“Mary sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to Him”.




How much does this sentence remind us of a believer, seated in the adoration chapel, at Jesus’ feet?




This takes me to my promise to give you some actual testimonies from members of our Church community, about faith in the real presence of our Lord in the Eucharist.




The first one, we will call C, writes, “My earliest memory as a child of our lord in the Blessed Sacrament
was always the moment the altar boy rang the bell and the priest elevated the consecrated Host. An instant silence permeated throughout the whole church which engulfed a profound stillness
within me. I was too young to know what was happening, but something in me knew the importance of the moment He entered the room. I was always attentively waiting for this beautiful moment that brought me such great joy. Later on I would learn it was a very special grace that would come to an end
after I turned seven. These beautiful moments would later become just a fleeting memory that were suppressed in order to fit in. It is difficult to realize that after some years of
liberal education, this same child would question, doubt and even blaspheme against the real presence of our lord in this wonderful Sacrament.
Every time my mother would try to get me back to church and holy communion, telling me how important it was for me to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus, I would put my arms around her and, with a kind of cynical way say, ‘Oh Mom, you don’t really believe that, do you?’




But one day, the Lord, in his infinite goodness and wisdom, had my mother come to me, make a special request saying,” You know, girl, when I leave this world, I want you to be able to receive Holy Communion at my funeral mass. I said, ‘yes Mom’, but quickly disappeared up the stairs.
She passed away some years after, having lost the battle against renal failure. As I was in bed, something came over me. I felt strange, almost sick. I lost all strength and could not open my eyes. Suddenly, the greatest desire for a priest came over me. My heart was filled with a perfect contrition for all my sins. The desire to receive forgiveness and to forgive was greater than I ever had before. My mother’s love for me, her prayers had born fruit the night she died. I was able to receive the Lord once more after a long period, and to this day, I am grateful and happy to believe in the real presence of Jesus, the Son of God, in the Blessed Sacrament, in the Eucharist.




As St Paul wrote to the Philippians, ‘Every knee shall bend in Heaven, on earth and under the earth, shall bend at the Name of Jesus’. This reminds us of the real presence of this same Lord in the greatest Sacrament, on the altar during the consecration or in the adoration chapel.
For years I have wondered how we can be so hardened by sin that we are unable to truly grasp the greatest gift, the greatest miracle performed each day throughout the world. How could we start believing and stop after some time?
I believe the answer may lie in the meaning of the word
memory.
I recently learned that for our Jewish brethren, the meaning of the word memory is a
fusion of past and present, not just a mere recollection but a
Reactualization, a means to act in the present.”





Fr. Danis Ridore