He is waiting for you on the altar

"Go to Jesus. He loves you and is waiting for you to give you many graces. He is on the altar surrounded by angels adoring and praying. Let them make some room for you and join them in doing what they do."

-- St Mary Joseph Rosello, Foundress of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy

The prayer of the church is the prayer of the ever-living Christ

""Through him, with him, and in him in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, for ever and ever." With these solemn words, the priest ends the eucharistic prayer at the center of which is the mysterious event of the consecration. These words at the same time encapsulate the prayer of the church: honor and glory to the triune God through, with, and in Christ. Although the words are directed to the Father, all glorification of the Father is at the same time glorification of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the prayer extols the majesty that the Father imparts to the Son and that both impart to the Holy Spirit from eternity to eternity.

All praise of God is through, with, and in Christ. Through him, because only through Christ does humanity have access to the Father and because his existence as God-man and his work of salvation are the fullest glorification of the Father; with him, because all authentic prayer is the fruit of union with Christ and at the same time buttresses this union, and because in honoring the Son one honors the Father and vice versa; in him, because the praying church is Christ himself, with every individual praying member as a part of his Mystical Body, and because the Father is in the Son and the Son the reflection of the Father, who makes his majesty visible. The dual meanings of through, with, and in clearly express the God-man's mediation.
The prayer of the church is the prayer of the ever-living Christ. Its prototype is Christ's prayer during his human life.

1. The Prayer of the Church as Liturgy and Eucharist

The Gospels tell us that Christ prayed the way a devout Jew faithful to the law prayed. Just as he made pilgrimages to Jerusalem at the prescribed times with his parents as a child, so he later journeyed to the temple there with his disciples to celebrate the high feasts. Surely he sang with holy enthusiasm along with his people the exultant hymns in which the pilgrim's joyous anticipation streamed forth: "I rejoiced when I heard them say: Let us go to God's house." (Ps 122:1) From his last supper with his disciples, we know that Jesus said the old blessings over bread, wine, and the fruits of the earth, as they are prayed to this day. So he fulfilled one of the most sacred religious duties: the ceremonial passover seder to commemorate deliverance from slavery in Egypt. And perhaps this very gathering gives us the profoundest glimpse into Christ's prayer and the key to understanding the prayer of the church.

While they were at supper, he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take this, all of you, and eat it: this is my body which will be given up for you."
In the same way, he took the cup, filled with wine. He gave you thanks, and giving the cup to his disciples, said, "Take this, all of you, and drink from it: this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven."

Blessing and distributing bread and wine were part of the passover rite. But here both receive an entirely new meaning. This is where the life of the church begins. Only at Pentecost will it appear publicly as a Spirit-filled and visible community. But here at the passover meal the seeds of the vineyard are planted that make the outpouring of the Spirit possible. In the mouth of Christ, the old blessings become life-giving words. The fruits of the earth become his body and blood, filled with his life. Visible creation, which he entered when he became a human being, is now united with him in a new, mysterious way. The things that serve to sustain human life are fundamentally transformed, and the people who partake of them in faith are transformed too, drawn into the unity of life with Christ and filled with his divine life. The Word's life-giving power is bound to the sacrifice. The Word became flesh in order to surrender the life he assumed, to offer himself and a creation redeemed by his sacrifice in praise to the Creator. Through the Lord's last supper, the passover meal of the Old Covenant is converted into the Easter meal of the New Covenant: into the sacrifice on the cross at Golgotha and those joyous meals between Easter and Ascension when the disciples recognized the Lord in the breaking of bread, and into the sacrifice of the Mass with Holy Communion.

