ELISHEBA BLOGLaura, Ivonne, and Rick share their experiences and reflections on living a life centered on the Eucharist.
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ELISHEBA BLOGLaura, Ivonne, and Rick share their experiences and reflections on living a life centered on the Eucharist.
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I find it interesting that our society seems to be fixated on certain aspects of death, like zombies, haunted houses, and Halloween. People pay a lot of money to go somewhere and be “scared to death.” But then, when it is time to talk about preparing for our own death, people think it is morbid and turn quickly to avoidance. How often do we think about death? A few times a year? A few times a month? A few times a week? Every day? And when we do think about death, what do we think? How do we feel? Is there curiosity, anger, fear, sadness? Is there avoidance or resignation? Is there ever a welcome?
This is a short excerpt from the Office of Readings for All Souls Day, a day we think about our dearly departed, a day we think about death. Or perhaps I should say, a day the Church invites us to think about death. And not only to think about it but to pray about it. When we remember our loved ones who have passed from this life and pray for their eternal rest, we also strengthen the hope that we too will rise again with Christ, not only on the last day but also today, as we rise from our pain and our fears.
I have discovered that the more I bring my fears to prayer, the more they lose their grip on me. Losing my father at the young age of nine, the reality of the separation we experience when a loved one dies was too much for me to deal with at the time. For many years I avoided looking at that wound. I became an expert at distraction and escape, but God had a different plan. The very wound that made me feel abandoned, became a source of love and grace.
This love that was poured out on the Cross is in the cup He gives us to drink (cf. Mark 10:38). When we accept the pain and suffering that life brings, and bring it in prayer to God, we find the love that casts out all fear (cf. 1 John 4:18). And it is that love that will transform our wounds into rivers of flowing grace, into witnesses of His love.
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What do we know of patience? Thomas Aquinas defines patience as “a virtue attached to the virtue of fortitude, which hinders a man from departing from right reason illumined by faith by yielding to difficulties and to sadness.” We tend to think of patience as passive, as in not reacting to a situation, but from the definition, we can see that it is an action. Patience is an exercise of the cardinal virtue of fortitude. We are meant to practice our patience actively and consciously. Its practice is a fruit that comes from our malleability to God’s will. This malleability to God’s will is called Divine Conformity and is the practice of conforming to the will of God in all things.
Father Eymard tells us that patience comes first, but then, together with humility, we are meant to grow into a model of reparation, a model of action.
We are to be an earthly model of God’s grace. We do this by patiently doing our daily chores here, simply, yet consciously and orderly. And we do our work for the Kingdom within the actions of our everyday life, in obedience and with as much love as we can muster.
We are called by our Lord to experience the greatness of His love for us, and we need to bear fruit from our relationship with God. With patience, love, and perseverance, we grow closer to that model of God’s grace that Father Eymard mentions. With love, we bear each other, and we must do it with patience. This does not mean to just wait passively, but to live God’s love for us in action. We strive to do the work of love and mercy in the world well, simply, humbly, and full of love for God and our brothers. We do give back what we receive. This is part of our Eucharistic life. Let us continue to grow in patience, but do our work. May we persevere on this road to Heaven.
Dearest Eucharist Family, To live in grace is an incredible blessing. With recent hurricanes over the east coast of the USA, witnessing the disaster they have caused sets our hearts on our suffering and the suffering of others. Our mission in Christ Jesus to identify with our brothers and sisters in Jesus’ love and to act in accordance with the movement of the Holy Spirit is our call. And in obedience to the gift we have received in Jesus’ love and Eucharistic life, the Son of God rises daily in our lives as the sun rises daily upon the earth. We are blessed to live in Jesus’ love. I have been living in a hospital for almost 70 days. An unexpected trauma came when my husband experienced septic shock. Upon returning home for a weekend for a family event, it seemed as if heaven came down to capture me in the arms of my children, who I missed so dearly while away. The hospital stay seemed like a dream. In prayer, I was thinking of the Kingdom of Heaven and what it must be like to be far from this earthly life and in the glory of God. We have a mission on this side of the heavens. There is much work to do in our world.
The non-Catholic hospital I have been living in has a secular flair. I have met so many beautiful healthcare workers of many different cultures. There is certainly a lack in the reality of spiritual life. With the Eucharist as our sustaining power, we can fulfill the mission to love each person before us and introduce them to Jesus’ love. The word "secular" means relating to the worldly or temporal, or not overtly religious. Our blessed Mother, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, loves her children, even those mixed up in the disillusionment of not knowing they are created in God’s Diving LOVE.
To live in God’s love and grace of the Holy Spirit will enable us to heal the open wound of humanity by the gift we hold in knowing God. Living in the structure of the Catholic Church and sacramental life, especially the Eucharist, sets a flame to our souls and mission in Christ. Even in suffering, we hold tightly to Jesus’ embrace. The world wind of the modern way will pass away and all that will live for in Jesus will be with us for all eternity. It is the love we share, the memories we create and the relationships we nurture that will provide us with a familiar setting in our heavenly dwelling.
I will return to God’s will of hospital life until my husband is well enough to be released and return home. May the mission Our Lord has set before me be fulfilled with my heart rejoicing, knowing it is the Christ Jesus Our Lord who invites us to live in His LOVE.
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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. |