b) GOD WITH US: CHRIST IN THE EUCHARIST

"He who believes in the Eucharist believes in all Christian truths"

We can say that he who believes in the Eucharist believes in all Christian truths.  He believes in the ineffable Trinity of persons in the absolute unity of divine being.  He believes in the Incarnation of the Word, in his immolation for us.  He believes in his glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven.  He believes in the divine motherhood of the Virgin and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles gathered around her.  He believes in the divine institution of the Church, in its indefectibility and in the need to be members of it to attain eternal life (...).

The Eucharist is the masterpiece of God's mind and heart, the center of our religion, the point of contact where the infinite and the finite,

nature and grace, come together in the ineffable embrace of truth and love itself (...).

On our altars we find Golgotha where we clasp the cross in tears; we find Tabor where we build tabernacles to intoxicate ourself in heavenly peace. On our altars takes place the agony of Gethsemani, the morning of the resurrection, the mystical death and the source of life.¹⁶

"The perfect solution to the problem of the Emmanuel"

In your preaching, you must show how the words, "This is my body, this is my blood," contain the perfect solution to the problem of the Emmanuel, the God-with-us, a solution which for such a long time humanity had feverishly hungered for.  Indeed, because of its divine origin, humanity unceasingly seeks to communicate personally with its source and last end.  Through those words, in fact, not only does Bethlehem, Nazareth, Capernaum, Tiberias, and Jerusalem, in a word Palestine, become the dwelling place of the Man-God, but the whole earth as well.  Now he dwells equally in the basilicas of great cities, in the rustic churches built for him by poor peasants, as well as in thatched huts, where primitive people worship him.  Now he is accessible to everybody, to the Greeks as well as to the barbarians, to the people of Israel as well as to the children of the desert.¹⁷

"The Eucharist is the center of the Church"

The Eucharist is the heart of the Church, the compendium of divine worship, the tree of life planted in the midst of the Church, whose foliage gives comfort to all people.  The Eucharist is the leaven hidden by the Incarnate Wisdom in this sacrament.  If the Christian soul applies this leaven to the three faculties, to the rational, the concupiscent and the irascible, that is to say, to the mind, the spirit and the heart, the whole person becomes spiritual.  Moreover, when introduced by the Church through the ministry of her priests into the various classes of society -- ruling class, youth and family -- this leaven will make this foolish world wise, will unite the separated peoples of the world into the one body of the Church, and will make those previously listless in the face of what is good, staunch and steadfast in the

performance of all manner of virtuous deeds.¹⁸

"Everything gravitates toward the Eucharist"

In the spiritual world, the Eucharist is what the sun is in the physical world.  Just as everything in the firmament gravitates toward that magnificent celestial body, whose light and warmth disseminate fertility and life everywhere, in the same way everything gravitates toward the most adorable Eucharist.  Because of the Eucharist and the Eucharist alone, all created things, which unceasingly descend from the Creator, unceasingly return to him.¹⁹

"The Eucharist is the extension of the Incarnation"

Besides the supernatural help that will sustain us in the bitter battles of life, we also need -- as long as we are pilgrims on this earth -- an immaculate victim to offer to God in expiation for our sins.  We find this help in Holy Communion.  We find this victim in the Mass, which is none other than the sacrifice of the cross, continuing across the ages in the sight of all generations (...).

Just as the Eucharist is an extension of the Incarnation, in the same way the Eucharist is an extension of the sacrifice of Golgotha.  True, the sacrifice of Golgotha was offered only once, in a few hours, in Jerusalem, while the other sacrifice is offered at every moment of the day and in all the corners of the earth.  We all know that, while our hemisphere is at rest, the other hemisphere watches.  Other brothers and sisters pray for us.  Other priests hold aloft, between heaven and earth, the Eucharistic victim, from which the blood of Christ pours forth, like a mysterious life-giving stream covering the universe from one end to the other (...).

