The Children's Eucharistic Crusade Manual

Fr. Louis Guardiola, C.P.M.

Introduction

This Manual is a twenty-first century adaptation of the Society of Jesus' Eucharistic Crusade manual of the twentieth century. The following reflections will follow the twenty centuries of teachings, definitions and traditions of our Catholic faith. This manual is designed to be used and adapted for Catholic grade schools, high schools, colleges, CCD and home schooling programs.

The classical Jesuit Eucharistic Crusade organized it's formation into four phases:

1. First, Eucharistic education.
   
   
2. Second, Eucharistic Adoration.
   
   
3. Thirdly, Eucharistic Communion.
   
   
4. Fourth, Eucharistic Apostolate and Evangelization.

The children and indeed all those who use the manual are to be prepared for the Christian life of perfection in order to acquire the apostolic spirit. This is done through the knowledge and love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, especially through an intimate union of love, life and sacrifice with Him in the Sacrifice of the Eucharist, where He continually offers Himself for us. The educational purpose is summed up in the Jesuit twentieth century Eucharistic Crusader four watch words:

1. Pray
2. Receive Communion
3. Sacrifice
4. Save Souls.

The spirit of the Eucharistic crusade is Christo-centric. It does not revolve around an lifeless abstract ideal, but on the living Divine person present in the Holy Eucharist, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is our leader and the Eucharistic crusaders are His army. To know Jesus, to love Him, in order to serve Him always more perfectly are the goals of our Eucharistic formation. Children by nature are enthusiastic and hero- worshipers. Jesus is our great hero. Jesus is our first and greatest love and one who loves us.

The best way to inspire enthusiasm in children to become Eucharistic soldiers of Christ is to fill their hearts and minds with Christ, by attaching them to the Divine person of Christ, by making them fall in love with Christ, to become fully captivated by Christ.

Vatican II (The Church in The Modern World 45) said that Jesus was, “The focal point of the longings of history and civilization, the center of the human race, the joy of every heart and the answer to all yearnings.”

Love for the person of Christ in Himself leads to love for Christ in His Mystical Body, His Church, and to love for Christ in souls, the apostolate.

The aim of the Eucharistic Crusade apostolate is to have the Eucharistic Christ reign in our country and in the hearts of every person worldwide.

This is what “crusade” means. Like the crusaders of old, we want to deliver souls from the captivity of Satan by freeing them from the deceit of error. We want Jesus Christ to reign in the whole world, to bring all members of the human race to love, knowledge and service of Christ.

The crusader acting from the courage of their convictions in the Eucharistic Lord, seeks to conquer for Christ, “to not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” with the supreme good and power of the Eucharist. Vatican II (Laity I:2) once again pointed this out, “The Christian vocation is by it's very nature a vocation to the apostolate.”

We train children to be missionaries, apostles, crusaders, evangelists and soldiers of the Holy Eucharist.

Love for the Eucharistic Christ and His self-sacrificial love for souls are the two great loves of the crusader. As Vatican II said (The Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, V:42), “It is the love of God and the love of one's neighbor that points out the true disciple of Christ.”

I.  Eucharistic Education

Why is Eucharistic Education Necessary?

When we ask the question why, we inquire about it's purpose. What is the purpose of Eucharistic education? It is to first learn about the what and the who of the Eucharist. We learn this in order that the Eucharistic knowledge gained may encourage us to adore God in Eucharistic adoration. So that growing in love, communion and friendship with Our Lord we may like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, be inspired to evangelize His Real Eucharistic Presence to the whole world.

Eucharistic education is for the purpose of Eucharistic adoration.

Why? One cannot love what one does not know. One must have an object of love in order to love. This object of love must be recognized as outside and distinct from oneself who as the knowing subject and person in knowing this object of love, Our Lord Jesus Christ, knows what is loved and that what is loved, Jesus Christ the God-Man loves them in return.

Eucharistic education therefore, is not just an education in knowledge, but in love. Eucharistic education is an education in divine love that encourages us to respond to God's love.

To understand the Holy Eucharist is to understand God Himself contained in the Eucharist, God who is love.

To understand the Holy Eucharist is not only to understand God who is love, but the God who loves each and every one of us. God who so loved the world sent down His only Son that we may be saved and come to knowledge of the truth. That Jesus Christ is the God-man who is love and truth itself sacramentally contained in the Holy Eucharist.

Eucharistic education then leads to Eucharistic adoration because it enlightens us to the knowledge of God's own love for each and every one of us, who demonstrated His love for us by dying for our sins on the Cross.

Eucharistic education not only enlightens us to God's love for us, but that it is a love of a Divine person. When we acquire this Eucharistic knowledge, we are inspired to adore because we realize that God personally loves us. In knowing this, we in turn want to personally respond to God's love for us by adoring Him in Eucharistic adoration.

This is what Eucharistic adoration is, our personal response, in person, to the Divinely personal love of God for each and everyone of us.

Eucharistic adoration is a person to person loving encounter and intercommunication and exchange of love between two persons: one Divine, one human, between creator and creature, between one who is loved and one being loved.

This loving communication between God and man,creator and creature, is a reciprocal one.

God is loved by His creatures who in turn are loved by their Creator. We in loving God are at the same time being loved by Him.

Eucharistic education is an education in faith, the theological or supernatural virtue of complete and total acceptance of our minds and complete consent or yes of our will, our power of decision.

Eucharistic education is not merely an education in faith, but one that leads to love, charity, another supernatural virtue. This leads us to express our love not only in actually loving Jesus in adoration, but to actively profess and evangelize other members of the faith and to the entire world, His Eucharistic Presence in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Adoration. We do this in order to lead others to love Jesus in the Mass and in adoration and through this to their and the world's salvation.

What is the Eucharist?

The word “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving” and “to show favor.”

The Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, Sacred Humanity, of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that united in His one Divine person is really, truly, wholly, entirely, substantially, personally and sacramentally present.

This is the summation of twenty centuries of doctrine and tradition of scripture, the Church Doctors and theologians, Papal Encyclicals and Councils of the Roman Catholic Church.

Who is the Eucharist?

The 'who” of the Eucharist is derived from the “what” of the Eucharist.

Who is personally present in the Holy Eucharist? It is the Second Divine Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the God-Man Jesus Christ. Present to us through Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is also God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in virtue of Jesus' Real Presence, we can also say that the entire Holy Trinity is our Eucharistic ally and truly present to us.

In the Holy Eucharist the Holy Trinity is really present to us in three ways: Present personally in being, present in time in the present “now” and present to us in love.

Why the Eucharist?

Why is to ask the purpose. What is the purpose of the Eucharist? One may ask what is the Divine purpose or reason for giving us the Holy Eucharist? The Eucharist is the God-food of the God-Man, that makes us God-bearers who are God-empowered to do what is humanly impossible but supernaturally possible with God's Eucharistic grace. To do what? one might ask. To personally and supernaturally transform us in order to transform our families, our nation, our church, the world and the entire human race in order to achieve their eternal salvation.

This is why the Church says that the Eucharist is the “Source and Summit” of the faith.

Quoting the Catechism on THE EUCHARIST-SOURCE AND SUMMIT OF ECCLESIAL (CHURCH) LIFE (1324) “The Eucharist is the source and the summit of the Christian life. (LG 11). The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with and are orientated toward it. For in the Blessed Sacrament is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ Himself our Pasch.” The Catechism continues, (1325) 'The Eucharist is efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God's action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through Him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.” Finally, The Catechism concludes, (1327) “In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith; Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the Holy Eucharist on Holy Thursday night at The Last Supper for our salvation and to continue through His Body and Blood to apply the outflow of His saving grace won on The Cross until the end of time. As St. Paul said, (I Cor 10) “until He comes again.”

Jesus made this abundantly clear in John chapter six when he repeatedly said, “He who eats my Body and drinks my Blood has eternal life.”

This is why we receive the Eucharist in Mass and adore Jesus, in order that we may spend an eternity of happiness with Jesus in heaven where we will no longer see Jesus Eucharistically veiled, but “see Him as He is” (St John).”

What is the Essence of the Eucharist?

What is the heart and soul of the Eucharist? It is the self-sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. Jesus, by His Crucifixion on Good Friday, that finished, brought to completion His Eucharistic Sacrifice begun the night before at The Last Supper. Therefore, Holy Thursday and Good Friday are one and the same sacrifice as initiation and completion.

The Holy Eucharist as Sacrament

What is a sacrament? A sacrament is a sensible sign instituted and established by Jesus Christ the God-Man, by which invisible grace and inward sanctification are communicated to the soul.

