13th Visit

ATCHISON KS, 1955

PRAYER BEFORE VISIT

 

THE PRISONER

"My eyes and my heart shall be there all days." (3 Kings, 19).

In the Sacrament of the Altar Jesus has made this beautiful promise a reality; there He remains with us night and day.

If you had remained here, Jesus my Master, in the day time only, it surely would have been enough. People would be there to adore you and to keep you company; but you remain there even during the nights at a time when the church is closed and all retire to their homes―and so you are left quite alone.

Jesus, I know your reason―it is love. Love has caused you to become a prisoner for us; the strong love you have for us has bound you here on earth; and you cannot leave us any more, either night or day. This all-powerful love of yours, Jesus my Saviour, should be in itself capable of binding all men to you, and keeping them near you in the Blessed Sacrament always until they are forced to depart: and when they do at length go away, they should leave their hearts at the foot of the altar. All their affections should turn to God, who has become Man for them: to God, who remains alone, shut up in the Tabernacle; all eyes, watching out from there to provide for our every need; all heart, thirsting for our love; anxious, waiting the long night through, until He will again be visited by the ones He loves.

My Jesus, I wish to please you; I consecrate to you all my love. O God of boundless Majesty! Yes, it is you yourself! You remain in this Divine Sacrament to be present and close beside us, but chiefly to give yourself in Holy Communion to the ones you love.

My Lord and God, who shall dare to come so near to you and to nourish himself with your flesh? But who on the other hand will dare to keep away from you, because it is for this very reason you hide in the Consecrated Host―to enter into our inmost being and to take possession of our hearts.

It is you who burn with desire to be received by us. It is you who are filled with joy when you are united with us. Oh! Come, my Jesus. Come, I am longing to receive you within myself, so that you may be the God of my heart and of my will.

Whatever I have, O my dear Redeemer, satisfactions, pleasures, self-will―everything I make over to you. O Love, O God of love, reign, triumph over my whole self; if there is anything in me that is not yours, destroy and sacrifice it. O my God do not permit that my soul, full of God's majesty―since it has received you in Holy Communion―should ever again become attached to created things.

My God, I love you; my God, I will love you always; my God, I will love you only.

ASPIRATION - Draw me close to you with the strong bonds of your love. 

 

SPIRTUAL COMMUNION

 

Jesus, I believe you are in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love you; I want you to come to me. Come into my heart; I embrace you; O never depart from me. 

A VISIT TO MARY

TREASURE OF GRACES

St. Bernard urges us: "Let us ask for grace and let us ask through Mary." St. Peter Damian tells us she is "The Treasure Store of Divine Graces." She is able to make us rich. She wants us to be rich. So she earnestly presses us to accept her kind invitation, "If you are a little one, then come to me." (Prov. 9).

O Lady Most Lovely, O Lady Most Sublime, O Lady Most Kind, look down upon me a poor sinner who comes to you for support and puts all his confidence in you. 

 
ASPIRATION - We fly to you for protection, O Holy Mother of God.

PRAYER AFTER VISIT

ETERNAL REST GIVE UNTO THEM, O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE. AMEN.

12th Visit

BETHLEHEM CT, 1948

PRAYER BEFORE VISIT

THE SACRAMENT OF LOVE 

"God is love. He that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him." He that loves Jesus lives in Jesus, and Jesus lives in him: "If any man love Me, he will be loved of My Father, and We will come to him and We will make our dwelling within him."

St. Philip Neri was about to receive Our Lord in the Viaticum; as the Most Holy Sacrament entered the room he exclaimed, "See, here is my love; here is my love." "See, here is my Love; here is the object of all my love in this life and in eternity"―this should be the cry of every one of us when we find ourselves in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

