Tuesday 17 July 2007

Conversion and the Eucharist

I was baptised a Catholic when I was 6 months old. After that I never really darkened the door of a Church except for weddings, baptisms and funerals. When I was 11years old I got a job as a paper boy. My mum had a friend who had just become a Jehovah's Witness at the time. He spoke to me about God. So I thought I'd give God a test! Everyday on my paper round I used to pass an Anglo-catholic Church. On the front there was a crucifix. I decided to touch the feet of Jesus and say: If you exist give me a brother! I was an only child at the time. Lo and behold, a year and a half later my mum announced that she was expecting a baby.

Wow! God really does answer prayers, I thought. Then one month short of my 13th birthday my SISTER was born! At first I was a little disappointed. It wasn't what I asked for! But I was happy enough and just assumed that God knew what He was doing!
So as my parent prepared to have my sister baptised I asked my mum if I could go to Mass. She said yes and here I am many years later. My sister and I are very close. She goes to Mass regularly despite being a teenager!

I am now trying to discern a vocation. I have been in love with Eucharistic Adoration for many years now. I love the silence. I love the fact that the Incarnation is right in front of my eyes. It's Bethlehem, Gethsemane, Calvary and the Resurrection before me and I can behold it all in the awe of mystery.

Our faith is absolutely amazing. What God is as close to us as Our God? To me the Eucharist makes no sense if there is no Real Presence. Transubstatiation has, for some people that I have met, become a dirty word. But in my experience the Eucharist is nonsense without this power mystery. It's key to our faith and our identity.

What is needed now is for us who believe in His Real Presence to go out and proclaim it. Our proclamation has to be seen and silent. Silence is so powerful that it really does speak louder than words.

What we need is more Eucharistic Processions and much much more Adoration. Where the Blessed sacrament is Exposed and Adored love for the Sacrifice of the Mass flourishes. Priests and people begin to celebrate it with greater reverence, love and faith. And vocations just boom.

I read once that in every 10 parishes that has Perpetual Adoration NINE have vocations to the Priesthood. What power the Eucharist has! It's because it is truly Jesus.

If we adore the Blessed Sacrament then our faith in the Divinity of Christ will deepen. We will believe more and more that Jesus Christ is truly God made flesh.

The Eucharist leads to Conversion and Conversion leads to the Eucharist. It is my experience that Adoration leads to Confession. Confession (reconciliation with God through the Sacrament of Penance) leads to Communion. Communion leads to a deeper yearning to Adore. So it becomes a sort of "Holy Circle" instead of a vicious one!

I often joke with friends that I'd love to be a Tyburn Nun! Don't worry it is a joke! But there is much truth said in jest. NO I don't want to be a woman! But I DO want to devote my life to the Eucharistic Kingdom and to Adoration. I really feel that it is the way forward in the Evangelisation that both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have called for.

May our Adoration never cease!!!


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