If in his first offering the Son of God gave himself up for all, in the offering of the Mass he offers himself for each one of us in particular.  At every moment, he comes to cancel the bond entered against us because of our sins.  He removes it and nails it, together with his adorable body, to the altar of the cross.  And if the debts we have incurred with God because of our sins are great, much greater is the price of our redemption.  However, we have been ransomed not at the

price of perishable things, like gold or silver, but at the price of the blood of the spotless Lamb.  This blood is of infinite value, because it belongs to a divine person.  One single drop of this blood would be enough to redeem the world.  Hence, just as the ocean surpasses one drop of water, in the same way Christ's merits at Mass surpass our sins.²⁰

At Mass "the supernatural life of the Church is enkindled"

Not only is the Mass the world's daily redemption and salvation, but it is also the nourishment of true and solid piety, the furnace in which the supernatural life of the Church is enkindled.  In fact, ask the Church, this virgin spouse of the Nazarene, how she is able to nourish and awaken in so many of her children the spirit of sacrifice to the point of heroism and why the meanness and weaknesses afflicting us make her love us all the more.  She would answer by pointing to the inscription adorning her altar: "This is how God loved his people."  These are sublime words expressing an even more sublime truth.  In fact, ever since eternity begot time, the horizon of Christian charity has never expanded so much as it has since the moment the Word of God immolated himself under the appearances of bread and wine.  Only then did Christian charity realize that sacrifice is the culmination of a pure, noble and holy life; only then did it desire to repay life with life, love with love.²¹

"The Mass!"

The Mass!  The Mass epitomizes all the ancient sacrifices, through which the religious acts uniting mankind with God took place.  The Mass is the one and only sacrifice, at once holocaust, peace offering and victim for sin.  The Mass!  The Mass is the sacrifice of the cross drawing close to us, thus sparing our faith the arduous return to a distant past, sparing us efforts so utterly ineffectual because of our weakness and sloth.  The Mass!  The Mass is the immolation of a God who, in some way, has been placed into our hands, so that we might take as much as we need in accordance with the times and conditions, in the measure and for the purposes determined by divine Providence.  The Mass!  The Mass is a God who adores, a God who gives thanks, a

God who appeases, a God who implores.  The Mass!  The Mass is the crown of religious worship, the center of the Christian life, the most resplendent seal of the priest's greatness and power.²²

"In the Eucharist we have a marvelous banquet"

I appeal to your experience, venerable brothers.  Is it not true that, after celebrating the divine Sacrifice, you find insipid everything the world considers good?  Doesn't everything urge you to be generous?  Don't you embrace all adversity as an exercise of virtue?  From the celebration of the Mass we derive a greater inclination to recollection, a greater longing for prayer, an inner joy in self-contempt, a desire for perpetual immolation, the choice of a life hidden in Christ, and the wondrous ascents unto God.

In the Eucharist, then, we have such a marvelous banquet that there is nothing more precious and more beneficial.  It is the food that nourished our spiritual infancy, that makes our adolescence develop, that fortifies our adulthood, that keeps us from getting old and staves off death altogether (...).

The Eucharist is the center of all religion, the compendium of all God's works and, as it were, a summary of the Word.  Hence, it has always been the first and essential devotion of Christians.  Without this devotion one cannot call himself a Christian, because he is missing the head, which is Christ.

The Eucharist is the most beneficial of all devotions.  In it Christ addresses this invitation to us: Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest" (Mt 11:28).  In it he entertains sinners at his table, forgets all sins, and clothes his guests with grace.  In the Eucharist, like an eagle that incites her nestlings forth by hovering over her brood, Christ spreads out his wings over the righteous.  He gathers them together, carries them on his back and raises them aloft to the heights of holiness (Deut 22).

In the Eucharist, Christ creates apostles, fortifies martyrs for the crown of victory and raises up virgins.  In fact, the Eucharist is "the sacred Banquet in which Christ is eaten as food, the memory of his passion is recalled, the mind is filled with grace, and we are given the pledge of future glory" (Office of Corpus Christi).²³

"The Eucharist was the first rule of life in the Church"

The Eucharist was truly the first rule of life in the Church.  Christ was fully present in everyone.  In the Eucharist, he was the life of all Christians.  Thus it was in the Church at the beginning.  Now, we see that times have changed and other forms of piety have, in some sense, replaced faith in Christ and love for him, namely, devotion to the saints and filial devotion to the Mother of God.

I do not say this to deplore these devotions or belittle them in the least.  There is no disparagement in my words.  I enthusiastically applaud these manifestations of piety.  In fact, I make every effort to have them take root and become ever more diffused.  They are, in fact, very useful for a life of piety and are desired by our good God.

The contemplation of the blessed souls in heaven has a twofold "theology": the morning one, which, from the divine perfections seen in God, descends to the contemplation of the work of the Lord, and the evening one, which, from the divine works rises to the contemplation of God himself.  This is true also of the piety of the faithful.  Some want to reach God by using the cult of the saints and the Mother of God like steps.  Instead, others -- more effectively -- take possession of Christ himself through faith and, through Christ, approach the Father, thus encompassing  also the saints.  Both ways lead to the same goal.  Nevertheless we must see to it that imitation of the saints and devotion to them do not lessen our faith in Christ and our love for him.

