Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament

I was sitting in Adoration this week without a thing to read. Some maintain that this is the best way to go to Adoration, and I've been known to write about it too. But I don't usually go in without anything to read. I don't usually go anywhere without a book tucked into my purse.

But I was having one of those hair-on-fire mornings, where I was trying to remember thirteen thousand different things, and I just plumb forgot my bag for Adoration.

So, ten minutes before my hour with Jesus, when I realized it, I had a moment of ohnowhatevershallIdo, right before I laughed.

God has a way of getting my attention.

He loves me enough to make sure, no matter what the obstacles, that I make it to Adoration every single week. No, seriously. It's not always the same hour, but every week, despite having a full-time job with the parish and two small children and responsibilities that keep me hopping, I find myself sitting at my Father's feet.

My soul needs that hour like my body needs oxygen.

As I was getting into my pew, I noticed a blue pamphlet on the bench. "Treasury of Prayer," it said, "Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament."

I read it a couple of times, and I'm sharing it here, because it is beautiful. For more information on how you can help to promote Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in your parish, contact the Apostolate for Perpetual Adoration at PO Box 46502, Mt. Clemens, MI 48046-6502. I also found them online at www.perpetualadoration.org.

Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament

Virgin Immaculate, Mother of Jesus and our Mother, we invoke you under the title of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament because you are the Mother of the Saviour who lives in the Eucharist. It was from you He took flesh and blood with which He feeds us in the Sacred Host. We also invoke you under that title because the grace of the Eucharist comes to us through you, since you are the Mediatrix, the channel, through which God's graces reach us. And, finally, we call you Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament because you were the first to live the Eucharistic life. Teach us to pray the Mass as you did, to receive Holy Communion worthily and frequently, and to visit devoutly with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Virgin Immaculate, you were present at the death of your Divine Son on Calvary, and you offered your immense sorrow in union with His Sacrifice. Again after the Resurrection you were present and the real, but unbloody, Sacrifice of your Son in the Holy Mass. Teach us to unite ourselves with Jesus at the Consecration as you did; obtain for us the grace to understand the reality of the Mass; and awaken in us the desire to assist at Mass often, even daily.

Virgin Immaculate, your Communions were the most fervant and the most holy ever made. When you received your Divine Son into your heart, you loved Him with a love exceeding that of any other creature for his God. Teach us to make Holy Communion the center of our life, as it was of yours, so that our lives may be entirely spent in preparing for the coming of Jesus in Communion and in thanking Him for the gift of Himself to us.

Virgin Immaculate, after the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, you found consolation in your separation from Him by visiting Him often in the Blessed Sacrament. Obtain for us the grace to be always conscious of His presence in the tabernacle and to visit Him often as you did, especially when we are troubled, lonely, afraid, and in pain of body or mind. Teach us to remember that He is always there, ready to listen to us, to guide, protect, and console us.

Virgin Immaculate, you are the perfect model of adorers of the Blessed Sacrament. You adored Jesus in the little white Host with the same faith, reverence, and wonder with which you adored Him on the first Christmas night and during all the years you lived with Him. Teach us not to forget that the small white Host is truly our God, infinite, eternal, and omnipotent. Help us to conduct ourselves at all times in His presence with the modesty and reverence we owe to our God.

Virgin Immaculate, you gave to Jesus the most perfect thanksgiving for the institution of the Eucharist. Teach us to thank your Divine Son for the gift of Himself in the Blessed Sacrament. Teach us also to thank Him after we have received Him in Communion. And since our best thanksgiving can never equal yours, permit us to offer Him your thanksgiving after Communion, your fervor, your love, your devotion.

Virgin Immaculate, you gave to Jesus in the Sacred Host perfect reparation. We desire to accept our daily trials for love of Him and with you, to console Him for the ingratitude of men and the slights and outrages He suffers daily in the Blessed Sacrament both from those who believe in Him and those who do not.

Virgin Immaculate, while the apostles preached the Gospel, you stayed close to your Divine Son in the tabernacle and prayed to Him for the graces they needed to convert the world. Teach us to pray before the tabernacle where Jesus waits day and night to hear and grant our petitions. Teach us to pray not only for ourselves, but also for those who do not know Him in the Sacrament of His love, so that the gift of faith may be given them, and His Eucharistic Kingdom may be spread throughout the world.

Virgin Immaculate, perfect lover of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, we ask you to obtain for us the graces we need to become true adorers of our Eucharistic God. Grant us, we beg of you, to know Him better, to love Him more, and to center our lives around the Eucharist, that is, to make our whole live a constant prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and petition to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Amen.