The Key To Rebuilding Christian Culture: The Prophetic Words of St. Peter Julian Eymard (d. Aug 1, 1868; Feast: Aug 2)

“The Eucharistic Jesus is not known even by those who should make Him known. How little He is loved even by His own! It is both frightening and terrifying. So unenlightened and badly guided is the piety of devout people! They are entertained with pious little nothings.”
(p. 182)

Jesus will reign; whether by justice or by love, He will reign. If we take heed of the following writings, His reign of love will be hastened and many more souls will be saved. Please consider sharing them “for God and for souls” (St. Faustina), bearing in mind the words of Our Lord to Ven. Esprite of Jesus: “Am I not greater than all My gifts? And when you receive Me in the holy Eucharist, do you not receive all good things?” (cf. Rom. 8:32; Wis. 7:11)

The Sacrament of Unity
“The spread of the Eucharistic Christ is necessary for the salvation of society. The Eucharist is the life not only of the individual Christian, but of nations as well. We know well that an age flourishes or degenerates in accordance with its worship of the divine Eucharist. It is the life and measure of its faith, charity, and virtue. The Eucharist is not only for personal piety; It is essential to social life, for It is the very life of the world.” (p. 5)

His Will is Our Perfection
“The greatest proof of our love of God is the virtue of conformity to His holy Will. Nothing is more reasonable or more just. Nothing is more pleasing to God or more advantageous to us.” (p. 71)

The Mystery of Love Par Excellence
“Devotion that has not a tent on Calvary and one near the Tabernacle, will not result in solid piety and will never accomplish anything great. I find that we do not bring the Eucharist close enough to the faithful, that we do not preach enough on this Mystery of Love par excellence. As a result, souls suffer, become sensual and material in their piety, and are inordinately attached to creatures because they fail to find their consolation and strength in Our Lord.” (p. 92)

A Divine Seed
“Bear in mind that when you place a Eucharistic spark in a soul, you have implanted therein a divine seed of life and of all the virtues, which is, so to speak, self-sufficient.” (p. 92)

Mary: The First Adorer
“In that Cenacle she lived solely for her Eucharistic Jesus. That is your calling.” (p. 151)

Unum Est Necessarium: One Thing is Necessary
“Do away with the widespread prejudice that the active life excels all others. Is it not right that we should first serve the Master? What subjects would venture to complain about our waiting on the King before bothering about them? Our age is sick because people do not adore. Jesus Christ will ascend His throne only by the Eucharist… Therefore, be ardent adorers of the Holy Eucharist.” (p. 177)

The Life and End of All Devotions
“Find the Sacred Heart where it is, living, all-good, and all-merciful, in the Eucharist. Unfortunately that divine and loving Heart is not known and loved, even by many devout people, who play at any number of little devotions, good in themselves, but neglect the one devotion which ought to be the life and the end of all the others: the Heart of Jesus that gave us Calvary and the Eucharist.” (p. 182)

The Best Centre
“Divine Love in man needs a centre of life if it is to become something habitual. The best centre is Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. This is a centre with a life of its own, not a centre effected in us by simply meditating on the mysteries of our Saviour’s mortal life.” (p. 183)

The Eucharistic Heart of Jesus
“Do not picture the Heart of Jesus as just an emblem or a statue, but see It in the Tabernacle; it is the Heart of the Eucharistic Jesus that belongs to you, that nourishes you, that consoles you, that loves you.” (p. 184)

The Most Excellent of All Works: To Lead Priests to Adoration
“The priests! I would leave everything for priests… It is the most excellent of all works… If we have the priests, we have the parishes; indeed, we have the whole country.” (p. 193) “Sanctify the priests; that takes in everything.” (p. 196)

Mary: Spouse of the Holy Spirit
“Without doubt, the perfecting of Jesus in us is a work proper to the Holy Ghost; but just as this Spirit of Love willed to effect His masterpiece, the Sacred Humanity of Jesus, with Mary, so again, to make us into Christs, He requires the cooperation of Mary; and the more of Mary he finds in a soul, the more powerfully He acts therein.” (p. 257)

