Advent Apologetics: How Can I Develop a Greater Devotion to the Eucharist?
The easiest way to develop a greater devotion to the Eucharist is to attend daily Mass, so you can partake of Christ’s body and blood on a regular basis. You can also take part in a holy hour at a local chapel that hosts perpetual adoration or “forty hours devotion.” This devotion takes place, as its name suggests, for forty hours after the sacrament is exposed.
In Scripture, the number 40 symbolizes the transformation of holy people, such as when the Israelites wandered for forty years in the desert or when Jesus fasted in the desert for forty days. Likewise, through the forty hours devotion, the worshipper can take part in a spiritual transformation by spending time adoring the Lord (though he is not obligated remain in adoration for the entire forty hours).
You can also read theological and ecclesial writings about the Eucharist. Works by theologians like Louis Bouyer (his book on the subject is called Eucharist: Theology and Spirituality of the Eucharistic Prayer), or papal documents like Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia. Finally, when you attend Mass you can offer up the following prayer, which has been attributed to Padre Pio after he received Christ in the Eucharist:
Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have you present so that I do not forget you. You know how easily I abandon you.
Stay with me Lord, because I am weak, and I need your strength, so that I may not fall so often.
Stay with me Lord, for you are my life, and without you, I am without fervor.
Stay with me Lord, for you are my light, and without you, I am in darkness.
Stay with me Lord, to show me your will.
Stay with me Lord, so that I hear your voice and follow you.
Stay with me Lord, for I desire to love you very much, and always be in your company.
Stay with me Lord, if you wish me to be faithful to you.
Stay with me Lord, for as poor as my soul is, I want it to be a place of consolation for you, a nest of love.
Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late, and the day is coming to a close, and life passes, death, judgment, eternity approach. It is necessary to renew my strength, so that I will not stop along the way and for that, I need you. It is getting late and death approaches. I fear the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O how I need you, my Jesus, in this night of exile.
Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all its dangers, I need you.
Let me recognize you as your disciples did at the breaking of bread, so that the Eucharistic communion be the light which disperses the darkness, the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart.
Stay with me Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to remain united to you, if not by communion, at least by grace and love.
Stay with me Jesus, I do not ask for divine consolation because I do not merit it, but the gift of your presence, oh yes, I ask this of you.
Stay with me Lord, for it is you alone I look for, your love, your grace, your will, your heart, your spirit, because I love you and ask no other reward but to love you more and more. With a firm love, I will love you with all my heart while on earth and continue to love you perfectly during all eternity. Amen. -From 20 Answers: The Eucharist
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