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The Eucharist: A central part of the Fatima apparitions
Fatima begins with the Eucharist
In 1916, the Angel of Peace of Portugal, whom many believe was St. Michael the Archangel, visited Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta to prepare them for Our Lady’s visit one year later. He told them to pray and to make reparation for sin. During his third and final apparition, he came holding a chalice and above it a Host from which drops of blood flowed into the chalice. Leaving the Host and chalice suspended, he prostrated himself with his forehead to the ground and repeated three times a prayer that has become known as the Angel’s Prayer: “O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly and I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.”
Then the angel rose and gave the Host to Lucia and the contents of the chalice to Jacinta and Francisco, saying at the same time, “Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Repair their crimes and console your God.” This was the First Holy Communion for Francisco and Jacinta. The three made their thanksgiving after Holy Communion by prostrating with the angel and again repeating the “Angel’s Prayer” before he departed.
Fatima ends with the Eucharist
Fatima ends with the Eucharist with the so-called Last Vision, which Sister Lucia saw in the Dorothean convent chapel in Tuy, Spain on June 13, 1929. This Eucharistic vision, a vision of the Most Holy Trinity, is a summary of the Fatima message and shows how all the basics of the holy Catholic faith are connected to the Eucharist.
Artist Joe DeVito
Sister Lucia described in her memoirs: “Suddenly the whole chapel was illuminated by a supernatural light, and a cross of light appeared above the altar, reaching to the ceiling. In a bright light at the upper part of the cross could be seen the face of a man and his body to the waist (Father) on his breast there was a dove also of light (Holy Spirit) and, nailed to the cross, was the body of another man (Son). Somewhat above the waist, I could see a chalice and a large host suspended in the air, on to which drops of blood were falling from the face of Jesus Crucified and from the wound in His side. These drops ran down on to the host and fell into the chalice. Our Lady was beneath the right arm of the cross (…it was Our Lady of Fatima with her Immaculate Heart…in her left hand…with a crown of thorns and flames…) Under the left arm of the cross, large letters, as of crystal-clear water which ran down over the altar, formed these words: Graces and Mercy. I understood that it was the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity that was shown to me. Our Lady then said to me: ‘The moment has come when God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the bishops of the world, to make the Consecration of Russia to my Heart, promising to save it by this means.’”
https://wafgc.org/2021/11/20/the-eucharist-a-central-part-of-the-fatima-apparitions/
Fr. James Miara is the pastor at the Shrine and Parish Church of the Holy Innocents in New York City. He wrote this article for the Spring 2021 issue of Soul Magazine.
Fatima begins with the Eucharist
In 1916, the Angel of Peace of Portugal, whom many believe was St. Michael the Archangel, visited Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta to prepare them for Our Lady’s visit one year later. He told them to pray and to make reparation for sin. During his third and final apparition, he came holding a chalice and above it a Host from which drops of blood flowed into the chalice. Leaving the Host and chalice suspended, he prostrated himself with his forehead to the ground and repeated three times a prayer that has become known as the Angel’s Prayer: “O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly and I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.”
Then the angel rose and gave the Host to Lucia and the contents of the chalice to Jacinta and Francisco, saying at the same time, “Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Repair their crimes and console your God.” This was the First Holy Communion for Francisco and Jacinta. The three made their thanksgiving after Holy Communion by prostrating with the angel and again repeating the “Angel’s Prayer” before he departed.
Fatima ends with the Eucharist
Fatima ends with the Eucharist with the so-called Last Vision, which Sister Lucia saw in the Dorothean convent chapel in Tuy, Spain on June 13, 1929. This Eucharistic vision, a vision of the Most Holy Trinity, is a summary of the Fatima message and shows how all the basics of the holy Catholic faith are connected to the Eucharist.
Artist Joe DeVito
Sister Lucia described in her memoirs: “Suddenly the whole chapel was illuminated by a supernatural light, and a cross of light appeared above the altar, reaching to the ceiling. In a bright light at the upper part of the cross could be seen the face of a man and his body to the waist (Father) on his breast there was a dove also of light (Holy Spirit) and, nailed to the cross, was the body of another man (Son). Somewhat above the waist, I could see a chalice and a large host suspended in the air, on to which drops of blood were falling from the face of Jesus Crucified and from the wound in His side. These drops ran down on to the host and fell into the chalice. Our Lady was beneath the right arm of the cross (…it was Our Lady of Fatima with her Immaculate Heart…in her left hand…with a crown of thorns and flames…) Under the left arm of the cross, large letters, as of crystal-clear water which ran down over the altar, formed these words: Graces and Mercy. I understood that it was the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity that was shown to me. Our Lady then said to me: ‘The moment has come when God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the bishops of the world, to make the Consecration of Russia to my Heart, promising to save it by this means.’”
https://wafgc.org/2021/11/20/the-eucharist-a-central-part-of-the-fatima-apparitions/
Fr. James Miara is the pastor at the Shrine and Parish Church of the Holy Innocents in New York City. He wrote this article for the Spring 2021 issue of Soul Magazine.
