The Feast of the Eucharist.
The Feast of the Priesthood.
This is my body - the Real Presence.
Take and eat ye all of this - Holy Communion.
Do this in remembrance of me - the Mass and the Institution
of the Priesthood.
Do I appreciate, as I should, the Priest and the Host?
How many priests and hosts the love of the Savior has made possible for me now! Thousands and thousands in the world! Consequently how many Masses a day! How many elevations every second?
At each passing second, four priests repeat at the same time: This is My body. The priesthood! What power there is in it! What rays of light! The Good Master was not content to offer Himself just one day out of the many in the history of the world; He wished to offer Himself every day and even several times during the day.
"Every day is Good Friday," Bossuet cried, thinking of the immolation of Calvary renewed each day on the altar of the Mass. We must say even more: "Every second of the day is a Last Supper and every second is a Good Friday," since at every consecration, Our Lord, between the fingers of the priest, assumes again the dispositions of the complete sacrifice of Calvary - a different setting, but the same spirit....
Moreover, what a marvel of extravagance even were there but a single Mass and a single Host in the world! But to be so frequent, so often renewed!
I must live each day in the atmosphere of Holy Thursday. Every day is the day of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion, every day, even every second of every day!
_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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