Hence, I ardently hope that the love we all have for Christ will emulate and surpass our devotion to the Mother of God and the saints.  Christ, in fact, is "the way, the truth and the life," as he himself said; and "no one comes to the Father except through me" (Jn 14:6, 17). Even Paul says: "Through him we have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Eph 2:18).²⁴

"He Christianizes our whole person"

Holy Communion is the source from which the soul draws the water that rises to eternal life, the place where the soul heals its wounds.  In a word, Holy Communion is the origin and goal of union with God raised to the highest power and brought to the ultimate degree of perfection possible in the present order of things.  In

fact, if, in the Incarnation, the Word of God united himself personally to human nature, in Holy Communion he unites himself even more intimately to our person.  In this way, he divinizes our essence and, in fact, Christianizes our whole person.  His union with us is patterned after the transformation of food into the substance of the body that is nourished.  And so, as a holy doctor of the Church once wrote, those who receive Communion have Jesus in their mind, in their heart, in their soul, before their eyes and on their tongue.  This Savior sets everything straight, purifies everything, gives life to everything.  He loves with our heart, thinks with our mind, invigorates our soul, sees through our eyes, speaks with our tongue, and moves all other faculties in us.  He works all things in all people, so that they no longer live for themselves.  The Word of God now lives in them and sets down for their actions nobler and more sublime goals, purer and more perfect motives.²⁵

"The radiant seed of the resurrection"

St. Macarius says that the common bread that comes from the earth cannot give us eternal life.  But the bread that has its origin in Christ's blessed body united to the divinity confers immortality to the one receiving this bread.  The flesh of Christ, once eaten, is not destroyed; and the blood, once drunk, does not cease to exist because both are indissolubly united to the divinity.  Hence, the glorious body of Christ puts the radiant seed of resurrection and incorruptibility into the corruptible body of a human being.  This seed, animated by the blood of him who conquered death, develops and grows until the renewed human being lays aside his mortal flesh like a useless garment and, showing all the splendor of his life hidden in God, enters into the eternal tabernacles²⁶

"Getting into the spirit of the sacred liturgy"

Abstract and speculative instruction, excellent though it may be, is not enough by itself.  It must be accompanied by practice.  If so many Christians, while celebrating the divine mysteries, seem undignified and listless in church and indifferent to everything that is taking place, the reason is that they see only the outward appearance

of the sacred rites.  Well, then, teach them to understand the different parts of the sacred rites.  If, in some way, you help them get into the spirit of the sacred liturgy, their minds will at once begin to focus on God and their lips will instinctively move to prayer.  As long as they are able to ascend from the sensible to the intelligible, people, no matter how cold and indifferent they may be, are enraptured by Catholic worship, which converges wholly on the Eucharist, just as all the architectural lines in our churches, built by great Christian minds, converge on the sanctuary.²⁷

"Wasting time with confessions?"

I cannot keep quiet about some priests who think they are wasting their time when they have to minister to good souls who love to go to confession often and, even more often, to nourish themselves with the flesh of the spotless Lamb.  The most charitable thing I can say about these priests is that they do not know that, just as you cannot have life without a soul, in the same way you cannot have a parish alive with the exuberant life of Christ if it does not have a certain number of the faithful who confess often and go to Communion almost daily.  These are the people who, with the example of their good lives, stimulate the others to goodness.  They make the ideal of Christian perfection shine forth.  In a word, they are the dedicated people who accomplish all the good works that are done in the parish.  Blessed is the pastor who forms people of this kind and cares for them with particular solicitude.  The time he can wisely spend with them is time well spent, because these godly souls will draw down upon our people the graces that will keep them from wickedness.  And if our people are already wicked, these graces will transform them as they transformed the Greek and Roman world in apostolic times and, down through the centuries, led many other nations to the foot of the cross.²⁸

"Frequent Communion"

