Our Holy Father also said, “the celebration of the Eucharist always keeps the Church alive and makes our communities distinguished by love and communion.” Do we, personally, live up the the love we have received? Do we share that love in our communities?At the time of his Ascension, Jesus promised that he would be with his Church until the end of time. Is the Eucharist the fulfillment of this promise?The Eucharist is more than just a symbol, but includes images and analogies to help us better understand the Eucharistic mystery. What are some examples of Eucharistic symbolism in Scripture?
L: My daughter and I just received our Eucharistic Lord a few hours ago.
Sister Susan Marie: That is so wonderful. Sunday Mass is so special.
L: The Real Presence was the moving factor in my conversion, so it is a topic that is central to my own Faith. I attended Mass once, and that is all it took; God really opened my eyes to His Son.
Mary Roberta Viano: It’s the deep-down awareness that Our Lord wants to lead you closer and closer to Him.
C: Yup- sweet sacrament we thee adore; oh make us love thee more & more
Mary Roberta Viano: -always in response to your first, baptismal promise
Sister Susan Marie: Our Holy Father also said, “the celebration of the Eucharist always keeps the Church alive and makes our communities distinguished by love and communion.” Do we, personally, live up the the love we have received?
Sister Susan Marie: At the time of his Ascension, Jesus promised that he would be with his Church until the end of time. Is the Eucharist the fulfillment of this promise?
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, that’s the big challenge: to love the way Christ loved us
Ca: Always try to live out my baptismal call
Eucharist=loving thanks (I think)
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, the Eucharist (meaning “thanksgiving” is our full response of thanksgiving for Our Lord’s gift of Himself to us.
Sister Susan Marie: For me the Eucharist is the purest fulfillment of Christ’s promise to be with us always, but He is also in each one of us
Co: Trans from Greek
Sister Susan Marie: My experience with Christ- filled people brought me even closer to Him, in them and in His Blessed Sacrament
A: Christ being truly present, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity is a life long thing to meditate on
C I need Him to b w/me until the end of the age
Mary Roberta Viano: I’m ever more convinced that loving like Our Lord really means being continually and deeply thankful for EVERYTHING God gives us/me.
Ca: As a sinner
L: The Church’s teachings on the Blessed Sacrament seem so simple, but I imagine that a person could spend their entire lives contemplating that one pinnacle of our Faith and not even come close to understanding the full meaning of it.
Mary Roberta Viano: So true, L
A Saints are saints because they conform so closely to His Divine Will
C: But yes Sister- thankful for blessings ( & like Job perhaps ‘curses’ too)
Mary Roberta Viano: -and keep thanking Him for whatever His will allows to happen
Mary Roberta Viano: that’s the rub…
J: Have any of you ever been so overtaken by emotions when receiving the Eucharist..with a sense inside that you GET it? :06 PM
A: Mostdefinitely
Feb 9 2014, 8:06 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, that’s the gift of tears
C: In July 2001, the Sunday after I recoverted
L: I get all sorts of emotions, but not of having a very good comprehension of the sublimity of His gift to me.
C: Still small voice
A: Yes, there is a sort of silence that’s inexplicable
Sister Susan Marie: The priest has alot to do with it too
Sister Susan Marie: How he celebrates
Mary Roberta Viano: SFdS calls the Eucharist “the Sacrament of His true presence” in one of his Christmas homilies.
Sister Susan Marie: His holiness
L: I concur Sister.
M
Sister Susan Marie: Doesn’t St Francis de Sales have Sermons on the Eucharist?
J: I have to admit. I have never felt this presence while receiving Eucharist but have sensed that presence in other environments
Mary Roberta Viano: When the priest is worshiping and praising God, like us, as he celebrates Mass, Our Lord is even more present to us.
C: Reverential mass of either type = so critical
Mary Roberta Viano: SFdS talks about the Eucharist in his Conference.
C: What does your Founder say?
Feb 9 2014, 8:12 PM
L: What does he say?
Mary Roberta Viano: -and in the collections of his sermons for the seasons of the Church year
Sister Susan Marie: http://web1.desales.edu/assets/salesian/PDF/SermonsonEucharist.pdf
Sister Susan Marie: and http://web1.desales.edu/assets/salesian/PDF/OLMEtext2-28-12.pdf
L: pdfs are a great invention
C: Thanks for links
Feb 9 2014, 8:13 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: “To unite us so perfectly with Himself as to make us one with Him,” says SFdS about the reason Christ instituted the Eucharist.