In the Gospel, Jesus, My Lord and My God, you tell me that if I love you, I will be loved in return by you; and that you will come to me and dwell in me, so that you and I will never more be parted. Jesus, I do love you more than anything: Oh! Love me too. I value being loved by you above all the kingdoms of the whole world. Come, and make yourself a lasting dwelling in this poor house of my soul; and in such a way that never again will you go away from me. Or rather―to speak more correctly―so that I may never again send you away; for you do not go unless you are driven out. But as such a thing has already happened: so it is possible for it to happen again. O do not let such a dreadful thing ever again take place in this world―such a repetition of disloyalty and ingratitude, as that I should act in this way―I, who have been singled out by you for special proofs of love, and given such special favors; that I should drive you again from my soul!―And yet it could happen. O my God, I want to die if it please you; so that united to you in death, I may live united to you for ever. Yes, my Jesus, this is my hope. I embrace you; I press you to my poor heart―O let me ever love you and ever be loved by you. My Savior, my most lovely one, I will love you always: you will love me always. My hope is that without ceasing, O God of my soul, we will love one another, and love one another for all eternity. So let it be.

ASPIRATION - My Jesus, always I wish to love you:  always I wish to be loved by you.

SPIRITUAL COMMUNION 

 

Jesus, I believe you are in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love you; I want you to come to me. Come into my heart; I embrace you; O never depart from me.

A VISIT TO MARY  

THE REWARD OF FIDELITY 

"Those who work in me shall not sin." (Eccl. 24). Those who are employed in my worship, says Mary, will remain ever faithful: "Those who make me known will have eternal life;" and those who are employed in making me known and loved by others are destined for heaven. Promise that when you can you will always speak, both in public and in private, of Mary's glories and of devotion to her.

ASPIRATION - O Sacred Virgin, make me worthy to tell your praises.

PRAYER AFTER VISIT

ETERNAL REST GIVE UNTO THEM, O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE. AMEN.

11th Visit

NUNS STORY, 1962

PRAYER BEFORE VISIT

THE GOOD SHEPHERD 

 
St. Teresa gives us this counsel: "Let us take care never to wander far from our dear Shepherd, Jesus, and never to be out of His sight; because the sheep which keep close to their shepherd always receive more caresses and are better fed; with them he shares special dainties from the food that he himself is eating; if the shepherd should fall asleep the lamb does not go away until he wakes again―it will even awaken him itself. Then he will caress it again and give it another choice morsel from his own supply of food.

My Redeemer, here I am close to you in this Holy Sacrament. The only food, that I want you to give me, is fervor and perseverance in your love.

O Holy Faith, how grateful I am to you because it is you who make known to me―and give me certainty―that in this Divine Sacrament of the altar and in this Heavenly Bread, there is no longer any bread; but in its place is my Lord Jesus Christ and He is there for my love.

O my God―my All―I believe you are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. You are hidden from our bodily eyes in the Consecrated Host; but my Holy Faith reveals you to me as the Mighty Ruler of Heaven and Earth, and the Saviour of the world.

Ah, my most sweet Jesus, as you are my Hope, my Salvation, my Strength, and my Consolation; so I wish that you will also be my Love, and the sole object of all my thoughts, my desires, and my affections. I have more pleasure in the supreme happiness which you enjoy―and will enjoy eternally―than in any good that I could ever have both in time and in eternity. My supreme happiness consists in this―that you, my beloved Redeemer, are perfectly happy, and that your happiness is unbounded.

Reign, my Lord, reign over my soul, for it is wholly yours; let it be your possession always. Let my will, my senses, my powers be all the servants of your love, and whilst I am in this life let them serve no other aim but to give you glory. Mary most holy, you were the first lover and the Mother of Jesus, and in this way was your life passed; so help me and pray for me that I may live from this day forward, happy as you were, all for God.

ASPIRATION - My Jesus, make me be all yours then you will be all mine. 

SPIRITUAL COMMUNION 

Jesus, I believe you are in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love you; I want you to come to me. Come into my heart; I embrace you; O never depart from me.

A VISIT TO MARY  

THE GATE OF MARY'S MERCY 

"Blessed is the man who keeps watch at my gates every day and who is watching at my door post." (Prov. 8). As the poor wait at the doors of the rich, so blessed is the man who waits at the gate of Mary's mercy, seeking for alms which come in the form of graces; but even more blessed still is the man who tries to imitate the virtues which he learns from Mary, particularly the virtues of purity and humility.

ASPIRATION - My Hope, help me.

PRAYER AFTER VISIT

ETERNAL REST GIVE UNTO THEM, O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE. AMEN.

