Importance of Visits and Holy Hours With Jesus In The Blessed Sacrament
When Our Lord spoke to His disciples, “Could you not watch one hour with me? “ St. Matthew 26:40, this was a call of love for all of us down through the centuries. Jesus is really and truly present in the tabernacle with a divine yet human heart which loves us immensely and also desires our love in return. And He gives evidence of this love in his prayer to the Eternal Father when he prays, “Father, I will that where I am, they also may be.” St. John 17:24. St. Peter Eymard then says, “Our Lord wants us to be with him in the Most Blessed Sacrament.” So this is why Jesus invites us, “Come to me, all ye that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you.” St. Matthew 11:28, because, being the best friend we have, He also wants to help us in our needs. “Although the good God does not allow us to see him,’ St. John Vianney says, ‘’He is none the less present in the Blessed Sacrament, none the less ready to grant us all we ask.”
And if you will notice in the scriptures when the Gospel is read, usually the people who received the greatest graces were the ones who went to him directly. Yet, how few there are who go to him in their needs, and even fewer still who even know him in the Blessed Sacrament. As St. Alphonsus lamented in his prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, “It is in the tabernacle where Jesus is the least revered and the most abandoned.” Even many of his clergy, who should be his closest friends often leave him alone. St. Alphonsus again, complains of this in his book on the priesthood, “It must be confessed that Jesus Christ is unfortunate in his priests! All this comes from the little love they have for him. He that tenderly loves a friend, seeks to see him as often as he can, especially when his visits are most agreeable to this friend..”- DIGNITIES AND DUTIES OF A PRIEST. Pope John Paul II himself used to spend much time before the Blessed Sacrament, and he encouraged us with these words, “Jesus waits for us in this Sacrament of Love. Let us be generous in going to meet him.” By the way, he also wrote an encyclical titled Inaestimabile Donum, The Inestimable Gift, 1980, concerning the Eucharist. Fr. Robert Brown said, “It was written to correct abuses in the liturgy.” How many of you have read it? How many of you have ever heard a priest quote from it in a sermon?
For the most part, we leave Him alone in the tabernacle. Is this the way we treat our Master, our King, our Lord? Do we not have any greater respect for this sacred Body and Blood which suffered atrocious pains, and His precious blood was poured out for us through his Passion and death? “Grieve over the contempt cast upon Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament,” St. John Vianney says, ‘’and try to make amends for it by a greater and more ardent love. To what outrages does our Lord expose himself in the Blessed Sacrament that he may remain in the midst of us! He is there to console us, and therefore we ought often to visit him.” No better example of the outrages he exposes himself to than in Communion in the hand, where countless Particles break off in the hand, falling to the floor or going God only knows where, and being trodden underfoot by the faithful walking behind them! “Have mercy on me, O God, for man hath trodden me underfoot.” Psalm 55:2. Fr. Nicholas Gruner and Father Ronald Tangen both warned that people are SUPPOSED TO LOOK IN THEIR HANDS FOR PARTICLES!!! This is desecration without parallel! Bishop Juan Rodolfo Laise warned that , “With Communion in the hand, a miracle would be required during each distribution of the Eucharist to prevent Particles from falling to the ground.” – Communion in the Hand: Documents and History.
Even in Jesus early life at the age of twelve He seemed to indicate that he would be ‘’found in the temple.’’ St. Luke 2:46, saying later in his public life,, “I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple,” St. Matthew 26:55. He is still here with us, waiting in the tabernacle, “sitting in our midst, ready to hear us, and ask us a few questions.” He wants us to come to him, “sorrowing,” for our sins, like the tax collector, so that he may forgive us and bless us, and we may go home forgiven. Will you go often to visit him, or, “Will you also go away?” St. John 6:68.
JUST FOR A MINUTE
I remember when I was only four, Mother would bring me round to the store. And just outside the church she’s stand, And “Come in,” she’d say, reaching down for my hand, “Just for a minute.”
And then when I started going to school, She’s bring me down every day as a rule, But first the steps to the church we’d climb, And she’s say, “We’ll go in – you’ve always got time, Just for a minute.”
Then I got real big, I mean seven years old, And I went by myself but I was always told, “When you’re passing the church don’t forget to call, And tell Our Lord about lessons and all, Just for a minute.”
And now it’s sort of habit I got, In the evening coming from Casey’s lot, Though it takes me out of the way a bit, To slip into church with my ball and mitt, Just for a minute.
