Many have fallen away from the faith in these dark and scandalous times. Many, many more are deprived of the Mass. For these we must pray, as the need is desperate. Please consider this brief essay by Father Garrigou-Lagrange:
THE EUCHARISTIC HEART OF JESUS AND THE DAILY AND CEASELESS GIFT OF HIMSELF
Lastly, Jesus again and again, day after day, gives us the Eucharist as sacrament and sacrifice. He could have willed that the Mass be celebrated only once or twice a year in certain sanctuaries to which men would travel from afar. Yet the Holy Sacrifice is celebrated perpetually every minute of the day, over the whole surface of the earth, wherever the sun rises.
It is the unceasing manifestation of Christ’s merciful love, answering the spiritual needs of each era and of each soul. “Christ . . . loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it: that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life: that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” This being so, He grants to His Church, especially through the Mass and Holy Communion, the graces she needs at the various moments of her history.
In the catacombs the Mass was a source of ever new graces, and so it was during the great barbarian invasions and during the Middle Ages. And so it is today, giving us the strength to resist the great perils that threaten us, above all the atheistic phalanxes which Communism is pouring out over the world to destroy all religion. Despite the sorrows of the present, the interior life of the Church in our time in its highest aspects is indeed beautiful when viewed from above as God and the angels see it. All these graces come to us from the Eucharistic heart of Jesus who has given us the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Holy Communion, and who is ever giving us His blood sacramentally shed on the altar.
A Single Drop
Father Charles de Foucauld had a deep understanding of this truth, as he prayed and died for the conversion of Islam and of Moslem lands. This truth is also understood by those who pray with all their souls and have Masses said for lands ravaged by materialism and Communism. A single drop of our Savior’s precious blood can regenerate thousands of souls that have gone astray and have dragged others along with them. Indeed, it is a truth that we too often forget. This cult of the precious blood of the Savior and deep suffering at the sight of it flowing in vain over rebellious souls can do much to turn the Eucharistic heart of Jesus toward His poor sinners—yes, His poor sinners.
They are His, and apostles like St. Paul, St. Francis, St. Dominic, St. Catherine of Siena, and so many others loved our Savior enough to strive by His side for the salvation of these souls. When we think of Christ’s love for us, we should suffer agonies at the sight of souls turning away from His heart, from the source of His precious blood. He shed His blood for them all, far removed as they might be from Him, even for the Communist who blasphemes and wishes to extirpate His name from the earth.
May our Lord, who does not will the death of the sinner, grant through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass a new effusion of His heart’s blood, as it were, and of the blood from His sacred wounds.
There have been saints who at the moment of the elevation during Mass have seen the precious blood overflow the chalice, spill over the arms of the priest as if it would flow into the sanctuary, and be caught up in gold cups by angels who then carried it over the whole world, particularly to lands where the Gospel was little known. This was a symbol of the graces flowing from the heart of Christ upon the souls of unfortunate pagans. It is for them too, that He died on the cross. The practical consequence of this truth is that the Eucharistic heart of Jesus is by no means the object of an affected devotion. It is the supreme model of the perfect gift of self, a gift which in our own lives should become more generous with each passing day.
Each new consecration should mark for the celebrant progress in his faith, trust, and love of God and of souls. For the faithful, each Communion should be substantially more fervent than the preceding one, since each Communion should increase the charity in our hearts and make them resemble our Lord’s more closely and thus dispose us to receive Him more fervently on the morrow. As a stone gathers momentum in its fall toward the earth which attracts it, so should souls tend toward God with increasing speed as they come closer to Him and are more powerfully attracted to Him.
The Eucharistic Heart of Jesus yearns to attract our souls to itself. This Heart is often humiliated, abandoned, forgotten, scorned, outraged, and yet it is the heart that loves our hearts, the silent heart that would talk to souls to teach them the value of the hidden life and the value of the ever more generous gift of self. The Word made flesh came among His own, and “His own received Him not.”
A Single Soul
Blessed are those who receive all that His merciful love deigns to give them and who do not by their resistance reject the graces which should radiate through them upon other less favored souls. Blessed are they who after they have received follow the example of our Lord and give themselves ever more generously by Him, with Him, and in Him. If there is in the midst of even the most benighted pagans a single soul in the state of grace, a truly fervent and renounced soul such as that of Father Charles de Foucauld, a soul which receives everything that the Eucharistic heart of Christ wishes to give to it, sooner or later the radiation of that soul will inevitably transmit to straying souls something of what it has itself received.
It is impossible that the precious blood should not in some measure overflow the chalice at Mass and some day—at least at the moment of death purify those straying souls who do not resist divine attentions or the actual prevenient graces that inspire their conversion. Let us think now and then of the death of the Moslem, or of the Buddhist, or the Communist in our own town who may have been baptized as a child. Each of them has an immortal soul for which the heart of our Lord gave all its blood. (Reverend Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange O.P., “The Reverend Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange O.P. Collection” [16 Books] . Aeterna Press. Kindle Edition.) [I highly recommend this book! I make nothing from this recommendation; it is excellent spiritual teaching by one of the greatest Thomists of all time.]
Dear readers, make good use of every opportunity to offer Mass as Our Lady asked us to pray for sinners! Now, more than ever, graces abound, but only through the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts! It is the will of Our Lord Jesus Christ that we should love one another; this love requires that we offer our daily trials and crosses for the conversion of poor sinners. By uniting our sufferings with His sacrifice, re-presented all over the world at every hour, we have been so blessed to be given this opportunity to save countless souls. Let us resolve never to waste a single opportunity to do this!
“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the sacrileges, outrages and indifference by which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.”
Remember – Our Lady needs us to obey: First Saturdays of Reparation, daily rosary, at least 5 mysteries, wear her brown scapular and live your Total Consecration to her Immaculate Heart, offering daily duties in reparation and for the conversion of poor sinners.
† Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of our hearts, Mother of the Church, do thou offer to the Eternal Father the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the conversion of poor sinners, especially our Pontiff.
† Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come! Viva Cristo Rey!
† St. Joseph, protect us, protect our families, protect our priests.
† St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
~ by evensong for love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, King.
Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O Sacred Virgin! Give me strength against thine enemies!