Living the Year of the Eucharist
in the school of the
Heart of Mary
Mother Adela Galindo
Foundress, SCTJM
For private use only -©
The Year of the Rosary and the Year of the Eucharist
On the 16th of October 2002, the Holy Father, John Paul II,
surprised the whole Church by proclaiming the Year of the Rosary. This
culminates the Great Jubilee Year with a Marian crown. It is an
exhortation to all of us to contemplate the face of Christ in union
with, and at the school of, the Blessed Mother. “With the Rosary, the
Christian people sit at the school of Mary and are led to contemplate
the beauty of the face of Christ, and to experience the depths of His
love” (RVM, n.1).
Together with the proclamation of the year of the Rosary, the Holy
Father gave us an apostolic letter on the Rosary, and incorporated the
Mysteries of Light, to make this privileged form of contemplation an
even more complete "compendium of the Gospel.” Mysteries of Light,
because they reveal the brilliance of the salvific presence of the Word
Incarnate among us. How could the Mysteries of Light not culminate in
the Holy Eucharist? In the midst of the Year of the Rosary, JPII issued
his 14th encyclical letter ‘Ecclesia de Eucharistia’ – ‘The Church Lives
of the Eucharist,’ with the intention of shedding light on the mystery
of the Eucharist in its inseparable and vital relation to the Church.
Above all, the Holy Father suggested once again the need for a
Eucharistic spirituality and pointed to Mary, “woman of the Eucharist,”
as its model (EE. n.8).
In June of 2004, on the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, during
the year of the 150th anniversary of the Dogma of the Immaculate
Conception, the Holy Father announced that in October a Year of the
Eucharist would begin for the whole Church. And on October 7th, the
feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, he gave us an apostolic letter for this
Eucharistic year, called: ‘Mame Nobiscum Domine’ – ‘Stay with us, Lord,’
in which he exhorted us to “rediscover the mystery of love of the real
presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.” This is like the saints, “who many
times shed tears of profound emotion in the presence of this great
mystery, or experienced hours of inexpressible “spousal” joy before the
sacrament of the altar!”, but in a very special way, again directed us
to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose whole life pondered and contemplated
the meaning and mystery of the Eucharist. The Holy Father concluded with
the words: “The Church, which looks to Mary as a model, is also called
to imitate her, in her relationship with this most holy mystery” (MND,
31).
Evidently, in this brief journey through the last five years, we can see
that the Holy Father is leading the Church, with a pedagogy of love for
Christ that can only come as a fruit of contemplation. First, in the
great Jubilee year of grace and mercy we were called to contemplate the
face of Christ - Year of Rosary, to contemplate Him with the heart of
Mary - Year of Eucharist, to rediscover the mystery of the real presence
of Christ in the Eucharist within the school of the Heart of Mary.
We could recapitulate this journey in the words which Blessed Pope John
XXIII wrote in his diary: “O, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I would
like to be filled with love for you. O Mary of the Rosary, keep me
recollected when I say this prayer of yours; bind me forever with your
rosary to Jesus of the Blessed Sacrament. Blessed be Jesus, my love,
blessed be the Immaculate Virgin Mary.”
When the Holy Father initiated the Year of the Eucharist, he entrusted
it to the Virgin Mary. He went on to say, “May the one who in the Year
of the Rosary helped us to contemplate Christ with her eyes and her
heart (cf. RVM, nn. 10-17) enable every community in the Year of the
Eucharist to grow in faith and love for the mystery of the Body and
Blood of the Lord.” As we can see, the Holy Father in this prayer joined
both “years,” calling us to a profound contemplation of the Eucharistic
Christ with the Heart of Mary, because her life is intrinsically united
to the mysteries of Christ. Therefore, Mary and the Eucharist are
inseparably linked…because the Heart of the Son and the Heart of the
Mother are indissolubly one.
It seems to me that our Holy Father has lifted high with these two
years, just as the dream of St. John Bosco described, two pillars of
strength and nourishment for us at the beginning of the Third
Millennium, when the Holy Spirit has called the Church to “go out into
the deep” of a very rough sea, our world. “A new millennium is opening
before the Church like a vast ocean upon which we shall venture, relying
on the help of Christ, daily nourished by the Eucharist and accompanied
on this journey by the Blessed Virgin Mary. Then, let us go forward in
hope!” (NMI, 58).
