Loving Jesus’ House

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me except by the gift of the Father.’ After this, many of his disciples went away and accompanied him no more. Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you? Do you want to go away too?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life. We believe and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God’” (John 6:65-69).

The Divine Real Presence of Our Lord in the tabernacle has always been the object of immense reverence and respect by the saints and down through history (Stefano Manelli, Jesus, Our Eucharistic Love: Eucharistic Life Exemplified by the Saints).

They took loving care, very sincere, over what St. Paul called “things that belonged to the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:32). The fact that they held nothing back has been one of the clearest indications of their great love. They considered everything to be of great importance in a simple matter of small ceremonies, for which St. Teresa and St. Alphonsus declared themselves ready to sacrifice their lives.

St. Josemaría has always talked also about giving God the best (Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, Point 55; The Forge, Point 385). He said that in the centers of Opus Dei, the oratory has to be the best room in the house. He fostered a culture of the Blessed Eucharist that included beauty and taste in art and tabernacles and candlesticks, even in thuribles and auditories, and everything related to the house of God.

It’s from these saints that we have to learn how to love Jesus, surrounding our tabernacles with affectionate care, also our altars and our churches, taking good care of this “dwelling place” (Mark 11:17). Everything has to breathe a sense of decorum.

Everything should inspire devotion and adoration, even the little things and the details. Nothing should be too much when it concerns loving and honoring what is referred to in the Psalms as the “King of Glory” (Ps. 24:10).

In olden times it was customary that even the water that was used to purify the priest’s fingers during Mass had a few drops of perfume in it, so when the priest held the sacred Host, he did so with fragrant hands.

Our Lord instituted the Sacrament of Love in a respectable, beautiful place, the Cenacle. The saints have always shown wholehearted zeal and resourcefulness in seeing to the beauty and tidiness of the house of God.

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us that it’s necessary to take care first of the real Body of Jesus, and then of his Mystical Body.

During his travels, St. Francis of Assisi used to carry with him a brush to sweep the churches that he may have found dirty. After preaching to the people, he would address the clergy of the town and urge them to be zealous for the worthy appearance of the Lord’s house. He encouraged people around him, like St. Clare, to prepare sacred linens for altars.

In a tradition in many countries, women in different parishes and dioceses, particularly those from countries where missionaries came from, did a lot of organization of ladies to make alms, chasubles, linens, corporals, all the things that are needed for the Mass.

In spite of his poverty, St. Francis of Assisi tried to obtain ciboria and chalices, especially for churches that were in greater need.

That spirit has been continued for current centuries, particularly by St. Josemaría, but also in other supernatural families in the Church. St. Julian Eymard talked about “how dearly it cost me to house Jesus so poorly!”

St. John Baptist de la Salle always wanted to see his chapels clean and duly furnished, with the altar in perfect order, and the sanctuary lamp always burning. Dirty altar cloths, torn vestments, tarnished vessels, he said, “hurt his eyes and much more his heart.”

This is something that the laity can also try and be attentive to, that the liturgical objects and vestments in your parish, in your outstation, wherever it may be, might always be of the highest quality.

Have a certain missionary concern, that if in your country there’s a lot of good things in that area, try to think of all the places in the world that are starting new churches, new chapels, schools, that very much need these things. All the saints never considered any expense too great when it came to providing worship for Our Lord.

St. Paul of the Cross wanted the altar furnishings and sacred objects to be so spotless that one day he sent back to the sacristy two corporals, because he didn’t judge them to be clean enough for Mass.

It’s a special vocation of some people to take very good care of these things, their formation is fostered with it, and to have a grace, love, and respect for all those little things that are not so little when it comes to love.

Prominent among kings who have loved the Eucharist was St. Wenceslas, King of Bohemia, who with his own hands tilled the soil, sowed the wheat, harvested it, ground it, sifted it. Then with the purest flour he made hosts for the Holy Sacrifice.

Other people were happy to grind with their own hands the wheat selected to make hosts for the Holy Mass. Many of the saints did similar things, caring for the grapevine, supplying wine.

The saints had great refinement in relation to the Eucharistic species. They had uncompromising faith in the Real Presence of Our Lord, even in the smallest visible fragment of a Host. If ever you had to clear a purificator or purify other things that have touched the sacred host, you can do so with great faith and great reverence.

Priests are encouraged to take a lot of conscientious care in purifying the paten and the other sacred vessels of the altar. One time, St. Thérèse of Lisieux saw a small particle of the Host on the paten after Mass, and she called many of the other religious who were with her and carried the paten in procession to the sacristy with a comportment that was truly angelic.