So, even if they have imperfections and fall into venial sins, Christians adorned with sanctifying grace are nonetheless sons and daughters of God and heirs of heaven and, as such, are worthy to sit even daily at the great banquet Jesus Christ prepares in his Church, as long as they depart from it with ever increasing fervor and with a greater desire to go back to it.  So why should we demand of our good people an extraordinary purity of mind, of heart and deeds before admitting them to such a banquet?  Is not frequent Communion precisely the best disposition for approaching the Eucharist worthily?  If everybody had a loftier appreciation of the beauty and nobility of a soul in grace, the restoration of frequent Communion would surely not be long delayed, to the great and inestimable benefit of the Christian people and of civil society itself.²⁹

"The pious practice of the daily visit"

You will find that one of the most efficacious ways of engendering and developing devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is, first of all, the pious practice of the daily visit to him, a prisoner of love in our tabernacles.  This practice is surely positive proof of the sincere love people have for the divine Eucharist, just as, on the contrary, the deplorable neglect in which many leave the Eucharist seems to belie their faith.

How beautiful it is to engage in frequent and familiar conversation with Jesus through such a salutary practice!  "Blessed is he who abides near the holy tabernacle," exclaims the prophet.  The Lord is his strength and his light, the remedy for all his ills, the balm for all his wounds, his solace in all pain.  At the foot of the altar, we forget the world and the misfortunes of life because, wherever there is Jesus, pain fades away; and only joy remains, even in the midst of tribulations.  This is the place where the faithful hear mysterious and gentle voices in the depths of their hearts, the place they leave with a burning desire to get back to it, with that holy desire that always draws them to the place where their treasure lies and where they are able to store up supernatural energies.

So everybody should offer this daily homage to the divine Eucharist. 

I recommend this practice to the children, so that Jesus will set them on the paths of virtue.  I recommend it to young people, so that Jesus will give them the strength to resist the allurements and seductions of vice.  I recommend it to those who are in the twilight of their lives, so that Jesus will help them look peacefully into the face of death.³⁰

"Daytime and nighttime adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament"

In some parishes of the diocese -- and I say this with keenest satisfaction -- a society for daytime adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament has already been instituted.  I would love to see it take root in all the other parishes, too.  Where there are many people, this will be easy.  But if a parish has only a few parishioners and cannot have daily adoration, could there not be adoration at least two or three times a week, especially on Sundays and holy days?  I trust in the zeal of my excellent co-workers and in the solicitude the beloved people of my diocese have always shown toward Eucharistic worship.

But if it is so comforting to spend time before Jesus during the day, it is also delightful to keep vigil at the his feet in the silence and stillness of the night!  In this way, we imitate the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, who never cease celebrating the glories of the Lord (...).

So, brothers and beloved sons and daughters, try to understand the importance of nocturnal adoration, to set it up in your parishes and to have it at least once a year (...).

In anything that has to do with the Eucharist, I do not want to hear from your lips that insipid expression: this is impossible.  There is no such thing as impossible, except for those who run away from self-denial and sacrifice.³¹

"Before that Host of pardon and peace"

Before that Host of pardon and peace, the tumult of our earthly desires subsides, our obsession with worldly matters calms down, pride loosens its grip on us, love and compassion for our brothers and sisters quickens, a holy rivalry in good works heats up, and the longing for a holier life intensifies.  Don't you hear a voice

coming from that Tabernacle, a voice that ennobles and dignifies your very sufferings, assuring you that the tears you shed at the altar are counted by him who takes care of the lily of the field, of the bird in the forest and of the least hair of our head?  Oh, indeed, here our spirit finds strength in the power of resignation and hope.  Here, where confidence in God soars, nothing is hopeless.  Here we are all sons and daughters of God.  He who comes here to draw the strength that wells up from that divine Tabernacle is not at the mercy of fate or of enemies (...).

The temple is the refuge of the poor, the asylum of the troubled and the burdened!  Here all of us feel -- sincerely, not hypocritically -- that we are brothers and sisters.  Here, before our common Father, all distinctions based on ostentation, riches and human power disappear.  Here we claim to be equal and all do feel equal at the common banquet of Jesus.  Here before the spectacle of a God who in the Blessed Sacrament lowers himself equally before the small and the great and raises all things to his loftiness, we consecrate not the false democracy of the world but the true democracy of all the redeemed.³²

"United with him, you will all feel like brothers and sisters"

So, you must unite in a holy alliance around Jesus, the divine victim, in a spirit of faith, of reparation and love.  If you are united with him, you will all feel like brothers and sisters, all together in an alliance, an alliance to love one another and to work for each other's good.  From this will come that harmonious fellowship that will make you share joys as well as sorrows, smiles as well as tears, and spread far and wide the balm of resignation and Christian hope.  Get together and organize yourselves into societies of adorers for the different hours of the day, so that the holy Eucharist will never be neglected.³³

"You have been made sharers in the eternal priesthood of Christ"

You must understand the loftiness of your dignity.  You have all been made sharers in the same eternal priesthood, which the Son of God himself did not arrogate to himself but received

from his Father.