The Bread That Our Heavenly Mother Gives Us
Taken From JESUS OUR EUCHARISTIC LOVE
by Fr. Stefano Manelli,
OFM Conv., STD
Imprimatur, 1973
The Holy Eucharist is the Bread that comes from our Heavenly Mother. It is Bread produced by Mary from the flour of Her immaculate flesh, kneaded into dough with her virginal milk. St. Augustine wrote, "Jesus took His Flesh from the flesh of Mary."
We know, too, that united to the Divinity in the Eucharist there is Jesus' Body and Blood taken from the body and blood of the Blessed Virgin. Therefore at every Holy Communion we receive, it would be quite correct, and a very beautiful thing, to take notice of our Holy Mother's sweet and mysterious presence, inseparably united with Jesus in the Host. Jesus is always the Son She adores. He is Flesh of Her flesh and Blood of Her blood. If Adam could call Eve when she had been taken from his rib, "bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh" (Gen. 2:23), cannot the holy Virgin Mary even more rightly call Jesus 'Flesh of my flesh and Blood of my blood"? Taken from the "intact Virgin" as says St. Thomas Aquinas, the flesh of Jesus is the maternal flesh of Mary, the blood of Jesus is the maternal blood of Mary. Therefore it will never be possible to separate Jesus from Mary.
For this reason at every Holy Mass which is celebrated, the Blessed Virgin can repeat with truth to Jesus in the Host and in the Chalice, "You are my Son today I have generated You" (Ps. 2:7). And justly St. Augustine teaches us that in the Eucharist "Mary extends and perpetuates Her Divine Maternity", while St. Albert the Great exhorts with love, "My Soul if you wish to experience intimacy with Mary let yourself be carried between Her arms and nourished with Her blood" ... Go with this ineffable chaste thought to the banquet of God and you will find in the Blood of the Son the nourishment of the Mother.
Many Saints and theologians (St. Peter Damian, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Bernadine ...) say that Jesus instituted the Eucharist above all for Mary and then through Mary, the Universal Mediatrix of All Graces, for all of us. And from Mary therefore Jesus comes to be given to us day by day; and in Jesus is always the Immaculate flesh and the Virginal blood of His Most Holy Mother which penetrates into our hearts and inebriates our souls. In an ecstasy during the celebration of Holy Mass, St. Ignatius of Loyola contemplated one day the reality revealed by this most sweet truth and he remained celestially moved for a long time.
Furthermore, if we reflect that Jesus, the Fruit of Mary's immaculate womb, constitutes all of Mary's love, all of Her sweetness, all of Her tenderness, Her whole riches, her whole life, then we see that when we receive Him we cannot fail to also receive her who, by ties of the highest love, as well as by ties of flesh and blood, forms with Jesus one unity, one whole, as She is always and inseparably "leaning upon her Beloved" (Cant. 8:5). Is it not true that love, and above all divine love, unites and unifies? And aside from the Unity in the bosom of the Blessed Trinity, can we think of a unity more close and total than that between Jesus and the Virgin Mary?
Mary's purity, her virginity, her tender ways, her sweet manner, her love, and even the very features of her heavenly face---all these we find in Jesus; for the most holy humanity assumed by the Word is wholly and only Mary's humanity, on account of the great mystery of the virginal Conception accomplished by the Holy Spirit, Who made Mary Jesus' Mother, while consecrating her as a Virgin that would be forever undefiled and glorious in soul and body.
And thus "The Eucharist," writes St. Albert the Great, "produces impulses of a love that is angelic, and It has the unique power to put in souls a holy feeling of tenderness toward the Queen of Angels. She has given us what is Flesh of her flesh and Bone of her bone, and in the Eucharist she continues to give us this sweet, virginal, heavenly banquet.
Finally, in the eternal generation of the Word in the bosom of the Trinity, the Father gives Himself wholly to the Son, Who is "Mirror of the Father", similarly in the temporal generation of the same Word in the bosom of humanity, the Mother of God gives herself wholly to the Son, to her Jesus, "the virginal Flower of the Virgin Mother" (Pius XII). And the Son in His turn gives Himself wholly to the Mother, making Himself similar to her and making her "fully Godlike" (St. Peter Damian).
St. Peter Julian Eymard, that Saint so totally devoted to the Eucharist, declared that even in this world, after Jesus' Ascension into Heaven, the Blessed Virgin "lived a life in and by the Blessed Sacrament;" and thus he liked to call her "Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament." And Padre Pio of Pietrelcina would sometimes say to his spiritual children, "Do you not see the Madonna always beside the tabernacle?" And how could she fail to be there ---she who "stood by the Cross of Jesus" on Calvary (John 19:25)? Therefore St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his book of devotions, used to always join a visit to the Blessed Virgin Mary to each visit to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. And Saint Maximilian M. Kolbe used to recommend that when we go before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, we never fail to remember Mary's presence, calling on her and associating ourselves with her, at least seeing to it that her sweet name comes to mind.
In the life of the Dominican friar, St. Hyacinth, we read that once in order to avoid a profanation of the Blessed Sacrament, the Saint hastened to the tabernacle to take out the ciborium containing the sacred Particles, in order to put it in a safer place. When, hugging Jesus in the Eucharist close to his breast, he was about to leave the altar, he heard a voice coming from the statue of the Blessed Virgin which was next to the altar, saying, "What? Would you take Jesus away without taking me?" The Saint halted in surprise. He understood the message, but he did not know how he could manage to carry Mary's statue too. Puzzled, he drew near the statue to see if he could take it with his one free hand. There was no need to strain himself, for the statue became as light as a feather. There is a precious lesson in this miracle: When we take Mary along with Jesus, she adds absolutely no weight or cost, for in a wonderful way they abide in one another (John 6:57).
The reply St. Bernadette Soubirous gave was very beautiful, when someone put this tricky question to her: "What would please you more, to receive Holy Communion, or to see the Madonna in the grotto?" The little Saint thought for a minute and then answered, "What a strange question! The two cannot be separated. Jesus and Mary always go together."
The Madonna and the Holy Eucharist are by the nature of things united inseparably "even to the end of the world" (Mt. 28:20). For Mary with her body and soul is the heavenly "tabernacle of God" (Apoc. 21:3). She is the incorruptible Host, "holy and immaculate" (Eph. 5:27), who, with her very self, clothes the Word of God made Man. St. Germain ventured to call her "sweet paradise of God." According to a pious opinion, supported by the ecstasies and visions of St. Veronica Giuliani and especially those of Blessed Magdalen Martinengo, within her breast the Blessed Virgin in Paradise preserves and will always preserve Jesus in a visible Host; and this is for her "eternal consolation, is an occasion of rejoicing for all the blessed inhabitants of Heaven, and in particular is an everlasting joy to all devotees of the Blessed Sacrament." This is represented in the "Madonna Mediatrice Universale," which Mother Speranza in recent times has painted and which has been placed in the Shrine at Collevalenza. It is the same as the image often reproduced in monstrances (sacred stands for exposing the Holy Eucharist for adoration) of the last century, which represent the Madonna, and make a place in her breast for the visible cavity in which the consecrated Host is put. "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee!" cried the woman amid the crowd (Lk. 11 :27). Thus in some of the churches in France the tabernacle used to be encased in a statue of Our Lady of the Assumption. The significance is quite clear: it is always the Blessed Virgin Mary who gives us Jesus, Who is the blessed Fruit of her virginal womb and the Heart of her Immaculate Heart. And She will forever continue to carry Jesus in the Holy Eucharist within her breast so as to present Him for the joyful contemplation of the Saints in Heaven, to whom it is even now given to see His Divine Person in the Eucharistic Species, according to the teaching of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas' Aquinas.
It is in the Eucharist, and especially in Holy Communion, that our union with the Madonna becomes a full and loving conformity with her. We receive her devoted care and protection along with the Blessed Sacrament. her tender attentions overlook nothing as Christ is united to each of us, her children, moving her to pour out all her motherly love on our souls and bodies. The great St. Hilary, Father and Doctor of the Church, wrote this excellent passage: "The greatest joy that we can give Mary is that of bearing Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament within our breast." Her motherly union with Jesus becomes a union also with whoever is united to Jesus, especially in Holy Communion. And what can give as much joy to one who loves, as union with the person loved? And we—--do we not happen to be beloved children of the heavenly Mother?