John Paul II has pointed out to us the key to the “springtime of the
Church and to the renewal of our spiritual life,” in what he has called
“a Eucharistic culture” (MND, 26). In other words, it is to have: the
contemplation of the Eucharistic Lord as the center of the life of the
Church and of our lives; to live a Eucharistic centered life; and to
learn to do this in the School of Mary, allowing ourselves to be formed,
molded and guided in this intimate relationship with the Eucharist, by
the Heart that is most closely united to Jesus. “I wished to put the
Church under the sign of the contemplation of Christ at the school of
Mary. Consequently, I cannot let this moment pass without halting before
the ‘Eucharistic face’ of Christ and pointing out to the Church, with
new force, the centrality of the Eucharist” (EE,7). The Holy Father is,
in a few words, calling us to live for Jesus just as the Blessed Mother
lived. To learn in the school of her Heart to contemplate with love the
mysteries of the Eucharistic Heart of Christ. St. Gemma Galgani used to
say: “There is a heavenly school where one learns to love Jesus in the
Eucharist; the school is the cenacle of the Heart of Mary, the subject:
the Eucharist and the teacher, Mary.”
In the School of the
Heart of Mary
The Blessed Mother loved Jesus like no other human heart has or
could. She has been perfectly and totally united to the heart, life,
mysteries and mission of Her Son. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are
“one”… from the moment of the Annunciation. In Mary's womb the Heart of
Jesus was fashioned beneath her own heart and began to beat in unison
with it. And there, in that first tabernacle of the real presence, began
“the admirable alliance of the Two Hearts” (as the Holy Father has
called it), alliance that will never end, the covenant of love and
collaboration between the Two Hearts that found its maximum expression
at the moment of the sacrifice of the Cross. This bond of love is a
dynamic union of redemptive mission and sanctifying action, which the
Second Vatican Council in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium no.
53, referred to as the “indissoluble bond” between the Son and Mother.
To enter in the School of Mary is “to put ourselves in living communion
with Jesus through the heart of his Mother” (RVM, 2). The Heart of Mary
is the greatest school to learn about the mysteries of Christ. Who
better than her can teach us about Jesus? St. Luke tells us repeatedly
that the Virgin Mary kept all things in her heart and even says that she
did it carefully. She pondered lovingly and carefully all things about
Christ. The Blessed Mother is not only a careful guardian and custodian
of the body of her Son, but also of His words, His life and mysteries.
As the Second Vatican Council teaches in Lumen Gentium 65: “Mary unites
and mirrors in her own person the chief teachings of the faith…”
The Immaculate Heart is the school of love for Christ. It is a school
not only meant to feed our intellect but most of all, to teach us to
contemplate with our hearts, to ponder with love, to reflect carefully
and to be formed and transformed in living images of the Heart of Jesus.
How blessed we are to have such a teacher and model! St. John Bosco was
given his first prophetic dream when he was nine years old. He tells us
that Jesus appeared to him in his dream and told him: “I will give you a
teacher under whose guidance you will learn and without whose help all
knowledge becomes foolishness. And the Virgin Mary appeared and took him
by the hand.” From that moment on, St. John Bosco had the Blessed Mother
as his teacher, allowing her to guide him into the mysteries and designs
of the will of God.
When we place ourselves in Mary’s Heart, we are intimately united to the
Heart of her Son. In the words of Saint Louis de Montfort, “She is the
easiest, shortest, most perfect and secure way of attaining union with
Jesus.” To Jesus through Mary, was his motto. In her heart we learn to
contemplate the mystery of love of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. “The
Christian people sit at the school of Mary, and are led to contemplate
the beauty of the face of Christ and experience the depths of His love”
(RVM, n.1).