The Holy Eucharist meets all requirements of a sacrament. The Holy Eucharist is a sensible sign, in which the material elements, which we call the appearances of bread and wine, sensibly signify the true Body and Blood of Christ. At times as seen in the twenty centuries of the faith, even the appearances of bread and wine have miraculously manifested Jesus' Body and Blood in order to sensibly foster faith both to believers and non-believers.

The Holy Eucharist was instituted, established by Jesus Christ, the God-Man on Holy Thursday at The Last Supper. Jesus at The Last Supper said, “This is My Body, this is My Blood…Do this in memory of Me.”

Jesus, in instituting the Holy Eucharist, did not say, “this was My Body” or “this will be my Body.”

Jesus used the present tense in instituting the Holy Eucharist.

Jesus said this in order to signify by His own words, He who is the Word of God, His Real Eucharistic Presence, in the present tense of time.

Jesus also said, “this.” What did Jesus signify by “this?” The word “this” is an demonstrative pronoun. To demonstrate in Latin means “to show.” A pronoun grammatically refers to a person, place or thing. Jesus in saying, “this is My Body, this is My Blood” at The Last Supper, was “showing” us his one Divine Person in the Holy Eucharist.

Jesus did not only show us His Divine Person is present by His words, but also reveals that He really exists personally in the present everlasting and renewing “now.”

Why? Because the word “is” is the first person singular of the verb “to Be” which means “to exist.”

Because Jesus is personally and really present in the Holy Eucharist by the infallible testimony of His own Divine Person, who as God is all good and therefore cannot lie to deceive us and as all knowing cannot be Himself deceived, we believe in His Real Eucharistic Divinely Personal Presence. Because of our belief, Jesus as the Author and Originator of all Sanctifying Grace, sacramentally and Personally communicates His Divine grace and sanctification to all the faithful who worthily receive Him without mortal sin.

Why is the Holy Eucharist the Primary Sacrament of Sacraments
From Which All the Other Sacraments Derive Their Power, Origin and Efficacy?

The Holy Eucharist is the primary sacrament of sacraments that by definition contain and communicate grace, because it contains the source and origin of all grace, the Second Divine Person of the Divine Trinity, Jesus Christ. This is why we can say that from the Holy Eucharist all the other six sacraments derive their origin, power and efficacy.

The Holy Eucharist as Sacrifice Sacrament

What is a true sacrifice? A true sacrifice has two dimensions. First, someone or something very precious and unblemished is offered to God. In the context of the Holy Eucharist it is the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ who takes away the sins of the entire world.

Jesus as true man and true God, had His Sacrifice on The Cross totally accepted by The Father to make complete, full and definitive satisfaction and reparation for the sins of the entire human race for all time: past, present and future.

The second dimension of a true sacrifice is the outpouring or oblation of blood. This Jesus did once actually on The Cross in a bloody manner and continues to do so through His priests today and until the end of time, in an unbloody fashion.

Remember that Jesus as the God-Man in offering The Last Supper, offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass simultaneously on two levels: as God and man, in time and eternity . Jesus' sacrifice offered as man in time in virtue of His Divinity also offered it for all eternity. Therefore the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered at The Last Supper would be efficacious and valid for all eternity and all time as offered now on earth by His priests, His “Alter Christus” ordained to have the power of God in consecrating the Eucharist at Mass.

What was done two thousand years ago at the Last Supper, in virtue of the words originally uttered by the God- man, Jesus Christ, “this is my Body, this is my Blood” now becomes present and real to us in the Holy Eucharist today as our catechism says. C.C.C. 1363, “In the sense of Sacred Scripture the MEMORIAL is not merely the recollection of past events but the proclamation of the mighty works wrought by God for men. IN THE LITURGICAL CELEBRATION OF THESE EVENTS, THEY BECOME IN A CERTAIN WAY PRESENT AND REAL. This is how Israel understands its liberation from Egypt: every time Passover is celebrated, the Exodus events are made present to the memory of believers so that they may conform their lives to them.”

The Catechism continues, (1364) “In the New Testament, the memorial takes on a new meaning. When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ's Passover, and it is MADE PRESENT: the sacrifice Christ offered once and for all on The Cross remains EVER PRESENT. As often as the sacrifice of the Cross by which 'Christ our Pasch has been sacrificed' is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out.”

Finally the Catechism addresses (1366) the Holy Eucharist and the Mass as the sacrificial memorial and re-presentation of The Cross that continually applies its saving fruits. “The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice be cause it RE-PRESENTS (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its MEMORIAL and because it APPLIES its fruit; The Council of Trent explained this: “[Christ] our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer Himself to God the father by His death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But because His priesthood was not to end with His death, at the Last Supper, “on the night He was betrayed”, [He wanted] to leave to His beloved spouse, the Church, a visible sacrifice (as the nature of man demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which He was to accomplish once and for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of the sins we daily commit.”

In offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass a duly authorized priest, in the name of the People Of God, offers the God-Man Jesus Christ as victim, in acknowledgement of God's supreme sovereignty and dominion and because of this our total human dependence on God.

The Holy Eucharist as Communion-Sacrament

Communion means in Latin “To become one with.”

When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion our body, our blood, our soul, our divine-like human nature becomes one with Jesus' own Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity, Sacred humanity and one Divine person.

Holy Communion is how we enter into a totally intimate union with the God-Man Jesus Christ. That is the most intimate personal relationship we can have with God on earth.

When we receive Jesus, we become one with not only Jesus ourselves, but we become one with everyone who receives Jesus worthily everywhere in the world and for all time.

Holy Communion is the personal and moral aspect of the Holy Eucharist. Why? We become what we eat and the more worthily we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, the more we are fed and grow in faith and in likeness to Jesus in word, thought and deed. This Eucharistic communion can become a total identity and friendship with Jesus to the point that when we speak, Jesus speaks and when we think, Jesus thinks, and when we act, Jesus acts.

The Catechism (1391) speaks of the unitive fruits of the Eucharist as Communion-sacrament. “HOLY COMMUNION AUGMENTS OUR UNION WITH CHRIST. The principal fruit of receiving the Eucharist in holy Communion is an INTIMATE UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS. Indeed, the Lord said: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides (lives) in me, and I in Him (Jn 6:56).”

The catechism continues, (1392) “What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a flesh 'given life and increasing life through the Holy Spirit,' preserves, increases and renews the life of grace received at Baptism. This growth in Christian Life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death when it will be given to us as viaticum.”

Finally the Catechism addresses how the Eucharist as Communion-sacrament unities the entire church, the Mystical Body Of Christ. (1396) “THE UNITY OF THE MYSTICAL BODY: THE EUCHARIST. Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ (personal union). Through it Christ unites them all to the faithful in one body—the Church. Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the Church, already achieved by Baptism. In Baptism we have been called to form one body. The Eucharist fulfills this call: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread (I Cor 10: 16-17).”

We can see from the evidence of Sacred Scripture itself that even in the first generation A.D. of the Church, Her members believed that the Eucharist was both a Real Presence and a Holy Communion sacrament that united both believer and Church in receiving Jesus. Therefore our belief in the Real Eucharistic Presence Of Jesus is not mere human tradition but of Divine Scriptural teaching and truth.

To deny the Real Presence in the face of the testimony of Sacred Scripture, God Himself (John Chapter six) and the early Church in Holy Scripture is to accuse both God Himself and Holy Scripture itself of falsehood.

The Holy Eucharist as Real Presence Sacrament

The Real Presence is the way, the manner in which the God-Man, Jesus Christ, is present in the Holy Eucharist. Our Lord is present in the same way as the Holy Eucharist is defined: Really, truly substantially, wholly, entirely, present in His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, Sacred Humanity, wholly, entirely, sacramentally present in His One Divine Person.

Jesus becomes really present in the Eucharistic species when His words of consecration are uttered, “This is my Body, This is my Blood”.

What happens at these words of consecration? There is effected by the power of God who originally uttered these words of consecration at the Last Supper a complete Divine transformation of bread and wine into His Body and Blood. This Divine Eucharistic transformation is so complete and profound that the bread and wine no longer exist or coexist with Jesus' Body and Blood. This is an error called companation.

This complete Divine transformation was called by the Church at the Council of Trent (1545-63) and is still called today, “Transubstantiation.” In transubstantiation the entire substance of the bread becomes Divinely transformed into the entire substance of Christ at the words of consecration, “This is my Body”. Likewise, the entire substance of the wine becomes Divinely transformed into the entire substance of the Blood of Christ at the words of consecration, “This is my blood.” the separate consecration of the Body and Blood is known as the “double consecration.” necessary for validity.

The Council of Trent (1551) “In the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist is contained truly, really, and substantially the Body and Blood together with the the Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and consequently the whole Church. (Denzinger 1636,1640).

St. Ambrose uses analogy to explain the Divine transformation of Eucharistic transubstantiation. If God can create the world out of nothing as He indeed did, then He certainly can re-create from what actually exists and has its own nature, into His own Body and Blood, and give it a new nature.

