Some of us, maybe, are deterred from visiting our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament by a false conception of what a visit should be. We suppose that the occupations which fill our heads and our hands from morning till night must all be laid aside at the church door and sternly forbidden entrance, much in the same way as we bid our dog lie down in the porch and wait for us.
There will be no more visitors for Me today, none through the long hours of the night. Stay with Me because it is towards evening.
“Can you come after Me by taking up your cross daily— the cross I have laid upon you to liken you to Myself?”
We are called to give everything, without holding back. Sometimes it’s hard to comprehend the lengths to which we are asked to extend ourselves. Perhaps the quotes below will help to inspire you to desire the love that He desires for you; if not, perhaps at the very least they will provoke a deeper reflection of your Christian vocation.
Do this for me, O dearest Lord. Praise does not come easily to these lips of mine. The cares of life, and its failures, and its pains; heaviness of soul, and the weight of the corruptible body, with all the engrossingness of self, wring my heart dry of praise.
He wants our intercourse with Him to be perfectly free; nothing studied, nothing strained. He desires to have us as we are, no less than as we would be.
The custom of honouring the Eucharistic presence of Christ our Lord by paying “Visits” to the Blessed Sacrament may be quoted as one of the most conspicuous examples of development in the devotional practice of the Catholic Church.
As you make preparations for Lent, perhaps you plan to carve out some time for Eucharistic Adoration. If so, we invite you to join us in reading a wonderful book by Mother Mary Loyola.
This week, during the Sacred Triduum, the Church invites you to participate in the very mysteries that merited salvation for you and for all.
As Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum fast approach, we cannot relax our efforts to rend our hearts. Ultimately, it is God who will work the grace of His Death and Resurrection in us, breaking our hearts of stone in order to give us hearts that live (cf. Ezekiel 36:26).