The Blessed Mother teaches us the art of love which is contemplation. To
contemplate is to look with the heart, to look with love. We can only
understand the mysteries of love of the Heart of Christ, if we
contemplate them with love in our hearts. Only the love of Christ can be
the true desire of our contemplation, and only if we contemplate with
love can we discover the greatness of His love. This is the reason why
we need to contemplate with the Heart of Mary, to read, understand and
penetrate the mysteries of Jesus with the love of her heart. She is our
model and our teacher of contemplation, of looking upon the Heart that
has loved us to the extreme of being pierced, broken and given on the
Cross and in the Eucharist.
St. John the apostle was the first student in the School of the Heart of
Mary. He learned to contemplate the mysteries of love of the Heart of
Christ while being with the Blessed Mother at the foot of the Cross,
fulfilling the prophecy of Zacharias 12: “They shall look on Him whom
they have pierced.” But this contemplation is not only limited to seeing
but allows the actualization of the mysteries contemplated, since the
Blessed Mother not only teaches us, but with her maternal mediation,
obtains for us in abundance the gifts of the Holy Spirit. She obtains
for us the graces of the mysteries we contemplate.
Model of Contemplation
In the apostolic Letter on the Rosary, the Holy Father has given us
a beautiful chapter on contemplating Christ with Mary. He begins by
inviting us to have the Blessed Mother as our model of contemplation
since “the contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary.”
Why? Because in a unique way, the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It
was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human
resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one
has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as
faithfully and lovingly as Mary.
The Annunciation
The eyes of her heart already turned to Him at the Annunciation,
when she conceived Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. She contemplates
the miracle of His Incarnation, the miracle that has taken place inside
of her womb by her assent to the will of the Father. God made man in her
womb, the first tabernacle of human history! The infinite power of God
enclosed inside of her. What a profound and Eucharistic contemplation …
what a model for us.
God who became man and dwelt in the virginal and maternal womb of Mary,
is with us today, enclosed in a tabernacle, and allows Himself to be
received by us so that we can contain Him inside of us, in our hearts
and in our bodies. Is not the fiat of the Virgin Mary the same Amen we
are to say when we receive the Body and Blood of Christ?
In the nine months that followed, she experienced in her whole being the
tenderness of His presence. Can we imagine Mary’s contemplation of
Jesus, the Savior of the World, the Messiah who was waited for
centuries... and the world did not know He was already among us. What a
Eucharistic contemplation, what a model for us! The world today seeks
God in many different forms, and many have not realized that He is among
us, truly and really present among us in the Eucharist.
He was hidden to many eyes, but fully known and understood by her heart,
the new ark of the Covenant that contained the greatest mystery of the
human history, the Word made flesh. Can we imagine the care, the love,
and the constant contemplation of the Blessed Mother towards the fruit
of her womb, Jesus. Can we imagine that contemplation? How many times a
day the Blessed Mother bended her head to look upon the baby in her
womb? What a teaching of humility and adoration, of reverence before the
Lord.
The Visitation
She carries the presence of Christ, hidden inside of her... she
the first tabernacle is so full of His presence, that through her,
Elizabeth and John the Baptist received immediately the effects and
fruits of Christ’s salvific presence.
In the visitation, she anticipated the Church’s Eucharistic faith and
mission. She, mother and excellent member of the Church, becomes in the
visitation, a model of the Eucharistic mission of the Church. This is to
give us Christ - His presence - not visible to our human senses, but
powerfully, really, truly, substantially, present to be the life and
sanctification of the Church and the world.
The Birth of Jesus
When she gave birth to Him in Bethlehem, her eyes were gazed
tenderly on the face of her Son, as she held Him and laid Him in a
manger” (Lk2:7). Can we try to imagine her adoration and contemplation
of the greatest mystery of love? Her motherly heart filled with love for
the child Jesus, her Son, and her Lord. So fragile and tender...what a
contemplation of the humility of God!...
The Virgin Mary, who sung in the Magnificat, ‘He has looked upon the
humility of her servant’ could now sing, ‘I look upon the humility of my
God.’ What a Eucharistic contemplation; what a model for us! She looked
at God who became a child. We look at Him hidden under the species of
bread and wine. What a profound humility, that can only be understood by
the humility of the heart of Mary. “Is not the enraptured gaze of Mary
as she contemplated the face of the newborn Christ and cradled Him in
her arms that unparalleled model of love which should inspire us every
time we receive Eucharistic communion?” (EE, 55).
