NO GREATER GIFT
"What great nation is there that has a god so near to it
as the LORD our God is to us?"
(Dt 4:7)
THE MASTER'S HOUSE
"I have always sensed
that Christ was the real owner of my episcopal residence,
and that we bishops are just short-term tenants.
That's how it was in Franciszkanska Street for almost twenty years,
and that's how it is here in the Vatican."
(John Paul II, Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way!, p 147)
AVE, VERUM CORPUS!
"Ave, verum corpus,
natum ex Maria Virgine,
Vere passum immolatum
in cruce pro homine;
esto nobis praegustatum
mortis in examine!"
Hail, oh true Body,
born of the Virgin Mary,
which really suffered and was sacrificed
on the Cross for mankind;
may you be foretasted by us
when the test of death arrives! "
WORSHIPPING WITH ONE'S WHOLE SOUL
"When you make a genuflection, lower your soul;
make yourself lower within
and tell the Lord that you want to adore Him
and that you want to bring Him to the world.
We need to obtain mercy for the whole world.
Every time you find yourself before the Tabernacle,
be men of deep prayer,
of deep adoration,
of deep imitation of Christ,
who has lowered himself in order to stay with us."
(Bishop Javier Echevarria, Get-together, 2 October 2005)
PRIEST HAS TO BE AN ADORER
"...the priest must be first and foremost an adorer
who contemplates the Eucharist,
starting from the very moment in which he celebrates it.กจ
(Benedict XVI, Discourse, 18 Sept 2005)
A HEARTFELT AND SINCERE (EUCHARISTIC) PRAYER
"Eucharistic worship matures and grows
when the words of the Eucharistic Prayer,
especially the words of consecration,
are spoken with great humility and simplicity,
in a worthy and fitting way,
which is understandable and in keeping with their holiness;
when this essential act of the Eucharistic Liturgy is performed unhurriedly;
and when it brings about in us such recollection and devotion
that the participants become aware of the greatness of the mystery being accomplished
and show it by their attitude."
(John Paul II, Dominicae Coenae, 9)
THE GIFT OF THE PRIESTHOOD
"Sometimes it happens that they meet in an abandoned shrine,
and place on the altar a stole which they still keep,
and recite all the prayers of the Eucharistic liturgy;
and then, at the moment that corresponds to the transubstantiation,
a deep silence comes down upon them,
a silence sometimes broken by a sob...
so ardently do they desire
to hear the words
that only the lips of the priest
can efficaciously utter.
So much do they desire Eucharistic Communion,
in which they can share
only through
the ministry of a priest,
just as they also so eagerly wait to hear
the divine words of pardon:
Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis!
(John Paul II, Holy Thursday Letter to Priests 1979)
THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE FAITHFUL
"Let us listen now to the appeal Saint Paul makes to us:
'I appeal to you to present your bodies
as a living sacrifice.' (Rom 12:1)
By this request the apostle has raised all mankind to the level of priests:
'to present your bodies as a living sacrifice'."
(St Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 108)
"And Isaac said to his father Abraham,
'My father!'
And he said, 'Here am I, my son.'
He said,
'Behold, the fire and the wood;
but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?'
"
(Gen 22:7)
You and I are invited to be the lamb for a burnt offering!
PLACEAT TIBI
(Used to be prayed with a profound reverence after the dismissal before the altar.)
"Placeat tibi, sancta Trinitas,
obsequium servitutis meae:
et praesta:
ut sacrificium,
quod oculis tuae maiestatis indignus obtuli,
tibi sit acceptabile,
mihique, et omnibus, pro quibus illud obtuli,
sit, te miserante, propitiabile.""
O GOOD AND GENTLE JESUS!
"Bone Pastor, panis vere,
Iesu, nostri miserere:
Tu nos pasce, nos tuere:
Tu nos bona fac videre
In terra viventium.
Tu, qui cuncta scis et vales:
qui nos pascis hic mortales:
tuos ibi commensales, cohaeredes et sodales
fac sanctorum civium.
Amen."
(Sequence Lauda Sion, Salvatorem)