10th Visit

DANBURY CT, 1950

PRAYER BEFORE VISIT

AN AUDIENCE WITH THE KING 

Poor foolish slaves of the world, says St. Augustine, where do you think that you are going to satisfy your hearts' desires? Come to Jesus, because He alone is able to give you the happiness that you are looking for: "Unhappy people, where are you going? The good you are in search of comes from Him alone."

And what about myself? Am I going to be just as senseless as they are, by acting in the same foolish way as they do? No; I will seek for God alone.

"Seek for that One Good," adds St. Augustine, "in whom you will find every good"; and if you wish to find Him immediately, here He is―close beside you. Tell Him what you want; because that is why He is in the Tabernacle―to give you consolation and to listen to what you have to say.

St. Teresa reminds us that the privilege of speaking with a King is not given to everybody; the best that most can hope for is to make a petition through a third person.

But to speak with you, the King of Glory, we do not need anybody to intervene; you are ready to give audience to all―and at all times―in this Sacrament. Anybody that wishes for it finds you always there―there he speaks to you as friend to friend.

Occasionally, but only after long and difficult routine, someone may be permitted to speak directly to a King; and it is but seldom―maybe a few times a year―that kings grant audience. But in this Sacrament you grant audience both night and day to all without exception, and just as frequently as we wish for it.

O Sacrament of love, whether you give yourself in Holy Communion, or whether you remain upon the altar, you know how to draw many hearts to yourself with those loving attractions of yours; so that, in love with you, they remain lost in the contemplation of your goodness: and ardent in their joy their thoughts are for you alone.

O draw my poor heart to you also, for it wants to love you more and to spend itself as the servant of your love. From today forward I entrust to the care of your goodness all my interests, all my hopes, all my love: my soul and my body. Accept me O Lord, and do with me whatever you please.

I will not complain any more, O my loved Master, of the ways in which you have arranged things for my welfare. All that matters to me is that they come forth from your loving Heart; so love must be their cause and they must be for my good. That you want them so is enough for me: I want them so too both here and in eternity. Do everything you wish to me, and with me. I will work in perfect union with your will; for it alone is holy, it alone is Goodness itself, it alone is all-beautiful; and in it are all perfection and loveliness.

How dear you are to me, O Will of God! Always in the closest union with you I wish both to live and to die: your joy is my joy. My one ambition is that your desires be my desires also. My God, my God, O help me! From today forward make me live for you alone: alone, to do what you wish; alone, to love your Will which is all lovely. O let me die for love of you, for you have died for love of me and you have become the very food of my soul.

O how unhappy were the days in which I clung to my own will and thus offended you! I love you now, O Will of God, in the same way as I love God Himself―because you are God Himself. Yes, even so, with all my heart I love you, and to you I now make this complete gift―the total gift of myself.

ASPIRATION - O Will of God, all my love is yours.

SPIRITUAL COMMUNION 

Jesus, I believe you are in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love you; I want you to come to me. Come into my heart; I embrace you; O never depart from me.

A VISIT TO MARY 

THE TREASURER OF GRACES 

This great Queen tells us, "In my possession are riches . . . so that I can make all who love me rich." (Prov. 8). If we wish to be rich with the graces of God we will love Mary. "Idiota" calls her, "The Treasure Store of Graces." O happy are the people who go to Mary with confidence and love. I hope to become holy through you, for you can make me holy, O Mary, My Hope.

ASPIRATION - O Loving Mother, pray for me.

PRAYER AFTER EACH VISIT

 

ETERNAL REST GIVE UNTO THEM, O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE. AMEN.

9th Visit

DANBURY CT, 1950

PRAYER BEFORE VISIT

THE BREAD OF LIFE

St. John tells us that he saw Our Lord bound about the breast with a cincture of gold: "I saw the Son of Man with a golden girdle about his breast." (Apoc. 1:13). In the Most Holy Sacrament the breast of Jesus is overflowing with graces which the Sacred Heart is longing in mercy to pour out upon men.

"You will be carried at the breast." (Is.66:12). He tells us through the mouth of His prophet that His love for us is tender as the love of a mother, who finds her solace and her joy only in nourishing the child she loves.

