Blessed Henry Suso, O.P. and the Eucharist

Today we remember Blessed Henry Suso, O.P. (1290-1365) a German Dominican priest, mystic and spiritual writer.

Some suggest that it is difficult to separate fact from fiction when discussing  this gifted Friar. He had as many critics as he did followers. There is a brief but interesting account of his life in Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P.'s classic St. Dominic's Family - Lives of over 300 Famous Dominicans. You can also get a glimpse into his life and writings at New Advent.

His best known work, A Little Book of Eternal Wisdom, is one well worth reading and pondering. Here is a Eucharistic prayer from that book for your use and reflection:

A Prayer to be Said When Thou Goest To Receive Our Lord (Image Source:Willing Shepherds.org) O Thou living fruit, Thou sweet blossom, Thou delicious paradise apple of the blooming fatherly heart, Thou sweet vine of Cyprus in the vineyard of Engaddi, who will give me to receive Thee so worthily this day that Thou shalt desire to come to me, to dwell with me, and never to separate from me!

Eucharistic Reflection - An Encounter with Christ

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

“[Our] Eucharistic Encounter with Christ in Holy Communion is that apex moment of union with God within which Christ opens Himself fully to us and we respond, each in our own degree of readiness to receive Him. All other moments of our days find their full significance at the moment of Eucharistic Communion. It is at this moment that our quality of preparation for God’s coming stands revealed for what it is. Without a doubt, we come up wanting in this marvelous exchange with God. He receives our broken humanity and we receive His divinity. Through our Eucharistic union with the Blessed Trinity, our inner poverty is filled with the Eternal riches of our Triune God.”

(From Eucharistic Adoration – Mary, the Mother of the Holy Eucharist by Barbara Jensen)

Eucharistic Reflections - Holy Thursday - I Want My Priests and My People Close to Me to Console Me

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Holy Thursday should be among the most treasured days in our Church as we commemorate and give thanks for the Gift of the Eucharist and the Priesthood.

It must be an occasion for the spiritual re-invigoration of our priests and of all whom they serve.

God is quite clear as to what He expects from His priests! - to make the Eucharist the center of all that they do - all that they do.  This begins and is sustained only by spending time in His Eucharistic Presence, adoring Him, listening to Him and allowing Him to complete their priestly transformation into other Christs,

His expectations and pleadings have not changed over the centuries.  Sadly, He still awaits a universal and affirmative response from many of His priests.

Thank God that through the following two reflections, Father Mark at Vultus Christi has the courage to share those expectations with his brother priests and with us. 

Here are two brief excerpts from each of Father's posts and the links to where you can read them in their entirety.

After pondering these stirring words, will you love your priests enough to get copies of these reflections into their "sacred and venerable" hands? Will you too make the Eucharist the center of all that you do? Will you also come into His Presence? Will you pray unceasingly for the sanctification of our priests?

[Image source: Wikimedia Commons]

Christ’s First Mandate to His Priests - Watch and Prayer With Me

"...I wanted them to understand by this that unless a priest keeps watch and perseveres in prayer, all else will be in vain.He will dispense the substance of My mysteries, but without the sweetness of a heavenly unction, without the fire and light of a personal experience of My Divine Friendship. This is why I beg My priests to become adorers:to begin to keep watch and pray close to Me in he Sacrament of My Love. [Read full post here.]

 

The Night of My Agony and Betrayal 

"The renewal of My priesthood in the Church will begin from the fire of love that blazes in the Sacrament of My Body and Blood. I call all priests to seek My Eucharistic Face and to abide in My presence. I want all My priests to discover My open Heart, My living Heart beating with Love for them,and pouring forth a purifying stream of Blood and of Water for their holiness, and for the life of the world. I summon all My priests into My Eucharistic presence.They must learn that in My company is the fullness of joy. They must discover in the Sacrament of My Love the sweetness and strength of My Divine Friendship...." [Click to read in its entirety.]

Our Lady of the Rosary, Adoration and My Friend Mike

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Today we celebrate the memorial of our Lady of the Rosary, instituted by Pope Pius V. He attributed the naval victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 to the Blessed Mother's intercession after the Christian world sought her aid through the Rosary. The Nashville Dominicans provide an interesting summary of this miraculous event and of Pius V. I encourage you to read their article here.

As a Lay Dominican, I have come to treasure the rosary, contemplating the richness of its mysteries every day.

