God's love for you -8th September
Visits to the Blessed Sacrament (3)
It is true, that in every place God graciously hears the petitions of those who pray to Him, having promised to do so: Ask, and you shall receive; yet the disciple tells us that Jesus dispenses His Graces in greater abundance to those who visit Him in the Most Holy Sacrament. Bl Henry Suso used to say that Jesus Christ hears the prayers of the faithful more graciously in the sacrament of the altar than elsewhere. During Adoration, we can ask Him for His Graces, for His Love, even for His Kingdom...When the countess of Feria who was also a disciple of St John of Avila, being asked how did she spend the many hours in the presence of the Holy of Holies, she answered: "I could remain there for all eternity. And is not there present the very essence of God, who will be the food of the blessed?...We love, we ask, we praise, we give thanks. We ask, what does a poor man do in the presence of one who is rich? What does a sick man do in the presence of his physician? What does a man do who is parched with thirst in the presence of a clear fountain? What is the occupation of one who is starving, and is placed before a splendid table?" Indeed, our Redeemer seems to ask, why do you complain of your misfortunes, O sons of Adam, when you have the doctor and the medicines for them all in this Sacrament? Come to Me, and I will refresh you.
Fr Balthasar Alvarez (1534-1580) used to weep when he saw the palaces of the great ones of this world filled with people, who courted a man from whom they hoped
for some miserable earthly good, while the churches were so abandoned, in which the supreme sovereign of the world dwells, and remains with us as on a throne of love, rich in immense and eternal treasures. Do you think the situation has changed nowadays? Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found: call upon him, while he is near.
(Reference: The Complete Ascetical Works of St Alphonsus de Liguori, Volume VI - The Holy Eucharist, St Alphonsus de Liguori, edited by Rev Eugene Grimm, New York: Benziger, 1887)