Mary Roberta Viano: Thanks for the links, Sister!
Sister Susan Marie: As a
saint Francis de Sales was certain
ly devoted to the Eucharist. Consider the
testimony ofSt. Jane de Chantal at his cause for canonization:
itwas easy to see how deep was his reverence in the presence of God. … Especially at
the moment of Consecration and Communion the peaceful radiance of his countenance
filled every heart with emotion. Indeed this Divine Sacrament was his true life and
strength and in this action he appeared like a man wholly absorbed in God
Feb 9 2014, 8:14 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: I need to learn how to do that!
C: Yes- ‘every moment thine’ (like the hymn)
L: Me too! What joy can be found
Sister Susan Marie: For Francis de Sales, the Eucharist encapsulates the entire Gospel story of salvation. In this
perspective, the Eucharist is not just a sacrament, but the dynamic
“putting into action” of divine love.
C: Still learning
Mary Roberta Viano: And SFdS says, “Such is infinite happiness (the beatific vision) and it has not only been promised to us but we have a pledge of it in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist.”
C: Wow, that is surely our goal
Sister Susan Marie: But to “get it” in the
spiritual
sense, does require
paying attention. Why? Because, as Francis
de Sales reminds us
,
“we have to approach the Sacraments with great attention, just as much
because of their sublime action as of what each Sacrament requires from us
Mary Roberta Viano: Luckily we each have a lifetime to try to fathom what the Eucharist is/means.
C: No joke!
Mary Roberta Viano: I’m glad the Church asks us to kneel before the mystery of It all!
Feb 9 2014, 8:18 PM
Sister Susan Marie: This is why Francis exhorts us that
“when we go to Communion we should have a heart
filledwith fervent love.”
It is also why he believes that
“the most important preparation we should
make for the reception of the Sacraments is the total abandonment of ourselves to God’s will,
submitting without any reserve our will and all our affections to God’s dominion.”
In this way,we will be able to
“receive through love that which Love alone caused to be given to [us
C: Good advice- abandonment to Divine Providence
Mary Roberta Viano: Pushing everything else aside except true, fervent worship of Our Lord when we attend Mass
Mary Roberta Viano: -no cell phones…no distracting thoughts..as far as it’s humanly possible
L: The hardest thing about God’s Will is when it is His will that we don’t understand His Will for us just yet. It is hard for me to receive the Eucharist without asking for understanding of what He wants of me.
Feb 9 2014, 8:20 PM
Sister Susan Marie: To transform this ordinary, and sometimes perfunctory,routine into a true encounter, St.Francis de Sales counsels the use of brief aspirations to help us focus on what is happening in
the moment
.
Interestingly, he says this could be
mental or vocal in the silence of the mind or actually said.
(
Sister Susan Marie: Yes L, finding His Will is often more difficult than doing His Will
Mary Roberta Viano: He just wants you/me to do the next loving and compassionate thing He puts in front of us.
C: Joined at the hip w/iPhone-everywhere EXCEPT liturgy, etc
Mary Roberta Viano: His “grand design” is not something given us to know.
PM
A: The Mass is heaven on earth, if you focus on what is happening, nothing else matters for the moment
Mary Roberta Viano: True!
L: That’s what I am always seeking Sister- His grand design for me.
C: Yes, Amy is right; most beaut thing this side of heaven
L: I try to clear my mind as much as possible, but often fail.
Mary Roberta Viano: It’s just taking that next small step He allows me to take.
Sister Susan Marie: Salesian wisdom says just look for the next step
J: how do you all practically live in God’s will? ,
J: Is it something you constantly have on your mind with all your acts?
C: Trying to love all & forgiving 70 x 7 times!
Mary Roberta Viano: between His specified will (10 commandments) and the will of His good pleasure (what’s happening to me now)
J: Sister please explain more “will of His good pleasure” please
J: I get living the commandments part clearly
Mary Roberta Viano: Do you have a handy link, Sr. Susan Marie?
Sister Susan Marie: I’ll look!
C: Like de Caussade?
