19th Day

EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS, 1952

PRAYER BEFORE VISIT

THE FAITHFUL FRIEND

The company of a dear friend is sweet indeed. In this valley of tears is there anything sweeter to us than the company of Jesus, the best friend we have. He wants to do us good in every way, and for this He dwells with us always. It is in this place that we can speak with Jesus at our pleasure; here we can open our hearts to Him; we can lay bare our wants; we can ask Him for His grace―in a word, it is here that we speak face to face with the King of Heaven: all barriers fall away and we speak to Him with confidence.

Joseph was a happy man indeed, greatly favored by God, when God came down into his prison to bring him consolation. We are told in the Holy Scriptures: "He came down into the prison cell with him, and he did not forsake him in his bonds." (Sap. 10). But our good fortune is greater than Joseph's; because we have Jesus, God made Man, with us in this land of exile. Not a day of our lives passes, but He is with us to give us His help―always loving and full of pity. It is a great comfort to a poor man in prison when a dear friend comes to visit him―to talk to him; to raise his hopes, to assist him: these kind attentions help to lighten his afflictions.

Jesus, our best of friends, is here in this Sacrament and His presence gives us courage. He says to us "Here I am with you all days"―I am here expressly for your sake, I have come from Heaven into your prison, to console you, to help you, to set you free. Give me a welcome. Make me welcome always. Embrace me and you will not feel your unhappy state; later on you will come with me to my Kingdom, and then I shall make you happy and your joy will be full.

O Jesus, your love passes all understanding: you have stooped so low to show us your kindness; you have come down in abject humility on our altars to be close to us. Here and now I resolve to visit you often; I will make every effort I can so that I may have the full benefit of the surpassing joy of your sweet presence―your presence is the joy of the Saints in Heaven. I would that I could be with you always―adoring you and telling you how I love you. I beg of you to stir me from my apathy when I neglect to visit you because I have grown cold, or have become too much engrossed with the things of this world. Stir up within me an intense longing to keep close to you always in this Sacrament.

Ah! My Jesus, how deep is my regret that I have not always loved you; how deep is my regret that I have not always been pleasing to you. But this consolation remains to me―I still have time and I can love you now; I can love you not only in the next life but in this life too. My highest Good, my Love, my Treasure, my All―I want to do this. I want to love you in very deed; with all my power I want to love you. 

 
ASPIRATION - My God, help me 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 

TO KNOW YOU IS GOD'S GIFT 

 

 

Thus speaks the devoted Bernardine de Bustis, "Do not be discouraged, poor sinner, for if you go to this Lady with trust you will find her; and in her hands you will find the fullness of mercy and bounty." Poor sinner, do not lose courage, whoever you are. Go to this Lady with the certainty that you will be helped: you will find her, and her hands will be filled with mercy and with favors. Be quite certain that the longing of this gentle Queen to do you good is much greater than the wish you have to be helped by her. "She wishes more to do you good than you wish to receive her gifts."

To know you, my Lady―this itself is God's gift to me and I am very grateful to Him for it. If I did not know you or if I forgot you, what a calamity it would be for me! Then the chance of my salvation would be poor indeed. But I do know you, my dear Mother. I bless you, I love you and I have full confidence in you. In your hands I place my whole life.

ASPIRATION - Blessed is he who knows you, O Mary, and who trusts in you.

PRAYER AFTER VISIT

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

18th Day

NUN'S STORY, 1962

Prayer Before Visit

 

THE THRONE OF LOVE

There will come a day when in the Valley of Josaphat Jesus will be seated on His throne in majesty. But now in the Most Holy Sacrament He is seated on His throne in love.

Suppose a King came to dwell in the town where a poor shepherd lived in order to prove how much he loved him. What would you think of the ingratitude of this same uncouth fellow if he would not so much as go out of his way to visit the King, even though he knew that the King had a great desire to see him, and that this was the very reason why he had come to that place?

O my Jesus, how well I know it! It is for the love of me that you have come to stay here in the Blessed Sacrament; if it were possible for me to do so, I would like to stay in your presence both night and day. My Lord and my God―there is never a moment that the angels of Heaven are not present with you―they stand amazed at the love you have for us. How right it is that I should be there too giving you joy by praising your boundless goodness to me, because you are on this altar for my sake, not theirs: "In the sight of the angels I will praise you; I will adore at your holy altar, and for your mercy and your truth I will praise your name." (Psalm 137).