Is not the contemplation of the child in her hands, the one that is to
inspire priests as they hold the Eucharist in their hands? St. John Mary
Vianney had a powerful experience one Christmas. Suddenly he realized
when he held the Eucharist: “I am holding in my hands the same Jesus
that Our Blessed Lady held in her pure hands in the stable of
Bethlehem.”
In Bethlehem, she was the first one to adore Him, and from her, the
shepherds and wise men learned to adore Him, as we read in Mathew 2:11:
“they saw the child with Mary, and they fell down and worshiped Him and
offered to Him gifts.” From this adoration and homage, the Church learns
“to devote the best of her resources to expressing her wonder and
adoration before the unsurpassable gift of the Eucharist” (EE, 48),
since the Eucharist is a perennial Christmas, the sacramental
prolongation of the Incarnation.
The Presentation
She contemplated with all her heart the mystery of suffering
connected so profoundly with the mystery of the redemptive love of
Jesus. The salvific mission of her Son will take place in the midst of
suffering. “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in
Israel, and a sign of contradiction. And a sword shall pierce your heart
also” (Luke 2:34). The tragedy of her Son's crucifixion was thus
foretold, and also the sufferings of her heart. In her daily preparation
for Calvary, Mary experienced a kind of “anticipated Eucharist” – one
might say a “spiritual communion” of desire and of oblation, which would
culminate in her union with her Son in His passion - the piercing of
both hearts. Can we contemplate the Eucharist, the sign of
contradiction, so rejected by many, and not unite ourselves with the
sufferings of His heart, that seek to be loved and very few correspond?
During all the life of Christ, Mary's gaze, filled with adoration and
amazement, would never leave Him. This is the kind of “Eucharistic
amazement” that the Holy Father has said, in his encyclical letter, that
he would like to rekindle in our hearts. Our Blessed Mother's gaze at
times would be:
At the Temple
A questioning look, when she asked in the Temple: “Son, why have
you treated us so?” (Lk 2:48). She contemplated the actions of her Son,
trying to understand the wisdom of His actions. Contemplating in her
heart their full meaning.
At Cana (Jn 2:5)
It would always be a penetrating gaze, like in Cana, one capable
of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving His
hidden feelings and anticipating His decisions. She indicated to Jesus
that the wine has run out, and when He replies that ‘his hour’ has not
yet come, she prompts Him with maternal urgency, saying to the servants:
“Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). She has more insight than anyone
into the profound intentions of Jesus. She knows Him “heart to heart,”
since she has from the beginning pondered carefully on every one of His
actions and words (JPII, 21 Sept 2003).
‘Do whatever He tells you...’ What a Eucharistic connection!... In the
Last Supper, Jesus would say: “Do this in memory of me”... It seems to
me that already in Cana, the Virgin Mary was preparing us for the
Eucharist, teaching us to have the right internal disposition of faith
to receive such a gift. The Holy Father said in his encyclical, that
Mary was saying, “trust in the words of my Son. If he was able to change
water into wine, he can also turn bread and wine into his body and
blood” (EE, 54).
And…At the Cross
Her gaze would be a look of sorrow. Her contemplation would be
that of a mother who is offering her Son for the salvation of the world.
The look of the maternal heart that, out of love, becomes one with the
sacrifice of Her Son. The Second Vatican Council says she “persevered in
her union with her Son unto the cross, where she stood, uniting herself
with a maternal heart with His sacrifice, and lovingly consenting to the
immolation of this Victim which she herself had brought forth” (LG 58).
St. Bernard states: “There were really two altars on Calvary. One was in
Mary's heart, the other in Christ's body. He sacrificed his flesh, Mary
her soul.”
So intimate and permanent was the bond of love between Jesus and Mary,
from whose immaculate body Christ came, that we can proclaim with Saint
Augustine: “the Flesh of Jesus is the Flesh of Mary, their hearts are
one.” It reminds me of the movie The Passion, when the Blessed Mother,
approaching Jesus at the foot of the Cross, told Him: “Flesh of my
flesh, Heart of my Heart!”
