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By: Laura Catherine WorhaczLaura Catherine Worhacz  Dearest Eucharistic Family, If we close our eyes for a moment and reach for the stars, we may imagine Jesus reaching His own hand out through the clouds to grasp ours and pull us up to see our heart's ardent desire.
Jesus Christ came to redeem us; to give us His heart so we may follow His way to salvation. In the weeks before the Lenten season, the scriptures draw us into the Book of Genesis imagining creation and broadening our minds to focus on original sin. Are we our brother's keeper? Yes, we are called to be our brother's keeper. Christ came to be our keeper and in imitation of Him, we are called to share this mission. Jesus came to redeem and nurture humanity into the divine life. In Genesis 4:1-15, we find Cain sad and dejected. His brother Abel was acknowledged by God, and this brought out envy into Cain's heart. This vice manifested to put brother against brother. Scripture said Cain was crestfallen (crestfallen: having a hanging head, as defined in our Catholic dictionary). Sadness is not what Jesus came to leave us in our humanity. He came to pull us out of the sadness into the Pascal Mystery of His love, and to be risen into a divine hope. The sacrament of confession and the sacrament of the Eucharist raise us up. They help us to reach for the stars and to find the desire of our hearts, which is to be with God as we journey through life. In Jesus' peace and love, embraced by the eternal comfort of knowing that we have been created in love, is the peace Christ gives to us.
In the Eucharist, we are happy to rejoice in God's glory, and to be at peace with what God has given us. Who we are, what we are, and how we live in Christ's love, is part of the acceptance of God's will in our lives. Like Cain, when we are not peaceable, we may be manifesting envy of others. We kill them in every way possible, by word, thought, and even by deed. It is a struggle from the concupiscence of our sinful nature, it is always upon us. St. John reminds us that whoever says to be without sin is a liar.
I have heard quite a few priests in their homilies mention that while in the confessional, they have heard people say, "I don't know what to tell you, Father. I didn't have any sins this week. I have not sinned." A holy priest reminded his congregation that we have not done a very good examination of conscience if we think we have not sinned. Perhaps in the silence of prayer and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, in our conversation with Christ, or when we receive His precious beating heart, body, and blood in the Eucharist, we may see where we have sinned. Our search of the soul will help us find these places of darkness and sin that need to be redeemed and confronted. The Lenten season soon to be upon us is a gift, a holy reminder, and another chance to find Christ in the depths of our souls. Our Blessed Mother was the first to form a pattern of prayer in Christ's Church, a gift to us. Our Mother longs to help us find our human dignity to the fullness in Jesus Christ. The joy of the Gospel is always reachable for us. It's only a prayer away, and in the sacraments, that we can find the love of God, even through suffering. Our reward is eternal, to be formed in Christ, and to become in imitation of Him. The faithful, for those who trust in God, will live in the fullness of God's promise, this side of Heaven. With Jesus Christ, we can reach for the stars, pulled out of our human weakness. A few words from Saint Peter Julian in his retreat notes of 1837:
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 Dearest Eucharistic Family, Lighting blessed candles has been a part of my prayer practice for years. It is yet another gift of faith to be preoccupied with the sacramentals of our Church. People have walked into churches throughout the ages to find statues, candle stations, images, and other beautiful holy reminders of Heaven. Jesus is present in the Tabernacle during such visits and surely smiles upon us.
Sacred beauty is a gift aiding us to raise our hearts and minds to God, gazing upon light, the face of Jesus, the face of Mary, Joseph, and the Saints can bring us to tears, fill our hearts with immense joy, and even pull us out of a dark place. The Purification of Jesus in the Temple, CANDLEMAS, is one of my favorite moments in our Liturgical year. Jesus in the most vulnerable position of life, a baby, was brought to the temple by His parents to be presented to Our Father in Heaven. Our prayer lives are meant to be communal and taken back to our homes to live out our daily duties through the heart of the Eucharist. There in the temple, in our Church, the Body of Christ is made strong with every person, every part of the body working to be alive and well for others. At the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple people were waiting for Him. Simeon and Anna fasted and prayed living in hope, finally to meet and to greet the holy family assured their eyes would see eternal light.
