Your Presence is requested…

“O Lord, wealth of the poor, how admirably You can sustain souls, revealing Your great riches to them gradually and not permitting them to see them all at once. When I see Your great Majesty hidden in so small a thing as the Host, I cannot but marvel at Your great wisdom.”                      –St. Teresa of Jesus

The video above was posted on YouTube over eleven years ago of a Eucharistic Miracle that occurred on Friday, November 15, of 2013, at Christ the King Church in Vilakannur, Kerala, India. After twelve years of investigation, the Vatican has recently announced the approval of this “Relic of Divinity.” This is a powerful sign for our times at the beginning of this millennium dedicated by Pope St. John Paul II to the Holy Face of Jesus Christ. It seems as though Our Lord invites us to come to the banquet of His Love.

“The Face of Christ is the supreme revelation of Christ’s Mercy.”–Pope Benedict XVI gazing at the Eucharistic Face of Christ. (photo:Paul Badde/EWTN)

The Eucharist is the visible sign of the of the veiled presence of the invisible Face of God. In God’s great humility, mercy, and love, the grandeur of His Divine Presence is veiled in the Eucharist so that we may not fear to draw near and come into His Presence in the Bread of Life.

“Being Christian,” Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but an encountera Person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” As often as we encounter the person of Christ, present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Eucharist, we are being transformed into His Image. While He is the “Divine Prisoner” He is longing and waiting for us to come to Him.

Jesus is “the Divine Prisoner.” God points us to His Holy Face on the miraculous Veil of Manoppello. (photo: Patricia Enk)

Come and see that “Truth is a Person…a Presence, a Face: Jesus Christ.” — Pope St. John Paul II

Are you sorrowful, lonely, sick or fearful? Come to Him. Do you feel alienated, rejected, remorseful and in need of forgiveness? Come to Him. Are you angry and frustrated? Come. If your faith is little, come; if you long for Love Himself, come; if you are losing Hope, come.

Come, come, come! Your presence is requested.

Jesus waits for you. Come.
Paten viewed through the Veil of the Holy Face of Manoppello. (Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN)

Thy Glory in Beholding

O Lord, wealth of the poor, how admirably You can sustain souls, revealing Your great riches to them gradually and not permitting them to see them all at once. When I see Your great Majesty hidden in so small a thing as the Host, I cannot but marvel at Your great wisdom.”                      –St. Teresa of Jesus

Host viewed through the Veil of Manoppello in Italy. Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN

Adoro Te Devote

Jesu, quem vellum nuns auspício,/Oro, fiat illud, quod tam sitio,/Ut te revelata cernens facie,/Visu sim beatus tuae Gloria.  Amen.

Jesus! Whom for the present veiled I see,

What I so thirst for, oh, vouchsafe to me:

That I may see Thy Countenance unfolding, 

And may be blest…

Thy Glory in beholding.  Amen 

Cardinal Tagle elevates the Eucharist at a Solemn Mass in honor of the Holy Face of Manoppello, Italy (Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN)

There is a wonderful book by Dr. Brant Pitre called “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist – Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper”  which sheds light on the great Mystery of the Eucharist, and the connection to the Old Testament “Bread of the Presence” otherwise known in the Old Testament as the “Bread of the Face of God”–the earthly sign of God’s Face veiled–because no one could see the unveiled Face of God and live. Three times a year, Dr. Pitre writes, the priests in the Temple would “remove the Golden Table of the Bread of the Presence from within the Holy Place so that the Jewish pilgrims could see it.” (Exodus 34:23; 23:17) Then the priest would elevate the holy bread before the people saying, “Behold God’s love for you!”  The Bread of the Face, was a sign of God’s love because it was a sign of His everlasting covenant.  “…this holy bread was a living visible sign of God’s love for his people, the way earthly people could catch a glimpse of the ultimate desire of their hearts: to see the Face of God and live, and to know that He loved them.”  “And just as the old Bread of the Presence was also the Bread of the Face of God, so now the Eucharist would be the Bread of the Face of God.” It is through His Face that we enter into the relationship of love with God.

Robert Cardinal Sarah gazing at the Eucharistic Face of Jesus at the Basilica Sanctuary of the Holy Face (Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN

“The Face of Christ is the supreme revelation of Christ’s Mercy.”–Pope Benedict XVI photo:Paul Badde/EWTN

“Behold, you do see Him, you touch Him, you eat Him…to receive Him into your heart…He upon whom the angels look with fear, and dare not gaze upon steadfastly because of His dazzling splendor, becomes our Food; we are united to Him, and are made one body and one flesh with Christ.” –St. John Chrysostom 

What greater sign of His Love than the bread and wine become His Body and Blood?