Woman of the Eucharist

The greatest event in the world

The greatest event that happens each day in this world is the Mass. No prayer can compare in power and beauty to the celebration of the Eucharist. Here Christ becomes really, truly and substantially with us as the sacrifice he offered on the Cross “once for all” (Heb 10:10) is made present anew on the altar. Because the Mass is the self-offering or oblation of the God-Man to the Father in the Holy Spirit, its mystery can never be adequately expressed in human words. “Indeed” as St John Paul II affirmed, “the Eucharist is the ineffable sacrament!”

A human being can do many important things in the course of a life-time, achieving ambitious goals and making a lasting impact, and sometimes even taking part in great historical events. Nothing however can remotely compare with the value and reach of a single Mass “in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us”.

“Woman of the Eucharist”

In our weekly and daily routine there is nothing more valuable, effective, significant or meaningful than to take part in the holy Mass.  “Here is the Church’s treasure, the heart of the world, the pledge of the fulfilment for which each man and woman, even unconsciously, yearns”. There are many ways to increase our knowledge and love for this, the greatest of all the sacraments. Among the most powerful ways is to “live” the Lord’s sacrifice in communion of mind, heart and soul with Mary, the Lord’s Mother, and “Woman of the Eucharist”. As St John Paul II taught: “Mary can guide us towards this most holy sacrament, because she herself has a profound relationship with it”.

The Eucharist is “at one and the same time a Sacrifice-Sacrament, a Communion-Sacrament and a Presence-Sacrament”. No one like his Mother can show us how to offer ourselves in union with Jesus, how to adore him with the loving gaze of contemplation, and how to receive him with gratitude and joy.

Sacrifice-Sacrament

Before all else the Eucharist is the sacrament of the Passion of Jesus. “When we go to Mass it is as if we were going to Calvary itself”, as the Holy Father recently reminded us. “The Mass is experiencing Calvary”. Our Lady is personally involved in this oblation. Just as she offered her infant Son in the temple (cf. Lk 2:22-40), so too Mary consents to the offering of her crucified Son on the Cross. As Co-redemptrix, the Blessed Virgin cooperates in a “totally singular” way in Christ’s sacrifice.

In the words of Benedict XVI, “Mary, present on Calvary beneath the Cross, is also present with the Church and as Mother of the Church in each one of our Eucharistic celebrations. No one better than she, therefore can teach us to understand and live Holy Mass with faith and love, uniting ourselves with Christ’s redeeming sacrifice”.

Presence-Sacrament

The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which become present on the altar under the appearances or “species” of bread and wine, are the Body and Blood the Lord received from Mary his ever-virgin mother. St John Paul II points out that Our Lady “bore in her womb the Word made flesh” and thus “became in a way a ‘tabernacle’ – the first ‘tabernacle’ in history”. The prophet Isaiah had foretold that a virgin would “conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel”, which means, God with us (Is 7:14; Mt 1:23). This same Saviour is the God who is with us, really, truly and substantially present in the Eucharist.

The Body offered on the altar of the Cross and made present in every Mass is the Body Christ received from his virgin-mother by the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 1:35). As Venerable Fulton Sheen has written: “When the Divine Child was conceived, Mary’s humanity gave him hands and feet, eyes and ears, and a body with which to suffer. Just as the petals of a rose after a dew close on the dew as if to absorb its energies, so too, Mary as the Mystical Rose closed upon him whom the Old Testament had described as a dew descending upon the earth”.

Catholics often appeal to Mary: “Show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb”. This prayer can take on a Eucharistic meaning as we ask the one most intimately united to Jesus to help us recognise, love and adore him in the sacrament of his Real Presence. In fact true devotion to Our Lady always leads to love for the Eucharist. Time and again the history of the Church has shown that “Mary guides the faithful to the Eucharist”.

Communion-Sacrament

Mary also teaches us how to receive Christ into our body and soul. At the moment of the Annunciation she welcomed the Saviour into her virginal womb. Our Lady freely accepted her vocation to become the Mother of God, and thus “the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us” (cf. Jn 1:14). She teaches us how to receive the Lord with unconditional love and openness to his will: “Let it be to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). The presence of Christ in the body and soul of Mary increased her holiness. Learning from her, we can seek to welcome all the graces arising from Eucharistic Communion with her divine Son.

St Josemaría was prepared for his first holy Communion by a Piarist priest, Fr Manuel Laborda de la Virgen del Carmen, affectionately known as “Padre Manolé”. To help the young Josemaría prepare to receive our Lord, Padre Manolé taught him this spiritual communion prayer: “I wish Lord to receive you, with the purity, humility and devotion, with which your most holy Mother received you, and with the spirit and fervour of the saints”. The prayer is simple and very deep. It expresses the desire to welcome Jesus with the loving dispositions with which his mother Mary embraced him in body and soul. There is no better way to desire to receive Christ.

The relationship between Mary and the Bread of Life is beautifully expressed by St Peter Chrysologus, the “Doctor of Homilies” (+ c. 450): “Christ himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven” (Homily 67).

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1. St John Paul II, Encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, 4 March 1979, 20.

2. Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 1323, quoting from the hymn O Sacrum Convivium, attributed to St Thomas Aquinas.

3. St John Paul II, Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 17 April 2003, 59.

4. The final chapter of St John Paul’s encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 17 April 2003, is entitled: “At the school of Mary, ‘Woman of the Eucharist’”.

5. St John Paul II, Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 17 April 2003, 53.

6. St John Paul II, Encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, 4 March 1979, 20.

7. Francis, Audience, 22 November 2017.

8. Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, 21 November 1964, 61.

9. Benedict XVI, Angelus, 11 September 2005.

10. St John Paul II, Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 17 April 2003, 55.

11. Venerable Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ, McGraw-Hill, New York 1958, p. 18.

12. St John Paul II, Encyclical, Redemptoris Mater, 25 March 1987, 44.