I love You, Jesus my God, here in this Sacrament: Bread of Angels and Food Divine. But with my love neither you nor I am satisfied. I love you truly but altogether too little is my love. O Jesus, see to it, that I may begin to understand the Beauty, the Boundless Goodness, that is the object of my love. See to it, yourself, that my heart may be made free from all earthly loves and that all the space that is in it may be filled with your Divine Love.

Every day you come down from Heaven to fill me with your love and to bring about the closest union between us: what else is left for me to do, after all this, but to concentrate my whole being on loving and adoring you and giving you pleasure.

I love you with all my heart, my Jesus; I love you with all my heart. If you are looking for a way to return my love―then give me more love. Give me a love that will burn with ardent flames: a love that will consume me with longing desire always to give greater joy to you.

ASPIRATION - Jesus, give me more love.

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 REFUGE 

People who are poor can find shelter when they are sick, but only in the public hospitals, because all others forsake them on account of their poverty. In the same way the most wretched of sinners are received by the Mercy of Mary, even when everybody else would abandon them on account of their miserable condition.

Mary's mercy was given to the world by God to be for sinners, like the public hospital, a refuge for the abandoned and forsaken. St. Basil tells us this: "God has established a public hospital for sinners." St. Ephrem tells us that Mary is a place of refuge where the sinner finds a welcome.

Mary, my Queen, God had made you great so that you might give shelter to those whose condition is most wretched. So you cannot cast me away when I come to you, even though I have committed so many sins. The greater my misery is, the greater also is my right to be taken under your protection. To you I come; under your mantle I take shelter. You are the refuge of sinners, so you are my refuge―the hope of my salvation. If you cast me out where will I go?

ASPIRATION - Mary, my refuge, save me.

PRAYER AFTER VISIT

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

17th Day

GREAT FALLS MT, 1954 

PRAYER BEFORE VISIT

CENTER OF ALL HEARTS

 


A true lover experiences exceeding great joy when he finds himself in the company of the one he loves. If we have a great love for Jesus that joy is ours now. See, we are in His presence; Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is watching us; He is listening to us: are we going to say nothing to Him?

O let us abound with consolation at the thought of His company. Let us rejoice in the glory and the love He receives from that multitude of souls who are on fire with love of the Blessed Sacrament. Let us be filled with a great longing that all men would love Jesus in this Sacrament of love, and would consecrate their hearts to Him; at the very least, let us consecrate to Him all the love that is ours: let Him be the one object of our love and the one object to whom all the longing of our soul turns.

Even to speak of the Most Holy Sacrament gave great joy and consolation to Father Salesius of the Society of Jesus; he never tired of repeating his visits―of looking for opportunities to go into the company of the Master whom he loved. He found such opportunities when he was on his way to the door of the monastery; or when he was returning to his room; or when he was going from one part of the house to another. Those with whom he lived could not help noticing that he repeated these visits almost every hour of the day. He ended his life by dying at the hands of heretics while defending the doctrine of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament―this was a fitting reward for his great devotion.

O Jesus, my most loving Master, how happy I would be if I could die for so beautiful a cause―defending your Real Presence in this Sacrament, in which you show us so clearly how tender is your love for us.

My dear Master, you have already worked many miracles in this Sacrament; so now work this one miracle more―draw me, bind me all to you. This is your wish already, and how well you deserve that I should be all yours! Give me strength to love you with all the love of my heart. Give worldly goods to others if you please; I renounce them utterly here and now; but I do sigh after and I long for your love―and it alone. Yes, your love alone: this I seek for now, this I will seek for always. O, I love you, my Jesus: make me love you always. There is nothing more that I ask.

ASPIRATION - Jesus, when shall I truly 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 

MOTHER MOST LOVABLE 

My most sweet Queen, how pleasant to me is that beautiful name used by those who are devoted to you, "Mater Amabilis," Mother Most Lovable. Yes, how true it is, O my Lady, that you are exceedingly lovable, for your beauty has won the love of God Himself: "The King has greatly desired your loveliness."

St. Bonaventure tells us that to your lovers even your name is so lovely, that when they pronounce it, or hear it pronounced, they are set on fire; and an intense longing wells up within them to love you still more: "O sweet, O kind, O most lovable Mary―your name cannot be pronounced without setting us aflame; nor can it strike upon our hearing without stirring the affections of those who love you."