Fr. John Hardon S.J. said that Jesus is present really, that is objectively, in the Eucharist, and not only subjectively in the mind of the believer.

Summation

The Holy Eucharist is the Source and summit of our faith as it contains wholly and entirely the God-Man Jesus Christ,who is the alpha and the omega, the summation and final definitive realization of the Heavenly Fathers promise of salvation to the human race after the fall as the messianic food from heaven.

The Holy Eucharist is the full and perfect manna, the divine bread of eternal life that is the embodiment of God Himself in human form and nourishment. The Holy Eucharist is the Divine manna come down from heaven. The Holy Eucharist is truly God amongst us, in us and always working through us until the end of time.

Since the Sacrifice of Eucharist is the center of the Christian life, all true Christian education must be Eucharistic. The Eucharistic Crusade therefore strives to make education in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Eucharist and Eucharistic adoration the center of the religious education of Catholic children. This is so that children should receive the Holy Eucharist as early, frequently, and with as great zealousness as possible. This Education should continue by instructing the children in every part of the Mass so they may participate in the Mass more intelligently, more actively and above all to live the the Mass. The end of their education is to make the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Adoration the center of their lives as victims and offerers and to evangelize this to the world.

II.  Eucharistic Adoration

Its Relationship to and Foundation in Eucharistic Education

One cannot love what one does not know. Eucharistic Adoration is a revelation of both our love and faith in the Real Divinely Personal presence of our Eucharistic Lord.

One only adores to the extent one believes.

If one does not believe, especially in the Real Eucharistic Presence of Our Lord, one does not adore at all.

If one believes, but not very fervently, then one adores rarely.

If one believes in the Real Eucharistic Presence of Our Lord with all their heart and soul, one adores as often as one can.

Therefore Eucharistic education is of the very essence in creating and forming a new generation or re-generation as the case may be, of adorers.

Eucharistic education is an on-going life-long catechesis. As one matures and grows older, the weight of the world presses on one more heavily with her incitement to error, apostasy, mortal sin, lukewarmness, indifference, etc.

Therefore, one needs to continually grow and mature in Eucharistic faith and in the faith in general.

This applies especially to priests of whom Bishop Fulton Sheen urged to spend one hour a day before the Blessed Sacrament in adoration. Why? Because to do so is not only to grow in holiness, but in knowledge and faith. This is why St. Thomas Aquinas, Bishop Fulton Sheen and Fr. John Hardon S.J. (both of whose causes for canonization have been advanced) spent hours in Eucharistic adoration. Why? Because these very holy priests knew that in spending time before Jesus, they were in the presence of the Divine teacher and Wisdom Itself.

In knowing this, they drew their inspiration from and entrusted their books, homilies,writings and teachings in general to Our Eucharistic Lord.

Eucharistic Adoration of it's nature then has an educative aspect. One is educated to adore and when one begins to adore, one receives a deeper and more comprehensive education from the Eucharistic Lord Himself.

This is reminiscent of St. Augustine's famous statement, “faith seeking understanding.” One needs faith to adore, yet when one adores in faith, this faith grows even stronger, being fed from the very source of grace and truth Itself, the Eucharistic Lord.

What is Adoration?

Adoration is an act of religion which means “to bind together” by which God is recognized as alone worthy of supreme honor because He is infinitely perfect, has supreme dominion over humans and the right to total human dependence on the creator.

It is at once an act of mind and will, expressing itself in appropriate prayers, postures of praise, and acts of reverence.

The word adoration in it's Latin derivation is ad “to” orare “to pray” from os, oris, “mouth” from the pagan custom of expressing preference for a God by wafting a kiss to a statue. Adoratio in Latin means worship and veneration. (Fr. John Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary, p.13).

What is Eucharistic Adoration?

The acknowledgement that because the whole Christ is really present in the Blessed Sacrament, He is to be adored in the Eucharist as the incarnate God-Man. Eucharistic Adoration emerged gradually in the life and the practice of the Church, when seeing that the Blessed Sacrament was reserved in the tabernacle, people began to understand the importance of silent adoration.

Therefore the present form of Exposition and Benediction gradually emerged.

Saint John Paul II spoke of the importance Eucharistic Adoration: “The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go to meet Him in adoration, in CONTEMPLATION, FULL OF FAITH, and OPEN to making AMENDS for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never cease (C.C.C. 1380).”

Pope John Paul II, a great saint, one whom many consider as the greatest Pope of modern times, considers Eucharistic Adoration to be of supreme importance both for the Church and the world. The Church and the world NEED adoration, meaning it is not an option in our life of worship. In fact as a young Ignatian Catechist who worked seven years for Fr. John Hardon S.J., I remember on several occasions that Fr. Hardon told me after he visited St. John Paul II in Rome, that unless Eucharistic Adoration became widespread in the Unities States, the faith would not survive in our country.

St. John Paul II also said in the statement above that, “Jesus awaits for us in this sacrament of love.” This reveals the attitude of God in the Blessed Sacrament who stated so beautifully and truthfully, “No where are you more wanted, no where are you more invited to be with than with Jesus who awaits for you for all the ages for your visit.”

Mother Theresa (whose cause for canonization is also being advanced) said that Our Lord “thirsted”, “sitio” in Latin for our salvation on the Cross. She then said that “He now thirsts for you” in the Blessed Sacrament.

Thirst. Thirst is a very intense desire. Jesus the God-Man very intensely desires our salvation and for us to be really and personally present with Him in adoration.

We cannot refuse this reciprocation of God's love for us, because this is what Eucharistic Adoration is, an hour of power, an hour of love, 'Son” bathing in the Divine radiation of love, wisdom, purity, encouragement of the God-Man Jesus Christ.

Eucharistic adoration is an hour with the Divine physician, psychologist, and cardiologist who heals all our wounds, anger, cowardliness, issues, weakness, etc.

In Eucharist adoration we go in like a lion and out like a lamb. Why? Because we have just spent and hour with the Lamb of God who takes away not only our sins and that of the entire world, but all the above cited illnesses and wounds.

Yet in order for this to happen, we must have faith as St. John Paul II said a faith that is “open” and indeed opens the way to the reparation for the crimes, the disbelief, the sins of ourselves, our families, our Church, our nation and the entire world.

Indeed St John Paul II in his concise statement quoted above summed up the four A.C.T.S. of complete Eucharistic Adorative prayer:

• Adoration
  
  
• Contrition (or reparation)
  
  
• Thanksgiving
  
  
• Supplication (Or petition)

Why is Eucharistic Adoration so Important?

Because it is the only resolution to the world crisis. The world crisis is the decidedly anti-Christian atmosphere of our late 20th and now early 21st century that is a return with interest of the pagan barbarism of the first century A.D. Roman empire.

This is seen in the persecution of Christians all over the world by Islamic terrorists and civil governments who are attempting to impose civil laws against the Divine, eternal, moral and natural law that is the foundation of all authentically Christian morality and teaching.

How do we fight against this ocean of sin that threatens to overcome us?

We can only do so by an ocean of grace.

Where do we get this ocean of grace?

Only in the Eucharistic Lord.

The Eucharistic Lord where in receiving Him in The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in adoring Him in Adoration we can be the conduits who can open through the Eucharistic Sacred Heart of Jesus this ocean of grace that will transform the world.

The Eucharistic solution.

THERE IS NO OTHER SOLUTION!

There is no military, political, economic, social solution.

We must be first transformed from within before the world can be transformed from without.

To the extent we allow ourselves to be transformed by the Holy Eucharist in Eucharistic Adoration, to that extent we shall transform the world!

Let us be clear.

What is this Eucharistic transformation?

It is to be transformed, transfused through the Eucharist and adoration with the self-sacrificial love of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross.

What happens when the world is Eucharistically transformed through us? Transformed in the Eucharistic spirit of self-sacrificial love?

Mothers will sacrifice for their children, not have their children be sacrificed for their own selfish desires. If this happens, abortion will end.

The elderly will not be put to death before their time, but will be respected and cherished for their wisdom and experience. Most of all we shall sacrifice and share our material resources, gifts, talents with each other. We will not need the state or federal government, we will take care of things ourselves as the early Christians did.

Why Eucharistic Adoration is Really Not an Option in Our Faith Life and Practice

The answer to this question is given by our consideration and acknowledgement of the magnitude of anti-Christian persecution and legalized anti-Christian attitudes, lifestyle and agendas.

As Fr. John Hardon said, “Unless we recover the zeal and the spirit of the first century Christians—unless we are willing to do what they did and to pay the price that they paid, the future of our country, the days of America (and the world) are numbered.”

How do we recover the ZEAL AND SPIRIT and have the STRENGTH AND COURAGE to re-Christianize our 21st century by our heroic witness as our ancestors did?