St. Charles Borromeo once inadvertently dropped a sacred particle from his hand, and he did great penances as a result.

Sometimes the priest who, in distributing communion, may drop a Host. He usually tries to mark that place with some article like a handkerchief, or something that he may have on him, or some piece of linen, and then come afterward and try to purify that piece of ground where the Host has fallen, having also obviously consumed the Host.

Priests try to wash their hands before celebrating Mass, and for people who handle the vestments, it’s a good idea to wash their hands also before handling the sacred linens so that those things may last longer.

There was a custom before, of every time the priest said Mass, he would keep his thumb and his forefinger together because those were the fingers that had touched the Sacred Body of Jesus. We see an exquisite delicacy in love for Our Lord present in the Sacred Host, expressed in all these little things.

In churches, we have to try and help people to also dress well. The saints were very concerned about the modesty and decency on the part of women.

In some countries, in major churches some people are at the door, St. Peter’s in particular, keeping watch over this particular thing so that standards are maintained.

One particular saint of history, St. Leopold of Castelnuovo, used to not allow women to leave his church who weren’t properly dressed. He called them carne da mercato, flesh for sale.

The saints have always exhorted us by example and by word to follow the usual practice of entering a church, of making the sign of the cross, devoutly with holy water, and genuinely acting reverently, and before all else, adoring Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

If the Blessed Sacrament is not on the main altar, we’re then looking for the sanctuary lamp that shows where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. It is there we should go first, to stop perhaps with a short prayer to recollect ourselves.

In the Gospel, we find a brief account of a devoted act of love, all gracious and fragrant, performed by St. Mary Magdalene in the house of Simon the Pharisee at Bethany, when she approached Jesus, with “an alabaster box of precious ointment,” and poured it on His head and over His feet (Matt. 26:6-13). We’re told the fragrance of the ointment filled the house (John 12:3), and the fragrance of authentic love filled the house.

It’s been a custom in the Church to place flowers on the altar. And if we’re placing flowers on the altar, or looking after them, it’s also good to know, especially after twenty-four hours, if those flowers have withered, so we don’t leave withered flowers on the altar. While we practice these little details, it’s good also that we’re attentive to these things.

St. Alphonsus used to speak of his joy and envy of the flowers that surround the tabernacles with fragrance and consumed themselves entirely for Our Lord. He said, “Happy are you, flowers, who, night and day / beside my Jesus always stay / nor ever going away until / your whole life through, you shall have always been together.”

Sometimes tabernacles are decorated with all sorts of beautiful things as well, flowers and angels. One time, St. Joseph Cottolengo entered the church and found the altar adorned with fragrant flowers. He asked, “What feast are you celebrating today?” He was told, “We have no feast today; but here in the church it is always a feast day.”

It’s good to encourage little children to bring flowers to the altar. It’s a gracious gesture of love for Our Lord. We know that Our Lord will repay it a hundredfold.

It might be a small weekly expense, but the greatest will come. Some people, after seeing flowers on the altar, would take them home as relics, because they’d been on the altar next to Our Lord during Mass.

St. Jane Frances de Chantal would do something similar: take those flowers and place them at the foot of the crucifix in her room.

St. Josemaría in the Furrow says, “I am glad that you love processions, and all the external practices of our Holy Mother the Church, so as to render God the worship due to him…, and that you put yourself into them!

“‘I have preached openly before the whole world’ (John 18:20), was the answer Jesus gave to Caiphas when the time had come for him to give his Life for us.

”—And yet there are Christians who are afraid to show—openly —veneration for Our Lord” (J. Escrivá, Furrow, Points 49-50).

In the Furrow we’re told, “The Church, through care of the liturgy, makes us intuitively aware of the beauty of the mysteries of Religion and leads us to love them better. In a similar way, without being theatrical, we should behave with a certain attitude of deep respect—which may even appear worldly—of deep respect—even be external as well—towards our director, through whose lips the Will of God is made known to us” (J. Escrivá, Furrow, Point 382).

“Be a Eucharistic soul!” we’re told in Point 835 of The Forge. “If the center around which your thoughts and hopes turn is the tabernacle, then, my child, how abundant the fruits of your sanctity and apostolate will be!”

Once we have left this world, there’s nothing we should want to be done for ourselves as much as providing for the celebration of the Holy Mass for our souls.

It’s always been a custom in the Church to offer Masses for the repose of the souls because the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar is the most powerful intercessory prayer. It surpasses every prayer, every penance, and every good work.