Feb 9 2014, 8:26 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: His good pleasure is dealing lovingly with whatever He allows to happen to me.
A: that’s abandonment
C: Yup
Mary Roberta Viano: -cut off in traffic, sickness, job promotion, failing grades, etc.
C: & even worse
J: okay..say you are sick….how do you practically live His will in that?
Sister Susan Marie: http://quietplace4prayer.wordpress.com/inspirational-words/spirtual-guidance/de-sales-the-two-wills-of-god/
# The Two Wills of God | Bartimaeus’ Quiet Place
C: J when I was a kid they told me to offer it up
Mary Roberta Viano: -offering up your sickness for others in prayer, not complaining all the time
L: His good pleasure was to have someone run me off the side of the road earlier. The things that came out of my mouth were ghastly. Then practically all of my neighbors insisted on helping get me out of the ditch so I wouldn’t have to call a wrecker. Very humbling.
A: John of the Cross talks of Todo es Nada, all is nothing
Feb 9 2014, 8:28 PM
Sister Susan Marie: We want to live all the time in God’s will, not just during life-changing transitions. We know that whatever happens to us is part of God’s providential love and will for us. At times we may find ourselves in situations which make it impossible to follow God’s will as revealed by discernment. History gives us the example of Jane de Chantal who had discerned under Francis’ direction that she was called in her widowhood to a life of chastity and withdrawal from the world. How could that be possible when she h
Sister Susan Marie: she had four small children to raise and a father-in-law who threatened to disinherit her children if she did not come and take care of him? According to Salesian thought, God’s full will is in both the inspirations that the individual or community receives and in the events, facts, and realities that exist at present in one’s life. Salesian spirituality expects us to find a point of spiritual balance which will enable us to LIVE BETWEEN THE TWO WILLS OF GOD. This is the advice Francis gave to all his direc
Sister Susan Marie: directees
Mary Roberta Viano: So we don’t force God’s hand according to our own will and desires
L: He is spot on in that regard
C: True wisdom, wow
Mary Roberta Viano: as you said, that’s abandonment to Him
C: Yes, but haha easier said than done
Mary Roberta Viano: Our job is to be open, listening, and ready to react lovingly.
Feb 9 2014, 8:31 PM
A: That’s how it always ends, with true abandonment to His will
Mary Roberta Viano: And seeing the the Crucifix in church, I have a perfect example of what abandonment looks like! PM
C: Tall order, but one day @ a time
Feb 9 2014, 8:33 PM
L: I need to practice abandonment when my temper is worst.
C: Me too, L
Feb 9 2014, 8:33 PM
J: seems like it takes a lot of grace to actually GET these things you talk of…otherwise it just seems mechanical to me
Mary Roberta Viano: It helps to have a spiritual director you can open up to.
Feb 9 2014, 8:34 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Grace and effort
C: Right
J: they can be in my intellect but the transfer in being is lacking
Mary Roberta Viano: -and going to Confession regularly
Sister Susan Marie: Keep asking. We must be humble and ask
Ca think existential vs all in head
Feb 9 2014, 8:35 PM
L: I think Confession helps. My spiritual director doesn’t like to hear repeat sins.
J: yes C that is the problem too often though…it just stays caught in the intellect
Mary Roberta Viano: uh-oh..those are the sins I’m constantly struggling with!
L: But practice makes perfect too. St. Josemaria Escriva says we must continually kick like a little child to stay close to God; it is always a struggle
Feb 9 2014, 8:36 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Go to the Sacred Heart and ask His Heart to inflame yours
Feb 9 2014, 8:36 PM
Sister Susan Marie: over and over!
Mary Roberta Viano: and He will!
C: Be ye perfect like Heavenly Father, no?
J: yes there are those moments as brief as they can be where i’m outside my head and I GET it…how intoxicating but ever so fleeting
Mary Roberta Viano: Well, my computer keeps hiccuping, so it seems God’s will is that I let it die for the night.
Feb 9 2014, 8:37 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Hold on to that!
C Then I think you get it, J!
Feb 9 2014, 8:38 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: G’night to all. Till we meet again online…
Sister Susan Marie: Yes it is getting late. Thank you each for stopping in tonight! Many blessings this week!
J: night all…thanks for your inputs…very interesting