The Eucharist is life-giving. An invitation. Encouraging. Transformative. Glorious. We are people of the Eucharist.
God's mercy is stronger than our misery. Helena Kowalska was a 19-year-old Polish girl with a broken heart. She had recently given up on her dream of joining the convent. Her family was against it and she did not have the financial means to enter on her own. A few months later, on a warm summer night, something mysterious happened. Helena was at a dance with her sister. The party was in full swing when a young man asked her to dance. Determined to move forward with her life, Helena walked out on the dance floor, twirled about, and tried to enjoy the moment. But suddenly, the music seemed to stop. The dance faded away, and Helena found herself face-to-face with Jesus. "How long will you keep putting me off?" He said to her. Then, just as quickly as the vision had appeared, it faded away. Helena was understandably shaken and unwilling to continue dancing. She believed that God had closed the door on her dream of entering the convent. But now, with this direct message from Jesus, her assumption was proven wrong. Even though every possible obstacle seemed to be in her way, she left home and found a convent willing to open its doors to her. It was there that Helena became known as Sister Maria Faustina. Before too long, Jesus appeared to Faustina again. And again, and again, to share just one message, mercy. The 20th century was one of the ugliest and deadliest centuries in human history. And right in the middle of it all, Jesus was sharing a message of mercy through Sister Faustina.
In her journal, Sister Faustina wrote, "All grace flows from mercy. And the last hour abounds with mercy for us. Let no one doubt concerning the goodness of God. Even if a person's sins were as dark as night, God's mercy is stronger than our misery. That message of mercy extended in a particular way to the Eucharist. During one of her visions, Jesus told Sister Faustina, "When I come to a human heart in Holy Communion, my hands are full of all kinds of graces, which I want to give to the soul. But souls do not even pay any attention to me. They leave me to myself and busy themselves with other things. Oh, how sad I am that souls do not recognize love. They treat me as a dead object." A dead object, a piece of bread, a cup of wine, dead.
When Jesus walked the earth, He made it clear that reception of His body and blood was not a symbolic ritual, but that in the Eucharist, we indeed receive the real and true presence of God. He reasserted this truth to Sister Faustina. He is alive, not dead. The bread is not bread, but the very life of God sent to you out of love and mercy. In her epic writings about divine mercy, Sister Faustina wrote, "You wanted to stay with us and so you left us yourself in the sacrament of the altar. And you opened wide your mercy to us. You opened an inexhaustible spring of mercy for us, giving us your dearest possession, the blood and water that gushed forth from your heart. He wanted to stay with us. Think about that. Jesus wanted to stay with us. He wanted to be here with you today at this moment in history. By consecrating yourself to the Eucharist, you are becoming an agent of mercy. Beautiful, courageous, loving, transformative, never-ending mercy. Trust, surrender, believe, and receive. We would like to give every Catholic in America a chance to experience this consecration. You can help with that. Become a member of the International Society of the Eucharist today. We will send you a free copy of 33 Days Eucharistic Glory, a copy of the children's version, a copy of the Limited Edition Journal, which includes an amazing Holy Week retreat. Click the button below to learn more. Have a great day. Have an amazing day. Be bold. Be Catholic. And remember, we are people of the Eucharist.
Jesus, I believe that you are truly present
In the most holy sacrament
Of the Eucharist.
Every day, I long for more of you.
I love you above all things.
And I desire to receive you into my soul.
Since I cannot receive you
Sacramentally at this moment
I invite you to come and dwell in my heart.
May the spiritual communion
Increase my desire for the Eucharist.
You are the healer of my soul.
Take the blindness from my eyes.
The deafness from my ears.
The darkness from my mind.
And the hardness from my heart.
Fill me with the grace, wisdom, and courage
To do your will
In all things.
My Lord and my God.
Draw me close to you.
Nearer than ever before.
Amen.
Consecrate America to the Eucharist.
Bye-bye.
Have a great day.
Have a great day.
Have a great day.
Come on.
Have a great day.
Hey, Isabel. One simple way to be mindful of God's presence in the world is to know where the nearest tabernacle is. So while we've got a couple of minutes, I thought we might work on your geography a little.
Sounds good, Dad. You're always coming up with something. Hey,
Isabelle, if I was at a latitude of 35.56 and a longitude of negative 82.66, where would the nearest tabernacle be?
St. Joan of Arc. Candler, North Carolina.