model of Eucharistic love for the priests and the faithful
father But Stefano Manelli FI ria
S. Francis of Assisi " burning with love in every fiber of his being to the Sacrament of the Body of the Lord, beyond any measure taken by surprise for a lot of benevolent condescension and generous charity. Considered to be major sign of disrespect not to listen to at least one Mass a day if time permits. It often communicated with such devotion and devotees to make the other ... One day the brothers wanted to send to the world with valuable pyx, he places in place as can be worth the price of redemption, no matter where they saw the preserved with little decoration. He wanted them to show great respect to the hands of the priest, because to them it was given the divine power of consecrating this sacrament. "If I happen - he often said - to meet with a saint out of heaven and a poor priests, greet the Priest first and run to kiss his hands. In fact I would say: Ouch! Wait, San Lorenzo, because the hands of this man touch the Word of life and possess a superhuman power! ' .
In this wonderful passage of the blessed Thomas of Celano, the first biographer of St. Francis of Assisi, is summed up all the Eucharistic life of St. Francis, full of love and faith, of devotion and zeal. Has it all exemplarity a Eucharistic life full and perfect for everyone: for the priests themselves, for the simple faithful.
The S. Mass, S. Communion, Eucharistic adoration, the decoration of the altar and the church, the veneration for priests ministers of the Eucharist: in this S. Francis is a master model and to an extent that it must be considered not only a Holy Eucharist but a seraph of love 'Eucharist.
And among his children we will have the admirable figures of the Eucharist as the Seraphs S. St. Anthony of Padua Bonaventure, who wrote the sublime doctrine of yearning and love for the Eucharist, as S. Pasquale Baylon, who became patron of Eucharistic Congresses, such as S. Joseph of Cupertino who rose in ecstatic flight to and from the Monstrances Tabernacles, such as B. Matthew of Girgenti and B. Bonaventure of Potenza and after death, even with the dead body venerate the Eucharist, as St. Pio of Pietrelcina, for several hours day and night stood in prayer at the altar of the Eucharist.
The S. Mass was for S. Francis is a sublime mystery of grace so that in the letter to the General Chapter and all the brothers wrote these exclamations of fire: "Humanity trepidation, the entire universe tremble and the heavens exult when the altar, in the hands the priest, is Christ the son of the living God .
The thing that upsets St. Francis is the love of Jesus far as to inconceivable humility: "O wonderful height, or stupendous condescension! O sublime humility! O sublime humility, the Lord of the Universe, God and Son of God, so humbles himself by hiding, for our salvation, in a little piece of bread! .
why he considered serious lack of love from our absence in the Holy Mass daily. For this he not only participated in at least one Mass, but when he was sick, as far as possible, it was celebrating Mass in his cell, or at least you did read the page of the Gospel of the Mass of the day: " She always wanted to hear the Gospel of the day - it's in the Legend of Perugia - when he could not attend Mass .
What lessons for us all, often we are so lazy and find it hard even to attend Mass only on Sundays! Not to mention the daily Mass, deserted to the point that in many churches the priest to celebrate Holy Mass devoted to desks or four old ladies.
For S. Communion, S. Francis teaches us how to receive love from seraphim ardent: "It is often communicated - says Celano - with such devotion and devotees to make the other . "That's true devotion: that which edifies, builds, which leads to better the others. St. Bonaventure in fact says that the devotion of St. Francis Holy Communion in doing this was "to make other devotees." Suffice it to say that immediately after Communion " most of the time was in ecstasy ." And he reveals the intimate Celano S . Francesco writing that " when he received the Lamb slain, sacrificed the spirit in the fire, which burned on the altar of his heart always ." This is the love that becomes the merger, the sacrifice of love that does not allow Divisions: " Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in Me and I in him " (Jn 6:56).
S. Francis was preparing for the S. Communion with attentive care, not just his holy life, full of everyday heroism, but also the sacramental confession had to prepare his soul every time to receive Jesus in the Eucharist with the utmost candor of grace. At that time no more than three times a week could communicate: Well, three times a week S. Francis confessed. When you love, you want to please your loved giving it everything it can rejoice. The soul purified by the Sacrament of Confession becomes a home full of candor and perfume for Jesus Ostia immaculate. S. Francis not only knew and did, but he exhorted them all with fervor truly seraphic. In the letter to all the faithful S. Francis wrote that "Jesus wants us all to be saved through Him and receive Him with a pure heart and chaste body. But few are those who want to receive ... . In the Letter to the Rulers of the people he writes: " I suggest, gentlemen, to put aside all care and concern and to receive Communion devoutly the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ .
When you love also, looking with eyes of love not only the beloved, but also everything about your loved one. In this direction S. Francesco cultivated a high voltage of love is the Eucharist, adoration, and reverence for all things related to the Eucharist, that the churches and priests.
The passion of love for the Eucharistic adoration was so ardent in S. Francis, who were not few he spent entire nights at the foot of the Tabernacle. And if sometimes sleep took him, dozed off for a while on the steps of the altar, and then resumed tireless and fervent. Who supported him? The faith and love for this "wonderful sacrament " (from the Liturgy).
His faith and his love for the Eucharist radiating from his life and his writings with a flash bright. The friars once wrote: "Please all of you, brothers, Kissing your feet and how ardently I can, I swear all the reverence and honor that all you can to the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ .
For S. Francesco faith in the Eucharist is one with belief in the SS. Trinity and Incarnate Word. And so he wanted was for everyone. So he wrote with vigor and warmth, " The Son, as God as the Father, does not differ in anything from the Father and the Holy Spirit. And then all those who stood alone at the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ and did not see and believed in the Spirit of God, that he was the true Son of God, were condemned alike now all those who see the sacrament of the Body of Christ, who is sacrificed by the words of the Lord, but for the ministry of the priest, under the species of bread and wine, and do not see and believe according to the Spirit of God that it is truly the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, are condemned . and a little later continued his admonition with an effective comparison: " As to the holy Apostles in true flesh, so He reveals Himself to us in the consecrated bread, and with how they look physically saw only his flesh but contemplate with the eyes of faith, they believed that he was God, so we see bread and wine with our bodily eyes, see and firmly believe that his Most Holy Body and Blood living and true .
This faith and this love will reach the point of him exclaim several times that " high Son of God I see nothing but bodily, in this world, if not the Most Holy Body and Blood of her ... And these most holy mysteries than anything else I want to be honored and revered in precious places .
Love for the House of God is inseparable from the Eucharist. You can not love Jesus and ignore its home. Again S. Francis has left us a wonderful lesson for passion and pragmatism. Personally, he was concerned about the cleanliness of Churches, goblets and pyxes, tablecloths and hosts, the flower vases and lamps.
urges ministers of the altar to be fervent and faithful in the surrounding SS. Sacrament of all decorum and reverence. In a letter to the Guardian seems to write in his knee: " Please, if I did that more for myself, because when you see it necessary to acknowledge and, humbly beg the priests because they venerate above all things, the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ ... The chalices, corporals, ornaments the altars and everything about the sacrifice must be valuable. And if the Sacred Body of the Lord shall be positioned so miserable somewhere, according to the precept of the Church and place them in a precious place to be and is secure and is carried with great reverence, and so had to be given to the other ... And when it is consecrated by the priest on the altar and brought in some part, all on their knees, praise, glory and honor to the Lord God living and true .
These things he wrote and St. Francis told her. When he arrived in a country, after having preached to the people, usually gathering from the clergy and talked about this with passionate enthusiasm, using even the threat of eternal punishment: " not have compassion on our souls - exclaimed - knowing that the Lord, so good, you put into our hands and we can touch and receive or do we ignore that we fall into his hands? Emendiamoci much, then, these and other things, wherever he was and the Blessed Body of our Lord Jesus Christ unworthily placed and left, from that place and rimoviamolo riponiamolo and racchiudiamolo in a precious place. "
More specifically still, S. Francis himself, going through towns and villages to preach " brought a broom to clean the Churches ", As reported by the Legend of Perugia, as" very Francis suffered upon entering a church and see dirty, "and this led him to recommend to the priests" take extreme care to keep clean the churches, altars and all the furniture you need for the celebration of the divine mysteries .
Furthermore, " once wanted to send some brothers to all the provinces, - says the Mirror of Perfection - pyxes to bring beautiful and shiny so that wherever found the body of the Lord kept in an unseemly place it with honor in those pyxes. It also wanted to send to all other brothers regions with a lot of good irons and wafers to make fine particles and also .
Add to this that St. Francis St. Clare was prepared by the body to be given to poor churches and that he at the same time prepared the pots of flowers for the altar, we can get a better idea of \u200b\u200bthe Eucharistic fervor of St. Francis.
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what to say, in Specifically, the veneration of Saint Francis for the priests at the altar? Suffice it to bring the words of his Testament: " The Lord gave me and gives me such faith in Priests who are in the form of the Holy Roman Church, because of their order, that if I were to want to persecute them and I do not want to use in considering their sin, because in them I see the Son of God .
is the supernatural vision of St. Francis in regard to the consecrated " Persona Christi", ie to the priests: " In them I see the Son of God ." So he wanted " were honored in a particular priests - say three companions - who administer sacraments as venerable and sublime: wherever you meet them, they had to bow his head before them and kiss them hands ... And in fact, runs into a priest anywhere, no matter how rich or poor, worthy or unworthy, humbly bowed in token of reverence .
Priests For the same love he says: "Take heed to your dignity, brothers priests, and be holy because He is Holy. And as the Lord God honored you above all people, to this mystery, so you more than any other man you love, revere, honor Him '. It is truly ineffable dignity of one who "personifies Christ" and is called to be everywhere " presence of Christ" and to think, speak and act around "as Christ .
For this reason St. Francis is concerned that priests can always celebrate Mass pure and filled with pure accomplish this task with reverence the true sacrifice of the holy body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, holy and intention world .... " Always have, they, the great devotion and the maximum purity of the soul, the perfect obedience to all rules of the Church and with all the delicacy to carry it in my hands and distribute it to others, thereby impress the angels who assist them .
San Francisco did not get tired of recommending priests especially humility, referring to the example of Jesus himself who "humiliates every day, as when from the royal throne in the womb of the Virgin every day, in fact, he is to us humble in appearance, every day descends from the bosom of the Father on the altar in the hands of the priest .
And the hands of the priest should be as pure as those of Madonna, recommends the Seraphic Father, speaking with these sublime words: " Listen, my brothers. If the Blessed Virgin is so honored, and rightly, for him on her lap most holy [....] All must be holy, just and worthy one who touches his hands, he received the heart and mouth and gives to others, because they may eat, he does not already about to die, but living and glorified for ever, on which the angels desire to look .
Therefore, considering these tasks so sublime to the Priest, St. Francis can not refrain from making a painful and bitter finding in respect of every priest, " It 's a great misery and miserable weakness, that he had This way, you will take care of something else in the world . If every priest reflected on the calls of our Holy Father!
The conclusion of the whole discourse on piety and the life of the Eucharist according to St. Francis of Assisi can be found in his exhortation that this is certainly true for us all: "Nothing you hold for you that you accept all that He gives you everything you . Being one of the other, be each other: is this not the content of the divine words of supreme love of Jesus, " Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him "(Jn 6, 56)?
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