But I also have a fondness for this particular memorial beyond my love of the rosary. You will understand why after reading about my friend Mike. The article that follows is one of twenty stories from my book, Fleeting Glimpses of the Silly, Sentimental and Sublime:

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist

Christ, Our Passover Lamb

“Our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed”.[i]
“These then are the feasts of Passover, in which is slain the Lamb, the one true Lamb, whose Blood anoints the doorposts of believers.”[ii]
“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God,  who takes away the sin of the world’”.[iii]

For the Jew, Passover was a memorial of God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt, a memorial instituted by God himself.[iv] The Passover Lamb was to be sacrificed the day before the Passover[v].  In the same way, Christ, our Passover Lamb was killed on the day before the Passover.[vi]  After being sacrificed, the Passover Lamb was to be eaten.[vii]

An interesting point here, though, is that at the Last Supper, Christ did not complete the Passover Liturgy, the Seder.  “There is an obligation to drink four cups of wine during the Seder. The Mishnah says (Pes. 10:1) that even the poor are obliged to drink the four cups.”. [viii]

Yet, as observed by Jewish Scholar David Daube, “There is… in Matthew and Mark a reference also to the fourth and last cup of the Passover liturgy. It is contained in the words: ‘I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until I drink it new in my father’s kingdom’ or ‘in the kingdom of God’. The meaning is that the fourth cup will not be taken, as would be the normal thing, at a subsequent stage of the service; it will be postponed till the kingdom is fully established… [In this light,] the notice that ‘when they had sung a hymn they went out into the mount of Olives’ now acquires a fuller sense. The implication is that they go out directly after the ‘hymn’, without drinking the fourth cup and probably also without reciting ‘the blessing of the song’. This portion of the liturgy is postponed till the arrival of the actual, final kingdom.”[ix]

Thus,  the Church Age is an interruption in the Passover meal that Christ celebrated in the Upper Room, and each Eucharist is a sharing in that same meal.  “Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb”[x]

[i] 1 Cor 5:7

[ii] Exultet – Easter Proclamation, Roman Missal, Third Edition.

[iii] John 1:29

[iv] Ex. 12:14

[v] Exodus 12:6

[vi] John 19:14

[vii] Exodus 12:8

[viii]  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_Seder#The_Four_Cups

[ix] David Daube, The New Testament and Rabbinic Judaism (Reprint; Peabody: Hendrickson, 1995 [original 1956]), 330-31., Cited by Dr. Brant Pitre in The Fourth Cup and the New Passover, http://www.brantpitre.com/documents/printable_outlines/fourth_cup.pdf

[x] Rev 19:9

A Reflection On Unrequited Love

We can not get to know another person or develop a loving relationship with that individual unless we spend time with that person. To say that you love someone, but never visit, engage in conversation with or spend time with that person would be to live a lie and deceive yourself.

God is calling each of us to a personal and intimate encounter and relationship with Him.  But how can we experience such a relationship if we do not get to know Him, or spend time with Him, or talk to Him, or lay our burdens before Him, or listen to Him, or trust Him? Just as we could not maintain our physical health by limiting physical nourishment to one hour a week, we are foolish to think that our mere presence in a Church building on Sunday for an hour can create and sustain the type of intimate spiritual relationship God offers and desires with each of us.  

Oh, how He Who is love is not loved in return! He hungers to have you acknowledge His Real Presence in the Eucharist.

He desires to fill you with His peace, comfort and love.  He wants you to come and lay your burdens down before Him.  He wishes to strengthen you in your daily duties, trials and challenges.  He longs to make you like Him and to equip and sustain you as you become more Christ-like to others.

But God will not force Himself on anyone.  Each of us must freely respond to His invitation.

                                   

            So let me ask you: Where does God rate in your life?  How much do you love Him and how important is He to you in your daily and weekly lives?  How much time each week do you think of Him and devote to Him in contrast to the time you spend caring for yourself and family, working, eating, watching television, using the computer, gambling, sleeping, engaging in sports, socializing with friends and families, participating in community programs? 

            Look at the 24 hours in each day and the 168 hours in each week and see how often you have anything to do with Him.  For most of us, I would imagine the answer is not much.  You get the point.

            In many Dioceses of this country, we Catholics are blessed to have Churches in which someone is always present with Our Lord, praying 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.  Remarkable isn’t it? - a life-changing experience for those who (often at great personal sacrifice) spend one specific hour each week in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord; a devotion most pleasing to Him Who is deserving of our worship, adoration and praise; and the source of untold blessings to so many in our families and communities.

            God has blessed our Churches with His Real Presence where He can be worshiped, adored and loved, where He changes, heals and comforts the hearts and souls (and sometimes bodies) of many.  Yet few come to keep Him company or to make reparation to Him for those who do not believe in Him. Where are the courageous prayer warriors willing to get up in the early morning hours to be with Him while the rest of us sleep?  How sad and lonely is Our Lord – so intimately present among us but ignored by the majority of people claiming to love Him. 

            Jesus asked his disciples in Gethsemane, and He is asking each of us right now: “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” What an affront, insult and gesture of ingratitude it would be to such a caring, loving and merciful God if (where it exists) Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration devotions had to be curtailed because so few of His people loved Him enough to be with Him.

Belief in the Real Presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is a gift from God.  No one but He can give it to you.  He will do just that if you trust Him enough to spend time with Him. He awaits you with open and loving arms. If you come to Him with an open heart, He will give you His! That’s His promise!

What are you waiting for?  Consider this a personal invitation from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! He will transform you, your family and the communities in which you worship, live and work.