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WojciechKosek
Guest
The Year of the Eucharist (October 2004 – October 2005) was for the Church as an occasion to renew the fervor in the celebration and adoration of the Eucharist.
In order to accomplish this task, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has issued a special document – The Year of the Eucharist. Suggestions and proposals – in which it recalls the figure and teaching of St. Teresa of Avila.
Is it not surprising that the practice of prayer after the end of the Eucharist has been identified as a key point in the plan for the renewal of the Church’s Eucharistic renewal?
These are the words with which the Holy See encouraged believers – priests and laity – to enter the path of reflection and conversion to the true love of Jesus in the Eucharist:
“The renewal brought about by this holy year will most certainly depend on the depth of our prayer. We are all invited to celebrate, receive and adore the Eucharist with the same faith of the saints. How could we forget the fervor of the great Spanish mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila, whose feast we celebrate today in the liturgy? In reference to Eucharistic communion, she writes, “ It is not necessary to go far to look for the Lord. For until our natural heat has consumed the accidents of the bread, the good Jesus is in us. Let us draw near to Him! ” ( Way of Perfection , 8).”
The legitimacy of spending time with Jesus after receiving him in Holy Communion is one of the most important points of teaching that St. Teresa addressed to her spiritual daughters. How clear are her words after centuries, in which she shows the illogicality of abandoning the Lord for earthly matters:
“But if we pay no heed to Him save when we have received Him, and go away from Him in search of other and baser things, what can He do? Will He have to drag us by force to look at Him and be with Him because He desires to reveal Himself to us? No; for when He revealed Himself to all men plainly, and told them clearly who He was, they did not treat Him at all well – very few of them, indeed, even believed Him. So He grants us an exceeding great favour when He is pleased to show us that it is He Who is in the Most Holy Sacrament. But He will not reveal Himself openly and communicate His glories and bestow His treasures save on those who He knows greatly desire Him, for these are His true friends. ”
Maybe today, when we are on the day before Christmas, it is worth taking a spiritual revival from St. Teresa? For the Church proclaims that mysticism and the celebration of the Eucharist are very close to each other spaces in which God communicates with us. CCC 2711 proclaims:
“ Entering into contemplative prayer is like entering into the Eucharistic liturgy: we ‘gather up:’ the heart, recollect our whole being under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, abide in the dwelling place of the Lord which we are, awaken our faith in order to enter into the presence of him who awaits us”.
In order to accomplish this task, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has issued a special document – The Year of the Eucharist. Suggestions and proposals – in which it recalls the figure and teaching of St. Teresa of Avila.
Is it not surprising that the practice of prayer after the end of the Eucharist has been identified as a key point in the plan for the renewal of the Church’s Eucharistic renewal?
These are the words with which the Holy See encouraged believers – priests and laity – to enter the path of reflection and conversion to the true love of Jesus in the Eucharist:
“The renewal brought about by this holy year will most certainly depend on the depth of our prayer. We are all invited to celebrate, receive and adore the Eucharist with the same faith of the saints. How could we forget the fervor of the great Spanish mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila, whose feast we celebrate today in the liturgy? In reference to Eucharistic communion, she writes, “ It is not necessary to go far to look for the Lord. For until our natural heat has consumed the accidents of the bread, the good Jesus is in us. Let us draw near to Him! ” ( Way of Perfection , 8).”
The legitimacy of spending time with Jesus after receiving him in Holy Communion is one of the most important points of teaching that St. Teresa addressed to her spiritual daughters. How clear are her words after centuries, in which she shows the illogicality of abandoning the Lord for earthly matters:
“But if we pay no heed to Him save when we have received Him, and go away from Him in search of other and baser things, what can He do? Will He have to drag us by force to look at Him and be with Him because He desires to reveal Himself to us? No; for when He revealed Himself to all men plainly, and told them clearly who He was, they did not treat Him at all well – very few of them, indeed, even believed Him. So He grants us an exceeding great favour when He is pleased to show us that it is He Who is in the Most Holy Sacrament. But He will not reveal Himself openly and communicate His glories and bestow His treasures save on those who He knows greatly desire Him, for these are His true friends. ”
Maybe today, when we are on the day before Christmas, it is worth taking a spiritual revival from St. Teresa? For the Church proclaims that mysticism and the celebration of the Eucharist are very close to each other spaces in which God communicates with us. CCC 2711 proclaims:
“ Entering into contemplative prayer is like entering into the Eucharistic liturgy: we ‘gather up:’ the heart, recollect our whole being under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, abide in the dwelling place of the Lord which we are, awaken our faith in order to enter into the presence of him who awaits us”.