The Venerable Father Alvarez saw Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament with His hands full of favors, and He was seeking out those to whom he could distribute them.

It is told of St. Catherine of Sienna that when she went to the Most Holy Sacrament, she went with a heart thirsting for love, in much the same way as a babe in its need turns to the breast of its mother.

O only Begotten Son of the Eternal Father, you are most lovely, and I well know that it is you who are the most worthy object of my love. I wish to love you as much as you desire―at least I want to love you as much as a creature is capable of wanting to love you.

I understand that because I have failed you and even by my sins become a rebel to your love that I have no claim to your love. I have no right even to come close to you as I now am in this church; but I understand too that, in spite of all this, it is you yourself who are still seeking my love; I hear You saying to me, "My child, give me your heart": Love the Lord your God with all your heart." It is for this, I know, that my life has been prolonged by you, and that I have not been condemned to hell that, being converted, I give all my love to you.

Since then you still want to be loved by me, here I am, O my God. To you I give myself; to you I dedicate my whole being. You are all goodness, O my God; you are all love. I love you. I choose you to be the only Lord and King of my poor heart; this is your own wish, and it is mine too, that my heart should be yours; though of itself my poor heart is cold and repellent, when you accept it you can change it. Change me, O Lord, my God; bring about a change in me. I do not rely on myself or I should remain still as I was in the past―ungrateful, and with so little love of your boundless goodness: that goodness which loves me so greatly and deserves in return a boundless love. Bring it about that in all my days to come I may be able to make up for the love that I have failed to give you in times past.

ASPIRATION - My God, my God, I want to love you, I want to love you, I want to love you.

SPIRITUAL COMMUNION 

Jesus, I believe you are in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love you; I want you to come to me. Come into my heart; I embrace you; O never depart from me.

A VISIT TO MARY 

THE CONSOLER OF THE AFFLICTED 

Mary is very much like her Son Jesus in this; being the Mother of Mercy she experiences great joy when she is able to help and console sinners.

Bernadine de Bustis tells us that Mary's desire to bestow favors on everybody is so intense that it is greater than our wish to receive them: "Her wish to dispense gifts to you and to do you good is greater than your wish to receive her gifts."

ASPIRATION - Hail, our Hope!

PRAYER AFTER VISIT

 

ETERNAL REST GIVE UNTO THEM, O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE. AMEN.

8th Visit

The Loving Invitation 

"Rise up, make haste, my friend, my lovely one, and come to me." (Cant. 2). These are the words of the Sacred Spouse in the Canticles. They are spoken also by Jesus to every soul that visits Him in the Most Holy Sacrament.

Rise up: lift yourself above your own poverty. My friend: since you come to visit me, for I am here to make you rich by my favours. Make hast: come very close to me and do not be afraid of my Majesty―my Majesty is humbled in this Sacrament because I wish to take all fear from you and to give you confidence.

My friend, you love me and I love you; you cannot now be an enemy of mine―you are my friend. My lovely one, my grace has made you beautiful. Come to me: come near to me and embrace me, and then with great confidence ask of me all that you want.

St. Teresa tells us: Jesus the mighty King of Glory puts on a disguise in this Sacrament, which is the form of bread; in this way He hides His Majesty so that we will come near to His Sacred Heart with the greatest confidence.

O let us come close then to Jesus―very confident and full of love―and making ourselves one with Him we shall ask for His favors.

O Eternal Word, how great should be my joy! You became Man and are present here in the Blessed Sacrament for me; I know that I stand in your presence and you are my God; your Majesty is infinite, your Goodness is boundless―and it is you, my God, who love me with so mighty a love.

O all you lovers of God wherever you are found, in heaven or on earth, love Him for me also. Mary my Mother, help me to love Him. And you, my Lord and My God, you who are so lovely, today make yourself the one and only object of my love; make yourself complete Master of my will and take full possession of my whole being. To you I consecrate my mind: let its thoughts be always of your goodness. To you I consecrate my body: help me that I may be pleasing to you. To you I consecrate my soul: let it be wholly yours.

O Beloved of my heart, I would that all men knew the marvellous depths of the love you have for them, and then all would spend their lives for this one end―to love you and to give you pleasure; in the way you want them to do, and to the extent that you deserve it.