As the Lord took the cup, he gave thanks. This recalls the words of blessing thanking the Creator. But we also know that Christ used to give thanks when, prior to a miracle, he raised his eyes to his Father in heaven. He gives thanks because he knows in advance that he will be heard. He gives thanks for the divine power that he carries in himself and by means of which he will demonstrate the omnipotence of the Creator to human eyes. He gives thanks for the work of salvation that he is permitted to accomplish, and through this work, which is in fact itself the glorification of the triune Godhead, because it restores this Godhead's distorted image to pure beauty. Therefore the whole perpetual sacrificial offering of Christ at the cross, in the holy Mass, and in the eternal glory of heaven can be conceived as a single great thanksgiving as Eucharist: as gratitude for creation, salvation, and consummation. Christ presents himself in the name of all creation, whose prototype he is and to which he descended to renew it from the inside out and lead it to perfection. But he also calls upon the entire created world itself, united with him, to give the Creator the tribute of thanks that is his due. Some understanding of this eucharistic character of prayer had already been revealed under the Old Covenant. The wondrous form of the tent of meeting, and later, of Solomon's temple, erected as it was according to divine specifications, was considered an image of the entire creation, assembled in worship and service around its Lord. The tent around which the people of Israel camped during their wanderings in the wilderness was called the "home of God among us" (Ex 38:21). It was thought of as a "home below" over against a "higher home." "O Lord, I love the house where you dwell, the place where your glory abides," sings the Psalmist (Ps 26:8), because the tent of meeting is "valued as much as the creation of the world." As the heavens in the creation story were stretched out like a carpet, so carpets were prescribed as walls for the tent. As the waters of the earth were separated from the waters of the heavens, so the curtain separated the Holy of Holies from the outer rooms. The "bronze" sea is modeled after the sea that is contained by its shores. The seven- branched light in the tent stands for the heavenly lights. Lambs and birds stand for the swarms of life teeming in the water, on the earth, and in the air. And as the earth is handed over to people, so in the sanctuary there stands the high priest "who is purified to act and to serve before God." Moses blessed, anointed, and sanctified the completed house as the Lord blessed and sanctified the work of his hands on the seventh day. The Lord's house was to be a witness to God on earth just as heaven and earth are witnesses to him (Dt 30:19).

In place of Solomon's temple, Christ has built a temple of living stones, the communion of saints. At its center, he stands as the eternal high priest; on its altar he is himself the perpetual sacrifice. And, in turn, the whole of creation is drawn into the "liturgy," the ceremonial worship service: the fruits of the earth as the mysterious offerings, the flowers and the lighted candlesticks, the carpets and the curtain, the ordained priest, and the anointing and blessing of God's house. Even the cherubim are not missing. Fashioned by the hand of the artist, the visible forms stand watch beside the Holy of Holies. And, as living copies of them, the "monks resembling angels" surround the sacrificial altar and make sure that the praise of God does not cease, as in heaven so on earth. The solemn prayers they recite as the resonant mouth of the church frame the holy sacrifice. They also frame, permeate, and consecrate all other "daily work," so that prayer and work become a single opus Dei, a single "liturgy." Their readings from the holy Scriptures and from the fathers, from the church's menologies and the teachings of its principal pastors, are a great, continually swelling hymn of praise to the rule of providence and to the progressive actualization of the eternal plan of salvation. Their morning hymns of praise call all of creation together to unite once more in praising the Lord: mountains and hills, streams and rivers, seas and lands and all that inhabit them, clouds and winds, rain and snow, all peoples of earth, every class and race of people, and finally also the inhabitants of heaven, the angels and the saints. Not only in representations giving them human form and made by human hands are they to participate in the great Eucharist of creation, but they are to be involved as personal beings or better, we are to unite ourselves through our liturgy to their eternal praise of God.

