The Bread Our Heavenly Mother Gives Us

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, the Son, and 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, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my Guardian Angel, intercede for me.

“Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts that nourished You!”

And Our Lord replied, “Blessed are they, rather, who keep the Word of God, who know the Word of God, and keep it.”

The Eucharist is the Bread of the Mother of God, Our Mother. It is Bread made by Mary from the flour of her immaculate flesh, kneaded with her virginal milk. St. Augustine wrote, “Jesus took His Flesh from the flesh of Mary.”

A mother stood up at a get-together once with St. Josemaria and said that each day, when she was going out to Mass, she would tell her four-year-old daughter: “I'm going to receive Jesus.” One day the little girl replied and asked her: “Will you receive Mary also?”

She said, “I didn't know what to say to her,” and so she asked St. Josemaria for an answer.

It wasn't one of those questions that he was usually asked, so he thought for a moment. And then he said, “Well, in some ways, yes, we also receive Mary, because the blood of Jesus before was the blood of Mary.”

I don't think you'll find that in a theology textbook, but it's a rather nice spiritual consideration.

We know that in the Eucharist, together with the Divinity, the entire Body and Blood of Jesus are taken from the body and blood of Our Lady.

At every Communion, we receive Our Mother's sweet and mysterious presence, inseparably and totally united with Jesus and the Host. Jesus is her ever-adored Son. He is the flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood.

If Adam could call Eve when she had been formed from his rib “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh,” cannot Our Lady even more rightly call Jesus “Flesh of my flesh and Blood of my blood”?

Taken from the “intact Virgin” as says St. Thomas Aquinas, the Flesh of Jesus is the maternal flesh of Mary, and the blood of Jesus is the maternal blood of Mary.

And so it is never possible to separate Jesus from Mary. At every Mass, Our Lady in truth can say to Jesus in the Host and the Chalice, “You are my Son. Today I have begotten You.”

St. Augustine teaches us that in the Eucharist “Mary extends and perpetuates her Divine Motherhood.”

St. Albert the Great said, “My soul if you wish to be intimate with Mary, let yourself be carried between her arms and nourished with her blood.” Let this ineffable chaste thought accompany you to the Banquet of God, and you will find in the Blood of the Son the nourishment of the Mother.

Many saints and theologians say that Jesus instituted the Eucharist first for Our Lady and then through Our Lady, the Universal Mediatrix of All Graces, for all of us.

It comes about that from Mary, therefore, Jesus comes to be given to us day by day. And that, in Jesus, the immaculate flesh and virginal blood of His Most Holy Mother are always penetrating our hearts and inebriating our souls.

We also reflect that Jesus, the fruit of Mary's immaculate womb, is the whole of Mary's love, of her sweetness, all of her intimacy, of her richness, of her whole life.

When we receive Him, we cannot receive her as well, who – by the bonds of the highest love and by the bonds of flesh and blood – forms with Our Lord a single alliance of love, one whole, as she is always and inseparably "leaning upon her Beloved."

Love – above all, Divine Love – unites and unifies.

And after the unity of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity, is there a unity more intimate and absorbing than that between Our Lord and Our Lady?

Mary's immaculateness, her virginity, her tenderness, her sweetness, her love, and even the very features of her face: all these we find in Jesus.

Because the most Holy Humanity, assumed by the Word, is wholly and only from Mary's humanity in virtue of the ineffable mystery of the virginal conception accomplished by the Holy Spirit, Who made Mary Jesus' Mother, consecrating her a Virgin ever intact and resplendent in soul and body.

St. Albert the Great writes that the Eucharist produces impulses of angelic love, and has the singular capacity of effecting in souls a holy instinctive tenderness for the Queen of the Angels.

She has given us Flesh of her flesh and Bone of her bone. In the Eucharist, she continues to give us the sweet virginal heavenly food.

St Pius XII says that just as in the eternal generation of the Word in the bosom of the Trinity, The Father gives Himself wholly to the Son – Who is the “Mirror of the Father” – so in the temporal generation of the same Word, in the bosom of humanity, The Mother of God gives herself wholly to the Son, to her Jesus, the virginal Flower of the Virgin Mother.

And St. Peter Damian confirms the Son in His turn, gives Himself wholly to the Mother, making Himself similar to her and making her “fully God-like."

St. Josemaria says we go to Jesus, and we return to Him through Mary.

St. Peter Julian Eymard declared that already in this world, after Our Lord’s Ascension into Heaven, Our Lady “lived a life in and of the Blessed Sacrament,” so he called her “Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament."

Padre Pio used to say to his spiritual children: “Do you not see Our Lady always beside the Tabernacle?” And how could she fail to be there, she who “stood by the Cross of Jesus” on Calvary?

St. Alphonsus Liguori always used to add a visit to Our Lady to each visit to Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist.

St. John Bosco said: “I beg you to recommend to everyone, first, adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and then reverence for most Holy Mother.”

St. Maximilian Kolbe recommended that when we are before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, we would always remember Our Lady’s presence, invoking her and uniting ourselves with her, at the very least by calling her sweet name to mind.

St. Bernadette Soubirous replied to someone who put a tricky question to her. She was asked: “What would please you more, to receive Holy Communion or to see Our Lady in the grotto?” She thought for a moment and then answered, “What a strange question! The two cannot be separated. Jesus and Mary always go together.”

Our Lady and the Holy Eucharist are united inseparably “even to the end of the world,” as St Matthew says.

For Mary with her body and soul is the heavenly “tabernacle of God,” as we are told in the Book of Revelation. She is the incorruptible host, says St. Paul, “holy and immaculate”, who of herself clothes the Word of God made Man.

St. Germain called her the “Sweet Paradise of God.” And this theme is often found in monstrances that were made in past centuries, where Our Lady is depicted with a visible cavity in her breast in which the Consecrated Host is placed.

“Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts that nourished You!”

In some churches in France, the Tabernacle used to be encased in a statue of Our Lady of the Assumption. The significance is clear: it is always Our Lady who gives us Jesus, Who is the blessed Fruit of her virginal womb and the Heart of her Immaculate heart.

And she will forever continue to carry Our Lord in the Eucharist within her breast to present Him for the joyful contemplation of the Saints in Heaven, to whom It is given to see His Divine Person in the Eucharistic Species, as St. Thomas Aquinas says.

It is also in the Eucharist, especially in Holy Communion, that our union with Our Lady becomes full and loving conformity with her. With the Host, which is Jesus, she too enters into us and becomes entirely one with each of us, her children, pouring out her motherly love upon our souls and bodies.

St. Hilary, Father and Doctor of the Church said: “The greatest joy that we can give Our Lady is that of bearing Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament within our breast.”

Her motherly union with Jesus becomes a union also with whoever is united to Our Lord, especially in Holy Communion. And what can give as much joy to one who loves, as union with the person loved? Do we not happen to be beloved children of the Heavenly Mother?

When we go before Our Lord on the Altar, we will always find Him “with Mary His Mother,” as the Magi did at Bethlehem, about which we are told in Chapter 2 of St. Matthew.

Then Our Lord in the Sacred Host, from the altar of our hearts, can repeat to each of us what He said to St. John from the Altar of Calvary, “Behold your Mother.”

St. Augustine illustrates how Our Lady makes herself our own and unites herself with each one of us in Holy Communion. He said: “The Word is the Food of the Angels. Men do not have the strength to nourish themselves with this Heavenly Food, yet they need It.

What is needed is a mother who may eat this supersubstantial Bread, transform It into her milk, and in this way feed her poor children. This Mother is Mary. She nourishes herself with the Word and transforms Him into Sacred Humanity. She transforms Him into Flesh and Blood, into this Most Sweet Milk which is called the Eucharist.”

We find that the Marian shrines all over the world always foster devotion to the Eucharist: Lourdes, Fatima, Loreto, Pompeii, and many others. They could also be called Eucharistic shrines, where crowds approach the Altar almost endlessly to receive Mary's Blessed Fruit.

