Us

I have missed seeing the miraculous Glory of God because I have been chasing a fly around the church with my eyes…

Entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem (Pietro Lorenzetti)

There is such a miracle in the Holy Mass.  And it happens a thousand times a day in plain sight.  And it happens while I star at the walls and forget to focus on the matter at hand.

And all of Heaven stands in my the room with me and still I fail to recognise the magnanimity of the miracle of my Blessed Lord…

During the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the gifts of bread and wine are taken into the hands of the priest and during the consecration of these gifts, they are transformed into the Body and Blood of Our Lord Christ.  And what this really means is that if I cold actually see this miracle with my human eyes, I would be unable to move.  I would stand transfixed…

Saint Maria Kowalska wrote of her vision in Diary 684, “Holy Hour. – Thursday. During this hour of prayer, Jesus allowed me to enter the Cenacle, and I was a witness to what happened there. However, I was most deeply moved when, before the Consecration, Jesus raised (127) His eyes to heaven and entered into a mysterious conversation with His Father. It is only in eternity that we shall really understand that moment. His eyes were like two flames; His face was radiant, white as snow; His whole personage full of majesty, His soul full of longing. At the moment of Consecration, love rested satiated – the sacrifice fully consummated. Now only the external ceremony of death will be carried out – external destruction; the essence [of it] is in the Cenacle. Never in my whole life had I understood this mystery so profoundly as during that hour of adoration. Oh, how ardently I desire that the whole world would come to know this unfathomable mystery!”

In eternity we can understand this moment.  “Now, in the Mass, it is Christ who acts again, through the priest: ‘This is my body’... ‘This is the cup of my blood.’ Jesus is with us! The transubstantiation is a renewal of the miracle of God's infinite love. When that moment takes place again today, let us tell Our Lord, without any need for words, that nothing will be able to separate us from Him; that, as He puts Himself into our hands, defenceless, under the fragile appearances of bread and wine, He has made us His willing slaves. ‘Make me live always through you, and taste the sweetness of your love.’ (Saint Josemaria, “Christ is Passing”, at 90).

And while this great miracle is happening – a miracle that caused the Saints to stop and marvel – I watch the fly buzzing about the church and think of what I ate for breakfast that day.  And it seems to me that the great weakness of my mind and body makes a spectacle of the Glory of God.  And when I think about that today – this day before the suffering of my Beloved really begins – I have to hold myself back from tears.  For it seems I have missed seeing the miraculous Glory of God because I have been chasing a fly around the church with my eyes…

And all the while, He remains with us – even despite my distractions…  My poor poor poor God…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.