"We" here refers not just to the religious who are called to give solemn praise to God, but to all Christian people. When these stream into cathedrals and chapels on holy days, when they joyously participate daily in worship using the "people's choral Mass" and the new "folk Mass" forms, they show that they are conscious of their calling to praise God. The liturgical unity of the heavenly with the earthly church, both of which thank God "through Christ," finds its most powerful expression in the preface and Sanctus of the Mass. However, the liturgy leaves no doubt that we are not yet full citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, but pilgrims on the way to our eternal home. We must always prepare ourselves before we may dare to lift our eyes to the luminous heights and to unite our voices with the "holy, holy, holy" of the heavenly chorus. Each created thing to be used in the worship service must be withdrawn from its profane use, must be purified and consecrated. Before the priest climbs the steps to the altar, he must cleanse himself by acknowledging his sins, and the faithful must do so with him. Prior to each step as the offertory continues, he must repeat his plea for the forgiveness of sins for himself and for those gathered around him as well as for all to whom the fruits of the sacrifice are to flow. The sacrifice itself is a sacrifice of expiation that transforms the faithful as it transforms the gifts, unlocks heaven for them, and enables them to sing a hymn of praise pleasing to God. All that we need to be received into the communion of saints is summed up in the seven petitions of the Our Father, which the Lord did not pray in his own name, but to instruct us. We say it before communion, and when we say it sincerely and from our hearts and receive communion in the proper spirit, it fulfills all of our petitions. Communion delivers us from evil, because it cleanses us of sin and gives us peace of heart that takes away the sting of all other "evils." It brings us the forgiveness of past sins and strengthens us in the face of temptations. It is itself the bread of life that we need daily to grow into eternal life. It makes our will into an instrument at God's disposal. Thereby it lays the foundation for the kingdom of God in us and gives us clean lips and a pure heart to glorify God's holy name.

So we see again how the offertory, communion, and the praise of God [in the Divine Office] are internally related. Participation in the sacrifice and in the sacrificial meal actually transforms the soul into a living stone in the city of God in fact, each individual soul into a temple of God."

-- The Prayer of the Church by St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Heaven is a never-ending Communion

"I want to tell you about my happiness.  Yes, I want you to feel for just a moment, the happiness of belonging entirely to God, but there's no human language that can express the divine feelings in which my soul finds itself submerged.  I've given Him everything, it's true, but I've also come to posses the One who is Everything.  If your love and sacrifices make you love Him more, what can I tell you, when in God love knows no limit and His immolation of self can never be greater since His Wisdom has exhausted every possibility. Oh, though I want to love Him in an infinite degree; I feel more and more my inability and my flaws.  I wish I could exhaust myself and die very quickly in order to love Him.  But the sight of the sinful world, of the glacial coldness surrounding the altar keeps me back.  Seeing it I would rather "suffer and not die."  Yes, to suffer and not die that I may weep with the Divine Prisoner and console Him in His exile.  I wish I could help people understand that the Eucharist is a heaven.  Given that "heaven is only a tabernacle without doors, a Eucharist without veils,"  heaven is a never-ending Communion."

-- From a letter of St Teresa of the Andes, ocd

The Eucharist: the focal point of the works of God

"Who can tell the countless marvels worked in a soul by Holy Communion with Jesus Hostia! The Eucharist, sacrifice and sacrament, is the focal point of the works of God, one in Essence, three in Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; it is there to become the divine instrument of glorifying that same God, the Trinity whom we adore. Hence, when, by way of the Host, Jesus deigns to descend into us, invading our whole being, it is above all to restore us completely to the unity of the Blessed Trinity, our Beginning and our End. There is no other holiness.


First of all, Jesus Hostia, the Man-God comes to teach the soul how to adore this Trinity. He thereupon establishes her in that peace, as stable as it is profound, which enables her to remain under the creative action of Him who fulfills there in ever greater and better measure, the eternal, gratuitous plan of her predestination.


That she may yield herself fully to this action, the soul, filled with the strength of the Host, submerges herself in Jesus Crucified with all the power of her love. She consecrates and vows to Him all that she is and has. She begs to become identified with Him, henceforth to be naught but a radiation of the very perfections of her God. 


The Jesus Hostia draws her toward the contemplation of the Word, His adorable Person. In her docility to hearken to the living Utterance which is Himself, responsive to the impulse of divinizing grace, the soul lives and reposes peacefully under the brightness of the Light of Light, even were it to lead her through the most crucifying trials of the spiritual life.


Carried away to such heights in God, yielding, through the Host, to the transforming influences of the Holy Spirit, she calls upon His aid, beseeching Him to deign to make of her being, as it were, an additional humanity, another Christ, so to speak, renewing in this creature all the mystery of His life, of the states and graces of Jesus.


