The Twentieth Day of May

Mary’s Adoration of Faith and Respect.

I.

How much might be said of Mary’s life of adoration in the Cenacle! Twenty-four years passed in that holy place in which Jesus instituted the Eucharist, in which He erected His first tabernacle! Mary was wholly employed in adoring and honoring Him in His Eucharistic life. She passed the greater part of her days and nights at the foot of that divine tabernacle, for there was her Jesus, her Son and her God.

When she left her poor little cell, to go to the oratory of the Cenacle, she began her adoration. She walked with an air of recollection, her eyes downcast, her step grave and modest, preparing herself in this way to appear before the God of the Eucharist.

When before the tabernacle, she prostrated with great devotion and profound respect. Then she composed her senses in simple and pious recollection, her person erect, her hands joined or crossed on her breast, or, better still, if alone, suppliantly raised toward the tabernacle upon which her eyes were generally turned.

II.

Mary adored with most submissive faith. She adored her hidden Son, veiled under a strange form, her love penetrating the cloud even to the sacred Feet of Jesus, which she venerated with the most tender respect, and to His holy and venerable Hands, which had consecrated and borne the Bread of Life. She blessed the sacred Mouth, which had pronounced the adorable words: "This is My Body! This is My Blood!" She adored the Heart all on fire with love, whence had issued the Holy Eucharist. Mary would have wished to lose herself, to annihilate herself before the Divine Majesty annihilated in the Sacrament, thus to render Him all the honor and homage due Him.

III.

Mary’s adoration was deep, interior, profound. It was the gift of her whole self. She offered herself entirely to the loving services of the Eucharist, for love lays down no conditions, no reservations. It no longer thinks of self, no longer lives for self. It is a stranger to itself, and it lives only for the God whom it loves. All in Mary turned toward the Blessed Sacrament as toward its center and end. A current of grace and love was established between the Heart of Jesus in the Host and the heart of Mary adoring. They were two flames united into a single one. God was then perfectly adored by His creature!

IV.

Following Mary’s example, the adorer kneels with the most profound respect. Like Mary, he recollects himself, and in spirit takes his place at her side to adore. Let him come before Our Lord with that modesty, that interior and exterior recollection, which wonderfully prepare the soul for the angelic office of adoration.

Under the Eucharistic veils that hide from his eyes the Sacred Humanity, let him adore Jesus with the faith of Mary and of the Holy Church, those two Mothers that the Savior has, in His love, given him. Let him adore his God as if he both saw and heard Him, for lively faith sees, hears, and touches with more certitude than the senses themselves.

Practice: Maintain sovereign respect in presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

Aspiration: Mary, thou who didst serve the God of the Eucharist, be our divine teacher in that sweet service!