every Mass we also remember all of our loved ones who have gone before us, marked with sign of Faith.

Life with all of its demands can cause us to so easily forget what Jesus has done for us and we can fail to make the time to Remember. We forget His teaching and all He said. When we forget Jesus we forget what is most important.

. The Mass therefore is a time of Memories lest we forget Jesus and our family and friends.

Wednesday

 

The Mass is a Meal

The Last Supper, was a Passover Meal where Jesus took Bread and Wine and gave them to his disciples to eat, for His Body is real food and His Blood real drink. Jn. 6:55. And after the resurrection, while on the road to Emmaus Jesus stopped for a meal and revealed Himself in the Breaking of the Bread.

Ever since then Christians have gathered for the Breaking of the Bread. The Altar is a table that is set for a very Sacred Meal.

It is covered it with fine linen, the candles are lit.

There is a paten on which we put the bread and a chalice in which we pour the wine.

At the Offertory we say the prayers of blessing before the Meal.

At the Consecration the the Meal becomes the Bread of Life and the Chalice of Salvation

And at Communion the congregation is fed with the spiritual food from Heaven so that while on earth we can share in the Supper of the Lamb in Heaven.

Tuesday

 

The Mass is a Sacrifice

The Sacrifice of Calvary and the Sacrifice of the Mass are ONE AND THE SAME!

Only made present to us differently. One Historically and the other Sacramentally.

At the Last Supper, before He died on the cross, Jesus made the Sacrifice of Calvary present to His Disciples Sacramentally as he “Gave them His Body” in the Bread and “Poured out His Blood” in the Cup of the Covenant. The Same Body He would give on Calvary and the Same Blood He would shed.

At every Mass, The altar is the cross on which the Body of Christ is laid and His blood is poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

At every Mass, we are Sacramentally standing at the SAME Cross, sharing in the SAME Sacrifice; the SAME Blood is being poured over us and we are experiencing our own personal Redemption and Salvation.

Monday

 

The Mass is a Thanksgiving.

At the Last Supper, Jesus took the Bread and Wine and gave Thanks. Ever since then every Mass has been a Thanksgiving. That is why the Mass is known as the Eucharistic Liturgy. Eucharist is a Greek word which means “To give Thanks;”

The primary reason therefore for coming to Church is not “to get” something but “to give” something. To Give Thanks to God for all His blessings.

We give Thanks for the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, Who sacrificed Himself for us, freed us from sin and opened up the gates of Paradise to Eternal life for us.

And we also give Thanks for blessings we have received such in our life and the past week.

And yet in our giving Thanks, we still Get more than we Give, for we receive the very Body and Blood of Christ. So it is right and just, to always and everywhere give Thanks to God.

Corpus Christi

 There I was!

Sitting in a little French kitchen,

On a small wooden chair

Sipping a glass of coke with my elbows on a red checkered plastic tablecloth. 

Thousands of miles from home and family and friends. 

I had already spent 5 days listening to French and not understanding a single word of it. 

I had just gotten back from the grotto at Lourdes. 

And as I watched all types of people young and old,

In wheelchairs, on crutches and laying on stretchers;

And others carrying gallons of Lourdes Water in each hand walk by,

While others were kneeling to pray or standing in line to touch the stone of the grotto,

I looked up at the night sky

And the steeples of the basilica,

Marveling on why Our Lady brought me here. 

Wondering what Lourdes would look like in 40 yrs;

Knowing that I would probably not be around in 40yrs to see. 

And in the quiet of the moment,

All alone in a foreign land.....

I began to reminisce on my life. 

It is so hard to do at home,

Because the treadmill of life is moving so fast

That one does not have the time to reflect and reminisce 

Or else one might fall off that treadmill!

And so Lourdes slowed me down. 

There were no family or friends. 

I slept in a strange bed,

Ate strange food;

And listened to a strange language. 

There was no TV or radio

No junk food in the kitchen

The only familiar things I had was what fit in my suitcase.....

A few clothes and some Neil Diamond and John Denver CDs. 

It was in this strangeness and nothingness,

That God began to speak to me. 

We often wonder why God does speak to us. 

Oftentimes it is because our lives are too busy and too crowded to hear Him. 

So as I sat in that little French kitchen,

I reflected on this Gospel passage. 

A passage that I had heard a hundred times and had to preach on half as many times. 

And I began to see what Jesus was trying to say. 

For the Pharisees the Law was Life. 

Following every dot and dash of it. 

This was life for them. 

For the Zealots,

Life was overthrowing the Romans. 

Killing as many as possible. 

Driving them from their land. 

This was life for them. 

For the tax collectors,

It was money. 

Taxing the rich and the poor. 

Anyone they could,

For as much as they could. 

That was life for them. 

And the Prostitutes?

Selling themselves to anyone who came along.

That was life for them. 

And Jesus looked at these people. 

He looked at their lives and what they were living for and He said. 

I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE!

whoever eats the Bread that I give them will have life......

REAL LIFE. 

For My Flesh is Real Food and My Blood is Real Drink. 

And whoever eats My Body and drinks My Blood will live forever. 

We know what life was like for the Pharisees and Zealots, and tax collectors and prostitutes. 

What is life for us?

Work,work,work?

Television and junk food?

Loneliness and bitterness?

Broken homes and broken hearts?

Chasing the latest sales and hottest fashions?

There is only one place to find REAL LIFE. 

And that is in the Eucharist.....

The Bread of Life!

Everything else takes life;

Somethings faster than others.....

But they take it just the same. 

And Jesus looks at each one of us. 

At the lives we are living, 

and the deaths we are dying;

And the tears we are crying. 

And He says,

I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE!