Holy Hour Reflection: Made Clean by the Presence of Love

by Bishop Joensen | March 15, 2021

O Lord, let me tell you that I perceive and feel your presence, that I possess you, that I touch you, that I adore you, that I love you. I have no other love but you, my supreme good, my life, my heaven, my only desire; and all other loves, great but with human limitations, although pure and legitimate in their origin because sanctified by contact with you, all these loves are also yours, my Jesus.

I feel lost in and absorbed in your Heart, O Jesus, master of my whole life. My whole being is consumed with an ardent love for you…. I look and look, and turn to look again at that consecrated Host; its whiteness dazzles me; its brilliant rays wound my soul to its utmost depths revealing to me all its defects and deformities. Who can call himself pure in the presence of Purity itself? Who is without spot before the spotlessness of Jesus? Who can think himself humble in the presence of him who is hidden under the form of bread? Who can say that he suffers in the presence of the Man of Sorrows? Who will believe himself innocent before the Immaculate Lamb?

O, my Lord! In your presence I feel great love for you, a burning love, which in uniting me to you consumes all the vileness of my poor heart; a love which purifies and transforms me, and takes me to that purest of Hosts, the very abode of Love….

O Jesus of the Eucharist! O consecrated Host! O envied Monstrance! O blessed Ciborium, beloved of my heart. The tabernacle is my treasure and, far or near, my eyes never lose sight of it, for it contains the God of Love.

Blessed Concepción Cabrera de Armida

Reflection Questions:

Where does my love for Jesus in the Eucharist take its place amid all the loves in my life? Does his love for me that prompts him to be sacramentally present influence all my loves?
What does Jesus’ true presence in the Eucharist provoke in me (humility, love, remorse, gratitude, etc…)?

Petitions:

That Jesus’ Eucharistic presence and perfect love for us may transform our hearts, purifying us and drawing us into ever deeper communion with Him, we pray…
In thanksgiving for God’s desire to always be with us, and for the grace to always recognize the treasure of Jesus’ Eucharistic presence, we pray…
That after meeting Jesus in the Eucharist, we might bring His love and presence to all those in our community, especially those on the peripheries, we pray…

Reflection found in Magnificat, Vol. 22, No. 12, Edited by Father Sebastian White, O.P. Meditation for Feb. 14, 2021. us.magnificat.net

Bishop Joensen

The Most Rev. William M. Joensen, Ph.D. was ordained and installed in 2019 as bishop of the Diocese of Des Moines. Born in 1960, Bishop Joensen completed studies at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Ohio and was ordained a priest in 1989. He earned a doctorate in philosophy at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 2001. He has served in parishes, as spiritual director at St. Pius X Seminary in Dubuque and in a variety of roles at Loras College in Dubuque.