O how fitting it is then, most lovely Mother, that I should love you. But I shall not be satisfied with merely loving you: I want to be, after God, the first of your lovers on earth; and later on, the first of your lovers in Heaven. If this desire is too bold your loveliness alone is responsible, together with the particular love that you have given me; if you were less lovable then my longing to love you would be less.

Come, O my Lady, and accept this intense desire of mine. In proof that you have accepted it, you must yourself obtain for me from God the love I seek. I seek to love you more because the love I have for you gives great joy to God Himself.

ASPIRATION -  love you exceedingly, O most lovely Mother.

PRAYER AFTER VISIT

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

16th Visit

JESUITS IN AMERICA - 1953

PRAYER BEFORE VISIT

 

THE HEALER AND THE REMEDY

It is certain that men would not be as unhappy as they are, if in all their trials and troubles they went to the Most Holy Sacrament to find a remedy there. 

Jeremias asks: "In Galaad is there no healing balm? Or is there no physician there? (Jer. 8). Venerable Bede comments: Galaad is a mountain in Arabia, rich in sweet smelling spices. This mountain is a figure of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, for there He keeps ever ready for us all the remedies needed for the sickness of our souls. 

Jesus Our Saviour, says to us: "Poor children of Adam, why do you complain of the sicknesses that afflict you. Here in the Blessed Sacrament you have the Physician, and the remedy too for every sickness of your soul: "Come to Me, all of you, and I will give you refreshment." 

With the sisters of Lazarus I shall say, "Look on the one you love, for he is sick. " My Master, I am the one, the unhappy one, whom you love; see how wounded my soul is―wounded by my sins. Come to me, my Divine Physician, and heal me; I know that you can heal me and that you will heal me: "O heal my soul, for I have sinned against you." 

O Jesus, my most sweet love, draw me wholly to you; for this make use of the most beautiful attractions of your love. I prefer to be bound in the bonds of your love rather than to be lord and ruler of the whole earth. I do not want anything in this world except your love. It is but little that I have to give in return: but if I could be the owner of all the kingdoms of the world, I would like to own them for this reason―to renounce them for the love of you. 

As it is, I renounce all that I have―my ease and comfort, my pleasures, even spiritual consolations. My liberty and my will I renounce for you―I want to give you everything that I value. You alone I love, O Boundless Goodness; I love you more than my life and I hope to love you through all eternity. 

ASPIRATION - My Jesus, I give you all; in your kindness accept my gift. 

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 OF MERCY 

My Lady, this is what you once said to St. Brigid: "If anybody comes back to me with a sincere will to change his life, it does not matter how great his sins are. I am ready to receive him at once on his return. I do not ask how great his sins have been, but only about his good will as he returns. I do not refuse to stoop over him, to pour oil on his wounds and to heal him. I am called the Mother of Mercy and so I truly am." 

If you have power to heal me, and you also want to heal me―look, I am coming to you. O Physician from Heaven, heal the wounds of my soul. Say only the word to your Son and I shall be healed. 

ASPIRATION - O Mary, have pity on me.

PRAYER AFTER VISIT

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

15th Visit

DEATH OF A POPE - 1958

PRAYER BEFORE VISIT

THE FURNACE

"I have come to cast fire on the earth, and what do I wish for except that it be set aflame." (S. Luke 12:49).

The Venerable Father Francis Olimpio, a Theatine, tells us that in the whole world there is nothing that makes the fire of Divine Love burn more intensely in the hearts of men than the Sacrament of the Altar.

Our Lord in the Most Holy Sacrament showed himself to St. Catherine of Sienna; He was like a furnace of love from which there poured torrents of flame, and these spread themselves over the whole world.

The Saint was astounded that so many men could continue to live without being set on fire in the very midst of these flames of love that God poured out upon them.

My Jesus, set me on fire with love of you. Do not let me breathe, nor think of anything, nor seek for anything, nor wish for anything: but only for the love of you. I would be truly happy if this holy fire of yours would utterly consume me―and as the years of my life pass on, it would completely purge from my heart all unruly love of the things of earth.

O my Jesus, Divine Word of God, I see you upon the altar completely sacrificed: brought to nothing, destroyed, for love of me. You have become a sacrifice, a Victim for my love; there is only one right thing for me to do―to make an offering of my whole being to you.