Thus the soul becomes, through the Host, a daughter of the Heavenly Father. In still greater measure than at baptism, He leans over her, recognizing in her more and more His beloved child; He delivers her over entirely to the power of grace which develops unceasingly within her mystery of divine adoption.


The soul has become God's prey. He does with her whatever His love demands. Jesus Hostia has vanquished her completely. She remains, as it were, buried in Him; therein consists the triumph of the Eucharist. God is all in all to that soul; she feels as if poised on the threshold of that vision which will one day fulfill her likeness to the God who had created her only for Himself. No longer has she any other expectation.


To the Trinity the soul has been lifted up through the Host."


-- Pledge of Glory: Eucharistic Meditations based on the Prayer of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity by Dom Eugene Vandeur

Keep yourself simply and peacefully attentive to the prayer of Jesus within you

"Fear not, O my soul, these apparently extravagant expressions, this idea of submersion in God, of being invaded by God, which amounts to the same thing; for God never invades you except for the sake of submerging you, so to speak, in the ocean of light and of love which He is.

The Eucharist of Jesus leads you directly to this grace. Do not stand in dread of any foolish pretence or irreverent presumption. The Eucharist itself supplies you with wings strong enough to lift you so high, yes, even unto the Lord Most High, Jesus.

Remember, then, that just as it is now not you, but He who lives in you, so it is not so much you who pray; it is He who prays in you.

I implore you to let go all your reasoning; do not wear your mind with that philosophy. Rather, stop torturing yourself; keep yourself simply and peacefully attentive to the prayer of Jesus within you. Can one imagine any activity comparable to that of a soul who rises to her God through the very activity whereby Jesus lifts His gaze to His Father in the love of the Father and of the Son?

It is then that you find yourself, as it were, immersed in God, invaded by God. And it is the Eucharist living in you which obtains for you this ineffable privilege!

What Jesus did on the mountain when He passed the night in the prayer of God, He renews in you whom He constitutes, at this hour, a kind of mountain of God, a lofty mountain, a high-ridged mountain, a mountain in which it has pleased God to dwell.

What was it He was doing? Was He praying for someone greater than Himself? Yes indeed, insofar as He was man. Did He humble Himself, soliciting some grace? The Gospel tells us nothing; rather does it seem to suggest something sublime by those words: in the prayer of God.

What is that prayer? It is the eternal contemplation of God, of His beauty, of His infinite love. Can one imagine a more sublime prayer than that which God makes eternally within Himself, when He contemplates and loves His sovereign majesty? That is where the soul of my Saviour spent its nights and its days; that was His prayer. He would teach you to give yourself up to it with all your own soul.

Of course, Jesus here below lived at the same time in His soul as if in heaven; He was always in possession of the clear face-to-face vision, the vision of the Word and, through that Word, of the entire Trinity; Jesus alone could enjoy, even on earth, the fullness of the prayer of God.

He alone was thus in the full noonday of divine glory, in the bosom of that Father who became His sacred oratory. God He was, Himself, in His own prayer; it was Himself He contemplated, the Word of the Father, and loved eternally. As man, His soul entered into the prayer of the God who He was. He penetrated into God, immersed Himself therein. He contemplated the greatness of God, His infinite bounty; He loved them in God's contemplation of His own grandeurs and in the infinite love God necessarily bears toward them. What is that but entering into the prayer of God? Carried away by the impulse of love from the Holy Spirit, His blessed soul went forth to the Father, to the Son who He was, to the Holy Spirit, while at the same time it submerged itself in the abyss of the divine perfections.

Who has ever heard of such a prayer? Can it become ours? And, if so, what can it not obtain for us?

The Eucharist, living in the depths of our soul, introduces us to that prayer. At that moment, forming but one thing with Jesus Christ, entering into a mysterious participation in all that He is, all that He has, we are carried away by Him into the movements of His soul. Immersed in it, invaded by it, we participate in His prayer of God. Do we realized that?

Where does He lead us? Into the treasures of His wisdom and knowledge, into the riches of divine light and intensity. That is, of course, His privilege; but in proportion to our silent attention, our recollection and self-donation of the soul, at that most precious hour, this prayer inundates us with the graces of the Saviour.

