Do This In Memory of Me: Constitutions

By: Laura Catherine Worhacz

Dearest Eucharistic family, please take time to read this message with a light shining upon St. Peter Julian Eymard’s feast day, August 2nd; he has left us a Memorial of love in his Eucharistic life. 

Less than a year after Saint Peter Julian Eymard’s death, Rev. de Cuers took immediate significant initiatives to enhance the standing and prominence of the founder.

Rev. de Cuers: “It is of the utmost importance according to me, for the present and the future, to understand well the purpose we set for ourselves in the Congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and to determine well the best suitable means to attain our end. Every society must have its special goal, its proper life, and its particular means. This is what accounts for the strength and the glory of ancient Orders […] Our very Reverend Founder (Saint Peter Julian Eymard), deceased too soon, was unable to set irrevocably the basic principles which would have curtailed all latitude of interpretation. It is given to us to accomplish this task. Discretionary power ended with the founder; it now resides in the family, who can freely fashion it according to its wishes.”

In Gods Time SSS History, Rev. Norman B. Pelletier 

Dearest Eucharistic Family,

The above excerpt may seem to be words fashioned to find principles, structure, and power. My favorite line in the above is “it now resides in the family, who can freely fashion it according to its wishes.” St. Peter Julian passed from this life very soon after establishing the order he worked so hard to bring to us, the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament.

To me, the wish of every human person is to find happiness, healing, and some security in this life, to be loved and to love. We are born into exile and redeemed in baptism, with the hope to nourish this redemption through our sacramental lives.

What does this mean?
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St. Peter Julian found the meaning of life in the Eucharist; he looked at life through the light of Heaven in the Eucharistic mystery, this holy man of God. His own sufferings, of the time in which he lived (mid-1800’s France), the loss of his mother, and his father’s disappointment at his seeking the call to the priesthood, all drew him ever more deeply to prayer and discernment. 

“The Eucharist is the supreme proof of the love of Jesus. After this, there is nothing more but Heaven itself.” - St. Peter Julian 

All we are searching for can be found in the Eucharist.
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I was inducted into the Lay Association of the Blessed Sacrament on December 9th, 2012.  St. Peter Julian was canonized on 12/9/1962. On August 2nd, our Catholic Church celebrates and remembers Saint Peter Julian Eymard; he was inserted into the public calendar of saints in 1995, only 26 years ago. It seems the legacy of St. Peter Julian’s spiritual insight is more important than ever for our day.

 “I will always hope in you and add to all your praise” (Psalm 71:14)

St. Pope John Paul II declared St. Peter Julian an “Outstanding Apostle of the Eucharist.”

The sacredness of my induction promise is central to my life in the Liturgy. Our lives are fashioned in the love of God and finding His will for our lives. In our awareness of the presence of God, we are attentive to the needs of those around us. Our true longing is fulfilled in setting and living the constitutions of God’s love found in Christ amidst every breath of our days. 

​Constitution: 1. The highest and most authoritative form of a papal pronouncement. 2. The organizational rule of a body within the Church, such as a religious community. (Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Dictionary)

St. Peter Julian passed from this life with the constitutions of his order not yet attained. The Priests of the Congregation have sought insight into their Constitutions through the Sacred Triduum, mainly the Mandatum (washing of the feet), to find the richness of their holy founder. It is by lives of dedicated service and sacrifices beyond telling, through adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, that apostolic zeal and a fire of love have sent forth the gifts of the Holy Spirit in forming the Constitutions of the Congregation.  The Eymardian family lives on; the Eucharistic people of God live in faith, hope, and love!

I have been sending regular communication to my parish, the Mothers of the Blessed Sacrament prayer cenacle, and other groups, emails to share important information and spiritual insights. I know many of you do the same by working as God’s messengers through social media. This past year in memory of Corpus Christi, I sent out the two photos below. When I opened the email, the two pictures stuck me with joy—a picture of St. Peter Julian Eymard blessing the people of God, and a picture of Rev. William Fickel, S.S.S. blessing the people of God after the Corpus Christi procession this year, 6/3/2021.

Rev. William, S.S.S. celebrates the 40th anniversary of his ordination to the Priesthood this August 1st, 2021. He is a blessed Sacrament priest. St. Peter Julian has left us a memorial of aspiring to live a Gift of Self. Father William has found this pathway through his holy founder and continues to bless us with his life.

The Constitutions of the Blessed Sacrament live on in love through the lives of those who dedicate themselves to being Apostles of God’s love. Father William is the spiritual advisor to Elisheba House, among many other services he renders to make the love of God present in the Eucharist known to the world. 

May the Eucharist help us to find a constitution of love through the heart of our mother, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and St. Joseph, so the Reign of Heaven may come.

(Note: St. Peter Julian’s death anniversary, August 1st, his feast day, August 2nd)
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St. Peter Julian Eymard, Apostle of the Eucharist, pray for us.
Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
Jesus, in Your compassion, have mercy on us.

Laura Catherine Worhacz

Laura Catherine Worhacz is a Lay Associate of the Blessed Sacrament and author of Consecration to Jesus Through Our Lady of The Blessed Sacrament.. She is also the Director of Mothers of The Blessed Sacrament. She lives in Trinity, FL with her husband and their two daughters.