My friend, move up to a higher position. Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table (Luke 14:10).

After the Congregation’s founding, others slowly discovered that the centrality of the Eucharist provided that inner place needed to experience the depth of God’s love for us. At the table of the Lord, our altars, we can see others joining us to appreciate the Lord’s banquet. At that same table, the incarnation of God’s love, now our Eucharist, is also manifested to us. When we allow others to be seated ahead of us, we experience the vastness and beauty of the kingdom. I imagine Jesus teaching us that he alone is the center of our lives. Our spiritual father learned this lesson in his long retreat in Rome: the necessity of making a total gift of himself, offering the entirety of his person back to Christ.

Can we come to the table and allow others to sit and dine ahead of us? The saints have come to appreciate this. The Little Flower, Saint Therese, recognized this in her spirituality of littleness; John the Baptist also stated that he must decrease so that Christ might increase (John 3:30); and our holy founder, Saint Peter Julian, teaches us the importance of making a gift of ourselves for the salvation of the world.

“There are so few souls who want to suffer for God that when God finds one who is devoted or resigned, God is quick to make the most of it since it seems that suffering is necessary for the reign of God and the salvation of humanity. There’s no love without suffering, and suffering is the fruit of the earth.” (Our spiritual father, Saint Peter Julian, to Sr. Catherine of the Sacred Heart, 12/10/1863).

Let Us Pray:

Mother of God, Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, be with us, your children. Walk with us to the altar daily to receive your Son and help us to fix our hearts on the cenacle, allowing others to sit in the higher places so that we may see heaven now through the Eucharist.

Eucharistic Reflection – Center for Eucharistic Evangelizing (eucharisticevangelizing.com)
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