And it couldn't be otherwise because, St. Bernardette said, “Jesus and Mary always go together.”

When Our Lady appeared at Fatima, she asked the children that, together with the Holy Rosary, there would above all be the Communion of Reparation for all the offenses and outrages which her Immaculate Heart receives.

And so with great intensity did Sor Lucia of Fatima encourage the whole Church. She listened to the sorrowful lament of Our Lord Himself, Who showed her the Immaculate Heart of Mary, saying, “Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, wrapped in the thorns which ungrateful men inflict on her continuously.”

There is no one to make acts of reparation to remove them from her. Our Lord Himself then searches for loving hearts who desire to console Our Lady by welcoming her into their home, as St. John the Evangelist did.

We truly welcome her in the home of our hearts in a manner most intimate and most dear to her, every time we let her enter us by receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion. And we offer her the living, true Jesus for her surpassing comfort and delight.

It is a great grace to be united to Our Lady with Jesus and in Jesus.

St. Ambrose desired that all Christians would have “Mary's soul to magnify the Lord and Mary's spirit to exult in God!”

This is precisely what is granted to us in the noblest way in every Holy Communion.

Union and resemblance to Our Lady are, therefore, the sublime fruits of the Eucharist that transform us into Jesus, who is indescribably “all Mary."

One of the old monstrances designed to figure Our Lady carrying the Eucharist has words inscribed on its base: “O Christian, who comes full of faith to receive the Bread of Life, eat It worthily, and remember that It was fashioned out of Mary’s pure blood.”

Our Lady can rightly beckon us and speak to us in the inspired words of Solomon: “Come and eat my bread, drink the wine I have prepared for you.”

St. Maximilian Kolbe paraphrased this passage when he proposed that all the Altars of the Blessed Sacrament be surmounted with a statue of Our Lady with her arms extended, to invite all to come eat the Bread that she had made.

St. Josemaria indicated that in all the oratories of Opus Dei all over the world, there should be an image of Our Lady as the background to the Tabernacle.

St. John Bosco used to say: “Imagine that it is no longer the Priest but the most Holy Madonna herself who comes to give you the Holy Host.”

St. Peter Julian Eymard taught that as the Immaculate Conception was the preparation for Our Lady’s first Holy Communion – namely, at the Incarnation of the Word – so she continues to be the preparation for every Holy Communion, provided that we ask her and beg her that she may cover us with the mantle of her purity and clothe us with the whiteness and the splendor of her Immaculate Conception.

One day one of the Sisters asked St. Bernadette, “How are you able to remain for so long in Thanksgiving after Holy Communion?” St. Bernadette replied, “I consider that it is Our Lady who gives me the Baby Jesus. I receive Him. I speak to Him and He speaks to me.”

St. Gregory of Tours said that Mary’s immaculate bosom is the Heavenly Bread box, well-stocked with the Bread of Life that was made to feed her children.

“Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts that nourished You!”

Our Lady carried Our Lord within her womb, while His Body was being formed from her flesh and blood.

Every time we go to Holy Communion, it should be a pleasure to recall that Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is the Bread of Life produced from Our Lady with the flour of her immaculate flesh and kneaded with her virginal milk.

St. Josemaria in the Forge, 542, says that the Gospel tells us that Jesus hid when they wanted to make Him king after He had worked a miracle.

“Lord, You make us share in the miracle of the Eucharist. We beg You not to hide away. Live with us. May we see You, may we touch You, may we feel You. May we want to be beside You all the time and have You as the king of our lives and of our work.”

One spiritual writer says she appeared on earth to prepare for His coming. She lived in His shadow to such an extent that we do not see her intervening in the Gospel except as the Mother of Jesus, following Him, watching Him.

And when Jesus leaves us, she effaces herself. She does so, but she remains in the memory of the people because we owe Jesus to her.

We see Jesus talking about the mysteries of the Kingdom of God: the crowds are all about Him, looking at Him, observing a deep silence. All of a sudden this woman shouts out in the crowd, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts that nourished You.”

