We are in the first year of the Eucharistic Revival here in the US and I am blessed to be able to be a small part of the great work that is being done. Reading about the Eucharist has become more than a study for me. It has become a leap for the heart! In the series Moments of Eucharistic Joy, I share just a moment of that heart’s leap with you that we all might find in the Eucharist the absolute joy of our lives.
“The Eucharist, according to the testimony of the holy Fathers, should be regarded as in a manner a continuation and extension of the Incarnation. For in and by it the substance of the incarnate Word is united with individual men” (Pope Leo XIII, Mirae Caritatis, no 7).
This Advent I am not spending my time as if I were waiting for Jesus to come this Christmas. He has come in his Incarnation, and in the Eucharist he abides with us and we in him!
I am not going to pretend that we are still walking in darkness. Christ is the Light of the World, and he has called us to be His Body, His hands, His feet, His voice in the world today!
I am not calling out to him as though he were far away, as distant as the stars. I will rejoice that he is near! He is here! He is within us! One with us! For in and by the Eucharist, the “the substance of the incarnate Word is united” with each of us who receive him.
I am not going to long for him before a nativity creche where the Babe has not yet been laid. I will pour myself out in worship before the Christ in the Eucharist, for the Eucharist is “the continuation and extension of the Incarnation.”
We celebrate in Advent and Christmas, the Incarnation—Christ assumed a human nature to His divine Person. In the Eucharist this same Christ gives himself to each one who receives the Eucharist as nourishment so that we are nourished by His Body, Blood, Soul and divinity. “The Eucharist is the divine means chosen…by which He who took on our humanity gives to us a mysterious share in His divinity, in His divine Life” (Dr. Lawrence Feingold, STD, Associate Professor of Theology and Philosophy Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, Archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri).
Image Credit: Rita Laura, Cathopic
Touching the Sunrise 
Dear Sister Kathryn,
Thank you for your encouraging words!
I love how you’re saying Jesus is already here with us! I never kept the Baby Jesus out of the crèche – He is there when I set up my Nativity.
I recently attended a Mass where after the Mass there was Adoration, then individual Veneration of Our Lord Jesus in the monstrance. This was done in a similar manner to when we venerate the Cross on Good Friday. However, this was done – not in a line of people moving along – but from a quiet line of people, one individual person at a time, approaching the Eucharist alone.
I had never experienced this before. Our Lord was so real to me in the Eucharist. Words are inadequate to explain it really.
If everyone had the opportunity for individual Veneration of the Eucharist, there would be no disbelief of Christ Jesus being present in the Eucharist.
God bless you, Sister, at Christmas and always!
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How powerful! Such a gift to venerate Jesus–risen and here–in the monstrance! Blessed Christmas to you!
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