It is by our faith in the Real Eucharistic Presence of Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist and practicing our faith by frequent Eucharistic reception in the Mass and Eucharistic Adoration.

Fr. Hardon also said on numerous occasions that only heroic Catholics, Catholics extraordinarily heroic in our faith, in our witness to our faith, extraordinary in our knowledge of the faith will survive.

Only the Eucharist’ power, the food of immortality can enable us to do what is humanly impossible without God's grace.

Fr. Hardon further commented on the necessity of Eucharistic Adoration in our times. “There never was a time in Christian history when the world more needed to be educated in faith in Christ, in belief in the Real Presence. It is the same Jesus present in the Eucharist today who worked miracles in first century A.D. Palestine. He is ready to perform miracles of conversion today in 21st century A.D. America provided we believe that He is with us here today in the Blessed Sacrament.”

Mother Theresa said in reply the question, “What will convert America and save the world?” Her answer. “Prayer.” “What we need is for every parish to come before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in Holy Hours of prayer.”

Eucharistic Adoration in Relationship and as a Mutual
Enhancement of Our Participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

The liturgical guidelines for Eucharistic Worship Outside of Mass (HCWEOM 80) express the interrelationship and unity between participation in The Holy Sacrifice Of the Mass and Eucharistic Adoration: “The same piety which moves the faithful to Eucharistic adoration attracts them to a deeper participation in the Paschal Mystery (the Mass).”

The Mass is defined as the continuation and perpetuation of the Sacrifice of the Cross and Calvary and of course the Passion, Death and Resurrection and Last Supper of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eucharistic Adoration is the “continuation” and “perpetuation” of the growth in holiness and Eucharistic Communion with Our Lord that begins in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass where the Eucharistic host that is inserted in the Monstrance during hours of adoration is consecrated.

Given the above, we can see that Eucharistic Adoration as fostering a growth in the virtue of piety, the virtue of giving due honor and respect to God, can only but help develop a greater piety and reverence in our Mass participation.

One feeds the other. The more we devoutly participate in the Mass, the more we shall create a desire to adore Jesus as we are not satisfied with Jesus' presence only at Mass, but want to linger in His Eucharistic Presence.

This is reminiscent of what St. Peter said at the Transfiguration when He said, “It is good to be here, let us build three huts.” Hut in the ancient languages meant “tabernacle.” So St. Peter was really saying that since it was so good to see the Risen Transfigured Lord (who is in the Eucharist today), let us build tabernacles to continually adore Him and remain in that special Eucharistic state of the really present Risen Lord as St. Peter did on Mt. Tabor that is today Mt. Eucharistic Adoration.

What are the Different Kinds of Eucharistic Adoration?

In the Year of the Eucharist (2005) the NCCB published a document entitled the Thirty-One Most Asked Questions On Eucharistic Adoration. One of the questions answered was on the different kinds of adoration. One can adore Jesus in the tabernacle as exposed in the monstrance during Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction.

The NCCB made the distinction between the two kinds of adoration.

Adoration of Jesus in the tabernacle is a private, devotional act.

1. Adoration of Jesus during Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction is a public liturgical action like the Mass.
   
   
2. One may make an analogy here. What is the difference between talking to a person on the phone and in person?

Talking to a person on the phone is a disembodied impersonal experience of that person. Talking and being present in person to the same person is a total, comprehensive, and much more intimate experience of that person.

Eucharistic Adoration is to be present and to have Jesus the Second Divine Person of the Holy Trinity present to us. In the public liturgical action of Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction we have a direct person to person interpersonal exchange of love between our Divine Person our creator, and His human created persons, us.

Not only personally but as a community of believers do we have an intimate experience of Jesus' divinely personal presence in Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction. Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction is therefore not only a personal Eucharistic worship but a community worship that of it's very nature unities the Mystical Body of Christ, the entire Church and indeed all of creation under it's creator.

We join in Common prayer before the exposed and Real Divine Personal Presence of God during Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction.

We join in common our petitions, our reparation and thanksgiving as the Mystical Body and Church Militant during Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction.

Eucharistic Adoration with it's ritual of praise, prayer and incensation is indeed angelic adoration. Why? Because in Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction we are worshiping in direct imitation of the angels who are depicted in six or seven instances in the Book of Revelation as adoring before the very throne of God in heaven, even with the very same Divine praises and incensation that are done by the Church Militant on earth!

This angelic and heavenly adoration is done in communion with the Most Holy Trinity, the heavenly court of angels,Our Lady, the Apostles, The Old and New Testament saints and prophets and all the Church Triumphant.

Our earthly communal adoration of Our Lord emulates this same Heavenly Communion of adoration.

The essence of the Eucharist is in its very effect a benefit to the individual, the Church and the world.

To the extent we allow ourselves to be transformed by the Holy Eucharist, with Jesus' self-sacrificial love, we shall transform the world.

The benefits of Eucharistic adoration are not then restricted to the individual adorer, but radiates outward to the Church, the family and the world.

Why? How so? Because God's love is not limited only to one person, but to every person and indeed all of creation.

When we become one with God's self-sacrificial love in Eucharistic adoration, we become like Jesus and radiate His self-sacrificial love to our family, our Church and the world.

When one adores Jesus with the proper dispositions and reverence, then one enters into their hour of adoration like a lion and exits like a lamb. Why? Because as stated before, when one spends time before Jesus in adoration, they spend time with the Lamb of God who takes away not only our sins, but our anger, our insecurity, our fears, etc.

When Eucharistic adoration benefits one member of the Church, the entire Church benefits because as St. Paul said, (I Cor 12: 24-26) “When one member is honored, all members share in that joy.” Especially when our Church members are joined joyfully in adoration.

As the Church goes, so does the world. When the entire Mystical Body of Christ, our Church on earth becomes holy and self-sacrificial through Eucharistic adoration, so does the world.

Imagine if everyone of the 1.2 billion members of the Catholic Church spent just one hour of adoration a week. One point two billion holy hours a week. The world would change immediately!

This is what will change the world. An army of Eucharistic adorers, crusaders, missionaries, soldiers and evangelists.

We already have this army. We really do not need to recruit an Eucharistic army as much as motivating and inspiring one. We have an army, but one with too many of it's members on reserve status. We need to get all of our one point two billion members on active duty!

Then when the world becomes a holy monstrance and tabernacle of Eucharistic self-sacrificial love, then abortion, contraception, war, terrorism, and sin will end. And the re-Christianization of the world will return.

How to Promote Eucharistic Adoration

PERSONALLY: Once I was approached by a gentleman during a Sunday sign-up in Alabama. He told me of a movement called “flash adoration” where Our Lord in the Monstrance was taken secretly outside the church and then suddenly exposed in city parks and buildings.

I could admire his zeal in wanting to promote adoration, even to the extent of Exposition of Our Lord in protestant churches and arguing about the Real Presence. However I counseled him against exposing Our Lord in this way and exposing the Eucharistic Lord to sacrilege , mockery and disbelief. Casting our Eucharistic pearls before swine so to speak.

Then upon reflection, I realized this gentleman had a very good idea, but it needed some discernment.

For years I had been preaching that we had to be “living monstrances”, “ living tabernacles” of Jesus' Divinely Personal Eucharistic Presence to the world in thought, word, deed and example. IN WORD: By our professing Jesus' Real Presence in the Eucharist and our own personal witness to how we have been supernaturally transformed by Jesus' self-sacrificial love. We can also profess in word by our teaching children, teens and adults in grade school, high school, CCD, adult education and at the university level. We can also profess in word by written articles, magazines and newsletters. IN THOUGHT: By our constant awareness of the constant presence of our Eucharistic Lord always present in love to us. We constantly recall the graces, peace, wisdom, healing that God has given us during our hours of adoration and indeed continues to give us now. IN DEED: By our growth in holiness as manifested especially by our growing in self-sacrificial love. Charity is the most undeniable indication of our growth in holiness as a moral effect of our hours of adoration.

How? First when we sacrifice our time, our desire for recreation in order to adore. Indeed, when adoration becomes our re-creation. Secondly by our sacrifice in helping others who are in need, for example to take time from our busy schedule like watching television or shopping, etc, to talk to someone on the phone who needs us. IN EXAMPLE: By our charity, wisdom, patience and by our very act of adoring Jesus. For example in France about 200 years ago a Catholic priest famous for his Eucharistic preaching, always prostrated before the Blessed Sacrament before he closed the Church for the night.

One day as he did this, a lady emerged from the confessional.

She told the priest, “I am a protestant, and I have been hearing your homilies for months . I decided to hide here in the confessional and see if you practice what you preach. Now that I see that you indeed do, I will become a Catholic.” She did and became a very good and devout Catholic.

