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​MEDITATIONS BEFORE THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT


The highest form of meditation on Earth takes place before the Most Blessed Sacrament.
[-also known by it's Greek name, Holy Eucharist, which means, "thanksgiving to God."]
​ 
Although the sacrament of receiving the Holy Eucharist corporally only occurs during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass liturgy [for those initiated into the Catholic Church], the Holy Eucharist is always present in the tabernacles/monstrances of Catholic Churches; in between Masses. People of all faiths are invited to meditate, with reverence to our Eucharistic Lord, before the Blessed Sacrament. 
[A light or lit candle near the tabernacle indicates the presence of our Lord.]​
FIND THE BLESSED SACRAMENT NEAR YOU
 
​One day a rather worldly friend asked St. Francis: "Father what do you do during those long hours before the Blessed Sacrament?" "My son in return I ask you what does the poor man do at the rich man's door, the sick man in presence of his physician, the thirsty man at a limpid stream? What they do, I do before the Eucharistic God. I pray. I adore. I love. "Let us love God and adore him and offer him praises by day and by night. In this world I cannot see the Most High Son of God with my own eyes, except for His Most Holy Body and Blood."

-Saint Francis of Asissi
​
​“I know I would not be able to work one week if it were not for that continual force coming from Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.” "I make a Holy Hour each day in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. All my sisters of the Missionaries of Charity make a daily Holy Hour as well, because we find that through our daily Holy Hour our love for Jesus becomes more intimate, our love for each other more understanding, and our love for the poor more compassionate."

​
-Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta


​​BLESSED SACRAMENT MEDIEVAL MEDITATIONS
- Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor Universalis


St. Thomas Aquinas professed that he learned more from meditating before
the Blessed Sacrament than from many hours of study, stating:

"No other sacrament has greater healing power;
through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased,
and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift."

online text of THE SUMMA THEOLOGICA ON THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST


​ADORO TE DEVOTE


Latin:

Adoro te devote, latens deitas,
Quæ sub his figuris vere latitas;
Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit,
Quia te contemplans
​totum deficit.

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,
Sed auditu solo tuto creditur.
Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius;
Nil hoc verbo Veritátis verius.
In Cruce latebat sola Deitas,
At hic latet simul
et Humanitas,

Ambo tamen credens atque confitens,
Peto quod petivit latro pœnitens.
Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor:
Deum tamen meum te confiteor.
Fac me tibi semper magis credere,
In te spem habere, te diligere.
O memoriale mortis Domini,
Panis vivus, vitam præstans homini,
Præsta meæ menti de te vívere,
Et te illi semper dulce
​sapere.

Pie Pelicane, Jesu Domine,
Me immundum munda tuo Sanguine,
Cujus una stilla salvum facere
Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.
Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio,
Oro, fiat illud quod tam sitio:
Ut te revelata cernens facie,
Visu sim beátus tuæ gloriæ.
Amen.

English:

​
Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore,
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.
Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived:
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there's nothing true.
On the cross thy godhead made no sign to men,
Here thy very manhood steals from human kin:
Both are my confession, both are my belief,
And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.
I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see,
But can plainly call thee Lord and God as he;
Let me to a deeper faith daily nearer move,
Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.
O thou our reminder of Christ crucified,
Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died,
Lend this life to me then: feed and feast my mind,
There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find.
Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican;
Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what thy bosom ran---
Blood whereof a single drop has power to win
All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.
Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below,
I beseech thee send me what I thirst for so,
Some day to gaze on thee face to face in light
And be blest for ever with thy glory's sight.
Amen.


TANTUM ERGO
​

​Latin:
Tantum ergo Sacramentum
Veneremur cernui:
Et antiquum documentum
Novo cedat ritui:
Præstet fides supplementum
Sensuum defectui.

Genitori, Genitoque
Laus et iubilatio,
Salus, honor, virtus quoque
Sit et benedictio:
Procedenti ab utroque
Compar sit laudatio.
Amen.
English:
Down in adoration falling,
Lo! the sacred Host we hail,
Lo! o'er ancient forms departing
Newer rites of grace prevail;
Faith for all defects supplying,
Where the feeble senses fail.

​To the Everlasting Father,

And the Son Who reigns on high
With the Holy Ghost proceeding
Forth from Each eternally,
Be salvation, honour, blessing,
Might, and endless majesty.
Amen.
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