A Real Place For The Real Presence

April is the month dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament, so I am trying to post as much as I can on Our Lord's Presence there. Today the reflection from My Daily Eucharist told of a priest in Ottawa who was assigned to a parish where only about 30 to 40 people attended Mass on Sunday each week. He began Eucharistic Adoration  with the practicing parishioners and soon the church was full on Sundays.
I have no trouble believing this miraculous story for two reasons: the first being Our Lord never fails to bless places where His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity are loved and adored, the second is my own experience in my own parish. My regular readers know that my parish has had Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration since December 8, 1996. I have been spending Sundays at midnight with Our Lord since Divine Mercy Sunday 2003. What I can attest to is basically the same thing this priest experienced. Now I don't know about my parish's humble beginnings, but I know when I arrived there in 2002, it was a large, active and thriving parish. We have 3 Masses daily, 2 Sunday Vigil Masses on Saturday evening, and 5 Sunday Masses, all very well attended.
I am not bragging (alright maybe just a little) but I firmly believe the driving force behind this parish and others like it is Eucharistic Adoration.
The saints knew the value in this devotion as well; here are what a few of them have to say on the subject:

"Know also that you will probably gain more by praying fifteen minutes before the Blessed Sacrament than by all the other spiritual exercises of the day. True, Our Lord hears our prayers anywhere, for He has made the promise, 'Ask, and you shall receive,' but He has revealed to His servants that those who visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament will obtain a more abundant measure of grace." (St Alphonsus Liguori)



"The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time that you will spend on earth. Each moment that you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him and make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in heaven, and will help bring about an everlasting peace on earth."
(Bl.. Mother Teresa of Calcutta)



"I understand that, each time we contemplate with desire and devotion the Host in which is hidden Christ's Eucharistic Body, we increase our merits in heaven and secure special joys to be ours later in the beatific vision of God." (St Gertrude)

And while he is not a saint yet, I love this one by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen:

"The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host."


So go ahead, spend an hour or even 15 minutes with Him; you will be glad you did.