St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi: Daily Visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament

St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi (1566-1607) was a Carmelite nun from the age of seventeen. She recommended to busy people in the world to take time out each day for praying before the Holy Eucharist. "A friend,she wrote, "will visit a friend in the morning to wish him a good day, in the evening, a good night, taking also an opportunity to converse with him during the day. In like manner, make visits to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, if your duties permit it. It is especially at the foot of the altar that one prays well. In all your visits to our Savior, frequently offer His Precious Blood to the Eternal Father. You will find these visits very conducive to increase in you divine love."

~ Excerpt from: The History of Eucharistic Adoration by John A. Hardon, S.J. ~

St. Alphonsus Liguori: Eucharistic Adoration Prayer

~ St. Alphonsus Liguori Prayer: from Visits to the Blessed Sacrament ~

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque: Prayer to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament

"In order to be like You, who are always alone in the Blessed Sacrament, I shall love solitude and try to converse with You as much as possible. Grant that my mind may not seek to know anything but You, that my heart may have no longings or desires but to love You. When I am obliged to take some comfort, I shall take care to see that it be pleasing to Your Heart. In my conversations, O divine Word, I shall consecrate all my words to You so that You will not permit me to pronounce a single one which is not for Your glory.... When I am thirsty, I shall endure it in honor of the thirst You endured for the salvation of souls.... If by chance, I commit some fault, I shall humble myself, and then take the opposite virtue from Your Heart, offering it to the eternal Father in expiation for my failure. All this I intend to do, O Eucharistic Jesus, to unite myself to You in every action of the day."

~ St. Margaret Mary Alacoque ~

Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Favorite Devotion of the Saints

"Dear young people, the happiness you are seeking, the happiness you have a right to enjoy has a name and a face: it is Jesus of Nazareth, hidden in the Eucharist. Only he gives the fullness of life to humanity!" - Pope Benedict XVI

"Hear Mass daily; it will prosper the whole day. All your duties will be performed the better for it, and your soul will be stronger to bear its daily cross. The Mass is the most holy act of religion; you can do nothing that can give greater glory to God or be more profitable for your soul than to hear Mass both frequently and devoutly. It is the favorite devotion of the saints." - St. Peter Julian Eymard

"Everyday, Jesus humbles himself just as He did when He came from His heavenly throne into the Virgin's womb; everyday He comes to us and lets us see Him in abjection, when He descends from the bosom of the Father into the hands of the priest at the altar." - St. Francis of Assisi

"The Blessed Eucharist is the perfect Sacrament of the Lord's Passion, since It contains Christ Himself and his Passion." - St. Thomas Aquinas

"Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to heaven." - Pope Pius X

Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament

"The Sacrament of the Body of the Lord puts the demons to flight,

defends us against the incentives to vice and to concupiscence,

cleanses the soul from sin, quiets the anger of God,

enlightens the understanding to know God,

inflames the will and the affections with the love of God,

fills the memory with spiritual sweetness,

confirms the entire man in good,

frees us from eternal death,

multiplies the merits of a good life,

leads us to our everlasting home,

and re-animates the body to eternal life."

~ Saint Thomas Aquinas ~

St. Bonaventure: This Heart of Our Lord

"Lord Jesus Christ,

pierce my soul with Your love

so that I may always long for You alone,

who are the Bread of angels

and the fulfillment of the soul's deepest desires.

May my heart always hunger for you,

so that my soul may be filled with the sweetness of Your Presence."

~ Saint Bonaventure ~

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Inspired by a Young Chinese Martyr of the Eucharist

"..in China, a priest had just begun Mass when Communists entered and arrested him and made him a prisoner in a house adjoining the little church. From a window in that house he could see the tabernacle. Shortly after his imprisonment, the Communists opened the tabernacle, threw the Hosts on the floor and stole the Sacred Vessels. The priest then decided to make adoration to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament as much as he could day and night. About three o'clock one morning he saw a child who had been at the morning Mass open a window, climb in, come to the sanctuary floor, get down on both knees, press her tongue to the Host to give herself Holy Communion. The priest told me there were about thirty Hosts in the ciborium. Every single night she came at the same time until there was only one Host left. As she pressed her tongue to receive the Body of Christ, a shot rang out. A Communist soldier had seen her. It proved to be her Viaticum."

~ Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, from Treasure in Clay ~

St. Cyril of Alexandria: Gain Spiritual Strength from the Eucharist

"If the poison of pride is swelling up in you, turn to the Eucharist; and that Bread, which is your God humbling and disguising Himself, will teach you humility. If the fever of selfish greed rages in you, feed on this Bread; and you will learn generosity. If the cold wind of coveting withers you, hasten to the Bread of Angels; and charity will come to blossom in your heart. If you feel the itch of intemperance, nourish yourself with the Flesh and Blood of Christ, Who practiced self-control during His earthly life; and you will become temperate. If you are lazy and sluggish about spiritual things, strengthen yourself with this heavenly Food; and you will grow fervent. Lastly, if you feel scorched by the fever of impurity, go to the banquet of the Angels; and the spotless Flesh of Christ will make you pure and chaste."

~ St. Cyril of Alexandria ~

St. Marcellin Champagnat: Saints Ran to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament

"It is for us that, during eighteen hundred years, our divine Saviour has remained day and night on our altars, that we may have recourse to Him in all our needs; and nothing so much afflicts His divine Heart as our ingratitude for such a favor, and our neglect to visit Him and ask His blessing. If we knew how profitable those visits are, we should be constantly prostrate before the altar. The Saints understood this truth; they knew that Jesus Christ is the source of all grace, and whenever they encountered any difficulty or wished to obtain any particular favor, they ran to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. St. Francis Xavier, St. Francis Regis and others spent whole hours during the day and, frequently, a great part of the night at the foot of the altar; it was in these long interviews with Jesus Christ that they advanced the good works they had in hand, converted sinners, and obtained success in all their undertakings for the glory of God and their own sanctification,"

~ St. Marcellin Champagnat (1789-1840) ~

The Happiness of Receiving Jesus in Holy Communion

"That same Jesus is with us in our churches who at His birth was laid on straw and adored by the Magi, who fled into Egypt, who was sought for by the Blessed Virgin and found in the Temple, who changed water into wine, who restored sight to the blind, made deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Beloved Christian, you esteem Simeon happy in having been permitted to take the Infant Jesus in his arms; and were you to receive a grace like him, no doubt you would exclaim: 'Now dost Thou dismiss Thy servant in peace: because my eyes have seen Thy salvation.'

"You consider Zacheus happy because Our Lord vouchsafed to enter his house and eat with him; you deem St. John happy because he rested on the breast of our Saviour at the Last Supper; and, above all, you regard St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary so very happy because they nourished and supported Our Dear Lord. But are you not as happy as they? Are you not even happier? You do not hold Our Lord in your arms as Simeon did, but you receive Him into your heart in Holy Communion; you do not rest on the bosom of St. John, but the Saviour rests in your heart after Holy Communion; you do not nurse and support Our Lord like St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin, but you have a still greater happiness, for the Saviour Himself nourishes you and gives Himself to you as your food. O Love! O Love! O who can understand the love of God for men!"

~ From The Blessed Eucharist, by Fr. Michael Muller, C.S.S.R. ~