What heavenly moments, yes, blessed moments, when ravished out of ourselves, we enjoy insofar as we are permitted to enjoy it here below, the most intimate communion with God, Father, Son, Spirit of Love; it is the prelude and the pledge of the beatific vision."

-- Pledge of Glory: Eucharistic Meditations based on the Prayer of Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity by Dom Eugene Vandeur

Eucharistic King, You changed my life and made my soul hungry for the Bread of life

"O Jesus, my Eucharistic King! In the desert of my life you appeared to me, you manifested your splendor, your greatness, your beauty. You changed my life, and dispersed all my enemies; you made my soul hungry for the Bread of life, and thirsty for your precious Blood. Well I remember the day you gave yourself entirely to me, my heart was beating fast, and I could hardly breathe. I feared that my excitement would disturb you while resting within my soul. Now that I possess you, let me say what I find in you.

Jesus Christus Hodie! Jesus Christ is today in the Divine Eucharist. Can we pronounce this word without feeling a sweet honey on our lips? A burning fire through our veins? Divine Eucharist! Our tongue is inarticulate; only our hearts have a secret sigh: Jesus Christ today!

I am weak today; I need help from above to stand on my feet; Jesus, coming from heaven, is made Bread of the strong. I am poor today; I need a shelter, and Jesus becomes the House of God, the celestial threshold, the Eucharist.

I am hungry and thirsty today; I need food to restore my heart, and Jesus becomes Wheat of the elect. Yes, I love Jesus, I love the Eucharist. Jesus today, means Jesus with me! This morning, at the altar, He came to me; He is mine, I adore Him. Tenui eum nec dimittam."** -- Ven Augustine Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, ocd

-- Herman, Flower of Israel by Don Amedeo Rodino

**"I have taken hold, and I will not let go." From the Song of Songs.

I invite you all to this Banquet of the Sacrament of His Love

"In the Sacrament of His Love, Jesus is the only object of my life, of my songs, of my affection; to this Mystery I am indebted for all that I have...

My brethren, I invite you all to this Banquet. Once we taste it, all other food will be vapid! Young men of the world, I know your deceitful pleasures; I know of your pompous meetings that are resplendent for a moment and then followed by deadly sadness; I know what you are longing for; I have tasted your joys, and now I challenge you to deny that they leave behind anything but phantasms of sorrow and prostration!

Really, after feeding at this Table of the King of kings, all riches of the world are worthless to me. Since Jesus dwells within my soul, your palaces are miserable huts. Seeking light in the Tabernacle, all wisdom of the world is folly; sitting at the Spousals of the Lamb, all other feasts are gloomy; after reaching this port of salvation, I see you tossed on the ocean of human passions, but I can only wave my hand and call you to these shores. If you wish, I will be your pilot, for I know the seas and have endured many a tempest." -- Ven Augustine Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, ocd

-- Herman, Flower of Israel by Don Amadeo Rodino

The Eucharist - mystery of love

O my Christ,

Communion,

Is the mystery of Your love,

Is life for souls,

Is the sure salvation for those who

Understand and receive It.

Therefore place in my mind,

Fervent and clear thoughts,

Put on my lips ardent and

Enlightening words,

That I may illumine all these souls,

That I may enkindle in them

Love for Your divine Sacrament;

And that in them, your work

Of transformation may be fulfilled.

-- Père Jaques of Jesus, ocd

You truly carry Christ within you

"There is so much I still have to say to you about Christ, especially about his Incarnation for us in the Eucharist. The Word Incarnate is always there for us in the Eucharist. This overpowering mystery allows the unworthy hands of the priest to hold the same body of Christ that the Virgin Mary held in her arms and pressed to her heart. Yet it is the same Christ! The priest takes Christ in his hands and gives him to others! When you receive him, you are like the Virgin Mary during the months she carried her child. You truly carry Christ within you and want to be absorbed in profound thanksgiving. You carry him living within you! How necessary is silence so that the Holy Spirity can reveal to us the grandeur of this mystery."

