Eymard and Spiritual Fatherhood

By: Rick Hernandez

We often speak about the beautiful gift that is to have a good father and mother. Having good parents can make a big difference in any child’s life, for we know that a good parent will listen in acknowledgment of our dignity and provide us with guidance as required. A good parent will support, correct, praise, and admonish as needed, and set rules and boundaries that ensure our safety. The goal of the good parent is to establish a loving environment where they can share of their love, experience, and wisdom. A good parent is indeed a treasure.
 
We know very well that we have not all been blessed with great parents, and I pray for all of us who are, in reality, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual orphans. We pray for a parental figure to care for us, help us, and nurture in us that which is needed for us to develop rightly. Sometimes we get to select who is that person in our lives, but sometimes the person selects us.

And it is a blessing to have not only those parental figures who nurture our physical and mental well-being, but also spiritual parents who nurture our spiritual well-being. Some of our spiritual parents are here on earth, and some watch over us from Heaven.
 
Every February 4th, the Eymardian family (Sacramentinos) celebrates the birthday of our founder, Saint Peter Julian Eymard. He is known to the world as the Apostle of the Eucharist, but for us, Eymardians, we know him as our spiritual father.
 
A spiritual father listens in acknowledgment, provides guidance as required, and supports and corrects. Through our spiritual father’s lessons, we are taught how to grow in the spiritual life. As I read through the writings of Father Eymard, I often imagine myself sitting by his side and asking for his guidance in a quiet conversation...

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Me: “Father Eymard, tell me. Am I personally loved by God?”

“Allow me to share with you a great treasure I have discovered: I hope you will reap good fruit from it. God loves us personally with a great benevolent love, with an infinite and eternal love. This benevolent love consists in willing purely and exclusively what is good and what is best for the person who is so loved. In God, benevolent love is personal. God loves a person, loves you as if you were his only daughter [son], because his love is one and infinite... “ (Saint Peter Julian Eymard - Letter to Mrs. Camille d’Andigne on March 4, 1865)
 
“Our Lord’s sentiments toward us are at least those of a good father; why deny Him this quality? Besides, see how our Lord manifests His personal love for each one of us. Every morning He comes to see each one of His children in particular, to converse with them, to visit them, to embrace them. Although He has repeated this so many times, He is as gracious and as loving at His last visit as He was at the first. He is as young as ever and is not tired of loving us and giving Himself to each one of us. Does He not give Himself whole and entire to each one? And if a greater number come to receive Him, does He divide Himself up? Does He give less to each one? If the Church is full of adorers, can they not all pray to Jesus and converse with Him? Is not each one listened to and his prayer granted as if he were the only one in Church?” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard - Excerpt from “The Real Presence”)
 
“Such is the personal love of Jesus for us. Each one may take it all for himself and wrong no one; the sun gives all its light to each and everyone of us; the ocean belongs whole and entire to each and every fish. Jesus is greater than us all. He is inexhaustible.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard - Excerpt from “The Real Presence”)
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“Correct what is imperfect, know and admit to God and yourself that you are full of pride.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard)
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​Me: “Father Eymard, tell me. How can I recognize God?”

“….in the Blessed Sacrament, Our Lord Himself is the light which manifests Him as our model and reveals His beauties to us.   He is Himself His light, His means of being known, just as the sun is itself its own proof.  To make Himself known, He has only to show Himself.  Recognition of Him need not come from its being reasoned out.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard)
 
“A child does not have to discourse with himself to recognize his parents.  Our Lord reveals Himself through His presence, just as parents do. But as we grow to know His voice better and as our hearts become more sympathetic to Him in emptying themselves of what is not Him, our Lord manifests Himself in a clearer and more intimate manner, which only those know, who love Him. He gives the soul a divine conviction which overshadows the light of human reason. Look at Magdalene:  one word from Jesus and she recognizes Him. He acts in the same way in the Blessed Sacrament:   He says one word only but it rings in our very hearts:  “It is I!….”   We sense His Presence, we believe in it more firmly than if we were to see Him with bodily eyes.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard)
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​Me: “Father Eymard, I get so tired and become burdened by life. Most of the time I do not know what to do. How do I grow my spiritual life?”

