The previous post featured a quote from Blessed James Alberione describing the Way-Truth-Life method for making a Holy Hour. Blessed James Alberione firmly believed that the Gospel and the Eucharist express Christ’s self-revelation and self-giving, and he affirmed that Jesus, “in order to unite to himself the whole person, gave us his teaching and himself: the Gospel and the Eucharist.”
The three-part method for Eucharistic adoration that Blessed James left to us is an outline, an orientation to make adoration well; it’s a means to help us to grow in our relationship with Jesus. Alberione actually encourages us to avoid formalism in prayer; rather he stresses focusing on our relationship with Jesus through Word and Eucharist. (He called our daily Eucharistic hour of adoration “the Visit” with Jesus.)
“Avoid formalism,” he wrote, “This holds true for all prayer, but especially for the Eucharistic Visit. The real Visit is a spirit which pervades our time, thoughts, relationships, and life. It is a sap or life-giving current which influences everything and communicates its spirit to the most ordinary things. It shapes a spirituality that is lived and passed on. It shapes the spirit of prayer which, when cultivated, transforms every work into prayer.”
Below is a beautiful description of how Blessed James Alberione thought of Eucharistic adoration–specifically, making a holy hour. This eloquent description can also be turned into a prayer to begin our adoration.
The Eucharistic Visit
The Visit* is a meeting of our soul
and of our whole being with Jesus.
It is the creature meeting the Creator;
the disciple before the Divine Master;
the patient with the Doctor of souls;
the poor one appealing to the Rich One;
the thirsty one drinking at the Font;
the weak before the Almighty;
the tempted seeking a sure Refuge;
the blind person searching for the Light;
the friend who goes to the True Friend;
the lost sheep sought by the Divine Shepherd;
the wayward heart who finds the Way;
the unenlightened one who finds Wisdom;
the bride who finds the Spouse of the soul;
the “nothing” who finds the All;
the afflicted who finds the Consoler;
the seeker who finds life’s meaning.
It is the shepherds at the crib, Mary Magdalene at Simon’s house,
Nicodemus who comes by night.
It is the holy discussions of the Samaritan woman,
of Zacchaeus, of Philip,
and of the Apostles with Jesus; especially in the last week of His earthly life and after the resurrection.
Credits:
Photo by Saint John’s Seminary on Unsplash
