Happy Birthday Jesus!
During this season of gift giving please take a few minutes to find a quiet place to sit and free your mind of all the clutter of secular Christmas; sincerely thank Our God for the priceless gift of His Divine Son. It’s a gift the true value of which cannot be fully appreciated this side of Heaven.
So if you’re asked ‘What did you get for Christmas?’; I hope you would respond ‘I received the gift of greatest value anyone on earth could hope for!’
Where’s Your Treasure?
How Can You Say NO To Jesus?
Because we can’t see Jesus, we often take His love and Presence in the Blessed Sacrament for granted. Many people are hesitant in making a commitment for a specific hour because they let everything else in their lives come before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. An hour with Jesus could be the most important thing you do this week.
This concept of importance is reenforced in the book In Sinu Jesu where Jesus is quoted telling a Benedictine Monk “Nothing in your life is more important than the time you spend in adoration before My Eucharistic Face. Your energy and your capacity to do other things efficiently and in due order will grow in proportion to the time you consecrate to Me alone.”
Don’t wait until you’re out of ‘time’; we will all be there at some point. Prioritize now and heed the words of Jesus when He said “Could you not keep watch for one hour?” (Mk 14:37)
Let Advent be your starting point - commit to one hour of Adoration in the chapel each week. If you’re already a committed adorer say a prayer to the Holy Spirit the next time you’re in the chapel that more people will take to heart Jesus’ request to spend an hour with Him. Better yet - don’t wait until you are in the chapel .. say that prayer now!
“Help My Unbelief”
Three weeks ago we quoted Fr John Hardon SJ saying “the simplest way to express what Christ asks us to believe about the Real Presence is that the Eucharist is really HE. The Real Presence is the real Jesus”. Two weeks ago we reminded everyone that the Council of Trent in 1551 declared that Jesus Christ is really and truly present in the Eucharist, and the Council declared this a Dogma of Faith.
‘Dogma’ is defined as that part of doctrine which has been divinely revealed and which the Church has formally defined and declared to be believed as revealed. So this is not what the Church is telling us to believe; this is what God Himself is telling us to believe. Recently a Pew Survey reported that 69% of declared Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence. Imagine … 2 out of 3 Catholics don’t believe what God Himself tells us is true.
If you’re one of the non or half hearted believers it may be time to commit to praying during this Advent period asking the Holy Spirit for the grace to increase your belief in the Real Presence. You’re encouraged to visit the chapel; kneel before the Holy Eucharist and pray the prayer the father of the son harboring the demon prayed before Jesus as told in Mark 9:21-24; “I do believe; help my unbelief”.
Jesus told that father “All things are possible to him who believes”. Your belief in the Real Presence won’t go from cold to hot over night … you won’t hear thunder or feel the earth shake … but know every prayer is answered. If you want to succeed you have to show God you’re sincere, and don’t quit asking until you get what you want.
www.adorationpro.org/ihmmi
Make This Your Best Advent Ever!
Advent is that beautiful time of year that helps us focus on the spiritual preparation for Christmas and on the coming of Our Lord. It’s that time of year when every Christian publication we subscribe to, every Christian radio station listened to, and perhaps every homily heard, will all be encouraging us to “prepare” for Jesus’ coming into the world and to remember the real meaning of Christmas.
One of the best ways to “prepare” is to pray. And one of the best ways to pray is Eucharistic Adoration. A popular definition of ‘prayer’ is ‘relationship with God’. Have you ever been able to establish a relationship with someone, or improve upon a relationship, without spending time with them … of course not. Same holds true with God.
Advent presents an opportunity to start or improve your ‘relationship’. And our beautiful Adoration Chapel is the perfect place for more “face time” with God.
You don't need to be a scheduled adorer - you don't need an appointment - simply drop-in and spend time with God. If you find the visit improved your relationship with Him why not schedule a weekly appointment to be together in a special way. He would like that!
Why Visit The Chapel?
There are as many reasons to visit the Adoration Chapel as there are people who visit. One of the all encompassing reasons is to improve our relationship with God. That may take the form of petition or thanksgiving; doesn’t matter, what does matter is that it is very difficult to improve a relationship if you are not experiencing the presence of the other.
To really make headway improving your God relationship you have to be in his presence. I know … “God is everywhere”, so you may be thinking I’m in his presence when I’m walking down the street. True. However, if you have a ‘monkey mind’ like me, you spend most of your time during the day managing the monkeys and not thinking about God. Being in God’s presence takes on a different dimension when you are in what the church teaches is his Eucharistic Presence.
In 1551, the Council of Trent declared the doctrine of transubstantiation a dogma of faith and stated "by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood of Christ.”
This dogma of faith clearly states that Jesus Christ is really and truly present in the Eucharist. At this very moment, he patiently and humbly waits in the chapel to experience our company with him in that different dimension called the Eucharistic Presence.
The Real Jesus!