A Prophecy of St. Peter Julian Regarding Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament (1868)
“Devotion to Mary runs parallel to devotion to Jesus and follows its phases and its growth. Well, devotion to Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament [Feast: May 13] will grow with the worship of the Eucharist.” (p. 258)

Jesus: Our “Eucharistic Emmanuel” (St. Peter Julian)
“To believe in love is everything. It is not enough to believe in the truth. We must believe in love, and love is Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. This is the faith that makes Our Lord loved. Ask for this pure and simple faith in the Eucharist. Men will teach you; but only Jesus will give you the grace to believe in Him. Come and receive Communion in order to have the strength of faith, not merely the satisfaction, the feeling of faith. You have the Eucharist: what more do you want?” (p. 261)

A final word from St. Peter Julian: “The age of the Eucharist is beginning. Ask for the spread of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament; pray to Him that He may raise up servants and apostles of His Kingdom of Love.” (p. 218)

*All quotations are from the following work: ‘Saint Peter Julian Eymard: Champion of the Blessed Sacrament,’ by Rev. Martin Dempsey (italics are mine)

A final word from Our Lord (to St. Peter Julian Eymard):
“What are you afraid of? Cast yourself into My Arms.”
(p. 51)

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6 Eucharistic Books That May Change Your Life (Excerpts included)

The following books are classics. Really. At least one of them should be read by every Catholic. Better yet – every Christian. The Eucharist is simply too important to be misunderstood, undervalued or neglected.

If, to obtain $100,000 a day, all it took was a daily visit to a church, who would be mad enough not to attend? Yet Jesus offers Himself to us without reserve in the Mass, and almost no one pays any real attention! Are we not aware of the infinite good that Our Lord offers us in every Mass?

“Every degree of grace is in itself infinitely valuable, more precious than all created things in Heaven or on earth, a treasure for which we should, with the Apostle, count all things as loss, that we may gain Christ and His grace.”

(From “The Glories of Divine Grace”)

There are poor souls hastening towards perdition, greatly in need of prayer. You can do nothing more charitable than to save a soul… nothing! And the most effective means by which you can do this is to offer the Holy Mass (in which Our Lord prays for us and offers the Sacrifice of Himself!) for the conversion of sinners! And the greater your fervour at Mass; the greater your faith; the greater your holiness (and purity of intention), the more eagerly will God grant your prayers!

The most urgent need in the world today is not food, shelter, wealth, success, or any other temporal thing; it is love. In particular, it is the love of God, which redeems, purifies, vivifies and saves. And where do we find God’s love most abundantly? In the Mass. At Mass, Our Lord offers Himself mystically, just as He did on Calvary. ‘Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13).

“One more Mass! One more Mass!” – Fr. Mateo Crawley Boevey

How blessed would many Christians consider themselves if they knew that they were going to be visited one day by Our Lord! How they would prepare their hearts; how meticulously they would prepare their appearance. Yet Jesus is truly present in the Tabernacle, waiting to descend into our hearts, and almost no one pays any real attention!

Please, dear reader: if you have not already done so, please consider reading at least one of the following books. Ideally, read it a few times; otherwise it will be impossible to extract all its goodness.

1. ‘Explanation of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass’ (aka ‘The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass Explained,’ or, ‘The Incredible Catholic Mass’) by Rev. Martin von Cochem:

https://archive.org/stream/explanationofthe00maesuoft#page/n3/mode/2up

[Excerpt: “St. Bridget, who was permitted to witness in spirit what went on in the heights of heaven during the consecration, says that she saw the sacred host, under the appearance of a living lamb, enveloped in flames, surrounded by angels, countless in number as the motes in the sunbeam, adoring and serving Him, as did also an innumerable multitude of the blessed.”]

