Q: "What should be the experience of praying for you?" Cardinal Bergoglio: "To my mind, it has to be, in a certain way, an experience of capitulation, of surrender, where all our being enters into God's presence. It is there where dialogue, listening, transformation will be produced, looking at God, but above all feeling looked upon by Him. At times religious experience in prayer is produced, in my case, when I pray vocally the Rosary or the psalms. Or when I celebrate the Eucharist with much joy. But I live the religious experience more when I place myself, for an indefinite time, before the Tabernacle. Sometimes, I fall asleep, letting Him look at me. I feel as if I were in the hands of another, as if God were taking me by the hand. I believe that one has to arrive at the transcendent other-ness of the Lord, who is the Lord of all, but who always respects our freedom." --Rubin-Ambrogetti, El jesuita, p. 51
TRANSFORM US INTO YOU AND STAY WITH US, LORD!
St John Mary Vianney liked to tell his parishioners: "Come to communion.... It is true that you are not worthy of it, but you need it" (Bernard Nodet, Le curé d'Ars. Sa pensée - Son coeur, éd. Xavier Mappus, Paris 1995, p. 119). With the knowledge of being inadequate because of sin, but needful of nourishing ourselves with the love that the Lord offers us in the Eucharistic sacrament, let us renew this evening our faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. We must not take this faith for granted! Today we run the risk of secularization creeping into the Church too. It can be translated into formal and empty Eucharistic worship, into celebrations lacking that heartfelt participation that is expressed in veneration and in respect for the liturgy. The temptation to reduce prayer to superficial, hasty moments, letting ourselves be overpowered by earthly activities and concerns, is always strong. When, in a little while, we recite the Our Father, the prayer par excellence, we will say: "Give us this day our daily bread", thinking of course of the bread of each day for us and for all peoples. But this request contains something deeper. The Greek word epioúsios, that we translate as "daily", could also allude to the "super-stantial" bread, the bread "of the world to come". Some Fathers of the Church saw this as a reference to the Eucharist, the bread of eternal life, the new world, that is already given to us in Holy Mass, so that from this moment the future world may begin within us. With the Eucharist, therefore, Heaven comes down to earth, the future of God enters the present and it is as though time were embraced by divine eternity.
Dear brothers and sisters, as happens every year, at the end of Holy Mass the traditional Eucharistic procession will set out and with prayer and hymns we shall raise a unanimous entreaty to the Lord present in the consecrated host. We shall say, on behalf of the entire City: "Stay with us Jesus, make a gift of yourself and give us the bread that nourishes us for eternal life! Free this world from the poison of evil, violence and hatred that pollute consciences, purify it with the power of your merciful love". "And you, Mary, who were the woman "of the Eucharist' throughout your life, help us to walk united towards the heavenly goal, nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ, the eternal Bread of life and medicine of divine immortality". Amen!
(Benedict XVI, Corpus Christi Procession, 11 May 2009)
Time spent in prayer is never wasted, however urgent the duties that press upon us from every side. Adoration of Christ our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament prolongs and intensifies the union with him that is established through the Eucharistic celebration (cf. Sacramentum Caritatis, 66). Contemplation of the mysteries of the Rosary releases all their saving power and it conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ (cf. Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 11, 15). Fidelity to the Liturgy of the Hours ensures that the whole of our day is sanctified and it continually reminds us of the need to remain focused on doing God’s work, however many pressures and distractions may arise from the task at hand. Thus our devotion helps us to speak and act in persona Christi, to teach, govern and sanctify the faithful in the name of Jesus, to bring his reconciliation, his healing and his love to all his beloved brothers and sisters. This radical configuration to Christ, the Good Shepherd, lies at the heart of our pastoral ministry, and if we open ourselves through prayer to the power of the Spirit, he will give us the gifts we need to carry out our daunting task, so that we need never “be anxious how to speak or what to say” (Mt 10:19).
(Benedict XVI, Homily, Celebration of Vespers with the Bishops, National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Wednesday, 16 April 2008)
(When she was very sick in the hospital, the doctor told one of the priests attending to Mother Teresa the following:)
Father, go home and bring that box to Mother. (The priest didn't know what box he was referring to. Later he realised the doctor was referring to the Tabernacle.) That box, that temple they bring and put in her room and Mother looks at it all the time. If you bring it and put it in the room Mother will become so quiet. When that box is there, in the room, she is just looking and looking and looking at that box.
(Come Be My Light, p 328)
(One of the sisters describes Mother Teresa's devotion to the Eucharist.)
Mother received Holy Communion daily with tremendous devotion. If there happened to be a second Mass celebrated in Mother House on a given day, she would always try to assist at it, even if she were very busy. I would hear her say on such occasions, "How beautiful to have received Jesus twice today." Mother's deep, deep reverence for the Blessed Sacrament was a sign of her profound faith in the Real Presence of Jesus under the appearances of bread and wine. Her adoring attitude, gestures such as genuflections--even on both knees in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed, and that well into old age--her postures such as kneeling and joining hands, her preference for receiving Holy Communion on the tongue all bespoke her faith in the Eucharist.
(In her letter to the Archbishop on 28th January 1948)
How many must we be to have the Blessed Sacrament in our midst?--The work that we will have to do, will be impossible without His continual grace from the tabernacle.--He will have to do everything.--We have just to follow.
Pray for me, please, that I do the things that are pleasing to Him.
(Blessed Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light, p 111)