A SERIES ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE – Eucharistic Adoration (Part II)

Eucharistic adoration and inner healing

People in general – including we, the faithful – are often wounded within because we have not received enough love or have experienced an abuse of our love. As a result, serious deficiencies can arise in the soul, and the emotional sphere can suffer such a disturbance that it could become closed inwardly.

If such emotions manifest themselves in us, we can open them up to the healing power of the Blessed Sacrament by surrendering them to the Lord in prayer or by invoking the name of Jesus in silence. In this way, we can embrace even those unconscious fields of our soul, asking the Lord to heal the inner wounds and dissolve the barriers that have developed within us as a result of them. This involves also those unconscious wounds, the effects of which we feel, although we do not know how they came about.

There, in the Eucharist, these words of the Lord resound and are actualized in a special way: “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light” (Mt 11:28-29).

This gentleness of Jesus’ yoke, which can be experienced particularly in silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, is what allows wounded persons to open up more easily. The Eucharistic presence is like a spiritual sun, which is simply there and by which we can allow ourselves to be enlightened and warmed.

The healing of inner wounds is not an insignificant matter, because often these wounds block us in our relationship with God, with people and with ourselves. Let us take as an example the case of someone who believes that they are not loved, and this feeling dominates them or, at least, appears frequently. This is one of those burdens that we can carry before the Lord, and with the passage of time we will notice that there, in the Blessed Sacrament, we meet a love that is constant and that envelops us unceasingly.

Eucharistic adoration and growth on the spiritual journey

For its spiritual development, the soul needs moments of silence. It suffers under the constant bombardment of stimuli, which leads to dispersion and superficiality. Likewise, the soul needs a healthy asceticism, in order to open itself to those contents that are beneficial to it on its spiritual path and to avoid those that are not. God speaks more through silence than through noisiness. Let us remember the prophet Elijah, who expected to find God in the hurricane, in the earthquake and in the fire; but finally he recognized Him in the whisper of a gentle breeze, which resembles the way the Holy Spirit acts (cf. 1 Kgs 19:11-13).

Eucharistic Adoration in silence invites us to enter into ourselves, to acquire a new sensitivity to listen to God, to discern and interiorize before Him the things we have experienced, to perceive more deeply the divine presence… Eucharistic Adoration is a prelude to eternity, where we will live eternally contemplating God from face to face. Of course, from our part, there remains a great difference in the now. As long as we are on earth, we live by faith and still have to fight against distractions; whereas in eternity we will enjoy the beatific vision of God; that is, we will behold Him without veils.

Adoration in silence is a spiritual light, which we are often not yet able to fully assimilate. Therefore, it easily happens that, when we practice this form of silent prayer, we discover our restlessness and impulsiveness; we perceive a kind of inner emptiness and boredom, and we may even have the impression that there is no point in being there… Instead of fleeing, we should place all these feelings at the Lord’s feet. He will know how to touch them and transform them!

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Meditation on the Gospel of the day:

Recognized by the Lord – Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle

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