DAILY EUCHARIST - from a letter by Fr. Andrew SDC

If we really believe in (our Lord’s) coming in the Blessed Sacrament, we shall learn to rest in His coming a good deal more.  Do you think that when He comes He does not come to stay and will leave us, and that we must be hurrying back to the altar again and again in order to be sure of having Him in our hearts?  It is to me the greatest possible privilege to say Mass daily … but I often have to go without saying Mass for a day or two, and … if illness or obedience take that away from me I know very well that the Presence which I have received will never leave me except I sin wilfully.

It must have been very hard for S. John the Baptist who loved our Lord so tenderly to go right away from our Lord’s presence at Nazareth, and live all those years in the wilderness, but you see he knew that it if it was our Lord’s will that he should live apart from His visible Presence on earth, he would gain a greater nearness to the spiritual, invisible, Real Presence in the wilderness.  

You say, ‘It would be terrible not to take one’s Communion daily.’ S. Francis was forty days alone, and he did not make his Communion.  S. Benedict was months without hearing Mass or making his Communion. The saints of the Egyptian desert, who knew more about our Lord than anyone, only had Mass on Sundays and Saint’s days.

There are people who are saturated in Sacraments and don't know God.  They don't want more grace: they want to learn to use grace.

S. Paul the Hermit only made one Communion in his whole life S. Antony, S. Bernard, S. Bruno, S. Francis all had their periods when they were deprived of the Sacraments.  S. John of the Cross went months without his Communion when he was imprisoned by the bad monks at his monastery, and during that time he learned all his greatest knowledge.

The thing is to put first is the will of Jesus and the love of Jesus, and not the consolation of the Presence of Jesus.  

I have learnt to know that it is very possible to go to Mass daily and not to go to Jesus at all interiorly, and to go to confession weekly and never to repent.  It all comes from a want of interior silence and detachment, and as the natural comes before the spiritual and the exterior in a measure before the interior, you must get an exterior silence and an exterior detachment before you can have any idea how it is with your soul.  …  there is no such thing as a daily Mass with God.  It is an everlasting Sacrifice, and if we are true to our Communions we are always in the attitude of those who are assisting at the everlasting Sacrifice.

The Caldey Brothers in their beginning had to go weeks sometimes without a Mass, I am almost absolutely sure.  Certainly I know they took that risk in order to gain the essential silence and separation.

From: The Life and Letters of Father Andrew SDC, ed. Kathleen E. Burne, Mowbray, London, 1948, p.109f
(Emboldened texts by J-FF)

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST

We will be aware – if we look beneath the surface of our lives – that we come to Christ as a sinner in need to a Saviour; a broken human being in need of wholeness; a creature needing to be re-fashioned in the likeness of the One who made us.  We have so much – potential – to be great and glorious, to reflect God’s wonder – yet we have besmirched God’s image within us.  What was created for the best has, so often, failed to live up to its potential.  What we need is to feed on his Body and be washed clean by his Blood that he may live in us as we in him.

Fr Andrew, one of the founders of the Society of the Divine Compassion, once wrote that it is a terrible thought that what is beautiful may be put to evil use – yet the humblest thing may become the greatest.  A humble village woman was called to share herself with God that she might become God’s Mother.  ‘A little white wafer is laid on the altar, and a few drops of wine mingled with water and poured into the chalice with the words: ‘By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity’ – and these simple elements become the holiest of mysteries.  So whilst the best may become the worst, the humblest may also become the highest; for all things were meant to give God glory’ and if he is loved above all things then, through his love coming to us through these sacred things, all will be made whole.