“It is not just while the Sacrifice is being offered and the Sacrament is being confected, but also after the Sacrifice has been offered and the Sacrament confected — while the Eucharist is reserved in churches or oratories — that Christ is truly Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us.’” — Saint Paul VI
The mystery of the Incarnation, that God becomes man, has shocked the world for two thousand years. The claim is a big one: God loves his people so much that he took to himself our very nature. The Creator becomes a creature … like us in all things but sin! But he devised a way to continue to stay with us. Having come into our world, Christ would not abandon us. He is a faithful shepherd, one who devised a way to continue to dwell among his sheep. “God dwells in our midst, in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar,” says St. Maximilian Kolbe. “He remains among us until the end of the world.” The Sacred Host is God with us. The Eucharist is truly Emmanuel.
LET US PRAY
Lord Jesus, protect me from feelings of abandonment, loneliness, and isolation. I know that you are here among us, dwelling in the Eucharist. May I always run to be with you, who out of your great love came to be with us. Amen.
PRAYER TO THE EUCHARIST
O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption. Who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
-Collect for the Feast of Corpus Christi, composed by St. Thomas Aquinas