Never, ever, doubt the example of our devout and reverential attitude and adoration of the Holy Eucharist. Some may openly mock us or scold us for doing so, but many more, thousands more will admire and perhaps be moved to adore and adore Jesus more reverently. I speak from experience especially as a priest, for generally as reverent as the priest is so will his people be.

Encouraging Eucharistic Adoration
Through Eucharistic Committees and Associations

Having preached Eucharistic Adoration missions, Forty Hours, Sunday weekend sign-ups for anywhere from eight hours a week to perpetual adoration, I can heartily recommend the importance for every parish to organize a Eucharistic Adoration committee.

The Eucharistic adoration committee must not be just another parish committee. It must be the “central” or umbrella committee that encompasses all the other parish committees. Members of the Eucharistic adoration committee must be taken from members of the other parish committees or groups, so that every parish group or committee is represented in the Eucharistic adoration committee. Knights of Columbus, women's groups and sodalities, the parish and economic committees, school teachers (If there is a parish school), and school children both of the parish school, CCD students and home schoolers. Every parishioner must feel as if they have a stake,stock so to speak, in the adoration of our local parish.

There are a number of Eucharistic adoration groups that come into parishes to help organize and promote Eucharistic adoration. The best of these and the one I recommend is THE REAL PRESENCE EUCHARISTIC EDUCATION AND ADORATION ASSOCIATION based in Lombard, Illinois, founded in 2001 by Fr. John Hardon S.J., Cardinal George of Chicago and Cardinal Burke now in Rome.

Summation

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the“Alpha” and the“Omega” the “beginning”and the“end.” The Holy Eucharist is the source and the summit of our faith. St. John Paul II told Fr. Hardon S.J. Several times that the Catholic Faith would not survive in America without an explosion of Eucharistic Adoration.

Mother Theresa whose cause for sainthood is also being advanced like Fr. Hardon, said that what is needed for America and the world is for every parish to come before Jesus in prayer. Mother Theresa also said that no where are you more wanted, no where are you more desired to be, than with Jesus really present before us waiting for all ages for your visit. We have heard the testimony of Holy Scripture, great saintly Popes, priests and founders of great religious orders renowned for their great works of charity in alleviating the sufferings of the poor of very recent vintage.

The very weight, frequency and urgency of such testimony from our late 20th and early 21st century Church cannot but impress on us the supreme importance of Eucharistic adoration as an indispensable part of our faith life and practice.

Let us “go up” daily to mount adoration where we like St. Peter can say it “is good to be here” in the Real Presence of the Living Resurrected Lord. Here we will be daily transfigured, transformed and transubstantiated as the living shining light of God's Real Eucharistic Presence amongst us in a world increasingly darkened by war, terror, violence, mortal sin, hate, fear, guilt, confusion, error and anti-Christian attitudes that always end in persecuting Christians.

III.  Eucharistic Communion

What is Eucharistic Communion?

It is a communion, “a becoming one with” of love with Love Itself, the God-Man, Jesus Christ.

When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we receive the God-Man into our bodies, our very inner self and become one with the God-Man Jesus and everyone contained in the Eucharistic Jesus: His Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity, Sacred Humanity, united in His one Divine Person, really truly, substantially present, wholly, entirely, sacramentally and personally present.

Holy Communion is the most personal and intimate experience we can have of God in our earthly life. Holy Communion is the God-food of the God-Man that makes us God-bearers as Eucharistic bearers in order to be what is naturally impossible, but supernaturally possible with God's Eucharistic grace.

The Eucharistic Communion and oneness of Jesus Christ with the entire world comes through us. We cannot emphasize this enough.

What is Eucharistic Identification?

It is first, total Eucharistic transformation, to be the very self-sacrificial love of Jesus Christ on the Cross in the very depths of our being. Secondly, it is to manifest this self-sacrificial love of Jesus Christ to the world.

This total Eucharistic transformation is in the very depths of our thoughts, words, actions, decisions and particularly in our interaction with society at large.

This happens through the Eucharistic Lord and all that is contained in the Eucharist as cited above transforming and living in us today.

How Does Eucharistic Communion Gained Through
Adoration Unite and Strengthen the Mystical Body of Christ?

We touched on this earlier, but now we shall give a very in-depth answer. Consider St. John Eudes famous reflection on this topic. “I ask you to consider that Our Lord Jesus Christ is your true head and that you are a member of His Body. He belongs to us as the head belongs to the body. All that is His is yours: breath, heart, body, soul. and all His faculties. All of these you must use as if they belong to you, so that in serving Him you may give him praise, love and glory. You belong to Him as a member belongs to a head. This is why He earnestly desires you to serve and glorify the Father by using all your powers as if they were His.

He belongs to you, but more than that, He longs to be in you, living and ruling in you, as the head lives and rules in the body. He desires that whatever is in Him may live and rule in you: His breath in your breath, his heart in your heart, all the powers of His soul in the powers of your soul, glorify God and bear Him in your body, that the life of Jesus may shine in you.

You belong to the Son of God, but more than that, you ought to be in Him as the members are in the head. All that is in you must be incorporated into Him. There will be no true life for you except in Him, for He is the one source of life. Apart from Him you will only find death and destruction. Let Him be the only source of your movements, of the actions and the strength of your life. He must be the source and the purpose of your life, so that you may fulfill these words: None of us lives as our own master and none of us dies as our own master. While we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die, we die as His servants. Both in life and death we are the Lord's. That is why Christ died and came to life again, that He is Lord both of the living and the dead.

Finally, you are one with Jesus as the body is one with the head. You must then have one breath, with Him, one soul, one life, one will, one heart; and He must be your breath, heart, life, love, your all. These great gifts in the followers of Christ originate from Baptism. They are increased and strengthened through Confirmation and by making good use of other graces that are given by God. Through the holy Eucharist they are brought to perfection (Lib. 1, 5: Opera Omina, 113-115).

One cannot give what they do not have. When we enter into full Eucharistic Communion that is total Eucharistic identification, as revealed in our self-sacrificial love to the world, then we can bring about the world's total Eucharistic communion and identification of self-sacrificial love in imitation of Christ.

How Does Eucharistic Communion and Identification
Gained Through Adoration Promote Family Harmony?

Fr. Patrick Peyton of Holy Rosary fame said that, “The family that prays together, stays together.”

We in the 21st century can extend this by saying that, “the family that adores together, goes to heaven together.”

We can extend this even further saying that, “The Church that adores together goes to heaven together and brings many others to heaven together.”

Prayer is invoking God's grace and assistance. St. Alphonsus said that those who pray will be saved. Yet the powerful effect of prayer does not stop there. For prayer saves not only those who pray, but those they pray for and perhaps even others we may not be aware of by God's dispensation.

Prayer of it's very nature promotes peace, harmony, and unity not only within our particular family, but in the larger family of the Mystical Body of Christ, our family of believers.

Family is defined by the Church as a “communion of persons.” THE GREATEST COMMUNION OF PERSONS IS THE COMMUNION OF PRAYER. The greatest and most powerful prayer is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Eucharistic Adoration as its continuous perpetuation and extension.

When the Mystical Family of believers pray during the Mass and Eucharistic Adoration, this is the most powerful union of prayer.

What is the Relationship Between the Holy Rosary and Eucharistic Adoration?

The Holy Rosary and the Holy Eucharist were the two pillars through which the Roman Catholic Church, depicted as a ship with the Holy Father at the helm, passed through. This vision of St. John Bosco revealed how in our latter times these would be the two greatest means of salvation that would protect the Church and Her members.

Both Eucharistic Adoration and the Holy Rosary are forms of prayer. One need not preclude the other. One can pray the Holy Rosary, preferably in silence except for perhaps a few decades in common, before the Blessed Sacrament.

Indeed St. John Paul II in his encyclical on the rosary, ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAE, said that the rosary was a “Christological prayer.” The rosary is then of it's very nature a meditation mainly on the mysteries of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed the fifth mystery of light is the Holy Eucharist.

This makes sense. Is not the Last Supper the final definitive Mass-prayer and one of the final acts of Jesus' public mysteries, which the mysteries of the rosary are about, with His Apostles in common?

As such, was it not the sacramental and liturgical Eucharistic summation of His public ministry and prayer on earth?

If we consider the matter in this “Christological” light, we can see the intrinsic connection between the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Rosary and the great benefit of praying the rosary before the Blessed Sacrament. Before the Divine Person Himself, Jesus Christ, really present to us, the very Christ whose public Joyful, Suffering, Light and Glorious mysteries are being remembered in the Holy Rosary.

The Healing Effect of the Holy Eucharist

There are many effects of Eucharistic Adoration: an increase of sanctity, wisdom, courage, peace, serenity.

