Tomorrow – Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament
Coinciding the first apparition of Mary at Fatima is the feast of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, May 13, 1856 – the day that Saint Peter Julian Eymard founded the Congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
He believed it was Mary who divinely inspired him, recognizing that Christ was recognized by so many mysteries and titles, but none to honor Him in the Eucharist.
He is the one who gave Mary the title Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. He was known as “The Priest of the Eucharist.” From further back than he could remember, his family said he was dedicated to the Holy Eucharist and Mary.
As a young boy, when his sister would return from receiving Holy Communion, he would sit super close to her and lay his head on her chest, saying, “I can feel His presence.”
Saint Peter Julian Eymard (pronounced A-mard) loved Christ and thrived in faith, because he knew the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist at a very young age.
His sister and half-sister were watching him one day, when he went missing. They frantically searched all over the house and neighborhood for their five-year-old brother before it dawned on them to go to the place he loved to be – their church.
There he was up on the sanctuary beyond the altar. He was standing on a step stool so he could be close to the tabernacle. You can imagine their relief to find him, but their distress as well. When they reverently went up to the sanctuary to get him down and put the stool back, he told them matter-of-factly that he was there “listening to Jesus.”
When he was finally of age (12) to receive his First Holy Communion, he held both hands to his chest as if embracing Christ, and later wrote he did so telling Jesus, “I shall be a priest, I promise you!”
His Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament were dedicated in making sure the Blessed Sacrament was honored and guarded 24 hours a day. Lay people also became committed to this practice, which we now know as Eucharistic devotion – Adoration.
He was instrumental also in founding the Sister Servants of the Blessed Sacrament.
In a letter to inspire Eucharistic Adoration he wrote, “Go to the good Lord very simply, with the surrender of a small child. Tell the good Lord what you are thinking, what you want, what is upsetting you. O how happy we become when we discover this interior conversation with our Lord! We carry our treasure everywhere. He becomes the center of our heart and life.”
Known as the Apostle of the Eucharist, St. Peter Julian’s feast day is August 2.