But sometimes I see the other fellow Standing around and I just go yellow. I pass by the door but a voice from within Seems to say real sad, “So you wouldn’t come in, Just for a minute.
There are things inside of me, bad and good, That nobody knows and nobody could, Excepting Our Lord, and I like him to know, And he helps me when in for a visit I go, Just for a minute.
He finds it lonesome when nobody comes. (There are hours upon hours when nobody comes). And he’s pleased when anyone passing by , Stops in, (though it’s only a little guy), Just for a minute.
I know what happens when people die, But I won’t be scared, and I’ll tell you why; When Our Lord is judging my soul, I feel, He’ll remember the times I went in to kneel,
JUST FOR A MINUTE.
St. John Bosco said, “Do you wish many graces? Visit the Blessed Sacrament often. Do you wish few graces? Visit it seldom. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament are a powerful and indispensable means of overcoming the devil and of growing in virtue.” St. Mother Teresa said that love springs from faith. Yet if we say we love Jesus and do not go to visit him often, is this love? If not, our faith must be very weak because our love is weak. And how can we say we hope to love Jesus in heaven if we do not learn to love him on earth?
St. Maximillian Kolbe used to make an average of ten visits a day. He once said regarding Spiritual Communions: “He who makes a spiritual Communion every 15 minutes will become a saint.” St. Robert Bellarmine in his youth would visit four times a day to and from school. Un- doubtedly they were taught at an early age to be devoted to the Blessed Mother, as she unfailingly leads us to her Son in the Eucharist. ‘To Jesus through Mary,’ as the old motto goes. Jesus came to us through Mary. We go to him through Mary. St. Louis de Montfort summed it up this way: “We go to Jesus through Mary because that is the way He came to us, and He said, ‘As I have given you an example, so do you also.” St. John 13:15. Jesus is the fruit, Mary is the tree. St. Louis de Montfort says again: “He who wishes to have the fruit of life, which is Jesus Christ, must have the tree of life, which is Mary. He who wishes to have the operation of the Holy Ghost, must have the divine Mary, who makes him fertile and fruit-bearing…As the Holy Ghost used Mary to form Christ our head, He also uses Mary to form Christ’s body, the Church, and its members.” ‘’ And he hath subjected all things under his feet, and hath made him head over all the church, which is his body…” Eph. 1:22,23. So if we want to know Jesus in the Eucharist, we must come to know Mary. Devotion to Mary is the royal road to salvation. Mary herself stated at Fatima to the three little children, “In order to save souls, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate heart. If what I ask is done, many souls will be saved.” https://motherofgodlibrary.org/2019/05/18/devotion-to-mary-a-great-sign-of-predestination/
How often do we pass a church or run to town and think we are ‘’too busy’’ like Martha? How many of us are even aware of Christ’s Real Presence in the churches when we pass by? The majority of Catholics who pass by do not even make the Sign of the Cross, bow their heads or tip their hat. Sadly, many Catholics raised up in public schools have never been taught about Christ’s Real Presence in the tabernacle. Many of them have not been taught properly about Holy Communion, in the Church or out of the Church. What do I mean by that? I mean most of the clergy never talk about visits and holy hours like the saints were taught. How many of them, like St. John Vianney, point to the tabernacle and say, “Jesus is there! Jesus is there!” Neither do they explain how He got there. He is there in the Host that was consecrated on the altar, and then some of the Hosts are placed in the tabernacle so Our Lord can stay with us for our needs, for His honor and glory if we go and visit Him, for the needs of the sick and so on. But they take it for granted that we know these things. This is how Jesus fulfills his promise to be with us “Until the consummation of the world.” St. Matthew 28:20. Jesus complained to Blessed Elizabeth Canori Mora 200 years ago about the poor education been given to children, https://tinyurl.com/y48x7srm. There is a crisis of belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist: 1) Poor education; 2) Malice of sin, which leads to spiritual blindness, Wisdom 2:21; and 3) apostate Catholics, who leave the Church and deny the Eucharist. Also, the new Mass brought out by Pope Paul VI, which is riddled with abuses and sacrileges, and caused millions of Catholics to apostatize from the faith. The Mass undoubtedly Pope Pius XII said Our Lady of Fatima warned about, “the suicide of changing the liturgy.” Finally, lack of devotion to our Blessed Mother. Those of her children who have a strong devotion to her, praying her rosary daily, wearing her brown scapular and medals, she instructs them with many graces about Jesus true presence in the Eucharist. That is why you will see most daily communicants are devoted to our Blessed Mother. St. Louis de Montfort in his treatise on True Devotion to Mary said, “Jesus is not known and loved up to this time, because Mary is not known and loved as she should be up to this time.” Fr. Patrick Peyton, the rosary priest once said, “What happens when you take the mother out of the home? Things begin to get untidy. The reason the world is in such bad shape is because we have taken the Blessed Mother out of our homes.”