When we go before Jesus on the altar, we always find Him "with Mary His Mother," as the Magi did at Bethlehem (Mt. 2:11). And Jesus in the sacred Host, from the altar of our hearts, can repeat to each of us what He said to St. John the Evangelist from the altar of Calvary, "Behold thy Mother" (John 19:27).
St. Augustine beautifully illustrates even better how Mary makes herself our own and unites herself to each one of us in Holy Communion. He says, "The Word is the Food of the Angels. Men have not the strength to feed It to themselves, nor need they do so. What is needed is a mother who may eat this supersubstantial Bread, transform it into her milk, and in this way feed her poor children. This mother is Mary. She nourishes herself with the Word and transforms It into the Sacred Humanity. She transforms It into Flesh and Blood, i.e., into this sweetest of milk which is called the Eucharist."
Thus it is quite natural that the great as well as the lesser Marian shrines always foster devotion to the Holy Eucharist, so much so that they can also be called Eucharistic shrines. Lourdes, Fatima, Loretto, Pompei, come to mind, where crowds approach the altar in almost endless lines to receive Mary's blessed Fruit. It cannot be otherwise; for there is no bond so close and so sweet with the Madonna, as the one realized in receiving the Holy Eucharist. Jesus and Mary "always go together," as St. Bernadette said.
Remember, too, that at Fatima the Madonna asked that, together with the holy Rosary, there be above all the Communion of Reparation for all the offenses and outrages which her Immaculate Heart receives. She is looking for loving hearts that want to console her by welcoming her into their home, as St. John the Evangelist did (John 19:27). We truly welcome her in the home of our hearts with the warmest hospitality, the hospitality dearest to her, every time we invite her company by way of our receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, when we present her with the living, true Jesus for her great comfort and delight. We need to appreciate what a great grace this is to have the Madonna's full care and attention with Jesus and in Jesus. Ah, St. Ambrose wanted all Christians to have "Mary's soul to magnify the Lord and Mary's spirit to exult in God"! This is the favor granted us in the noblest way in every Holy Communion. Let us reflect on it with love and gratitude.
One of the old monstrances made in the figure of Mary carrying the Holy Eucharist in her breast has these words inscribed on its base: "O Christian who comest full of faith to receive the Bread of life, eat It worthily, and remember that It was fashioned out of Mary's pure blood." Mary can quite rightfully beckon to us and speak to us in the words of the inspired prophet, "Come and eat my bread, drink the wine I have prepared" (Prov. 9:5). Saint Maximilian M. Kolbe wanted to convey the thought of this passage when he proposed that all altars of the Blessed Sacrament be surmounted with a statue of the Immaculate Virgin with her arms extended to invite us all to come eat the Bread that She herself had made.
With beautiful imagery, St. Gregory of Tours said that Mary's Immaculate bosom is the heavenly cupboard, well-stocked with the Bread of Life that was made in order to feed her children. "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee and the paps that gave Thee suck!" exclaimed a certain woman to Jesus (Lk. 11:27). The Immaculate Virgin carried Jesus within her while His Body was being formed from her own flesh and her own blood. Thus every time we go to Holy Communion, something sweet to recall is that Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the Bread of Life produced from Mary with the flour of her Immaculate flesh, kneaded with the admixture of her virginal milk. She has made this for us, her children. And we realize more fully our brotherhood with one another as we all partake of this savory, exquisite Bread of our Mother.
In the Eucharist do we receive the Body of Mary, too?
by Dr Taylor Marshall
A reader asks:
Dr. Marshall, regarding the Body and Blood of our Lord, is it correct to say that in a way that when we receive the Eucharist that we receive the body and blood of Jesus and Mary, considering that Jesus (as second person) assumed human nature through Mary? In other words, just as Eve’s body was taken from Adam, in the same way, the Second Adam (Jesus) was taken from the body and blood of Mary being His mother? Thus, when we receive communion, it is also in a way receiving the body and blood of Mary through her Son?
My reply:
No, it would be heretical to state that we receive the Body of Mary in the Holy Eucharist. We do not receive the Body of Mary in the Eucharist. This should be entirely rejected.
