Prayer with Blessed Sacrament

Brookline Carmel Bulletin J M J T

October 18, 1959

Cogitatio Sancta

(Holy Meditation)

Prayer to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament

We have said that prayer is the great instrument, which unites our souls to God. We must always remember that the supreme prayer is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In the Mass, Our Lord gathers together all our prayers, so to speak, purifies and perfects them, adds His own infinitely acceptable prayer to them, and offers them to His Father on our behalf. Christ is our Mediator. All our prayers are thus offered “through Our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is not surprising, therefore, to find the saints approaching the altar with the profoundest awe and reverence. Saint Teresa, in her Life (ch. 38), describes her sentiments as follows: “Whenever I approached the altar to receive Holy Communion, and remembered that exceedingly great Majesty Whom I had seen, and considered that it was He Who was in the Most Holy Sacrament (and the Lord was pleased that I should see Him many times in the Host), my hair would stand on end and I would feel completely annihilated. O my Lord! If Thou didst not conceal Thy greatness, who would dare to approach so often to unite his foul and miserable self to Thy great Majesty? Blessed be Thou, Lord. Let the angels and all creatures praise Thee, Who dost proportion things to our weakness, so that, while we are enjoying Thy incomparable blessings, we are not so frightened by Thy great power that we do not dare to enjoy them.” After an illustration, she continues, exclaiming: “O Wealth of the poor, how wonderfully Thou dost sustain souls, not letting them see Thy great riches all at once, but gradually revealing them.” Our deep respect should not prevent us from approaching Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for though He is divine, He is also human, and we can approach Him less fearfully in His humanity and ask Him to accept our humble prayer, unite it with His own, and offer it to His heavenly Father.

The presence of the Blessed Sacrament is a wonderful atmosphere for prayer. Whatever the subject of our meditation may be, our closeness to Christ in the Eucharist can provide inspiration. As Saint Teresa explains (Life, ch. 22): “It may be that our temperament or some indisposition will not always allow us to think of the Passion, because of its painfulness; but what can prevent us from being with Him in His Resurrection, since we have Him so near us in the Blessed Sacrament, where He is already glorified?… Here we can behold Him free from pain, full of glory, strengthening some, inspiring others, before ascending to heaven, our Companion in the Most Holy Sacrament…” Our faith assures us of His presence in the tabernacle, and this provides us with a special point of contact, so to speak. This is particularly true after Holy Communion, “for we know that He is there, since the Faith tells us so. He reveals Himself so completely as the Lord of that inn, the soul, that it feels as though it were wholly dissolved and consumed in Christ.” In her enthusiasm, Saint Teresa turns to address Our Lord at this point: “How completely art Thou Lord of the whole world, and of the heavens, and of a thousand other worlds, and of countless worlds and heavens that Thou has created!” It is almost overwhelming to contemplate that this all-powerful Lord condescends to be in the sacred Host, to enter our souls in Holy Communion and to remain with us in the tabernacle.

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“It ought to be a great consolation to us that Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, should dwell in so many places, as He does, in the Most Holy Sacrament.”

L D V M

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