2. ‘The Blessed Eucharist, Our Greatest Treasure’ by Rev. Michael Muller:

https://archive.org/stream/theblessedeuchar00meuluoft#page/n5/mode/2up

[Excerpt: “But you will ask perhaps: ‘Why does our Lord hide Himself under the outward appearances of bread and wine? Why does He not manifest Himself under the sensible qualities of His body, with His wounded hands, His merciful countenance, His radiant majesty?’ Now, our Lord does so chiefly for two reasons. The first is, that we may not lose the merit of faith. Were we to see Jesus Christ as He is seen by the blessed in heaven, we could no longer make an act of faith in His Real Presence, for ‘faith is the belief in things which we do not see.’ Now, our Lord wishes to bestow on us, after this life, a great reward for our faith, as He Himself has said: ‘Blessed are they that do not see and yet believe.’ Many of the saints, in order not to lose the merit of their faith, have gone so far as to beg our Lord not to favor them with those consoling manifestations of Himself in the Blessed Sacrament which He has sometimes granted to His chosen servants.”]

3. ‘The Holy Mass: The Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead. The Clean Oblation Offered Up Among the Nations From the Rising to the Setting of the Sun’ by Rev. Michael Muller:

https://archive.org/stream/holymasssacrifi00mlgoog#page/n18/mode/2up

[Excerpt: “A certain holy Bishop of Breslau, named Nanker, entertained a most tender devotion for the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He used to say Mass daily, and heard as many Masses besides as he possibly could. When at the point of death, a most sweet, heavenly melody was heard, and a voice from above said: ‘The soul of Bishop Nanker has already left the body, and is now being carried by the angels into heaven. This grace and honor have been bestowed upon him on account of his great love and devotion for the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.’]

4. ‘The Holy Eucharist’ by St. Alphonsus Liguori:

https://archive.org/stream/alphonsusworks06alfouoft#page/n3/mode/2up

[Excerpt: “Thence arise the following considerations which may aid us to hear Mass with great fruit: 1. By the oblation of the person of Jesus Christ, God and man, to the Eternal Father, we give to God infinite honor; we give him greater honor than he would receive from the oblation of the lives of all men and all angels. 2. By the oblation of Jesus Christ in the Mass, we offer to God a complete satisfaction for all the sins of men, and especially for the sins of those who are present at Mass; to whom is applied the same divine blood, by which the human race was redeemed on Calvary. Thus, by each Mass more satisfaction is made to God than by any other expiatory work. But although the Mass is of infinite value, God accepts it only in a finite manner, according to the dispositions of those who attend the holy sacrifice, and, therefore, it is useful to hear several Masses. 3. In the Mass we render to God an adequate thanksgiving for all the benefits that he has bestowed upon us. 4. During the Mass we can obtain all the graces that we desire for ourselves and for others. We are unworthy of receiving any grace from God, but Jesus Christ has given us the means of obtaining all graces, if, while we offer him to God in the Mass, we ask them of the Eternal Father in his name, for then Jesus himself unites with us in prayer. If you knew that while you pray to the Lord, the divine Mother, along with the whole of paradise, united with you, with what confidence would you pray? Now when you ask of God any grace during the Mass, Jesus (whose prayers are more efficacious than the prayers of all who are in heaven) prays for you, and offers in your behalf the merits of his Passion.”]

5. ‘The Hidden Treasure: Or, The Value and Excellence of Holy Mass’ by St. Leonard of Port Maurice:

https://archive.org/stream/hiddentreasureo01leongoog#page/n4/mode/2up

[Excerpt: “Go to the church as if you were going to Calvary, and behave yourself before the altar as before the throne of God, in company with the holy angels. See what modesty, what reverence, what attention, are requisite from us, in order that we may carry away the fruit and the blessings which Almighty God is wont to bestow on him who honours with devout demeanour these sacred mysteries. We read, that while the sacrifices of the Old Law were being offered by the Jews, sacrifices in which was offered nothing greater than bulls, lambs, and other animals, it was admirable to behold with what diligence, decorum, and silence, the whole people assisted; and although there were numbers innumerable of those attending, besides the seven hundred ministers who sacrificed, yet, with all this, it seemed as if the temple were empty, not the very slightest noise, not even a breath, being heard. Now, if so much respect and so much veneration were practised towards those sacrifices which, after all, were only a mere shadow, a simple figure of ours, what silence, what devotion, what attention, does not Holy Mass deserve, in which the Immaculate Lamb himself, the Divine Word, is offered for us in sacrifice!”