St. Stanislaus of Kostka in his youth would take advantage of every free moment to visit Our Lord. This young man was not all about games to entertain him, nor sports which cause too much wasted time for serving God and neighbor, as St. Peter noted, they were “sporting themselves to excess,” 2 Peter 2:13. When he simply couldn’t go, he would send his Guardian Angel. (Dear Guardian Angel, I cannot go and be with Our Lord. Please go and visit him for me. Or, I cannot get to Mass. Please go to Mass for me, and offer it for the four ends for which it was instituted). St. Monica, besides hearing daily Mass, would visit each day, in the morning and in the evening. The early Christians breaking bread daily (the Holy Mass), “And continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they took their meat with gladness and simplicity of heart.” Acts of Apostles 2:46. Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, mother of seven children, used to do the same. How many of our mothers, or fathers, who take their children to school, could do the same?
St. John Bosco had a vision of the Church in the form of a large ship in the sea, being attacked by many smaller ships, the enemies of the Church, and he saw two large pillars in the sea, one larger than the other with the Holy Eucharist on the top, and the smaller one with Our Lady Help of Christians on it. When the ship was able to anchor itself to the two pillars, it was secure. There is no better way for a man to become a good father than by being devoted to Jesus in the Eucharist, and Mary our most holy Mother. A Careful Father I Want to Be, https://tinyurl.com/5n7a9cxb.
St. Francis Borgia used to visit at least seven times a day. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi made thirty-three, and also Blessed Agatha of the Cross succeeded in making a 100 visits a day! Surely we should not let a day pass by without at least making one visit. If the church is closed nearby you, go and park outside the church, and pray to Jesus inside in the tabernacle. St. John Vianney said, “A wall cannot separate us from Jesus.” Our Lord will accept your good intention. In some cities they have perpetual adoration set up, where the door is not locked, and you can go in and kneel before the Hidden Jesus, as the children of Fatima called him. “Verily thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel the Saviour.” Isaias (Isaiah) 45:15
St. Alphonsus de Liguori said, “Among all devotions, after that of receiving the Sacraments, that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament holds the first place, is the most pleasing to God, and the most useful to ourselves.” Fr. Mateo says, “ There is nothing that gains the Heart of Jesus more than frequent visits and frequent acts of adoration in His presence,; it is usually at this time that he pours out His graces in greatest abundance, and it may be said that, of all His gifts and favors that He gives at these visits, the most ususal is the incomparable gift of His love…it is a fact that all the saints have experienced there is no more infallible way of obtaining in a short time this great love of Jesus Christ than to visit Him often in the churches, especially at those hours of the day when He is honored so little and visited so rarely.” Jesus spoke to Blessed Alexandina da Costa, of Balasar, Portugal, a victim soul: “Keep me company in the Blessed Sacrament. I remain in the tabernacle night and day, waiting to give my love and grace to all who would visit me. But so few come. I am so abandoned, so lonely, so offended.” What is remarkable about this complaint of Our Lord was that Blessed Alexandrina was bed-ridden and couldn’t go, but she would go in spirit, and when lying in bed, it said she would often turn where she could face the church wherein Jesus dwelt.
Let us consider the loving complaint Our Lord made to St. Margaret Mary, and ask ourselves if this applies to us. “Behold this Heart which has so loved men, so much that it has spared nothing, exhausting and consuming itself to show them its love. And in return, all I receive from most of them is ingratitude, scorn, and irreverence in My sacrament of love..” “I looked for comforters, and I found none.” Ps. 68:21. The Sacred Heart of Jesus in often called “a burning furnace of charity,” and if we feel we are cold in our love for him, we should approach Him often, and He will inflame us with the fire of His divine love. As the old saying goes, “If God seems far away, who moved?”
The fact the world is in such a mess now is all the more reason to go to Jesus in the tabernacle, who alone can save us. “Who is going to save the world?” St. Peter Julian Eymard asks us. “The Saviour of the world. And where is He? In the tabernacle. Go to Him.”
