Be Still and Know God
Join us every day at 9 AM Eastern time at @takeupandread on Instagram for a Live scripture discussion. On Mondays, we’ll talk about the Essential Holiness theme for the week. Tuesday through Friday, we’ll discuss that day’s Mass readings. Our Live session crashed today and so it did not save. Below are some quotes from the saints regarding the power of adoration of the Real presence of Christ that we discussed during the Live.
JRR Tolkien in a letter of advice to his son Michael who was a young adult having relationship problems. He gave him advice, but he also included this:
Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament … There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth.
Twenty years later, Michael was struggling with depression and sought his advice again. Tolkien wrote:
The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
I resolved also to spend a continuous Holy Hour every day in the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament….
One reason I keep up the Holy Hour is to grow more and more into his likeness. As Paul puts it: "We are transfigured into his likeness, from splendor to splendor." We become like that which we gaze upon. Looking into a sunset, the face takes on a golden glow. Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour transforms the heart in a mysterious way as the face of Moses was transformed after his companionship with God on the mountain
The purpose of the Holy Hour is to encourage deep personal encounter with Christ. The holy and glorious God is constantly inviting us to come to Him, to hold converse with Him, to ask for such things as we need and to experience what a blessing there is in fellowship with Him.
St Teresa of Avila
"Approaching the Sacrament would at once make me feel so well, both in soul and in body, that I was astounded. I would feel as if all the darkness in my soul had suddenly been dispersed and the sun had come out and shown me the stupidity of the things I had been saying and doing. At other times, if the Lord spoke only one word to me…'Be not troubled: have no fear'…one word completely cured me."
St. Ignatius Of Loyola
"To withdraw from creatures and repose with Jesus in the Tabernacle is my delight; there I can hide myself and seek rest. There I find a life which I cannot describe, a joy which I cannot make others comprehend, a peace such as is found only under the hospitable roof of our best Friend."
"Jesus in the Tabernacle protects me against all my enemies, evil sprits, the world, my own wicked passions and evil inclinations. He is my support in weakness, my comfort in suffering, my weapon in combat, my refreshment in heat, food for my hungry soul, my stimulus when I am exhausted. He is my Heaven on earth."
St. Therese of Lisieux
"Do you realize that Jesus is there in the Blessed Sacrament expressly for you, for you alone? He burns with the desire to come into your heart."
"Frequently, only silence can express my prayer. However, this Divine Guest of the tabernacle understands all, even the silence of a child's soul filled with gratitude. When I am before the tabernacle, I can say only one thing to Our Lord: 'My God, you know that I love you' and I feel my prayer does not tire Jesus."
St. Catherine Laboure
"Whenever I go to the chapel, I put myself in the presence of our good Lord, and I say to him, ‘Lord, I am here. Tell me what you would have me to do’ . . . And then, I tell God everything that is in my heart. I tell him about my pains and my joys, and then I listen. If you listen, God will also speak to you, for with the good Lord, you have to both speak and listen. God always speaks to you when you approach him plainly and simply."