" 'Lord, to whom shall we go?' We too, who belong to the Church today, pose this question. Even if it is more hesitant on our lips than on Peter’s, our answer, like that of the Apostle, can only be the person of Jesus. Yes, He lived 2000 years ago. But we can encounter Him in our own time when we listen to His Word and are near to Him in a special way in the Eucharist. Vatican Council II calls it the “sacred action par excellence,” adding that “no other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree” (“Sacrosanctum Concilium,” 7).
May the Holy Mass never become a superficial routine for us! May we draw more and more from its profundity! It is precisely the Mass that inserts us in Christ’s immense work of salvation, to sharpen our spiritual vision by His love: by His “prophecy in act” with which, at the Last Supper, He initiated the gift of self on the cross; by His irrevocable victory over sin and death, which we boldly and festively proclaim.
“We need to learn how to live the Holy Mass,” Bl. John Paul II said once to young men at a Roman seminary who had asked him about the deep concentration with which he celebrated the sacred liturgy (Visit to the Pontificio Collegio Germano Ungarico, Oct. 18, 1981). “Learn to live the Holy Mass”! We are helped to do this by pausing in adoration before the Eucharistic Lord in the tabernacle and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation."
Pope Francis
Message to Archbishop Joachim Meisner of Cologne
and Archbishop Robert Zollisch, President of the German Bishops' Conference
on the occasion of the National Eucharistic Congress in Cologne.
30 May 2013, Feast of Corpus Christi
St Clement Catholic Church ~ Plant City , Florida ~ USA
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