OPENING HYMN: Praise To The Lord EXPOSTION OF BLESSED SACRAMENT: O SAVING VICTIM
O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine! (3 times)
Jesus, I come to you, present in the Eucharist on the Altar. You live in the Tabernacle day and night always ready to listen to me. Thank you Jesus. Yes Jesus, tonight I would like to bring to you my thanksgiving for our Congregation, which you established 170 years ago through your obedient instrument, Blessed Alphonse Marie. I am blessed to be a member of this Congregation, either in an active way as a Sister or a passive way as the one who is associated to it through prayer, voluntary work, participating in the Sisters’ activities, etc.
Reading Jn. 14:27-31
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater that I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.
“O Jesus, who am I?” asked Blessed Alphonse Marie, when you revealed her that she was designated to instruct people about the simple way of your teaching and suffering and through her obedience bring to the world God’s love, peace and reconciliation. She humbly acknowledged, “I am so poor and unlearned handmaid”, asking you, “how can you do that and how can you use me for something like that?” But you encouraged her, “Don’t worry about that. It is my work, and specifically because you are an unlearned, I want to make my mercy known through you.”
Jesus, you know well that similar questions cross my mind. How can you use me, weak, unsettled and a sinner? How can I be steady and in peace in this galloping world? Every day I experience many challenges and difficult situations which I have to respond. Yet, you encourage me, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (Jn 14:27). But still, I do not understand and I do not recognize you in difficult situations. Through Blessed Alphonse Marie, you teach us, “Since God is so good to us and has called us to his service, would it not offend him if we failed to have unlimited confidence in him in all our needs? Turn to him, then with full confidence on every occasion. Ask and you shall receive! I am convinced that God has placed in each one of you the strong desire to please him and to do everything in him, through him and with him for his greater honor and glory. Therefore, take courage! God is with you!”
Hymn: Peace
Jesus, You taught our Foundress in your school of love. Obedient to your will, she found the Congregation. She left her followers her heritage, “My Children! Our vocation calls us to the needy. Let us hasten with zeal to assist their body and soul. Their spiritual misery is often greater than the physical illness. Let us daily ask the Lord for a holy zeal in fulfilling such important duties, a zeal that is free of all apprehension, all human respect when it is a question of the salvation of a soul. Let us always assist anyone who may have fallen under the slavery of the evil enemy and lead that soul back to God’s love. May nothing frighten you, nothing disturb you, nothing discourage you!”“In a trial, one must be very careful not to succumb to despair and discouragement. On the contrary, every effort must be made to raise the heart to God and to say to him: ‘My God, be merciful to me, save me. I want everything that you want. I want to love you, although I do not in any way experience this desire within me. I implore you, my Jesus, have mercy on me.’ The Lord never tries us beyond our strength. He knows our needs, our poverty, our weakness, and our misery. He knows them better than we do. Therefore, with full confidence, let our complaints and our sighs rise up to him. He will hear us!”
Hymn: Love One Another
The spirit that animates the Congregation is before all else, that of love of God and of neighbor, which are so intimately linked with one another that actually they present only a single love. “The spirit of the Sister of the Divine Redeemer and of those are associate to them should be the spirit of Jesus Christ, their Father and Model. Their lives should be completely modeled on his and take their direction from his life. His spirit should so totally animate and penetrate them that it becomes apparent in all their words and actions. Each member should be able to say with the Apostle, ‘The life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me.’”Jesus, now looking at You present in the Eucharist, I want, in astonishment, to feel what great love it is You have for me. It is marvelous that You are always present with us. It is marvelous that we can come to You any time and we can find You anytime. It is marvelous that every moment You are giving us Yourself and being a companion in our life’s journey.
My Jesus, How great is your love! How marvelous you are by giving yourself to us out of love! Thank you for the grace so we can love and serve those who are in need. Thank you that we can offer our service to others by listening and encouraging them in faith, with the attitude of mercy, forgiveness, and thoughtfulness.
Jesus, now, in silence, I will talk with You …
Hymn: Now Thank We All Our God
Dear Jesus, thank you that I may adore you present in the Eucharist
Thank You for our Congregation
Thank you for our Foundress, Blessed Alphonse Marie.
Thank you for calling us to your service.
Thank you for the Sisters you gave us.
Thank you for all those who are associated to our Congregation.
Thank you for the graces we received during the 170 years of the existence of our Congregation.
Thank you that You are present here as a source of our love, faith, hope, forgiveness, and service,
as a source of living water,
as a source of wisdom of life,
as a source of apostolate,
as a source of strength,
as a source of light,
as a source of community with You,
as my Lord and Teacher, who, above all, loves me.
Let us pray with the words of Blessed Alphonse Marie:
Dear Jesus, how many thanks I owe you!
Never shall I cease thanking you for your graces. I am afraid of becoming unfaithful to your grace quite easily. You know my weakness. Have mercy on me! Teach me more and more. I desire from you, o my Jesus that I may gain still clearer and brighter insight into these teachings. How easy it is for you to engrave this deeper and deeper into my heart and my mind. It doesn’t cost you anything at all, my God. Have mercy on me! You must give me that now. I won’t get up from my knees, because I don’t want to lose this grace of yours again. Amen.
BENEDICTION HYMN: BOWING LOW
DIVINE PRAISES
CLOSING HYMN: Go in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord
Acknowledgement: The words of Blessed Alphonse Marie are excerpted from Perin, J.: The Life of Mother Alphonse Marie, translated by Sr. Mary Alice Varga