Do This in Memory of Me: Let the Situation Be the Path

By: Laura Catherine Worhacz

​In a Letter from St. Peter Julian Eymard to Mr. Emmanuel De Leudeville, Paris July 24th, 1863:

Very dear brother, Thank you for your letter, I was expecting it from your heart. You are now at the springs. Follow the treatments like a religious exercise of obedience; do what must be done and restore your health a little. External distractions joined to the loving thought of God: that is your life as a bather. Go to God as God wants you: the situation is the path. Live from day to day, but even that is too much: from moment to moment…

All yours in our Lord, Eymard
(Life and Letters, Volume 4, page 179)

Dearest Eucharist Family,

In the Eucharist is the only, one and only, way to live in the grace of the present moment. When we receive Communion and consent to the presence of God, then the life of Jesus Christ resides in us. We pray to be conformed to Christ, to become Christlike, and to find love in all things.

​Recently a few of my sisters in Christ asked how I handle all the prayer requests that come to me. The Mothers of the Blessed Sacrament Prayer Cenacle, of which I am director, is flooded with families that have COVID. A couple of our sisters in Christ are hospitalized, husbands and family members violently ill with nausea and pain.

How do all of us endure this pain?
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Saint Paul reminds us, 

“If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.” (1 Corinthians: 12:26)

Love is the path. In the above reflection, Saint Peter Julian writes of being bathed in external distractions, to let them be our loving thought of God. Truly a marvelous image of our baptism. We promise to die to this life to be united to Heaven now through the Eucharist. The joy of the Gospel comes to us amid the endurance of pain. It is a joy that dwells in the interior of our existence that rises in hope as we take part in the Eucharistic banquet. Our hearts can be pierced with sadness, yet our soul somehow understands God’s mystery. The reception of Holy Communion should be our life mission. To receive Jesus every day, if not sacramentally, a sincere, reverent spiritual communion should be at the center of our days. It is by this living hope that we are in union with the entire Body of Christ. The martyrs, the saints, and the Kingdom of Heaven are with us now through the Eucharist.

We are in the rays of eternity with Jesus, Our Blessed Mother, and St. Joseph, in union with the Holy Spirit this side of Heaven. Let us strive to live there. How do we, you and me, endure the pains of this life? Only with Jesus. We enter a living hope of our resurrected lives by our love for God and neighbor. We are assured of transformation. Grace will change the disappointments and pains of this life.

Submission to God’s will, “the situation is the path.” Let us embrace all we encounter in our days with the hope, peace, and blessings of God. May we behold the living God, be a living monstrance every day to shine forth the brilliance of God through simple smiles, acts of kindness, charity, and most of all, by recognizing the needs of others.
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As we celebrate the Queenship of Mary, let us follow our Mother in the pattern of prayer she has set before us. She lived on earth in the zeal, hope, and joy of Christ’s love, in God our Father’s will, and the great power of the Holy Spirit.  

“Let us catch something of her spirit”  - Saint Peter Julian Eymard

Image by Annie Spratt from Pixabay 

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.