According to the Apostle, you who have achieved the priesthood must also have something to offer (Heb 8:3); from this, precisely, does your nobility derive.  You know that the victim of our Sacrifice is the very Son of God, who is, at once, the principal priest, who makes the offering through your ministry, and the God to whom the offering is made.

Appraise your dignity from this Sacrifice, which is the most august and sublime action of the Church.

The Eucharistic sacrament and sacrifice is the Church's treasure, its absolute good, its supreme beauty: "For what wealth is theirs and what beauty! grain that makes the youths flourish, and new wine, the maidens!" (Zec 9:17).  Under different species, which are now pure signs, are hidden sublime realities: flesh that is food, blood that is drink.  The Church is fashioned by this Sacrament, and all her riches are summed up in bread and wine.  I urge you to enrich yourselves with this treasure and to enrich others with it as well.  This is how Christ instituted this sacrament: he wanted to entrust its administration to priests alone; it belongs to them to receive him and give him to others (Office for Corpus Christi).

The Eucharist, which is the treasure of the priests, is, at the same time, a deposit entrusted to their faithful care.  However, we are dealing with a "deposit" of a special kind, much different from the usual ones.  By law, whoever receives a "deposit" must guard and preserve it faithfully and give it back intact to the giver.  Not so with the Eucharist, for it is a deposit of wheat.  It would be a crime to hide it: "He who hides the wheat shall be cursed by the people" (Prv 11:26) (...).

The Eucharist is your guiding star.  It appeared to you in your childhood and led you to Christ.  It guided your adolescence and strengthened your youth.  May the Eucharist be, in your maturity and in your old age, your "mighty shield and strong support, a shelter from the heat, a shade from the noonday sun, a guard against stumbling, a help against falling, buoying up the spirit, bringing a sparkle to the eyes, giving health, life, and blessing" (Eccl 34:19-20).

Venerable brothers, everything you are and have, everything comes to you from the Eucharist.  I am telling you the simple truth when I say that the priest is fenced in on all sides by the Eucharist, that he is in all things marked by the Eucharist.³⁴

"Christ in the Eucharist is the book offered to priests"

Recall the words you heard at your ordination: Dignoscite quod agitis (Pontif. Rom.).  Christ in the Eucharist is really the book offered to priests, so they can devour it.  Numerous are the writings of the Doctors and Fathers, from which you can gather an abundant harvest of doctrine.  You have the Summa of St. Thomas, which treats of this venerable Sacrament in a truly angelic way.  You have the explanation of Sacred Scripture in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, published expressly for your instruction.  You also have the ascetical books, the principal one being the Imitation of Christ, which, in the 4th book, speaks about the Eucharist like no other.  Many modern writers, who have written on the Eucharist, can give you many useful insights.

Everyone must recall with the Apostle: "To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ" (Eph 3:8).  Are not all riches of Christ hidden in this Sacrament?³⁵

"Your devotion must be interior and exterior"

If you really want to revive devotion to the Eucharist in your parishes, show by your deeds that you, first of all, have this devotion and that it is deeply rooted in your heart.  Your devotion must be interior and exterior and must be rooted in a lively faith in Jesus, the divine victim, and in a sincere love for him.

But, alas, we must confess that faith is often feeble.  After many years in the priesthood, one still does not love the divine Master or perhaps loves him with a lifeless love.  And yet the priest is a man who lives, works and sacrifices himself for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the only goal of all his aspirations.  Is this the way you are?  The sanctuary, the altar, the tabernacle: what do they tell you?  What impression do they make on you?  After receiving the body and blood of Jesus, don't you feel, as St. Vincent De Paul would say to his priests, don't you feel that your heart is inflamed with divine fire?  Now, does this fire, which burned so brightly in the heart of that humble priest, of that hero of Christian charity, does this fire also devour your heart, or

does your heart still remain cold and icy?... So how could you possibly have enough zeal to kindle in others this devotion, if it is a thousand miles away from your own heart?  I beg you: if you do not feel called to a deep interior life, to a life of profound contemplation, at least stay with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament with your heart and with your deeds, in private and in public, now and always.  Let your tongue speak of him often, let your heart sigh for him.  And do not let one hour of the day pass without your having dedicated to him a thought of humble and loving gratitude.³⁶

Perpetual adoration by priests

Something else is very close to my heart.  I would very much want all of you, venerable brothers, to be enrolled in the Pious Society of Priests for Perpetual Adoration, which has been instituted in our diocese.

