Wednesday, February 1
Beautiful Words on the Eucharist
It is moving for me to see how everywhere in the Church the joy of Eucharistic adoration is reawakening and being fruitful. In the period of liturgical reform, Mass and adoration outside it were often seen as in opposition to one another: it was thought that the Eucharistic Bread had not been given to us to be contemplated, but to be eaten, as a widespread objection claimed at that time.
The experience of the prayer of the Church has already shown how nonsensical this antithesis was. Augustine had formerly said:
No one should eat this flesh without first adoring it;...
we should sin were we not to adore it"
(cf. Enarr. in Ps 98: 9 CCL XXXIX 1385).
I recommend to you also Pope Benedict's explanation of the Second Vatican Council, it's role in history, and it's proper interpretation in his recent Christmas sermon.
The Christmas sermon occasioned many an important patristic moment in theology. In this sermon, Benedict picks up that tradition: this sermon is one that should be read in history and theology classes as the best reflection on Vatican II's overall place in the life of the Church which I have read.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