HOLY HOURS
It is important to note the value of Holy Hours. St. Alphonsus said that the tabernacles were those spiritual fountains where the saints had drawn “torrents of grace” from their time spent with Jesus, as Isaiah had prophesied, “You shall draw waters with joy from the Saviour’s fountain.” St. Padre Pio, the stigmatist priest said, “A thousand years of enjoying human glory is not worth even an hour spent in sweetly communing with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.” And King David, “Truly one day in Thy courts is better than a thousand others.” Ps. 83:11.
Our Blessed Mother had great joy at finding her Son in the temple, and, she also has great joy at finding us, her other children in the temple conversing with Him. She complained in her second warning at Garabandal, Spain (Not yet approved by the Church), that we should visit the Blessed Sacrament often, and in another place she pleaded, “Give me a legion of Eucharistic adorers.” Let us not think we are too busy, as St. Martha did, overlooking the one thing necessary, chosen by Mary, “the better part.” St. Luke 10:40,42. “The Master is come, and calleth for thee.” In the book on St. Mary Magdalen, it says that Martha was a very holy women, and she was instrumental in actually helping Magdalen get to Jesus so that Our Lord could convert her. St. Martha was a very virtuous woman, and their brother Lazarus was a very holy man.
“Eucharistic adoration,” says St. Peter Eymard, “is the holiest of actions. There is nothing greater or holier on earth than this adoration, because it has for its object the Saviour himself.” St. Alphonsus confirms this saying, “Among all devotions, after that of receiving the Sacraments, that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament holds the first place, is the most pleasing to God, and the most useful to ourselves. Be assured that the time you will thus spend with devotion before this most divine Sacrament will be the most profitable to you in life, and the source of your greatest consolation in death, and in eternity.” Remember what the little boy said? “ I know what happens when people die, but I won’t be scared, and I’ll tell you why; When Our Lord is judging my soul, I feel, He’ll remember the times I went in to kneel.
St. Alphonsus says we are ungrateful if we leave Him alone. “Did a king, to show his love for a poor shepherd, go and live in his village, how great would be the ingratitude of this peasant did he not often go to visit him, knowing the king’s wish to see him, and that for this purpose he had come to reside there!” Yet, St. Peter Eymard says, “Jesus waits for some weeks, months, and even years, stretching out His arms for 40 and 60 years…Alas! There are some who will never come, or only when carried in a casket; but it will be too late then; they will find only an angry Judge.” “Seek the Lord while He may be found.,” Isaiah 55:6. Let us be like those loving souls who hover around Jesus, like the eagles referred to in St. Matthew 24:28, who as St. Alphonsus says, “find their paradise on earth with Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.” “Wheresoever the body shall be, thither will the eagles also be gathered together.”
St. Eymard laments, “How many among the best Catholics never pay a visit of devotion to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, to speak to Him from the heart, to tell Him their love!… The indifference of Christians leaves Him alone, abandons Him in the tabernacle, refuses His graces, neglects and even despises Communion and the Sacrifice of the altar.” But those who do visit Him, and come often will make much progress in the spiritual life. Thus, St. Teresa of Avila said, “He that will strive to have this precious companionship, and will make much of it, and will sincerely love Our Lord, to whom we owe so much, is one, in my opinion, who has made some progress.”
A little sacrifice, yes, but Jesus seems to say from the Cross, “This is what I have done for you. What have you done for Me?” What a treasure we have with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. We should go to Him often, even daily if possible, and honor Him for those who do not honor Him; to love Him for those who do not love Him; to repair for those who offend Him so much (reparation); for our sins and those of the whole world. Our loving Lord is waiting. He says, “Come to Me…I wait for you.” What is your answer?
EVENING PRAYER TO JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT
O Divine Jesus, lonely tonight in so many tabernacles, without a visitor or worshipper, I offer Thee my lowly heart. May its every beating be a prayer of love to Thee. In Thy love, Thou art ever watching under the sacramental veils. Thou never sleepest, and Thou art never weary of Thy vigil for sinners. O loving Jesus, O lonely Jesus, may my heart be a lamp, the light of which shall burn and beam for Thee alone, in time and in eternity.
May Thy will be done in me. Keep me in Thy love; grant me the grace of holy perseverance. Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Jesus, my God and my all.
If you have benefitted from reading this meditation, please consider sharing it with others, that they too may come to a fuller appreciation of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Let us spread devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament far and wide. Amen.