As for myself, I want to live always in love with your boundless beauty; I want to do everything I can from this day forward with the one aim of giving joy to you.

I am resolved to give up anything at all, whatever it be, if it displeases you; it does not matter what the cost be to myself, for rather than displease you I prefer to lose everything, even my life. My God, my treasure, my love, my all: O how happy will I be if I lose everything to gain possession of you. 

Aspiration - Take everything from me and take me all to yourself, Jesus my God.

Spiritual Communion

  
Jesus, I believe you are in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love you; I want you to come to me. Come into my heart; I embrace you; O never depart from me.

A Visit to Mary  

The Mother and the Child

"If you are a little one, then come to me (Prov. 8). Mary calls on every child who has need of a mother to come and seek her because she is of all mothers the most lovely. Nuremberg expresses her love for us in these words: What is the love of all other mothers but a mere shadow beside the love of Mary for each of us. 

 

O Mother, O Mother of my soul, you love me and you long for my salvation so intensely that only God longs for it more than you do. O Mary, prove yourself a Mother to me. 

 

Aspiration - O Mother, you are mine; let me ever remember you.

7th Visit

NEW JERSEY, 1953

PRAYER BEFORE VISIT

 

THE HOME WHERE JESUS LIVES

"Be assured, I am with you all days, to the very end of time." (St. Matt. 28).

Jesus the Good Shepherd, full of love, has given His life for us His sheep: but even in death He could not bear to be separated from us. Therefore He says: my cherished flock, you whom I so love, see―I am with you still. I have found a way to remain with you. So long as you wish it, here you will be able to find me in this Sacrament always. Here you will get help; you will find consolation in my presence. Until the end of the world I will not leave you; never, so long as you remain upon this earth.

St. Peter of Alcantara says: Jesus, going far away, would not leave the one He loved lonely and without an intimate friend. So in the Blessed Sacrament He left the best of all possible friends―no other than Himself.

O my Most Gentle Lord, My Savior most lovely, I have come to visit you and I am here before you now at this altar. You return my visit with still greater love, when in Holy Communion you enter the house of my soul; for at that time you are not only present before me but you become my own food, forming with me a complete union and making yourself my perfect gift. Thus at such a time I can truly say: My Jesus, now you belong to me entirely. When you give yourself so completely to me, it is only right that I make a complete gift of myself to you. What a poor insignificant thing I am; and you are my God. O God of love, O love of my heart, when will it be that I shall be yours―all yours―not in word only but in reality? It is you who can bring this about.

Give me greater confidence, through the merits of your Precious Blood, that for a certainty I may obtain from you this grace: before I die to see myself unreservedly yours, and my own in nothing any longer. My God, the prayers of everybody are heard by you. Today hear the prayer of one who wishes to love you in all reality: for I wish to love you with all my strength; I wish to be obedient to your smallest wish without any interest of my own, without any form of consolation, and without any reward; for love alone I wish to serve you, solely to give you pleasure; solely to give joy to your Heart which burns with such an intense fire for me. My reward―my only reward―will be to love you. O Son, loved of the Eternal Father, rob me of my liberty; rob me of my will; rob me of everything―rob me of myself―and then give yourself to me. I love you; I seek you; I sigh for you. I love you. I love you. I love you.

ASPIRATION - O My Jesus, make me wholly yours.

SPIRITUAL COMMUNION 

Jesus, I believe you are in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love you; I want you to come to me. Come into my heart; I embrace you; O never depart from me.

A VISIT TO MARY 

HAIL MARY, OUR HOPE 

O Lady―Our Lady―You are of all the most lovely, the entire Church calls you and greets you, "Our Hope." You therefore who are the Hope of All, be my Hope too. It is St. Bernard who calls you, "The whole reason of my hope;" and he says of you, "Even the one whose need is desperate can hope in you." In like manner I too can say: O Mary, you are mine―you can save those who are in desperate need. In you I put all my hope.

ASPIRATION - Mary, Mother of God, pray to Jesus for me.

PRAYER AFTER EACH VISIT

ETERNAL REST GIVE UNTO THEM, O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE. AMEN.