Perhaps it's most overlooked effect is it's healing aspect.

One often hears the expression, “I don't go to Church or adore because Jesus is everywhere.”

In His Divine nature this is true.

However Jesus in His human nature is only present on earth in the consecrated Eucharistic species.

What is the significance of this? Remember that it was through Jesus' human nature that He worked His miracles of healing: bodily, spiritual and moral healing from sin. Jesus worked His Divine power through His human nature. For Jesus' human nature was a sacrament, a visible embodied sign of His Divine power to mankind.

The same Jesus who worked His miracles of healing in His human nature twenty centuries ago, is the same Jesus who in the sacrament of His Holy Eucharist, is visibly and humanly present to us. He is present to us now, ready to perform the same miracles of healing in body, spirit, morally, of ourselves, our families, our Church, our nation, our world, if we only come to pray before Him in the Blessed Sacrament.

We need only bring one thing. The very thing that enabled the visible Church of His public ministry to experience Jesus' miracles twenty centuries ago.

Faith

Remember that Jesus said that faith could move mountains. It can also trigger miracles that can save millions of souls.

But you do not have to take our human testimony for it. What did Jesus Himself say about the power of prayer? “Seek and you shall find, ask it will be given to, knock and it will be opened to you, whatever you shall ask in my name it will be given to you.”

If Jesus Christ did die on the Cross for the salvation and healing of all the world, He certainly will grant the lesser miracles we pray for. It takes time. Our problems, the world's problems did not develop in a day. But day by day, through persevering prayer that is a manifestation of our perseverance in faith, we can pray toward a resolution of our familial and other problems.

Experience teaches that the immediate effect Eucharistic adoration gives the adorer is the daily strength and peace to continually pray and work toward a resolution of our problems in the future.

Like water that continually falls on a rock one drop at a time, until it finally bursts, our prayers said before the Blessed Sacrament, one Hail Mary, one Our Father at a time, will break the hardness of heart of our family, friends, leaders, etc., even if it takes decades or after our lifetime.

How Does the Holy Eucharist Deliver Us from Evil?

Once again we see another overlooked and underestimated effect of Eucharistic adoration. To be in the Divine Personal Presence of God Himself. Who is Love Itself, is in itself a victory over the evil one as we have resisted his temptation to not come before God in prayer.

The Eucharistic Holy Hour is an hour with the living resurrected Lord. It is therefore a commemoration of our Lord's Hour of Victory and triumph over the evil one won on the Cross.

We share in this Hour Of Victory, that is our hour of adoration. This indeed is what an holy hour is, an hour of triumphal commemoration of Our Lord's Hour of Victory over death and evil.

The hour of Eucharistic adoration of it's very nature delivers us from the evil one in prayer and into the loving arms of Jesus Christ really present to us in Person, in the present “now”, and in love.

Summation

Holy Communion is to receive Jesus into one's heart. Why receive Jesus into our heart, His heart into our heart?

The Eucharistic Crusade gives four reasons:

• First Reason: To Give Pleasure to Jesus
  
  Just before instituting the Blessed Sacrament, Our Lord told the Apostles, “I have desired with a great desire to eat this Pasch with you.” Eating this Pasch with the Apostles meant instituting the Holy Eucharist, giving them Holy Communion. So Jesus said that He is desiring with a great desire to come into our hearts. Remember also what we said in regard to what a sacrament is, a visible, sensible sign instituted by Christ that gives the grace (and love ) it signifies.
  
  Time and time again Jesus appeared to several saints and repeated to them His great desire to be received in Communion. Thus He told St. Margaret Mary: “I thirst to be loved by men in the sacrament of love, but I find no one, but I find no one, who tries to quench my thirst. O give me the pleasure to receive me as often as obedience allows you.”
  
  So Eucharistic Crusaders, fulfill this desire of Our Lord's and communicate to give Jesus pleasure.
  
  
• Second Reason: To Feed on Jesus
  
  There are two lives in us. The natural life of the body. The supernatural life of grace, the Holy Communion of the entire Holy Trinity in our soul.
  
  What do we do to preserve the life of the body? We eat. What do we do to preserve the life of the soul, Sanctifying Grace, the indwelling presence of the Holy Trinity in our souls? We eat and drink the supernatural food, manna of the Holy Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ whole and entire.
  
  We become what we eat. The more we partake of Jesus in Holy Communion, the more “we become one with Jesus the God-man.” The more we become one with Jesus in holy Communion the more we reveal His divine virtues, attributes and likeness such as chastity, charity, wisdom, mercy, courage, etc. The more these Divine attributes are revealed to the world in us, the more people will be attracted to receive and adore Jesus to be in Holy Communion with Him.
  
  
• Third Reason: To Become Good Crusaders
  
  When a Eucharistic crusader in receiving and adoring Jesus has entered into Holy Communion with Jesus the God-Man, He will fill us with His humility, charity, patience and the virtues we mentioned above. When we have a heart to heart oneness with Jesus, we become fearless, for if God is with us, who can be against us? For if God is with us, He will give us the heart to persevere in our Eucharistic crusade.
  
  
• Fourth Reason: To Save Souls
  
  Once upon a time, when Pope Pius IX received a group of children, he asked what did they do to save souls. They answered: “We pray, we make sacrifices, we communicate.” Pope Pius IX replied, “Prayer is good, sacrifice is better, Communion is the best of all.”
  
  Why so? Because after Holy Communion our prayers are more powerful than at any other time. At that time Jesus is present in us. Jesus presents our prayers to God the Father. Jesus joins His prayers to ours and in doing so, makes them all powerful. This is why Holy Communion is the most excellent way of saving souls. When we receive Jesus press him against our hearts and say, “Sacred Heart of Jesus, thy Kingdom come in our country and in the whole world.”

IV.  The Eucharistic Apostolate

What is the Eucharistic Crusade Apostolate?

It is to be an “Apostle” of the Eucharist. Apostles are “One who are sent forth.” What are Eucharistic Apostles then? Those of us who being first educated in the Eucharistic faith, then become motivated in faith to adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Then through many hours of Eucharistic adoration attain a total Eucharistic Communion and identification with Jesus Christ, particularly in our growth in charity and the self-sacrificial love of Jesus on the Cross. Finally, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, with our hearts burning with love for Jesus in experiencing His intimate, personal Eucharistic presence, go out, “sent out” as Eucharistic apostles to the Apostles and the entire world, to give their personal witness of Jesus' strengthening, encouragement and healing presence especially in times of trial.

The Eucharistic apostolate is a crusade in imitation of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, to become Eucharistic missionaries, apostles, soldiers and evangelists.

We said this before and it bears repeating. We already have an army. The Roman Catholic Church that is an army of currently 1.2 billion members and growing. Imagine if every one of us spent just one hour a week in adoration. 1.2 billion holy hours a week. We would change the world immediately! The problem is this. We have too many of our members on reserve status. We do not have enough on active duty, actively praying, adoring going to Sunday Mass, monthly confessing and practicing our faith in general.

This is what our Eucharistic Crusade Manual is all about.

It is a call to Eucharistic Adoration and prayer action for all members of the faith and even those not of the faith, but well-disposed to the Eucharistic Lord to join in with us to adore Jesus and become part of the Eucharistic army that will save the world.

Why is Eucharistic Adoration and the
Eucharistic Apostolate So Vitally Important Today?

Eucharistic Adoration is the Divine solution to the familial and world-wide problems of today.

Jesus told the Apostles when they could not expel a demon that, “This kind of evil can only be driven out by prayer, fasting and penance.”

The kind of cosmic evil we are now facing is unprecedented in it's malignity and magnitude. It seems that all the errors and violence of the past that were addressed are now reemerging in a much more vehement way today: Errors about God and His place in society, militant Islam, sexual licentiousness and same-sex marriage.

We Need Not a War on Terror, But a War on Error

The distorted philosophies and theologies of today that put man over God, in which there can be no place in society for Christian believers to even express our faith.

It is Eucharistic Adoration that gives us the strength, courage, and conviction to profess the self-sacrificial love of Christ to the world. As we have said before, we must be AFFECTED by Jesus' Eucharistic love before we can be EFFECTIVELY evangelists, crusaders and missionaries of the Holy Eucharist.

St. John Paul II said to Fr. John Hardon that the faith in the U.S. Could not survive without extensive Eucharistic Adoration. This alone tells us of it's urgency.

Social Transformation Through Personal Tranformation

The war against religious freedom being fought in one way or another in every country is a cultural war.

It is the Eucharistic culture of eternal life versus the anti-Eucharistic culture of eternal death.

We can say this because the anti-life agenda being advanced today is an anti-Eucharistic and anti-Christian one.

It is anti-Eucharist because those who advocate abortion, contraception, euthanasia and same-sex marriage justify this by saying, “This is my body. I can do whatever I want with it.”