If we recall that the Sacrifice of the Mass is the same Sacrifice that Our Lord offered on the Cross, which He now offers on the altar, we’ll remember that it has infinite expiatory value.

In the First letter of St. John, it says our immolated Lord is the true Victim satisfying, or “propitiating, for our sins” (1 John 2:2), and His Divine Blood is “poured out of the remission of sins” (Mark 26:28).

Nothing can be equal to the Mass, and the saving fruits of this Sacrifice can be extended to an unlimited number of souls.

Once during the celebration of the Mass in the Church of St. Paul in Rome, St. Bernard saw an unending stairway which led up to Heaven. By means of it, many angels ascended and descended, carrying from Purgatory to Paradise souls freed by the Sacrifice of Our Lord—a Sacrifice renewed by priests on altars all over the world.

I saw a painting once where this was represented, a priest celebrating Mass at the altar, and under the altar was Purgatory, and above the altar was Heaven. As the Mass was being celebrated, souls were going to Heaven.

And so, on the occasion of the death of a relative, it’s important to place a lot of attention on having Masses celebrated and hearing them, than in all the other material things, such as finding funeral attire, or selecting flowers, or arranging the funeral cortège, et cetera.

St. John Bosco said that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is what “benefits the poor souls in Purgatory; in fact,” he says, “it is the most effective means of relieving those souls in their sufferings, of shortening the time of their exile, and of bringing them sooner into the blessed kingdom.”

One day, at the end of one of his Masses, Padre Pio said to one of his fellow friars, “This morning the soul of your father entered Heaven.”

That fellow friar was very happy, but said, “Father, my good father died thirty-two years ago.” Padre Pio replied, “My son, before God, every debt must be paid.”

The Holy Mass obtains for us a treasure of infinite value: the Body and Blood of the “unspotted Lamb” (Rev. 5:12; 1 Peter 1:18-19).

During a sermon one day, the Curé of Ars gave the example of a priest who, while celebrating Mass for a deceased friend, after the Consecration, prayed, “Holy and Eternal Father, let us make an exchange. You possess the soul of my friend in Purgatory. I have the body of your Son in my hands. You liberate my friend for me, and I offer to you your Son, with all the merits of his Passion and Death.”

When St. John of Avila (St. John of the Cross) was on his deathbed, he was asked what he desired most after his death, and he replied, “Masses…Masses…nothing else but Masses!”

St. Jerome wrote that “for every Mass devoutly celebrated, many souls leave Purgatory and fly to Heaven.” It’s good that we think of the souls in Purgatory in those particular moments of the Mass, particularly the Memento of the Dead (Commemoration of the Faithful Departed).

St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi said that Our Lord showed her many souls in Purgatory that were liberated by the offering of the Precious Blood.

St. Bernadette would often say, “I have heard Mass for the souls in Purgatory, nothing but the Precious Blood of Jesus applied for them can liberate them.”

St. Thomas teaches that just one drop of His Blood, with Its infinite value, can save the whole universe from every guilt.

St. Josemaría in The Forge says, “Be a Eucharistic soul! If the center around which your thoughts and hopes turn is the tabernacle, then, my child, how abundant the fruits of your sanctity and apostolate will be!”

In The Forge he says, “The objects used in divine worship should have artistic merit, but bearing in mind that worship is not for the sake of art: art is for the sake of worship.”

“Go perseveringly to the tabernacle,” he says, “either bodily or in your heart, so as to feel safe and calm: but also [in order] to feel loved…and to love!” (J. Escrivá, The Forge, Points 835 to 837).

“Repeat to yourself, with all your heart, and with ever-increasing love, and more when you are in front of the tabernacle or have the Lord within your breast. ‘No one can hide from his warmth’ (Ps. 19:6). May I not flee from you, may I be filled with the fire of your Holy Spirit” (ibid., Point 515).

“From there, where you are working, let your heart escape to the Lord, right close to the tabernacle, to tell him, without doing anything odd, ‘My Jesus, I love you.’ Don’t be afraid to call him so—my Jesus—and to say it to him often” (ibid., Point 746).

“You became very thoughtful when I told you: ‘The way I see it, everything seems too little when it is for the Lord’” (ibid., Point 47).

You could be reminded of the words of the Curé of Ars who said, “All good works taken together cannot equal the value of one Mass, for all those other things are the works of men, whereas the Mass is the work of God.”

We could ask our Lady to help us to take very good care of everything related to the real presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament so that our faith of ours is reflected externally, is catechetical and apostolic for every soul who comes close to us, and that in each Mass we might remember to pray for the souls in Purgatory.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

GD