The Body of Christ is genetically different than the body of Mary and is vivified by a distinct soul in Christ that is not the soul of Mary. A human body relies on the form of the distinct soul animating it. Moreover, the substantial form and matter of Christ’s human body is not that of the Blessed Virgin Mary – even though the Body of Christ is derived from the body of Mary.
This also creates a corporeal regress. If we were to claim that we receive Mary’s body in the Eucharist (because she is his mother), then we could then say that when we eat the Eucharist we are eating the body of Saint Anne (Mary’s mother) and the body of King David and the body of Ruth, et al. – since they are genetic ancestors of Christ. All of this is heretical.
The Body of Christ is the Body of Christ. We don’t receive simply a body in the Eucharist; we receive a Person in the Eucharist – the Divine Second Person of the Trinity along with the human nature that He assumed in the womb of Mary: His body, blood, and soul.
It is, however, perfectly orthodox to say that Mary participated in the Incarnation and that she provided a human body to Christ. We can also state as orthodox the scientific fact that the blood of a mother mixes with the blood of her baby. So we can say that the Precious Blood Christ mixed with the blood of Mary in utero, providing yet another profound sanctification in her beyond that of her sublime Immaculate Conception.
But we should not say that we receive the blood of Mary or the body of Mary in the Eucharist.
ad Jesum per Mariam cum Petro,
Dr. Taylor Marshall
Two Pillars: Holy Eucharist and Our Lady
Saint John Paul II
The following texts are taken from the writings of Saint John Paul II, on the relationship between Mary and the Eucharist. The first three paragraphs are from his encyclical Redemptoris Mater (Mother of the Redeemer), and the rest constitute the sixth chapter of his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (Church of the Eucharist).
32. In the Byzantine liturgy, in all the hours of the Divine Office, praise of the Mother is linked with praise of her Son and with the praise which, through the Son, is offered up to the Father in the Holy Spirit. In the Anaphora or Eucharistic Prayer of St. John Chrysostom, immediately after the epiclesis the assembled community sings in honor of the Mother of God: “It is truly just to proclaim you blessed, O Mother of God, who are most blessed, all pure and Mother of our God. We magnify you who are more honorable than the Cherubim and incomparably more glorious than the Seraphim. You who, without losing your virginity, gave birth to the Word of God; you who are truly the Mother of God.”
44. Her motherhood is particularly noted and experienced by the Christian people at the Sacred Banquet—the liturgical celebration of the mystery of the Redemption—at which Christ, his true body born of the Virgin Mary, becomes present.
The piety of the Christian people has always very rightly sensed a profound link between devotion to the Blessed Virgin and worship of the Eucharist: this is a fact that can be seen in the liturgy of both the West and the East, in the traditions of the Religious Families, in the modern movements of spirituality, including those for youth, and in the pastoral practice of the Marian Shrines. Mary guides the faithful to the Eucharist.
At the School of Mary, “Woman of the Eucharist”
53. If we wish to rediscover in all its richness the profound relationship between the Church and the Eucharist, we cannot neglect Mary, Mother and model of the Church. In my Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, I pointed to the Blessed Virgin Mary as our teacher in contemplating Christ’s face, and among the mysteries of light I included the institution of the Eucharist.Mary can guide us towards this most holy sacrament, because she herself has a profound relationship with it.
At first glance, the Gospel is silent on this subject. The account of the institution of the Eucharist on the night of Holy Thursday makes no mention of Mary. Yet we know that she was present among the Apostles who prayed “with one accord” (cf. Acts 1:14) in the first community which gathered after the Ascension in expectation of Pentecost. Certainly Mary must have been present at the Eucharistic celebrations of the first generation of Christians, who were devoted to “the breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42).
But in addition to her sharing in the Eucharistic banquet, an indirect picture of Mary’s relationship with the Eucharist can be had, beginning with her interior disposition. Mary is a “woman of the Eucharist” in her whole life. The Church, which looks to Mary as a model, is also called to imitate her in her relationship with this most holy mystery.
54. Mysterium fidei! If the Eucharist is a mystery of faith which so greatly transcends our understanding as to call for sheer abandonment to the word of God, then there can be no one like Mary to act as our support and guide in acquiring this disposition. In repeating what Christ did at the Last Supper in obedience to his command: “Do this in memory of me!” we also accept Mary’s invitation to obey him without hesitation: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). With the same maternal concern which she showed at the wedding feast of Cana, Mary seems to say to us: “Do not waver; 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, and through this mystery bestow on believers the living memorial of his passover, thus becoming the ‘bread of life’”.