This is the very perversion of the very words our Lord said in consecrating the Holy Eucharist, “This is my Body.”

The pro-death advocates say “this is my body” so I can do whatever I want with it, even to destroying the little body in my womb. This supremely diabolically selfish attitude is the very perversion of the self-sacrificial love Our Lord, Jesus Christ, who originally said, “This is my Body, given up for you” in consecrating the Holy Eucharist.

Therefore we can say that the anti-life agenda is the anti-sacrament of the anti-Eucharist.

The Holy Eucharist is the sacrament of the culture of life because IT IS THE SACRAMENT OF SELF-SACRIFICIAL LOVE, the greatest and most divine love of all: “No greater love is there than this, that a man lay down His life for His friend.”

How the World's Transformation Begins During the
Eucharistic Consecration in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Considering all of the above, we then can summarize the Eucharist as the sacrament of PERSONAL transformation, and through the person, the sacrament of SOCIAL transformation.

Jesus on Holy Thursday night, in uttering His words of consecration, that were words of Divine and eternal power and significance for every person and all of human society until the end of time.

This re-creation of His creation into Himself we now call transubstantiation. In this transubstantiation we who receive it in Holy Communion become supernaturally TRANSFORMED in order to become TRANSFIGURED signs of the Divine Eucharistic power and presence that in turn transforms the world into a holy tabernacle and monstrance.

We who receive the Holy Eucharist and adore worthily, can do this because, in becoming the Christ we eat, we become holy tabernacles, “huts”or “tents” and monstrances that “show” in ourselves the transformative power of the Eucharist to the world.

The world becomes curious in seeing this supernatural transformation in us. In seeing their attraction, we can tell them to “come and see” our source of grace and peace in the Prince Of Peace, reigning majestically on His Eucharistic throne.

The Divine TRANSFORMATION of the TRANSUBSTANTIATION
Becomes the World's TRANSFIGURATION IN CHRIST

The transformation of the Resurrection whose power continues and is contained in the Eucharist, continues in us who receive the God-food of the God-Man who makes us God-bearers that enters into society through us. Thus we transform and transubstantiate society with the power of the Holy Eucharist.

This is our Eucharistic mission and Eucharistic apostolate. The Eucharistic transformation and transubstantiation of all human society and indeed all creation with the Eucharist that is God's continuous Resurrection.

It is in the unity of the Eucharistic Communion that the world becomes one “as the Father and I are one.” In fact, all of creation becomes transformed and transubstantiated in the one Body and one Spirit of the Eucharist as the, “New city, a new paradise, the living dwelling place of God: God all in all (I Cor. 15 :28).”

The Eucharist is a series of transformations, drawing on God's power to transform and transubstantiate hatred and violence into His love and peace. We pray that the Lord will help us to celebrate, live and be transformed and transubstantiated into His Eucharistic Crusaders, missionaries, apostles and soldiers.

We pray that the Lord transforms us and together with us, the world into the new Bethlehem, the Eucharistic “House of Bread” on earth into the new Jerusalem “city of peace” in heaven.

Eucharistic Crusade Apostolic Summation

The motto of the Eucharistic Crusade has always been: “Prayer, Communion, Sacrifice, Apostolate.” Those who teach from this manual should emphasize these four Eucharistic apostolate concepts as the cornerstone of our Eucharistic faith education.

Apostolic prayer is the key emphasis to obtain the salvation of souls and the conversion of the world and the extension of the Kingdom of God on earth. Vatican II said of this, (Missionary Activity VI: 40). “It is after all God who responds to Prayer by sending laborers into the harvest (MT 5: 38). By opening the minds of non-Christians to hear the Gospel (Acts 16:14) and by making fruitful the word of salvation in their hearts (cf. I Cor 3:7).”

As Eucharistic Crusaders and missionaries we want to spread everywhere the Eucharistic presence, power and Kingdom of Jesus Christ everywhere. The Eucharistic Jesus must reign over every village, town, country, the whole world, in the hearts of everyone of the seven billion (2014) persons.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the central act of prayer and worship and is the most complete prayer as it contains all the four ends of the Eucharistic Crusade: Prayer, Communion, Sacrifice and Apostolate.

The Gloria, the Preface, the Confiteor, the Collect as prayers of peace and adoration. The Pater Noster, the Canon are apostolic prayers for God's reign and the salvation of souls. Mass itself is both God's sacrifice and ours.

During the Consecration, Jesus renews the Sacrifice of the Cross and Calvary. By the exterior separation of His Body and of His Blood, Jesus sacrifices Himself again, offering to God the Father His sufferings, sacrifice and blood. We too offer our sacrifice with The Priest and Jesus at the Consecration. We must offer a total sacrifice, all our senses, soul, faculties, intellect, will imagination, all our words, deed and thoughts of the day. We must renounce anything that will hinder us from offering a total sacrifice of ourselves to Him, even to the donation of our God-given gifts to God, a return of them so to speak in order for our gifts and talents to be used for His greater glory and honor.

The Mass is an apostolic prayer and sacrifice giving us in Holy Communion the supernatural grace for the supernatural grace of saving souls. Mass attendance is in itself an apostolic act, for in doing so we proclaim our faith in the Eucharistic Lord to the world.

Indeed the very end of Mass is an apostolic command like the one Jesus gave to The Apostles in Matthew 28, “”The Lord Be with You”, “Ite, Missa Est.” Go forth! To do what? TO be a Eucharistic Crusader and apostle.

• Jesus Our Lord and leader commands this. Jesus is our leader because He possesses all the qualities of a great leader.
  
  
• Jesus as God is all knowing and wise. Jesus knows the past, the present, the future even our most secret thoughts.
  
  
• Jesus as God is all-powerful. He can do whatever He wants, even raising himself and others from the dead.
  
  
• Jesus as God and man is totally courageous. He freely, willingly offered with His human mind and will the greatest suffering and most painful death on the Cross.
  
  
• Jesus by His most holy and obedient life on earth to the will of the Father, is the perfect model of imitation. He does not ask us to do anything He has not done.
  
  
• Jesus is the infinitely kind and loving God who loves everyone of us this way. That is why He shed His Blood and gave His life for us.

We as the members of His Eucharistic Crusade and army are his soldiers and chosen battalion.

Crusader Prayer:

O My Jesus,
My King and Leader,
I offer myself entirely to you,
to spread everywhere
the reign of your love,
the reign of your heart.
O Sacred Heart of Jesus,
make of me Your apostle.
May Thy Kingdom come
in our country, in the whole world,
in the heart of every man, woman and child.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy Kingdom come.

We ask that every teacher of this manual instill love and devotion to The Sacred Heart of Jesus, His Precious Blood, The Rosary, the Immaculate Heart of Mary and all the great Saints and Apostles.

We ask that every teacher of this manual instruct their students in the Catechism of The Catholic Church, particularly on those sections pertaining to the Holy Eucharist and the Mass.

If one may ask how do I teach this manual, take a class from each of the subsections or subtitles in each of her four parts. If the children have trouble with some of the vocabulary of faith, research from Fr. Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary or any other good Catholic Dictionary as building our vocabulary of faith is part of our education in the faith.

The Role of the Blessed Mother in the
Eucharistic Crusade: Mary is the Mother of Crusaders

Mary is God's mother and our mother. We have an earthly mother. To get to heaven we need our Heavenly Mother who gave birth and contained as a holy motherly tabernacle the Body and Blood, Soul, Divinity and Sacred Humanity of the Eucharistic Lord for nine months. Jesus bestowed on His Mother a heart filled with all the treasures of His love, kindness and affection as His holy mirror. Our Lady said in the Magnificat, “My soul (and entire being) magnifies the Lord. (Luke 1).”

Our Lady in a very special way loves Her Eucharistic Crusaders. Why? Because as missionaries of His Eucharistic presence, they are very close to Jesus and therefore Mary.

Mary is Also the Queen of Crusaders

Why? Because the mother of a King is a queen.. Jesus as God is the King of Kings and therefore Mary is the Queen of Queens, Queen of Heaven and Earth. This is why in our liturgical calendar we celebrate the Queenship of Mary (August 22).

Mary is the Model of Crusaders

The most attractive quality a crusader has is purity. Purity of body, mind, intention and faith. Our Lady is this perfect model of this purity. Mary was never stained by Original Sin and is considered in the Catechism “the Pre-eminent model of faith.” Indeed the Catechism said that the 'Marian dimension of faith preceded the Petrine (apostolic and magisterial).”

Because Our Lady had no Original Sin, She never even committed the least venial sin or imperfection. If you could create your own mother as Jesus did, how could she be otherwise?