Yes, my God, to you who are the Lord and Ruler of all, this day I make a sacrifice of all my soul: my intellect, my will―everything in my life. This sacrifice of mine is a poor one indeed, but I unite it to the priceless sacrifice that Jesus Christ, your Son and my Saviour, offered to you the Eternal Father―that sacrifice which He made on the Cross when He was on earth, and which He renews every day on the altar in so many places.

Receive this sacrifice of mine through the merits of Jesus; give me grace to repeat it every day of my life, and to die making a complete sacrifice of myself to your glory. I want to lay down my life for you―this was the great grace given to so many martyrs. But if I am not worthy of a grace so great as this; at least let me sacrifice my life by accepting that death which you will send me.

This, then, is the grace that I wish for, O my God―I want to die with the intention of giving glory to you and of pleasing you. I offer to you the sacrifice of my life; and of my death, whatever it be, and whenever it may come.

ASPIRATION - My Jesus, may I die for the love of 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  

EVERYTHING THROUGH MARY 

O Most Sweet Lady, with your own St. Bernard once more let me call you "The whole reason of my hope." And with St. John Damascene let me say, "In you I have put all my hope." The pardon of my sins, perseverance until death, and finally liberation from Purgatory―all these you will obtain for me. All that work out their salvation obtain salvation through you. Your office then O Mary, is to save me. This is what St. Bonaventure says "The one you wish to be saved will be saved." Will then to save me and I shall be saved." Since you save everyone who calls on you, look down on me, O Mother, as I call on you and say

ASPIRATION - "Salvation of those who call upon you, save me." (St. Bonaventure).

PRAYER AFTER VISIT

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

14th Day

CONVENT LIFE 1962

PRAYER BEFORE VISIT

THE SACRAMENT OF REST 

O Most Loving Jesus, I hear you speaking to me from the Tabernacle where you dwell, "This is my resting place for ever and ever. Here I shall dwell for it is the place that I have chosen." (Psal. 131).

If you have chosen your dwelling place on our altars remaining here in the Most Holy Sacrament, and if the love you have for us makes you find your rest here; then here too my heart and my love should find a dwelling place always with you―here I shall find my rest and every joy.

O loving souls, you who cannot find any sweeter rest in the whole world than being close to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, blessed is your lot indeed; and happy shall I be, my dear Master, if from today forward I cannot find any sweeter joy than to rest in your presence and to think always of you―of you who remain ever present here, and who think only of me and of my good.

Why, my dear Master, have I lost so many years in which I have not loved you? Unhappy years of my life, I mourn over you; and I bless you, unlimited patience of my God for bearing with me so long, ungrateful as I have been to your love. In spite of great ingratitude on my part you have waited for me: and why? For this one reason only―that one day at last, conquered by your love, I should give myself all to you.

O Lord, I will resist no longer; I will not be ungrateful any more. There is only one right thing for me to do now―to consecrate to you all the time of my life that remains to me, be it long, or be it short. I look for help, O my Jesus,―for the help that I need to be entirely yours. When I fled from you and when I despised you, you loved me: and you showed your love for me in many wonderful ways. My hope is great that you will favor me now; for now I am looking for you, and I am longing to love you.

Give me the grace to love you, O my God; for you are worthy of unbounded love. I love you with all my heart; I love you above all things; I love you more than myself―more than my life. I am sorry that I have offended you because you are Infinite Goodness. Pardon me, my Jesus, and when you give me your pardon, give me also the grace to love you with an exceeding great love―to love you in life, to love you in death, and to love you in the next life for all eternity.

O God of almighty power, let the world see this mighty prodigy―that a poor ungrateful sinner, such as I have been, should now become one of your greatest lovers. Do it, my Jesus, and do it by virtue of your own merits: this is the one thing I long for, for the rest of my life; this is the one thing I am resolved to do. You have inspired me with this desire: you must give me the strength to fulfill it.

ASPIRATION - My Jesus, I thank you for having waited for me until now.

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 

CHANNEL OF DIVINE GRACE

 

 

St. Germanus addresses the Most Blessed Virgin Mary in these words, "No one can be saved but through you; no one can be freed from evil things but through you; no one can receive gifts but through you." My Lady, it is clear that if you do not help me I am lost, and I will never be able to come to Heaven to sing your praises. But all the Saints tell me that you do not forsake those who seek your help. He is lost, and he only, who does not call on you. Poor as I am, I seek your help and in you I put all my trust.

ASPIRATION OF ST. BERNARD - She is all my confidence, she is the total cause of my hope.

PRAYER AFTER VISIT

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

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.