55. In a certain sense Mary lived her Eucharistic faith even before the institution of the Eucharist, by the very fact that she offered her virginal womb for the Incarnation of God’s Word. The Eucharist, while commemorating the passion and resurrection, is also in continuity with the incarnation. At the Annunciation Mary conceived the Son of God in the physical reality of his body and blood, thus anticipating within herself what to some degree happens sacramentally in every believer who receives, under the signs of bread and wine, the Lord’s body and blood.
As a result, there is a profound analogy between the Fiat which Mary said in reply to the angel, and the Amen which every believer says when receiving the body of the Lord. Mary was asked to believe that the One whom she conceived “through the Holy Spirit” was “the Son of God” (Lk 1:30-35). In continuity with the Virgin’s faith, in the Eucharistic mystery we are asked to believe that the same Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary, becomes present in his full humanity and divinity under the signs of bread and wine.
“Blessed is she who believed” (Lk 1:45). Mary also anticipated, in the mystery of the incarnation, the Church’s Eucharistic faith. When, at the Visitation, she bore in her womb the Word made flesh, she became in some way a “tabernacle”—the first “tabernacle” in history—in which the Son of God, still invisible to our human gaze, allowed himself to be adored by Elizabeth, radiating his light as it were through the eyes and the voice of Mary. And 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?
56. Mary, throughout her life at Christ’s side and not only on Calvary, made her own the sacrificial dimension of the Eucharist. When she brought the child Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem “to present him to the Lord” (Lk 2:22), she heard the aged Simeon announce that the child would be a “sign of contradiction” and that a sword would also pierce her own heart (cf. Lk 2:34-35). The tragedy of her Son’s crucifixion was thus foretold, and in some sense Mary’s Stabat Mater at the foot of the Cross was foreshadowed. 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, and then find expression after Easter by her partaking in the Eucharist which the Apostles celebrated as the memorial of that passion.
What must Mary have felt as she heard from the mouth of Peter, John, James and the other Apostles the words spoken at the Last Supper: “This is my body which is given for you” (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! For Mary, receiving the Eucharist must have somehow meant welcoming once more into her womb that heart which had beat in unison with hers and reliving what she had experienced at the foot of the Cross.
57. “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19). In the “memorial” of Calvary all that Christ accomplished by his passion and his death is present. Consequently all that Christ did with regard to his Mother for our sake is also present. To her he gave the beloved disciple and, in him, each of us: “Behold, your Son!” To each of us he also says: “Behold your mother!” (cf. Jn 19: 26-27).
Experiencing the memorial of Christ’s death in the Eucharist also means continually receiving this gift. It means accepting—like John—the one who is given to us anew as our Mother. It also means taking on a commitment to be conformed to Christ, putting ourselves at the school of his Mother and allowing her to accompany us. Mary is present, with the Church and as the Mother of the Church, at each of our celebrations of the Eucharist. If the Church and the Eucharist are inseparably united, the same ought to be said of Mary and the Eucharist. This is one reason why, since ancient times, the commemoration of Mary has always been part of the Eucharistic celebrations of the Churches of East and West.
58. In the Eucharist the Church is completely united to Christ and his sacrifice, and makes her own the spirit of Mary. This truth can be understood more deeply by re-reading the Magnificat in a Eucharistic key. The Eucharist, like the Canticle of Mary, is first and foremost praise and thanksgiving. When Mary exclaims: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior”, she already bears Jesus in her womb. She praises God “through” Jesus, but she also praises him “in” Jesus and “with” Jesus. This is itself the true “Eucharistic attitude”.
At the same time Mary recalls the wonders worked by God in salvation history in fulfillment of the promise once made to the fathers (cf. Lk 1:55), and proclaims the wonder that surpasses them all, the redemptive incarnation. Lastly, the Magnificat reflects the eschatological tension of the Eucharist. Every time the Son of God comes again to us in the “poverty” of the sacramental signs of bread and wine, the seeds of that new history wherein the mighty are “put down from their thrones” and “those of low degree are exalted” (cf. Lk 1:52), take root in the world. Mary sings of the “new heavens” and the “new earth” which find in the Eucharist their anticipation and in some sense their program and plan. The Magnificat expresses Mary’s spirituality, and there is nothing greater than this spirituality for helping us to experience the mystery of the Eucharist. The Eucharist has been given to us so that our life, like that of Mary, may become completely a Magnificat!
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