VOCATION OFFICE E-NEWSLETTER, LENT 2024

laudare, benedicere, praedicare

P e r p e t u a l S a c r i f i c e

BySisterMarieCeline,O.P.

No love can fill us as the Divine Love does. Each of us is worth dying for and Our Lord wants the sacrificial gift of himself to be renewed perpetually The night before he died Our Lord prepares a way to make this offering of love present in every time and place In giving of himself in the gift of the Eucharist, he chooses a way for us to know daily anew the great gift of his love, the gift of himself. We honor Jesus in the Eucharist under the title Perpetual Sacrifice

When he says, “This is my Body given for you, ” while holding the bread of the Passover meal, changing it into his sacred Body, he gives us the sign, or sacrament, of the love he pours out for us the next day. When he takes the cup of wine and said, “This is the cup of my Blood,” he again gives us a taste (literally!) of the great outpouring of his Divine and total love in the gift of himself on the Cross He forever connects the sacrificial gift of himself on the Cross with the Eucharist, and he commands his apostles, the first priests and bishops, to do the same.

And how often? Perpetually! Always! As the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy says, “At the Last Supper, on the night before he was betrayed our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages.”[1] This does not mean that Christ is repeatedly sacrificed. Instead, the Eternal Son makes

his sacrifice present in every time and place through the unbloody gift of himself in the Eucharist Caryll Houselander says that every second of every day four priestly hands rise up to consecrate the bread and wine into the sacred Body and Blood of the Lord [2]

John Henry Newman writes a prayer we could pray as a response to this reminder of the ever constant love of the Lord recalled each day in the sacrifice of the Eucharist He prays:

O Lord, though Thou has ascended to glory, [Thou] hast renewed and perpetuated Thy sacrifice to the end of all things My Lord, I offer Thee myself in turn as a sacrifice of thanksgiving Thou hast died for me, and I in turn make myself over to Thee I am not my own Thou hast bought me; I will make my own act and deed complete the purchase.[3]

May we also offer the gift of ourselves in love to the Lord each time we receive him in Holy Communion Jesus, Perpetual Sacrifice, have mercy on us

[1] Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum concilium, (4 December 1963), § 47 at The Holy See, www vatican va

[2] Houselander, Caryll Lift Up Your Hearts, 1978 Quoted in Magnificat July 2023, Volume 25, No 5, page 39

[3] Newman, John Henry Prayers, Verses and Devotions Ignatius Press, San Francisco: 1989, page 422

TheEucharist

M e d i c i n e o f I m m o r t a l i t y

BySisterTerese,O.P.

In Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse in John chapter 6 Jesus says to the crowds who ask him for a sign: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life ” (Jn 6:27) When the people respond asking Jesus to give them this food, he tells them, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world ” (Jn 6:51) Jesus’ claim that he has come down from heaven is hard for them to accept, so they begin to murmur in protest In response to their murmuring, Jesus says, “Amen, Amen, … I am the bread of life Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die

Whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” (Jn. 6:49-51)

When the Jews quarrel among themselves about how it could be possible for Jesus to give them his flesh to eat, Jesus does not withdraw his claim Instead, he reasserts it even more emphatically: “….unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day ” (Jn 6:53-54)

One might wonder, what precisely is the connection between eating Jesus' flesh and drinking his blood and eternal life? Jesus tells us in his high priestly prayer shortly before his passion: “Eternal life is this, to know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ ” (Jn 17:3) “To know” in the ancient Hebrew text did not refer primarily to an intellectual experience; rather, it referred to an intimate personal experience, such as the loving union of spouses

What more intimate expression of love can Jesus offer us than to receive his very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity within us? Jesus tells us, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me ” (Jn 6:56-57)

Jesus’ presence within us is the health food for our souls His presence is Life itself In receiving Jesus in the Eucharist, we receive already, here and now, a “foretaste” of Eternal Life, a promise of our future resurrection at the end of time, and union with God in love that never ends It is for this reason that St Ignatius of Antioch called the Eucharist “ a medicine of immortality, an antidote to death ”[1]

Endnotes

[1] cf Pope St John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia, (April 17, 2003), n 18

etingJesus in Adoration

Sophia Thomas, O.P.

Tk of my vocation was enkindled et our sisters, when I was about r, it would be another 12 years the convent - God is patient and here were many moments of my long journey to the moments where God’s call was nd where I felt the most peace t, were the times I spent in ation Especially as I grew in my ship with Jesus and in my my vocational call, Jesus drew owerfully through Adoration I Adoration chapel between ork. Meeting Jesus in Adoration hings make sense His gentle, g, and dynamic presence gave me e, and peace in following Him. ed many different ways to show Adoration remains one of the n my journey, and it is still an my vocation today. I challenge in Adoration, even if it’s just a and there - I promise He will

During Lent, our Mother the Church guides us into the deep stripping away of the extras of life to find our joy in what is most essential, and what is more essential than Christ’s love leading us into the Trinity? In No Greater Love, Dr. Edward Sri leads us into the Scriptures to contemplate Christ’s Passion, the depth of His love on display which draws us to the heart of this season. Dr. Sri gives excellent insights from his Biblical scholarship into the key events and words of Christ’s Passion. This book helps us begin Lent with a focus on the end of the season: that Christ’s love be our deepest joy!

Jesu Caritas Retreat 2024

Wewelcomedwomenfromalloverthecountry toour MotherhousefortheJesuCaritasRetreatthispast February23-25 FatherJamesBrent,O P preached conferencesonthetheme,“ForFreedomChristHasSet UsFree”andtheretreatantsjoinedthesistersfor prayers,enjoyedgettingtooneanother,andhad opportunityforpersonalprayer.