One Minute Reflection – 17 June – “The Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus” – Friday within the Octave of Corpus Christi – 1 Corinthians 23-29, John 6:56-59.
“This is the Bread that has come down from Heaven; not as your fathers ate the manna and died. He who eats this Bread shall live forever.”- John 6:59
REFLECTION – “It is wonderful that God rained manna on our fathers and they were fed with daily food from Heaven. And so it is written: Man ate the bread of angels. Yet, those who ate that bread all died in the desert. But the food that you receive, that living Bread which came down from Heaven, supplies the very substance of eternal life, and whoever will eat it, will never die, for it is the Body of Christ!
Consider now which is the more excellent – the bread of Angels or the Flesh of Christ, which is indeed the Body that gives Life. The first was manna from Heaven, the second is above the Heavens. One was of Heaven, the other is of the Lord of the Heavens; one subject to corruption if it was kept till the morrow, the other free from all corruption, for if anyone tastes of it with reverence, he will be incapable of corruption. For our fathers, water flowed from the rock; for you, Blood flows from Christ. Water satisfied their thirst for a time; Blood cleanses you forever. The Jew drinks and still thirsts but when you drink, you will be incapable of thirst. What happened in symbol is now fulfilled in reality.
If what you marvel at is a shadow, how great is the reality, whose very shadow you marvel at. Listen to this, which shows, that what happened in the time of our fathers was but a shadow. They drank, it is written, from the rock that followed them and the Rock was Christ! All this took place as a symbol for us. You know now what is more excellent – Light is preferable to its shadow, reality to its symbol, the Body of the Giver, to the manna He gave from Heaven.” – St Ambrose (340-397) Great Western Father and Doctor of the Church (An excerpt from On the Mysteries).
PRAYER – O God, Thou Who in this wondrous Sacrament have left us a memorial of Thy Passion, grant us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate the Sacred Mysteries of Thy Body and Blood, that we may ever experience, within us, the effect of Thy Redemption. Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).
MAY the HEART of JESUS be loved everywhere. 100 Days, Indulgence Once a day – Pope Pius IX 23 September 1860.
AnaStpaul 