Adoremus in Aeternum Sanctissimum Sacramentum!
"L
et us adore forever the Most Holy Sacrament." These words carry profound significance for Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration and are prayed throughout the day and night. As Mass ends and the Eucharist is once again exposed, this phrase is sung, inaugurating a new day of perpetual adoration. These words are again whispered in the small hours of the night, waking the next adorer to her nocturnal vigil with the Blessed Sacrament. They are repeated as we process into our refectory, bowing in reverence to the San Damiano Crucifix. These moments emphasize that our adoration extends beyond the chapel. “Adoremus in Aeternum…” is frequently upon our lips and perpetually in our hearts as we strive to live out our dedication to the Blessed Sacrament. This devotion towards Jesus in the Eucharist is our heritage, gifted to us from our spiritual mother, Saint Clare of Assisi. A New Beginning… ight hundred years ago, Lady Clare began her moving story of daring surrender, enduring love, and unswerving dedication to eternal realities. Clare freely forfeited a destiny of ease to follow the poor Christ, so profoundly was she inspired by Saint Francis’ radical embrace of the Gospel. Thus a new form of life was born in the Church. Clare's “little poor ladies” wished to live inside the Gospel, subsisting on uncompromising poverty and emanating joy from a life fed on God alone. This "Little Plant of Saint Francis" continues to inspire countless women to lead this life of paradox, in which poverty germinates spiritual riches and surrender is a precursor to joy. It was the Living Presence at San Damiano that made sense of these women's existence. With her community, Clare adored Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Her corporeal encounters with Christ in
E
prayer allowed her to glimpse eternity in its splendor under the humble accident of bread. Her lengthy vigils with the Lord pulled her deeper into His mystery, and her letters overflow with exhortations to her sisters to gaze into the face of the
relationship between humility and grandeur, between strength and selfgiving. Christ divests Himself of the outward majesty that is rightfully His and comes in love to His creature in a form that is utterly familiar and knows no dearth of humility. What is ordinary is transformed into inestimable mystery. Bread and wine become Christ in His totality. What is outwardly food for the body becomes in deepest actuality that which nourishes the soul. he poverty of Christ, radically demonstrated in the self-gift of the Eucharist, was the inspiration behind Clare's love of poverty. She esteemed poverty, not for its own sake, but for the space it created in the soul, a vacuum to be invaded by God in the absence of superfluities. We find Clare’s imitation most perfectly in her desire, fulfilled to the end, to live poorly like her Eucharistic Lord.
T
A Eucharistic
Life
Beloved as in a mirror. "...[G]aze upon [Him], consider [Him], contemplate [Him] as you desire to imitate [Him]." (from the Second Letter of St. Clare to St. Agnes of Prague)
T
here are many moving episodes in the life of our Holy Mother Clare which illustrate her immense love for the Eucharist, such as the artistic depictions of her clasping the Blessed Sacrament to her heart. Yet, what speaks most profoundly is how she reflected her Eucharistic Spouse in three areas: smallness, enclosure and attentiveness, all of which culminate in a lifelong expression of love. Smallness…
T
he Blessed Sacrament manifests a striking reality: the God who created all of reality chooses the path of humility and smallness, inhabiting His own creation. Under the appearance of ordinary bread and wine, Our Lord assaults our understanding of the
Attentiveness… hrist's Presence in the Blessed Sacrament is our best example of attentiveness. He is cognizant of and delights in our presence even when our thoughts stray from Him. Our very best efforts at attention in prayer, though pleasing to Our Lord, are ephemeral compared to His attention to us. The most vigilant of our prayers must be supplemented by His grace. In Christ, our feeble efforts are made athletic, accomplishing through grace what was impossible through mere effort. This sense of humility in prayer, putting forth our best while realizing that all our labors must be gilded in grace, is what paradoxically brings fecundity to our prayer. Knowing our littleness before God, allowing Him room to operate, is what makes tiny prayers accomplish herculean things. Our Lord is pure presence, availability, and listening love. In our prayer, we seek to reciprocate His availability, bringing ourselves into His presence for no other reason then to be with Him. Continued on page 4
C