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By: Ivonne J. Hernandez Imagine Jesus standing in front of you. Looking at you He asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mk 10:51) What do you say? Does your answer jump out, clear as day, from the depths of your heart, or do you see a sea of requests floating around, waiting for you to pick which one it is that you truly want? And when the answer does come, how badly do you want it? Are you willing to “do whatever He tells you”? (Jn 2:5) What if He says, “Sell what you have… follow me”? (Mt 19:21) Or, “Forget yourself, carry your cross and follow me”? (Mt 16:24) What will your answer be? Will it be “Let it be done to me”? (Lk 1:38) Are you willing to say, “not my will but yours be done”? (Lk 22:42) Or, realizing you are not ready to surrender all, will you “walk away sad”? (Mt 19:22) Often, we choose to walk away. But, not only do we walk away from any suffering or sacrifice, but we then try to run away from the sadness. We try to distract ourselves from the pain. We keep busy, we watch TV, we overeat, we shop, we work. But it never works for long. The more we try to run, the bigger the sadness underneath grows. Oh, but if we only would allow ourselves to feel that sadness! If we would be honest with ourselves, we would allow it to inform us, to tell us we are heading the wrong way. It would make us turn to Our Father, who is always waiting, ready to run and embrace us. (Lk 15:20) And in that embrace we will hear Him say, “My child, why did you walk away?” “Don’t you know my yoke is easy, and my burden light?... Come to me, and I will bring you rest.” (Mt 11:28-30)
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By: Laura Worhacz “…the perfect love of her heart! Assuredly, distraction, that fever of the mind and heart, came not to trouble the repose of her soul, more united to Jesus than to the body that enveloped it, drank in long draughts of the living waters of grace and of love. She forgot the world about her in order to remain alone with Jesus; for it is characteristic of love to isolate itself, to concentrate itself in unity in order to unite itself more closely to the beloved. “-St. Peter Julian Eymard (Eymard Library Volume 7 page 150) Dearest Eucharistic Family, We are back in Ordinary Time, and in response to this we often hear to do extraordinary things for God. In today’s Gospel Jesus is calling us to follow Him. He is reminding us that this call is not for the perfect, but for the imperfect, sinners, not the righteous. St. Peter Julian in the above reflection reminds us of distractions by calling them a “fever”. Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament forgot the world she lived in. The flesh in which her soul was carried was no obstacle to her espousal to the Holy Spirit, the spirit that afforded her every grace and love. The living water continues to flow from Mary’s union with God, the oneness she had from the fiat of her love. It is a constant act of the will to transform our thoughts and lead them back to God. We have the freedom to do ask God for his divine power and the accessibility to ask for the grace to be receptive and respond through the Eucharist. St. Peter Julian found through his Eucharistic relationship the blessing to live in the grace of the moment. We too are offered this living union, this moment of grace, to go outside of it overwhelms. Without the grace of the moment we often find ourselves under a tidal wave longing to lift our heads out of the water. The living water is one that streams like a river, one we float on in the mystery of excitement, holding on for dear life. In the Eucharist we are loved and called to love by the extraordinary offerings that can be found in forgetting the world, uniting oneself to the beloved, and following Jesus. Remember your consecration promise by offering the prayer to Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament: Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Blessed are you, Mary exalted daughter of Sion! You are highly favoured and full of grace, for the spirit of God descended upon you. We magnify the Lord and rejoice with you for the gift of the Word made flesh, bread of life and cup of joy. Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, our model of prayer in the cenacle, pray for us that we may become what we receive, the body of Christ your son. Amen. By: Ivonne J. Hernandez Have you ever been “racking your brain”, trying to figure out how to solve a problem when all of a sudden, there it is! The solution that eluded you for so long shines clear as day in your mind and you wonder how did you not see it before? These “aha! moments”, or epiphanies, seems to come from nowhere, but they would not have come had you not been seeking, searching for something. “The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world. The great feast of Epiphany celebrates the adoration of Jesus by the wise men (magi) from the East, together with his baptism in the Jordan and the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee” (CCC 528). In looking at these three epiphanies, or moments of revelation, we can see that they were each preceded by expectation. 1. “After their audience with the king they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was” (Mt 2:9-10). 2. “The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ” (Lk 3:15). 3. “His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you”” (Jn 2:5). In the first two instances, the revelation came to the ones who were seeking, but in the last one it is Mary the one who is seeking, expecting, but not for herself. This great “aha! moment” that begins the public ministry of Jesus is for the benefit of the disciples…of us. “Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him” (Jn 2:11). The disciples were likely having a great time at the wedding and had no idea they were missing something. They were busy, distracted, entertained, all the while the Son of God was in their midst, “but the world did not know Him” (Jn1:10). I’m sure we’ve all had our own epiphanies in our lives. God has revealed Himself to us. We have recognized Him in the breaking of the Bread. We have experienced His love and mercy in the Sacrament of Penance. We have seen, and we have heard, yet we forget. We get busy with our lives, with our temporal needs and desires, and we fail to recognize that something, or rather someone is missing. We feel the emptiness, but we seek in vain to fill the void with things that pass rather than seeking the One who can truly satisfy our hearts. As we prepare to wrap up another Christmas Season, let us remain close to Mary, our Mother, whose perfect state of expectation from the moment of the Annunciation is available tous throughout our journey. Let us hold on to her hand as we continue to live in the hope of Heaven, and may we seek each day a new epiphany of God’s love. “For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mt 7:8). |
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AuthorsWe are Ivonne J. Hernandez, Rick Hernandez and Laura Worhacz, Lay Associates of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, and brothers and sisters in Christ. 
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