A few weeks ago now we celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi. As part of that celebration we invited you to an afternoon of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. One of the sacred hosts consecrated at 10:30 a.m. Mass was placed in the monstrance in the middle of the altar. We closed with Evening Prayer—a collection of psalms and scripture leading to the community’s singing Mary’s Magnificat.” That liturgy ended with Benediction—when the priest blesses the congregation, not with his own hands, but with the Sacrament, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

And you showed up! There was never a time when the church was empty that afternoon. Both Andrew and I passed through on a couple of occasions and there were people praying. Individuals and families, couples and friends—all of us entering into the silence, a silence that calls us to ponder the mystery of God’s great of himself in the Eucharist.

Now, adoration isn’t the end and purpose of the Sacrament. St. Thomas Aquinas insisted that the goal of the Eucharist was to build up the Body of Christ, the Church. “The source and summit of the Christian life”—to take up Vatican II’s description of the Eucharist—is, in fact food and drink that changes us. St. Leo the Great says that in holy communion “we become what we eat.” If it’s just bread and wine, nothing miraculous is going to happen. But, if it’s Christ, then we become Christ’s real presence in our world. Continue to adore. Monday evenings we have the Sacrament on the altar during confessions. Anytime you come into our churches Christ is present in the tabernacle.

Be aware of that presence. Be fed by that presence.