“In the Eucharist, the Church is completely united to Christ and His
sacrifice, and makes her own the spirit of Mary” (EE, 58). What better
way to participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice than in the school of
the heart of Mary? What better way to contemplate, in Holy Mass, the
sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the Cross is perpetuated
than with the eyes and heart of Mary, the mother who stood at the foot
of the Cross?
St. Pio of Pietrelcina understood this, very profoundly, as we can see
in a conversation with Padre D'Apolito: “What great care Our Lady took
to accompany me to the altar this morning!’ ... Padre D'Apolito asked
him: “Was the Madonna present at your Mass?’ He answsered: ‘Yes, she
placed herself to the side.’ ‘Has she attended your Mass only once or
she is always present?’ Padre Pio responded: ‘How can the Mother of
Jesus, present at the foot of the Cross on Calvary, who offered her Son
as Victim for the salvation of souls, be absent at the Mystical Calvary
of the altar?’”
She, united to Christ, was dying of sorrow in her heart, and at the same
time, giving birth… opening her heart to the new maternity announced by
Christ on the Cross. That is why also, at Calvary, her gaze will be one
of a woman giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death
of her Son, but she also received the new children given to her in the
beloved disciple: “Behold, your Son!” In suffering, she became the
mother of the mystical body, the Church.
On the Morning of Easter
According to many Fathers of the Church, saints, doctors and the
Holy Father John Paul II, without a doubt Jesus appeared first to His
Mother in all His risen beauty. How did she contemplate Him?... Hers
would be a gaze, says the Holy Father, radiant with the joy of the
Resurrection of Her Son.
None of the apostles could have seen the beauty of Jesus as Mary saw it.
Since spiritual vision is always proportionate to purity of the heart,
the Immaculate gaze of the Virgin Mary penetrated even to His interior
glory. She must have seen Him in all the radiant splendor of His
divinity. She saw His pierced side, the wounds of His body that she had
so tenderly kissed at the descent from the Cross, but that now they were
radiant... She had looked at Him, pierced, wounded, but now seeing Him
glorified.
What a contemplation! How can we imagine the way she gazed at the Heart
of her Son, that only three days ago was pierced by a lance, but now was
beating again, palpitating, full of life and ardent with love. Her
contemplation of Jesus Crucified and now resurrected, made her
understand more perfectly that suffering and glory, death and life are
intimately connected. What a Eucharistic contemplation, what a model for
us!
On Pentecost
And on the day of Pentecost, her contemplation was a gaze afire
with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). Mary, by her prayers,
was imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her
in the Annunciation” (LG, 59).
Having already had a unique experience of the effectiveness of such a
gift, the Blessed Virgin was fully aware of the importance of the coming
of the Holy Spirit to the apostles (Jn 14:16), and helped them be well
disposed for the coming of the Paraclete, as she was in Nazareth.
Mary’s prayer and contemplation fostered the coming of the Spirit,
imploring His action in the hearts of the disciples and in the world.
Just as in the Incarnation the Spirit had formed the physical body of
Christ in her virginal womb, now in the Upper Room the same Spirit had
to come down to give life to the Mystical Body.
Pentecost is a fruit of the Blessed Virgin's incessant prayer, which is
accepted by the Holy Spirit with special favor because it is an
expression of her motherly love for the Lord’s disciples. St. Louis de
Montfort: “The Holy Spirit, finding his dear spouse present in souls,
will come down into them with great power.”
She owed her divine motherhood to the powerful intervention of the Holy
Spirit. It was appropriate that a new outpouring should be repeated and
reinforced since at the foot of the Cross, Mary was entrusted with a new
motherhood, which concerned Jesus’ disciples. It was precisely this
mission that demanded a renewed gift of the Spirit. The Blessed Virgin
therefore wanted it for the fruitfulness of her spiritual motherhood.