From the very first moment of Her existence, Our Lady's soul was adorned with Sanctifying Grace, radiant with heavenly beauty, resplendent with purity. All these holy qualities grew until her triumphal Assumption.

For use as Crusaders:

• Love Our Lady as Our Mother.
  
  
• Serve Our Lady as our Mother.
  
  
• Imitate Our Lady as our Model.
  
  
• Love Our Lady with a simple, kind, generous, filial affection.

If Mary is our queen, then honor her by saying at least five decades of the rosary daily. Our Hail Marys are daily roses offered in thanksgiving to Our Lady. Desire to spread the reign of Mary our queen in the hearts of all members of the human race. We should imitate Her purity by our purity in looks, words and in deeds. Purity in looks by custody of our eyes. Purity in words by not saying or hearing anything offensive both to Jesus and Mary. Purity in deed. When tempted, put you hands on your heart and scapular and ask Jesus and Mary what they would say and do.

Then we can say: “Mary Our Heavenly Mother, Queen of the Eucharistic Crusade and motherly model of every crusader. I wish to love you, to serve you, to imitate you and to make you known and loved by all men. To this apostolic end I consecrate myself to you: my body, my soul and my life. Grant me always to be always very pure. To Live in a way worthy of you, My Mother, My Queen, My Mother.

Obedience to the Pope

The Eucharistic Crusader is also called to be loyal to the Pope. To be with the Pope who is the vicar of Christ is to be with Jesus who told the first Pope St. Peter, “On this Rock I will build MY Church (Matt16).” The Pope is the visible head of the Church on earth, “standing in place of” as vicar of Christ means. The Pope is therefore the visible head of the Eucharistic Crusade. To be separated from the Pope is to be separated from Christ and His Church.

Our slogan should be this then:

To be with the Pope is to be with Jesus Christ.
To listen to the Pope is to listen to Jesus Christ.
To love the Pope is to love Jesus Christ.
To obey the Pope is to obey is to obey Jesus Christ.
To serve the Pope is to serve Jesus Christ.
To defend the Pope is to defend Jesus Christ.

Long live the Pope!
Long live the Pope the Vicar of Christ!
Long live the Pope, the Chief of Our Eucharistic Crusade.

What is the Crusade? The army of Christ.

Who is it's King? Jesus Christ.
Who is it's Queen? The Virgin Mary.
Who is it's visible chief? The Pope, the Vicar of Christ.
Who is a crusader? A crusader is a soldier of Christ.
For whom do they fight ? They fight for the Eucharistic Lord.

What are the Crusaders weapons?

• The Holy Eucharist
• The Mass
• Prayer
• Communion
• Sacrifice
• Apostolate, and
• Eucharistic Adoration

What are Some Practical Ways a Crusader can
Exercise His Eucharistic Apostolate?

1. By first and foremost inviting someone, say a friend, to the classes given on the Crusader manual and taking them to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament. We advise our teachers to end each educative session by doing the same to reinforce the lesson.
   
   
2. Persuade friends and family members to go to Sunday Mass and confession.
   
   
3. Turn your family members and friends from non-believers and other bad influences.
   
   
4. Speak of Our Eucharistic Lord to non-Catholics and Christians.
   
   
5. Give them a Catholic book, a holy card.
   
   
6. Get companions to forgive each other as Jesus forgave us.
   
   
7. Destroy bad literature and see and hear beautiful Church Pictures, music and teaching on the web, instead of pornographic images.
   
   
8. Do not listen to bad conversations.
   
   
9. Teach the Catechism to smaller children.
   
   
10. Distribute sound Catholic pamphlets.
    
    
11. Collect alms for the Poor.

History of the Eucharistic Crusade

The first outlines of the Eucharistic Crusade were proposed in 1914, now 100 years ago, to the International Eucharistic Congress held in Lourdes, France where it was warmly welcomed. Two years later, in February of 1916, the Crusade was formally inaugurated by Rev. Fr. Bessiere “In order to fulfill the wish of the Vicar of Christ (Pope Benedict XV)” who had launched and appeal to children for prayers, communions and sacrifices.

Benedict XV blessed the Crusade calling himself “It's captain.” (March, 1921)

Pope Pius XI formally approved it and raised it to a rank of A primary Association on the 6th of August, 1932 by the brief “APOSTOLATUS ORATIONIS.” In his brief he said, “Crusaders are picked soldiers working cheerfully for the expansion of the Kingdom of Christ; and in order to be strong, these soldiers nourish themselves with the Eucharistic bread which they adore with a lively faith and receive in their hearts with an ardent love.”

Pope Pius XII several times renewed this approbation and recommended the Crusade to all children, especially on 19th of September 1948 in a letter to the Director General of The Apostleship of Prayer.

In it he declared the Eucharistic Crusade to be an instrument which fosters in the heart of children a sincere love for God and an ardent love for souls. On January 6th 1958, just before his death, he wrote one more letter approving the new rules of the Eucharistic Crusade. In his letter of 19th September, 1948 to the Director General of The Apostleship Of Prayer, Pius XII said, “Through the Eucharistic Crusade, groups of children in incredible numbers, those souls so especially dear to the Heart of Our Savior, were won to the practice of frequent and even daily communion, and many were led to a complete donation of themselves in the service of God.”

Pius XII concluded, “It was this which impelled our predecessor Pius XI to call the Eucharistic Crusade the PRIMARY SCHOOL AND THE APPRENTICESHIP OF CATHOLIC ACTION.”

St. Pope John XXIII in receiving a group of 3000 crusaders on April 13th, 1960, urged them to carry on their apostolate and said that he greatly relied on their movement.

He said on that occasion, “You wish to be apostles, and apostles through the Eucharist.

The Holy Eucharist is the source of living water from which there flows the treasures of grace. Continue, then, your apostolate so precious of making known the treasures contained in the Sacrament of the Altar.

We rely on you, and on your beautiful movement so that this great mystery of faith may attract more and more souls, and may nourish more and more the supernatural spirit of families and institutions.” Pope Paul VI in speaking at a crusade rally in Rome in 1964, said, 'We well know the pro gramme of devotion to our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, of fidelity to our Lord in thought and in actions which greatly honor your association.”

Epilogue

We are now a decade and a half (2014) into the 21st century. It is the 100th anniversary of World War I that so devastated and continues to devastate Christian Europe and the world today. We are approaching in 2017 the 100th anniversary of the rise of Communism and the 100th anniversary of the great Marian apparition of Fatima, Our Lady of the Rosary. It will also be the 500th anniversary of the protestant revolt.

There is much to ponder in the converging of all these anniversaries. There is no accident in this convergence. There is a spirit in the air that we are heading toward a tremendous climax, one in which we have been heading for centuries.

We hear much talk about a “springtime of renewal.” Yet when one sees the increasing moral disorder and anti-Christian sentiment and persecution of our early 21st century, we know in our hearts and minds that this renewal can only take place on two conditions: First a total world-wide moral renewal. Secondly, a world-wide Eucharistic Crusade and renewal. One cannot happen without the other. One depends on the other.

This is what we dedicate our work, crusade, apostolate and efforts to. The renewal, the re-Evangelization and re-Christianization of our world through the most powerful weapon God has given us, the gift of Himself in the Most Holy Eucharist.

The Eucharistic Crusade Pledge

We offer our prayers to the Heavenly Father to stop the maniacal onslaught of moral and sexual global suicide and homicide that threatens to engulf Your creation. We pledge and offer to you, our Heavenly Father, our faith as apostles and soldiers of the Holy Eucharist. We pledge to receive Your Son Jesus Christ as often as we can, even daily, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where heaven and earth come together.

We pledge to You, Heavenly Father, in the Holy Spirit, many hours of Eucharistic and even perpetual adoration of Your Son Jesus Christ on earth, in order that we may adore You and bring millions of others to adore you, forever and perpetually in heaven.

We pledge, in our love and devotion to Your Son Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic Spirit, to cultivate a respect for human life that the world never has known before. We pledge above all, Heavenly Father, as Your apostles of the Holy Eucharist, to make our 21st century and all subsequent centuries until the end of time, to be the most self-sacrificing, Christ-like centuries of love for the dignity and sanctity of human life-human life that is, after all, created in your image and likeness.

We ask You to grant this, Almighty, All-loving and All merciful Father, in the Name of Jesus Christ, Your only Son, Our Lord Who lives and reigns with You in the power and love of the Holy spirit.

One God forever and ever.

AMEN.

Yours fraternally and Eucharistically in Christ Jesus.

Fr. Louis Guardiola, C.P.M.

Fathers of Mercy
806 Shaker Museum Road
Auburn, KY 42206
Telephone: 270-542-4146, Ext. 302
http://fathersofmercy.com/eucharistic-adoration/

See Also:

Teacher Guide - Lesson Plans for Teaching the Children's Eucharistic Crusade