In our Blessed Mother's arms with Saint Joseph embracing his family, Jesus is presented to glorify God. He is the purification of the world presented in the oneness of the Trinity, a triumphant moment given to humanity. WOW! Candles have been traditionally blessed for Candlemas, the annual blessing of household candles; they are to be holy reminders of the purification of our own lives. And by our entry into the temple, into our churches we remain connected to the vine, the lifeline of our baptized eternal pathway to the Kingdom of God. Saint Peter Julian Eymard was baptized on February 5, the day after his birth. He lived in the realization of his life in Christ, the light that was lit in baptism he kept burning through the Eucharistic grace he received to fully know Jesus is present among us. Jesus was at the Presentation as a baby in the temple many years before Saint Peter Julian's baptism, as a child, but with us now, fully, truly, and substantially present in the Eucharist.
As I prepare this blog a week before it is published, I cannot help but think a week from today I will be dancing at my daughter's wedding on the vigil of Candlemas. We are blessed to live in grace, to see the signs we do not ask for because we know God in His Providence is the facilitator of all things and in our choice to live in grace, we are aware of His presence. Due to an illness, my husband was at death's door, granted a miracle to walk our daughter down the aisle to hand her to a new sacrament of life everlasting in the sacredness of matrimony. May we emulate our Lady who lived in joyful hope attentive to all of the blessings we have through our Eucharistic lives following the light of the world; JESUS CHRIST.
Dearest Eucharistic Family, My youngest daughter, aged 23, is soon to be married. The planning, before long, will come to fruition and the glorious day of the Sacrament of Matrimony will forever be held for my daughter and my new son. Recently, chatting with my daughter, we shared many memories of her childhood, and her present and future hopes. We both agreed upon the blessing that is to be given the gift of Christ in the Eucharist and the call we received to attend daily Mass. There were many imperfections in the growing years, however, the weekly sacrament of confession held us accountable to overtake Christ in His compassion. How truly blessed we are to live in the sacraments of our Catholic Church. Jesus teaches us the way to salvation, the way of the Cross, and the gift of the Resurrection. Our Mother, Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, was the first to follow the way to Our Father's heart, on earth as it is in Heaven. In Saint John's Gospel, we are given a vision of light and of love. And we read in John 3:30 of Saint John the Baptist, of the decreasing of self to find life out of sin and darkness and entrance to the divine life. To find the joy Saint John the Baptist found in allowing Jesus to increase so that he may decrease was found in teaching, preaching, and ultimately dying for the sake of truth and holiness. All that John lived for was found in Jesus' love and redemption. A soul connected to God through the Eucharist can find an intimacy with our Father in heaven that forms a bond of grace, a strength to endure the hardships of life. Suffering has a purpose in the mystery of God's love, we will not see all of its glory this side of the Kingdom. We trust assured that love will find the way to hope, and faith will keep us on task. There is work to be done, for sure, to lead others to find hope from the burdens of life. I am offering many Mass intentions for my adult children, for their faithfulness to be nourished, and for Christ to increase in their lives. For my youngest daughter, to be married and to live another sacrament with the Eucharist as the foundation of her new life in Christ with a spouse, will hold many surprises in the wonderment of God's love. As we come to the close of the Christmas season and enter into a new year of grace, the mystery of Christmas will lead us to new birth. We submit to ordinary time to be made ready for Lent, to find the resurrected life in an ever-new light. Every day is made new through the Liturgy.
A daily holy reminder from Saint Padre Pio echoes, "Past to Thy mercy, future to Thy Providence, present to Thy LOVE." As one door closes, another opens for a new year. God is ready to pour forth grace upon grace for our souls to find the joy of the Gospel in the mystery of His love. Our words, thoughts, deeds, and actions, will reveal that Christ is living in us, increased by our submission to God's holy will, lived in joy, that others may come to know Jesus is with us in His Eucharistic 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. 
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