6. ‘The Blessed Sacrament; Or, The Works and Ways of God’ by Fr. F. W. Faber:

https://archive.org/stream/theblessedsacram00fabeuoft#page/n5/mode/2up

[Excerpt: “It is said that St. Michael revealed to St. Eutropius the Hermit that he had been chosen to be the guardian angel of the Blessed Sacrament; and that it had been entrusted to his charge ever since Holy Thursday; and there are also on record several revelations of his to various saints concerning the worship of the Blessed Sacrament. Some have supposed him to be the angel of the mass referred to in the canon; and he is spoken of at the beginning of mass in the Confiteor, again at the second incensing at the High Mass; and also in the offertory of masses of Requiem. Many saints and servants of God have had a peculiar devotion to the angel mentioned in the canon of the Mass, without deciding on his name or individuality.”]

St. Anthony of Padua, pray for us!

St. Faustina, pray for us!

The Eucharist (part 1).

‘I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you.’ (John 14:18)

One day, a certain nun made known to St. Teresa her desire to behold Our Lord. “I wish,” she said, “that I had lived at the time of Jesus Christ, my dear Saviour, for then I could have seen how amiable and lovely He is.”
“What!” responded St. Teresa; “do you not know, then, dear sister, that the same Jesus Christ is still with us on earth, that He lives quite near us, in our churches, on our altars, in the Blessed Sacrament?’” (Fr. Mueller, ‘The Blessed Sacrament’)

What a remarkable thought! Our Saviour “is as really present in the consecrated Host as He is in the glory of Heaven.” (St. Paschal Baylon). The same Divine Person we read of in the Scriptures, “dwells in our midst, in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.” (St. Maximilian Kolbe). There He waits for us, night and day; like the little red light beside the Tabernacle, His Sacred Heart burns with a constant desire to love us and be loved by us; He has given Himself to us without reserve, and hopes that we will do the same in return; despised, forgotten and neglected, He looks for someone who will console Him: ‘Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am overwhelmed: and I looked for sympathy, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.’ (Psalm 69:20).

“I love souls so much,” said Our Lord to St. Veronica Giuliani, “that I want the whole world to see and know it, so as to revive the memory of My Passion, and so that faith, that has grown so feeble among Christians, may be renewed. They are now Christians in name alone.”

If only we would think of Our Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament; if only we would visit Him, we should soon become inflamed with love for Him. “You will find visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament very conducive to increase in you Divine Love.” (St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi). “Once, when she [St. Crescentia] was kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, immersing her own heart with great fervor in the Sacred Heart of her Divine Redeemer, as she often used to do, it appeared to her as if many brilliantly shining rays came from the Tabernacle and penetrated her heart; at the same time she seemed to hear these words: “These are the marks of My love towards you, with which I will inflame your heart and unite it to Mine.”

When will we open our hearts to Jesus, whose Heart was pierced for love of us? He seeks for nothing so much as to grant us His grace; His greatest sorrow is that we do not seek Him. ‘My son’ He says, ‘give Me thy heart’ (Proverbs 23:26). He extends the same invitation to His beloved daughters, for whom he laboured, suffered and died. “I am your Spouse,” said Jesus to St. Veronica Giuliani – “when will you make up your mind to love Me truly? I am all yours; I come to you to draw you to Myself; I come to you to make you one with Me; I come to you to change you completely into Myself.”

A great devotion to Our Eucharistic Lord is sure to make us saints. By the grace of God, and through the Intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, from whom Jesus took His flesh, may we come to share in the love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, which was, for the saints, a source of light, love, joy and salvation.

“WHY BELIEVE IN THE REAL PRESENCE?”

“This has always been the belief of the Church of God, that immediately after the consecration the true Body and the true Blood of Our Lord, together with His Soul and Divinity exist under the form of bread and wine.” (Council of Trent, Session XIII, 1st Decree, Ch. 3; Oct. 11, 1551).

‘He that hath ears to hear, let him hear’ (Matthew 11:15).
Since the 1st century AD, the doctrine of the “Real Presence” of Jesus in the Eucharist has been unhesitatingly affirmed by the Church, Popes, Church Fathers, Saints, Mystics, and pious faithful everywhere.