What a model of Eucharistic intercession! We are to be in the cenacle of
her Immaculate Heart, united in prayer with her, imploring the gift of
the Holy Spirit upon the whole Church and ourselves, thus to be
empowered by His gifts to be holy witness of love, and ardent apostles
for the new evangelization of the world in this Third Millennium.
And, in the celebration of the Eucharist at the beginning of the Church,
“better than any creature, angelic or human, Mary comprehended the
immensity of the Eucharistic gift” (St. Peter Julian Eymard).
Can we imagine the contemplation of the Blessed Virgin Mary when the
Eucharistic Jesus was elevated before her eyes? What must the Blessed
Mother have felt as she heard from the mouth of John, Peter and James
and the other Apostles the words spoken at the Last Supper: ‘This is my
body this is my Blood’ (Lk 22:19)? The body given up for us and made
present under sacramental signs was the same body which she had
conceived in her womb! She could say: this is also my body and my blood
since she gave them to the Word who became man.
In the Eucharist, the Blessed Mother was receiving her Son! Can we try
to understand the love and adoration of the Heart of Mary for her
Eucharistic Son? The Son she had for nine months in her womb... the son
she held in her arms as a child… the Son she saw on the Cross offering
Himself...the dead Son she held in her arms and then she contemplated
resurrected and radiant...now, her Son, in the profound humility of the
Eucharist. She must have kept her heart and eyes fixed on Him!!! What a
Eucharistic contemplation. “Teach us, O Mary, the life of adoration…”
was a constant prayer in the heart of St. Peter Eymard. Her adoration is
literally perpetual keeping with the ‘indissoluble bond’ uniting her now
and forever with the heart of her Son. According to St. Peter Eymard it
is Mary who led the apostles to understand, care, guard and appreciate
the gift of the Eucharistic presence of Christ. How many times the
apostles must have said to the Blessed Mother, as Saint Louis de
Montfort many times said when receiving the Eucharist: “It was you,
Virgin Mary, who gave us this body and blood, which raises our status so
high that it is beyond the reach of the angels. May you be blessed
throughout the world for such a gift” (Hymns, 134).
At the school of Mary, says the Holy Father, the apostles learned to
have an intimate, profound and constant relationship with the
Eucharistic Lord. She must have taught them to be custodians of the
greatest treasure of the Church: the Eucharist. As the Second Vatican
Council said: “The Holy Eucharist contains the whole spiritual treasure
of the Church, that is Christ Himself” (P. O., 5). From Mary, the
primitive Church must have learned to have such an ardent love for the
Eucharist that they were willing to die to protect it. We see in so many
of the martyrs, as in the life of the boy St. Tarcisius, who preferred
to die before giving a consecrated host to the pagans.
Inspired by the love of the Virgin Mary for the her Eucharistic Son,
Blessed Maria Candida of the Eucharist said: “I want to be like Mary...
to be Mary for Jesus, to take the place of His Mother. I want to receive
Jesus with her heart, she must make me one with Him. I cannot separate
Mary from Jesus. I ask my Jesus to be a guardian of all the tabernacles
of the world, until the end of time.”
And Blessed Francisco Marto was so moved by the messages of the Blessed
Mother and of the Angel, that realizing that he had but a short time to
live, did not have any desire to go to school, but told his sister and
cousin to go ahead and he would remain in church where he could make
reparation to the Eucharistic Heart and accompany Him who is most of the
time alone. So penetrated was Francisco with the love of what he called
“the hidden God,” that he often spent many hours on his knees in silent
adoration before the tabernacle. “I want to make Him happy. I do not
want Him to be alone,” he used to say.
Conclusion
May the love of Mary for her Son in the Eucharist and her constant
and faithful contemplation of the mysteries of love of the Heart of
Jesus, be the model for us to acquire “a Eucharistic centered life.” May
we live this Eucharistic year in the Heart of Mary. Since “from the very
first moment, the Church ‘looked at’ Mary through Jesus, just as she
‘looked at’ Jesus through Mary.” For the Church of that time and of
every time Mary is a “singular witness” (MR, 26) of the love for the
Eucharist and of contemplation of the mysteries of His Heart, because
the mysteries of Christ are in a certain sense, the mysteries of Mary (RVM,
24).
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
