A missionary often saw a recent convert kneeling before the tabernacle and one day asked him. “What have you been saying to the Savior all this time?” “Nothing father, I have never learned how to read books.” “But what do you do all that time?” the convert responded, “I just kneel before Him and expose my soul to the Sun.”

It is God’s will that we not be mere humans, but that we live a supernatural life in union with Him. Jesus is pleased to come to our Altar of sacrifice, but he is overjoyed to be present on the altars of our hearts.

CELEBRATION - Growth in love- 4th stage
MEDITATION- SACRAMENTS-53-EUCHARIST 27

The reaction of our soul to the Word of God in the readings and homily of the Mass is determined by our faith in Christ and our love for him. If faith is strong and love flourishes at the sound of his voice, we then not only hear his voice in the Liturgy of the Word, but it provides powerful impact on our soul. Although it is not possible to fully explain the effect of the Liturgy of the Word on the Soul, some explanation can be made. As we grow in our response to the gift of faith we grow in the recognition that when we are in the presence of the divine, resurrected ascended Christ and hear his voice, our soul somehow becomes absorbed into him. In this absorption the soul is transformed in such a manner that our will gradually becomes his will. With the similitude of our will with his, we experience an increase in faith. With the increase in faith there is a coincident increase in our love for the Lord. If this transformation of the soul reaches its goal there is often an ecstatic experience of his love that exceeds explanation. Such a transformation of the soul in love is generally referred to as a mystic experience. It is called mystic, because it is beyond anything human that we could cause to or even allow to happen. It is God Himself operating in our soul to give it a share in His divinity.

The link between our faith and our capability to love is the fact that God’s love for us enables our capacity to love him. Our absorption into the divine personality of Christ is therefore not so much based on our struggle against personal and social sin, but on our love for Christ who first loves us. It is also true that our love for God is not dependent upon our emotion or feelings, but solely on the transformation of our will in accord with his will. Our sharing in divine love persists even with the emotions seem empty. Love that persists when there is no earthly reward or explanation for love is truly divine love.

The Christian who recognizes the reality of Christ’s presence in the Liturgy of the Word will often experience an increasing urgency to be united with the Lord. This urgency is often very strong, and sometimes nearly overwhelming. As new love of matrimony unites man and woman through powerful emotional desire to become one, so the experience of the love of God in his Word provides a similar desire for unity with him. When our souls are united with the Lord, we desire that our entire being be absorbed into his being. There is a desire to lose ourselves into Him and rest in His presence. It is this strong desire for union, engendered by the Word of God in Liturgy that prepares us for the actual union that will occur in the communion of the Mass.

St. John of the Cross expressed this desire to lose himself into the love of the Lord in the first stanza of his poem “The Living Flame of Love.” John writes;

“O Living Flame of Love

That tenderly wounds my soul in its deepest center,

Since now you are not oppressive

Now consummate, If it be Your will

Tear through the veil of this sweet encounter. “

In His presence on the altar of sacrifice and on the altar of our hearts, the Lord tears through the veil that separates us and we become one with him. Becoming one with him his image and likeness becomes evident in every aspect of our lives.

NEW CATHOLIC CATECHISM
ARTICLE NO. 1354a

In the anamnesis that follows, the Church calls to mind the Passion, resurrection, and glorious return of Christ Jesus; she presents to the Father the offering of his Son which reconciles us with him.

REMEMBERING

Deacon Jim Breazile o.c.d.s.

In anamnesis our memory brings

To mind the many wondrous things

That Jesus did while he lived with man

Brought salvation to a fallen land

We recall the suffering of his hour

That called to earth all heavens power

And that he became living sacrifice

To a mission only divinity could suffice

We suffer with him in his death

And feel the pain of his last breath

We see him placed in Joseph’s tomb

Knowing that our sins he has assumed

Through the window of our grief

His resurrection brings joyous relief

And his ascension to Fathers side

Gives the grace his sacrifice supplied

And in our hearts his love resides