On August 2, 2020, we celebrate the memory of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, founder of the Priests of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Pondering the life of Saint Peter Julian Eymard,we understand that it is through the Eucharistic Sacrifice that we are most fully alive in Christ, most perfectly inserted as living branches into the Vine Who is Christ.
We also understand that it is from the fruit of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, Holy Communion, that we receive the sustenance for our daily living in Christ along the way of our earthly pilgrimage.
Throughout Saint Peter Julian Eymard’s some 57 years of priestly ministry, the Holy Eucharist was the center of his priestly life. He declared that “without [the Holy Eucharist] I should have been lost.”
In a profound mystical experience during the procession for Corpus Christi, he understood that in the Holy Eucharist is found the pattern for our daily living and the way to attain the common good and thus peace for the world.
He described the experience with these words:My soul was flooded with faith and love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Those two hours seemed but a moment. I laid at the feet of our Lord the Church in France and throughout the world, everybody, myself. My eyes were filled with tears: it was as though my heart were under the wine-press.
I longed at that moment for all hearts to have been within my own and to have been fired with the zeal of St. Paul.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard went on to found a religious institute devoted completely to fostering devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament.
He not only founded an institute of priest-adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament and an institute of religious sisters devoted to continuous adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, but he also organized the Arch confraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament in order to foster an ever greater knowledge and more ardent love of Our Eucharistic Lord in all the faithful.
In fact, at one time, canonical discipline required that the Arch confraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament be established in every parish.
The saintly Curé of Ars who knew personally Saint Peter Julian Eymard and his Eucharistic apostolate commended him highly, declaring: “Tell the good Father Eymard that I will pray for the work every day.”
Imploring today the intercession of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, let us ask for the grace to view our service of the Church in the context of our participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
Let us ask for the grace to place ourselves and all whom we serve into the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, asking that our apostolate of catechesis may destroy sin and double the growth in divine grace in ourselves and in those whom we catechize.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard, viewing his own sinfulness and all of the tragic situations in his homeland of France in the 19thcentury and in the entire world, was inspired to place all of his concerns into the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, ever open to receive us and to impart to us without measure healing and strength.
Pondering the life of Saint Peter Julian Eymard,we understand that it is through the Eucharistic Sacrifice that we are most fully alive in Christ, most perfectly inserted as living branches into the Vine Who is Christ.
We also understand that it is from the fruit of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, Holy Communion, that we receive the sustenance for our daily living in Christ along the way of our earthly pilgrimage.
Throughout Saint Peter Julian Eymard’s some 57 years of priestly ministry, the Holy Eucharist was the center of his priestly life. He declared that “without [the Holy Eucharist] I should have been lost.”
In a profound mystical experience during the procession for Corpus Christi, he understood that in the Holy Eucharist is found the pattern for our daily living and the way to attain the common good and thus peace for the world.
He described the experience with these words:My soul was flooded with faith and love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Those two hours seemed but a moment. I laid at the feet of our Lord the Church in France and throughout the world, everybody, myself. My eyes were filled with tears: it was as though my heart were under the wine-press.
I longed at that moment for all hearts to have been within my own and to have been fired with the zeal of St. Paul.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard went on to found a religious institute devoted completely to fostering devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament.
He not only founded an institute of priest-adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament and an institute of religious sisters devoted to continuous adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, but he also organized the Arch confraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament in order to foster an ever greater knowledge and more ardent love of Our Eucharistic Lord in all the faithful.
In fact, at one time, canonical discipline required that the Arch confraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament be established in every parish.
The saintly Curé of Ars who knew personally Saint Peter Julian Eymard and his Eucharistic apostolate commended him highly, declaring: “Tell the good Father Eymard that I will pray for the work every day.”
Imploring today the intercession of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, let us ask for the grace to view our service of the Church in the context of our participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
Let us ask for the grace to place ourselves and all whom we serve into the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, asking that our apostolate of catechesis may destroy sin and double the growth in divine grace in ourselves and in those whom we catechize.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard, viewing his own sinfulness and all of the tragic situations in his homeland of France in the 19thcentury and in the entire world, was inspired to place all of his concerns into the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, ever open to receive us and to impart to us without measure healing and strength.
He desired to gather all hearts into his own and to offer them to Our Lord in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and in prayer before His Real Presence in the Sacred Host, whether reposed in the tabernacle or exposed in the monstrance for adoration.
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