If all the faithful must repay Jesus love for love and make reparation for the offenses that wicked and evil Christians commit against him, you, in a very special way, must shed tears in his presence and come between the altar and sinners, as ministers of peace and pardon.  You, more than anyone else, must live the Eucharistic life and delight in staying close to the tabernacle, where you will draw strength to sacrifice yourselves and to die for Jesus, for the glory of God and the good of souls.  This is the only ideal of authentic priests.³⁷

I propose that every diocese establish perpetual adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament for priests who are willing to commit themselves to an hour of adoration every certain number of days (...).

How moving it is to think that, at every hour of the day or night, a priest is lying prostrate before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to pray for himself, for his confreres, for the Church, for her august Head, for the preservation of the faith, for the final perseverance of repentant sinners, and for those who are close to the judgment of God (...).

A priest, who is a fervent adorer of the Most Blessed Sacrament, will quickly become its most eloquent apostle and will tirelessly and constantly champion it.  He will be creative in coming up with a thousand little ploys, all his own, to revive and propagate this devotion among the faithful.  Yes, the zeal of such priest, of such a bishop, will

be blessed; it will be all-powerful.³⁸

"Mentioning the Eucharist in every talk"

Preaching the Eucharist day in and day out means that you must seize every opportunity to keep reminding people of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  With his disciple Timothy, the Apostle used to stress how important it was to persist in the ministry of preaching: "Preach the word in season and out of season."  You should do the same thing, too.  When speaking about the Eucharist, you can take, as a starting point, the different seasons of the year -- winter, spring, summer, autumn -- as well as the rain and the sunshine or the many problems and pursuits of the people. This is what Christ himself does: he takes the occasion to speak of his Sacrament when he sees the people's concern with bread for the body: "Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you" (Jn 6:27).  The Apostle imitated him when he gave his speech to the Athenians, taking his cue from the altar to the unknown god.

But we have another very important reason for persisting in our preaching about the Eucharist: we must mention the Eucharist in every talk and end every talk with the Eucharist.  Are you talking about a virtue?  Offer Christ in the Eucharist as the perfect exemplar of it.  Are you dealing with sin?  Show that Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.  Propose the Eucharist as the antidote that frees us from our daily faults and keeps us from mortal sins: Christ is the doctor and the medicine. 0 wonderful banquet, which administers the medicine of humility against pride, of charity against envy, of almsgiving against avarice, of chastity against lust, of virtue against all vices! (Tertullian, De Resurrectione)³⁹

"The 20th century will be called the century of the Eucharist"

For the man or woman who fears God, Christ -- in this sacrament -- makes present his supplications to the Father, namely, the sacrifice of his body and his blood offered on the cross.  What will the

fruit of such a sublime sacrifice be?  "The branch of the Lord will be luster and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be honor and splendor" (Is 4:2).  In fact, the poor will eat and be satisfied: their souls will live for ever and ever.  Sinners will return to their senses.  All the earth will be converted to God and all people will adore him.

All people will eat and adore, all mortal beings will fall down on their knees before him.  The future generation will take its name from the name of the Lord, because the heavens, namely, the priests, will announce the sanctity of the people about to be born, a people fashioned by the Lord.  It will be the people of the Most Blessed Sacrament and the 20th century will be called the century of the Eucharist.   "Because the kingdom is the Lord's and he will rule the peoples" (Ps 21).⁴⁰

"Nunc dimittis..."

When the Lord, in his infinite goodness and mercy, will have granted me the joy of seeing the Eucharistic devotion deeply rooted in my beloved diocese, then I will have nothing more to do except to exclaim with the prophet Simeon: "Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace ... because my eyes have seen the Savior given by you" loved, thanked and worshiped by those who in time are, and in eternity will be, my joy and my crown.⁴¹

"The sweetest consolation"

Make absolutely sure, venerable co-workers of mine, that when I come, I will be able to pass out the bread of angels to all my children, to all, from the First Communion children all the way up to those who are on the threshold of eternity.  This, brothers and children of mine, is the sweetest consolation you could give your bishop in the midst of the constant worries and deep anxieties of his pastoral ministry.⁴²