-- Fr Jaques of Jesus, ocd

Cited in Père Jacques: Resplendent in Victory by Francis Murphy, SJ

Bread of Life

"[Christ] is present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. The hours of adoration before the Highest Good, and listening for the voice of the Eucharistic God, are simultaneously meditation on the law of the Lord and watching in prayer. But the highest level is reached when the law is deep within our hearts (Ps 40:8), when we are so united with the triune God, whose temple we are, that his Spirit rules all we do or omit"

"The Savior, knowing that we are and continue to be men who have daily to struggle with our weakness, aids our humanity in a manner truly divine. Just as our earthly body requires daily bread, so the divine life in us must be fed continually. This is the living bread which has come down from heaven. If we make it truly our daily food, the mystery of Christmas, the Incarnation of the Word, will be enacted again each day in us. And this, it seems to me, is the best way to remain in constant union with God, and to grow each day more securely and deeply into the Mystical Body of Christ." -- St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, ocd (Edith Stein)

Sacramental Throne

MY WISHES BEFORE THE TABERNACLE

O little key! I envy thee,

For thou canst open, at any hour,

The Eucharistic prison house,

Where dwells the God of Love and Power.

And yet Oh, tender mystery!

One effort of my faith alone

Unlocks the tabernacle door,

And hides me there with Christ my Own.

O lamp within the holy place,

Whose mystic lights forever shine!

I fain would burn with fires of love

As bright, before my God and thine.

Yet, miracle of wondrous bliss!

Such flames are mine; and, day by day,

I can win souls to Jesus Christ,

To burn with His pure love for aye.

O consecrated altar stone!

I envy thee with every morn.

As once in Bethlehem's blessed shed,

The Eternal Word on thee is born.

Yet, gentle Saviour! hear my plea;

Enter my heart, 0 Lord divine!

'Tis no cold stone I offer Thee,

Who dost desire this heart of mine!

O corporal that angels guard!

What envy of thee fills my breast!

On thee, as in His swaddling bands,

I see my only Treasure rest.

Ah Virgin Mother! change my heart

Into a corporal pure and fair,

Whereon the snow white Host may rest,

And thy meek Lamb find shelter there.

O holy paten! Jesus makes

Of Thee His sacramental throne.

Ah! if He would abase Himself,

To dwell awhile with me alone!

Jesus fulfils my longing hope,

Nor must I wait until I die;

He comes to me! He lives in me!

His ostensorium am I!

The chalice, too, I fain would be,

Where I adore the Blood divine!

Yet, at the holy sacrifice,

That Precious Blood each day is mine.

More dear to Jesus is my soul,

Than chalices of gold could be;

His altar is a Calvary new,

Whereon His Blood still flows for me.

Only one little bunch of grapes

That gladly disappears for Thee,

0 Jesus, holy, heavenly Vine!

Thou knowest I rejoice to be.

Beneath the pressure of the cross,

I prove my love for Thee alway;

And ask no other joy than this,

To immolate myself each day!

Among the grains of purest wheat,

0 happy lot! he chooses me.

We lose our life for Him, the Christ,

What rapturous height of ecstasy!

Thy spouse am I, Thy chosen one.

My Well Beloved! come, dwell in me.

Thy beauty wins my heart. Oh, come!

Deign to transform me into Thee!

Poem by St Thérèse of Lisieux

You truly carry Christ within you

"There is so much I still have to say to you about Christ, especially about his Incarnation for us in the Eucharist. The Word Incarnate is always there for us in the Eucharist. This overpowering mystery allows the unworthy hands of the priest to hold the same body of Christ that the virgin Mary held in her arms and pressed at her heart. Yet it is the same Christ! The priest takes Christ in his hands and gives him to others!

When you receive him, you are like the virgin Mary during the months she carried her child. You truly carry Christ within you and want to be absorbed in profound thanksgiving. You carry him living within you! How necessary is silence so that the Holy Spirit can reveal to us the grandeur of this mystery." -- Servant of God Père Jacques de Jesus (Bunel), discalced carmelite