“When we work hard, we must eat well… Receive communion often, and Jesus will change you into himself” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard)
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“Don’t speak about responsibilities in relation to our Lord, but about thanksgiving, that’s better. Begin with this principle: the poorer I am, the more I need God.” “Always keep your heart free of anything that might trouble it. No sadness, distress or worry about the future. Your future is God and God loves you. You are all his; you are consecrated to him. Work and sleep quietly in Jesus’ little boat.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard - Counsels for Spiritual Life, page 184)
 
“You must not run after sacrifices, as sacrifices in themselves. This would be like a servant who is unwilling to remain next to his master; worried and impatient, he prefers to go out and work for him, rather than remain with him. That’s what happens when we love our sacrifices as sacrifices, when we place our life in them, when we make them our center – preferring to work for God, rather than work with God.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard to the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, Paris, August 27, 1861)
 
“Come as you are and offer that self of yours to God.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard)
 
“The virtues of Our Lord are not acquired all at once. Their practice costs. Devote yourselves to them without fear, with courage and perseverance. They must be your adornment on the day on which He will present you to His Father for the celebration of the heavenly nuptials in Paradise in presence of His angels.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard - The Divine Eucharist - extracts from the writings and sermons of Saint Peter Julian Eymard - Page 520)

​Me: “Father Eymard, all that you are saying sounds quite difficult.”

“The cross is not a punishment; it is a consolation. The saints have understood this. That is why they are attached to it.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard - Venerable Pierre Julian Eymard - Page 181)
 
“Belong entirely to God through love, entirely to your neighbor through a gracious charity, entirely to the divine Eucharist by the offering and sacrifice of your whole self.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard - Letter to Mrs. Stephanie Gourd, October 1859)
 
“May your heart ever belong to God through purity of intentions, by attachment to his love, by trust in his divine mercy. Often make aspirations of love towards this good master. These aspirations are for the soul what breathing is to the heart. They are its life.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard - Letter to Mrs. Josephine Gourd)

“It is easy to give our heart but to give our thoughts, our judgment, our intelligence, that is a more difficult sacrifice.” and “To dwell in Jesus is to leave oneself behind, to strip oneself of self to give oneself as one gives wood to fire.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard - Letter to Mrs. Giraud-Jordan in 1865)
 
“Could anything be more appropriate than to give oneself to the One who has given us everything! What could be more comforting than to give oneself to Jesus as he gives himself entirely to us! Oh! Why then are we so inconstant, so greedy, so ungrateful toward this good Master? Nevertheless, he asks us for the total gift of ourselves only in order to make us happy and to be able to give himself to us in the same way.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard - Counsels for Spiritual Life, pages 79-80)
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“Know for certain and for all time that of yourself you can never accomplish anything, neither here nor there, neither today nor tomorrow, neither for this one nor for that one; so go ask God’s help before beginning—anything.” (Saint Peter Julian Eymard - The Divine Eucharist - extracts from the writings and sermons of Saint Peter Julian Eymard - Page 131)

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Let us learn from the many lessons Saint Peter Julian Eymard shares and grow, that we may fulfill our call to a well-developed spiritual life. Let us live a rich Eucharistic life steeped in thanksgiving for all our Lord Jesus has done for us. May we all grow to emulate Saint Peter Julian Eymard and become spiritual fathers [mothers] to those in need of our love and guidance.
 
Let us pray: Our Lord, Jesus Christ. We thank you for your loving gift of self in the Eucharist. Thank you for giving us Saint Peter Julian Eymard to help guide us to you. Father Eymard, thank you for your heroic gift of self, the lessons on recognizing Christ Eucharistic, and the advice on how to live the Eucharistic life. May all your spiritual children help bring about a Eucharistic revival. That the heart of our Lord Jesus, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even to the end of time. Amen.
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Rick Hernandez

Rick Hernandez is a commonsense Catholic, Lay Associate of the Blessed Sacrament and a Director for Elisheba House. He lives in Trinity, Florida, with his wife Ivonne and their children. He also writes for the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament's Daily Eucharistic Reflections and for Catholicmom.com.