Do This in Memory of Me: Contemplation

By: Laura Worhacz

The first fruit of contemplation is the recollection of the soul in our Lord, in which it discovers the mystery of His perfections and the love of this ineffable Gift of the Eucharist.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard (Eymard Library Volume 7, page 123)

Dearest Eucharistic Family,

Heaven exists in our souls through the reception of holy Communion. We may be tempted to look out to seek love, to find God, to grasp the tangible gifts of the world. The fulfillment of our heart’s desire lives within us.
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Summer time is a wonderful time to go with God into our souls and find the “mysteries of his perfections” like Saint Peter Julian is reminding us of in the above excerpt. Contemplation is taken with us in the activities of our lives once we have found the gift of the Eucharist. The relationship we nurture with Jesus Eucharistic provides us security in our existence. God is creating something new in us every moment and by our awareness and participation we receive great grace.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is telling the disciples to not put old wine in new wineskins as the skin will burst and the wine will spill over. The skin will be ruined. “…pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved” (Mt 9:14-17).

To discover the contemplation of our souls we pray. We make a conscious effort by forming a routine that sets time aside for God. New wine? Yesterday is no more. The sacred moment in time we live in, we treasure. What is to come will be manifested in our eternal salvation, found now in God by receiving the Eucharist in the freshness of a new day. A heart that is open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit is one that takes the sacredness of “new wine into fresh wineskins”. We bring the contemplation of the Eucharist with us in every breath of our days.

Contemplation consumes our whole reality and God is found in every facet of our existence.