In the book "Come To Me", written and compiled by
Fr. Vincent Martin Lucia, it states "a true Christian is
one who believes that Jesus is alive today in the Blessed Sacrament,
living, dwelling, and calling us to Himself." … This
is simply a matter of putting our faith into action. We believe
as Catholics that Jesus loves us so much that He dwells with us
day and night in the Blessed Sacrament. Perpetual adoration is
simply our response to His love whereby each of us is willing
to spend a quiet holy hour or prayer in His Eucharistic Presence
once a week on a regular basis that we may have perpetual exposition
of the Blessed Sacrament….
Jesus tells us how important this is in His Eucharistic discourse:
'Indeed, this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks
upon the Son, and believes in Him, shall have eternal life. Him
I will raise up on the last day.' (Jn 6:40). …. Each time
we visit Jesus in the Eucharist we enrich our spiritual life.
Each moment we look upon the Blessed Sacrament with faith, He
raises us up into deeper union with Himself and will make our
souls everlasting more glorious in heaven; for union with Jesus
is our calling and vocation in life and our eternal happiness
forever in heaven.
…. If only we knew how much God loves us in the Blessed Sacrament,
we would die of happiness, for here He says to each of us: 'I
have loved you with an everlasting love and constant is My affection
for you.'(Jer 30:3) 'My delight is to dwell with you.' "And
so," 'God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten
Son,'(Jn 3:16) 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,' (Jn
1:14) "Jesus becoming one of us and choosing the name 'Emmanuel,
a name which means 'God with us", because as much as we want
to be with one another, infinitely more so does Jesus want and
desire to be close to us, which helps us to understand why He
did what He did on Holy Thursday night, the night before He died
when He instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist at the
last supper. His Heart could not bear to be separated from us.
St. John tells us that Jesus showed us 'the depth of His love'
by instituting the Holy Eucharist, that He may come into our hearts
in Communion and dwell with us forever in the most Blessed Sacrament,
the continuation of His Incarnation on earth, where the same Jesus
who was born 2000 years ago as a little babe in Bethlehem, who
dies on the Cross for our sins, and who rose again on Easter Sunday,
is truly, bodily, and personally present to us in this most Blessed
Sacrament, as absolute proof of His Everlasting love and constant
affection for each of us, because the more you love someone, the
more you want to be with the person whom you love. Jesus loves
us so much that He never wants to leave us. He stays with us,
dwells with us, lives with us … in the Blessed Sacrament,"
'the new and everlasting covenant,' "in fulfillment of His
promise: 'Know that I am with you always, even to the end of the
world." (Mt. 28:20)
…. Jesus dwells with us in the Blessed Sacrament to lighten
our burden by comforting us in all our afflictions, strengthening
us in all our weaknesses and temptations …. Jesus said "come
aside to an out-of-the way place and rest awhile." (Mk 6:31);
"Come to Me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome
and I will refresh you. Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble
of Heart and your souls will find rest, for My yoke is sweet and
My burden light." (Mt. 12:28-30) "Just as you can't
be exposed to the sun without receiving its rays, so too, you
can't come before the Blessed Sacrament without receiving the
divine, vivifying rays of the grace and love of the Son of God."
"The Blessed Sacrament is Jesus living in our midst to fulfill
a promise made long ago: 'I Myself will pasture my sheep. I Myself
will give them rest, says the Lord God. The lost I will seek out,
the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the
sick I will heal.'" (Ezek. 34:14-16).
"Pope John Paul II sees Eucharistic adoration as an indispensable
wellspring of spiritual renewal that ought to be found in every
parish and religious community, a practice that fosters and sustains
every state of life in the church: 'I would also like to repeat
my invitation to you to make adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
a habitual practice in all Christian communities, in accordance
with the Church's spirit and liturgy norms…. The values that
must reign in homes will receive new strength to make the family
a meeting place with God, a center that radiates faith, a school
of Christian life. In the Bread which came down from heaven, the
family will be able to find the support that will keep it united
in the face of today's threats and will preserve it as a bastion
of life, steadfast against the culture of death.'