2nd April 2005 – 2nd April 2006.
Behold one year the Pope died. In his anniversary, let us listen to him talk about the mass (Eucharist):
“…In the humble signs of bread and wine, changed into his body and blood, Christ walks beside us as our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become, for everyone, witnesses of hope. If, in the presence of this mystery, reason experiences its limits, the heart, enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, clearly sees the response that is demanded, and bows low in adoration and unbounded love…”
“…Every commitment to holiness, every activity aimed at carrying out the Church's mission, every work of pastoral planning, must draw the strength it needs from the Eucharistic mystery and in turn be directed to that mystery as its culmination. In the Eucharist we have Jesus, we have his redemptive sacrifice, we have his resurrection, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have adoration, obedience and love of the Father. Were we to disregard the Eucharist, how could we overcome our own deficiency?”
“… The mystery of the Eucharist – sacrifice, presence, banquet...must be experienced and lived in its integrity, both in its celebration and in the intimate converse with Jesus which takes place after receiving communion or in a prayerful moment of Eucharistic adoration apart from Mass…”
Ecclesia de Eucharistia, “On the Eucharist in its Relationship to the Church”
(Encyclical given in Rome, on 17 April, Holy Thursday, in the year 2003, the Twenty- fifth of his Pontificate)
Very often, I think, we don’t know what is the depth meaning of the Eucharist. So, we don’t feel to go and participate to it. Does it make sens?
“…In the humble signs of bread and wine, changed into his body and blood, Christ walks beside us as our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become, for everyone, witnesses of hope. If, in the presence of this mystery, reason experiences its limits, the heart, enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, clearly sees the response that is demanded, and bows low in adoration and unbounded love…”
“…Every commitment to holiness, every activity aimed at carrying out the Church's mission, every work of pastoral planning, must draw the strength it needs from the Eucharistic mystery and in turn be directed to that mystery as its culmination. In the Eucharist we have Jesus, we have his redemptive sacrifice, we have his resurrection, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have adoration, obedience and love of the Father. Were we to disregard the Eucharist, how could we overcome our own deficiency?”
“… The mystery of the Eucharist – sacrifice, presence, banquet...must be experienced and lived in its integrity, both in its celebration and in the intimate converse with Jesus which takes place after receiving communion or in a prayerful moment of Eucharistic adoration apart from Mass…”
Ecclesia de Eucharistia, “On the Eucharist in its Relationship to the Church”
(Encyclical given in Rome, on 17 April, Holy Thursday, in the year 2003, the Twenty- fifth of his Pontificate)
Very often, I think, we don’t know what is the depth meaning of the Eucharist. So, we don’t feel to go and participate to it. Does it make sens?