The prophecy in the Magnificat begins to be fulfilled.

“Henceforth all generations will call me blessed.” Mary had exclaimed under the motion of the Holy Spirit.

On this occasion, with popular spontaneity, a woman's words have begun something which will not cease until the end of the world.

Those words of Our Lady at the outset of her vocation were to have the most complete fulfillment down through the centuries.

Poets, intellectuals, kings, warriors, craftsmen, mothers, mature men and women, and children scarcely able to talk, in the fields, in the cities, on mountaintops, in factories, on the highways, amid sorrows and joys, in most transcendental occasions.

Consider how innumerable individuals have given up their souls to God by looking at a picture of Our Lady, and with the sweet name of Mary on their lips or in their mind. Or on the most ordinary of occasions, like turning a corner and catching a fleeting glimpse of an image of Our Lady.

On so many occasions, of such different kinds, millions of voices in all languages have sung the praises of the Mother of God.

It is a ceaseless cry all across the world, which daily calls down God's mercy on earth. A cry which we cannot explain except in terms of an express wish of God.

The Second Vatican Council reminds us that from the earliest times, the Blessed Virgin has been honored under the title of “Mother of God”, under whose protection the faithful took refuge in all their dangers and necessities.

The whole Christian people have always known how to go to Our Lady, to Our Lord, to His Mother, with a constant experience of her graces and favors.

They have called her all-powerful in supplication, and they have found in her the shortcut to God. Love has found many ways of addressing her and honoring her.

The Church has constantly recommended and blessed this devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It's a sure way to get to Our Lord.

Because Mary is always the way that leads to Christ, every encounter with her cannot but end in a meeting with Christ Himself. And what more does a continuous recourse to Mary signify than the quest for Christ?

St. Pope Paul VI says Christ is our Saviour, to Whom men – amid the discouragements and dangers here below – have the duty and feel the need to seek as a harbor of salvation and a transcendent source of life.

During the Mass, we have a fitting opportunity to renew the offering of our life and our actions of each day to God.

When the Priest is offering the bread and the wine, we offer everything we are and everything we possess, and everything we have in mind to do that day.

On the paten we place our memory, our intellect, our will, our family, our work, our joys and sorrows, all our concerns, and the aspirations and acts of atonement, the small mortifications and the acts of love which we hope will fill our day.

We know that Our Lady takes all these offerings like a good Mother, accepts the offerings of her children, and places them on the paten beside Jesus.

These offerings are small and poor, but as we unite them to the offering of Christ in the Mass, they become immeasurable and eternal.

Speaking of the laity, the Second Vatican Council said:

“For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit – indeed even the hardships of life, if patiently borne – all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist, these may most fittingly be offered to the Father along with the Body of the Lord.”

Many great things happen in the Mass and through our Lady.

On the Altar, beside the bread and wine, we leave all that we have, all that we are: our hopes and dreams, all that we love, all that's on our mind.

At the Consecration, we give it all definitively to God.

None of all these things is ours alone and, as children of God, aware that everything we have is on loan, we should use it for the purpose for which we have intended it: for the glory of God and the good of those close to us.

Offering everything we do to God helps us to do things better, to be more effective in our work, to be more cheerful in family life even though we may be tired, to get on better with everybody, and to be better citizens.

We can renew the offering of our work throughout the day. When we are beginning a new task, or when we’re finding the job we are at particularly difficult. Our Lord accepts our tiredness, and when we offer it to Him, then it acquires redemptive value.

We could try to live each day as if it were the only day we have to offer to Our Lord, trying to do things well, and rectifying things when we do them badly. And one day it will be our last day, but we will have offered that day too to God our Father.

We could ask Our Lady that we might make that offering every day so that, truly with Our Lady, on the last day of our life, we have truly offered everything to Jesus through Mary. So that we can hear the words of our Lord: “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

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, St. Joseph, my father, and lord, my Guardian Angel, intercede for me.

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

JM