“Since then He Himself declared and said of the Bread, ‘This is My Body’ (Luke 22:19), who shall dare to doubt any longer? And since He has Himself affirmed and said, ‘This is My Blood’, who shall ever hesitate, saying, that it is not His blood?” (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical lecture 22)

The Saints had a profound love of the Eucharist. “For one Communion,” said St. Crescentia, “I would gladly suffer all the sicknesses of all mankind.” “Her [St. Crescentia] whole life,” remarked Sr. Gabriel, a fellow Sister in religion, “was spent in constant preparation for Holy Communion, and in thanksgiving for it.” “Her desire for Holy Communion was so intense,” said Sr. Raphael Miller, “that as the appointed time drew near for her to receive, every delay appeared to her intolerable.”

Like so many other Saints, St. Crescentia was inflamed with love for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, Who “…is the only one not to be thanked for the good He does.” (St. Peter Julian Eymard). She was neither a heretic nor an idolater: she did not worship a mere piece of bread; the Object of her love was God Himself, Who has declared: “I am the living bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give, is My flesh, for the life of the world” (John 6:51).

As Frank Sheed says: “Every life is nourished by its own kind – the body by material food, the intellect by mental food. But the life we are now concerned with is Christ living in us (John 14:6; John 15:5; Galatians 2:20 etc.); the only possible food for it is Christ.” “Just as the bread and wine that nourish you pass into the substance of your body,” said the Eternal Father to St. Catherine of Siena, “in the same way when you feed upon Him, My Son, in the Blessed Sacrament, My Son, in the Blessed Sacrament, My Son, Who is one thing with Me, penetrates your spiritual substance under the appearances of bread and wine, and you are changed into Me.”

What unfathomable goodness and mercy! “Our Lord certainly deserves our gratitude for coming to us [in the Blessed Sacrament] and bringing us infinite treasures of grace.” (St. Peter Julian Eymard). The least He deserves is that we seek the truth regarding the Real Presence. If we seek Jesus with all our hearts, He will lead us to His Eucharistic Heart. ‘You shall seek me, and shall find me: when you shall seek me with all your heart.’ (Jeremiah 29:13). “Unbelief in the Eucharist is never a result of the evidence of the reasons advanced against this mystery.” (St. Peter Julian Eymard).

Tragically, Satan has successfully deprived a great number of Christians from the Bread of Life. The very Sacrament of union and love has become for many an Object of indifference. What lamentable ingratitude and ignorance! But this need not be the case. If only we open our hearts to the One who is Love and Truth, we will come to see the importance of the Holy Eucharist. That the Eucharist is instrumental in leading us to holiness, cannot be denied:

“A person whom, by a special permission of God, he [Satan] was allowed to harass very much and even drag about on the ground, was exorcised by a priest of our Congregation [the Redemptorists] and the devil was commanded to say whether or not Holy Communion was very useful and profitable to the soul. At the first and second interrogatory he would not answer, but the third time, being commanded in the name of the blessed Trinity, he replied with a howl: ‘Profitable! Know that if this person had not received Holy Communion so many times, we should have had her completely in our power.’ Behold, then, our great weapon against the devil! “Yes,” says the great St. John Chrysostom, “after receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, we become as terrible to the devil as a furious lion is to man.” (Fr. Mueller)

As St. Veronica Giuliani remarks, when we receive Communion with faith, love and purity of heart, “… God enriches her [the soul] with His graces to such an extent that she makes giant strides on the path of perfection.”

Let us draw close to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, who will be for us a friend, a Saviour, and a Spouse. Let us give Him the joy of making our soul His home and His throne. How it would please our heavenly Spouse if we followed the example of Bl. Elizabeth Canori. “One day, after Holy Communion, the adorable Saviour suddenly revealed Himself to her, and appeared to her seated in her heart as in the throne of His Love, and surrounded by a numerous court of angelic spirits; He added these words: ‘Oh, Jane Felicia (Jane Felicia of the Blessed Trinity was her religious name) of My Heart, it is My delight to communicate to you My own life; make it your happiness for Me to live in you.’”

The next article (i.e. part 2) will present us with 101 different “mystical” experiences of the Holy Eucharist in the lives of 101 different mystics.