The Eucharistic fast: an offering of your life

For a month, spend some time to meditate on the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the Adoration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

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I invite you to spend some time to meditate on the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. 

You are invited to meditate on a passage of the "Book of Heaven" written by Luisa Piccarreta, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will. Then, I will invite you to pray our community prayer with all our heart, so that we can attain the union that Jesus speaks of to Luisa.

A warning: the grace of union in spiritual communion is a grace that is given when it is truly impossible for us to receive communion, due to something beyond our control. When we do not receive communion with Jesus by our own choice, then this grace does not come.

Passage from “Book of Heaven” by Luisa Piccarreta – 5 December 1903

How the holy desire to receive Jesus makes up for the Sacrament, in such a way that the soul breathes God, and God breathes the soul.

Since this morning I could not receive Communion, I was all afflicted, though resigned, and I thought to myself that if I had not been in this position of being bedridden and of being victim, I would certainly have been able to receive Him. And I said to the Lord: "You see, the state of victim subjects me to the sacrifice of depriving myself of receiving You in the Sacrament. At least accept the sacrifice of depriving myself of You to content You as a more intense act of love for You, because, at least, thinking that the very privation of You proves my love for You more, sweetens the bitterness of your privation".

And as I was saying this, tears were pouring from my eyes; but – O, goodness of my good Jesus! – as soon as I began to doze off, without making me wait and search for a long time, as usual, immediately He came, and placing His hands on my face, He caressed me and said: ‘My daughter, poor daughter, courage, the privation of Me excites the desire more, and in this excited desire the soul breathes God; and God, feeling more ignited by this excitement of the soul, breathes the soul. In this breathing each other – God and the soul – thirst for love ignites more, and since love is fire, it forms the purgatory of the soul, and this purgatory serves her, not as just one Communion a day, as the Church allows, but as a continuous communion, just as the breathing is continuous. But these are all communions of most pure love – only of spirit, not of body; and since the spirit is more perfect, as a consequence, love is more intense. This is how I repay, not one who does not want to receive Me, but one who cannot receive Me, depriving himself of Me to content Me. 

Dearly beloved of God,

In order to prepare ourselves well for this spiritual communion, please, I invite all of us to join a community where the daily Gospel is accessible and commented upon, and to say a prayer of contrition. Spiritual Communion is a Communion, and the more we prepare our hearts, the better the Lord can come to visit us.

Testimony from Coline (12 April 2020)

Hello Sophie! A massive thank you for the community that you run on the eucharistic fast; it is partly thanks to this retreat that this self-isolation is not only to me a time of waiting for the end of self-isolation but truly a chance to deepen my relationship with Jesus and to take him as a friend. A thousand times thank you for this retreat to which Providence made me sign up and which allows me to learn more about the Eucharist, since even before the self-isolation I felt that I should have a much greater desire for Jesus in my little student life! Be blessed; may the Holy Spirit embrace you so that you may live in the Divine Will. Coline

Many thanks to Sophie for authoring the French version of this community.

Prayer from the retreat

Act of Spiritual Communion (by Mgr Raymond Centène)

Lord Jesus, I firmly believe that You are present in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. I love You more than anything and I desire You with all my soul. “My body longs for you, like a dry, weary land without water.” (Psalm 62) I want to receive You today with all the love of the Virgin Mary, with the joy and the fervor of the Saints. Since I am prevented from receiving You sacramentally, come at least spiritually to visit my soul. In this time of absence, may this Eucharistic fast to which I am subjected bring me in communion with Your sufferings, especially with the feeling of abandon that You felt on the Cross when You cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” May this sacramental fast bring me in communion with the sentiments of Your Most Holy Mother and of St Joseph when they lost You in the temple of Jerusalem; with the sentiments of Your Holy Mother when she received You, lifeless, at the foot of the Cross. May this Eucharistic fast bring me in communion with the suffering of Your mystical Body, the Church, throughout the world where persecution, or the absence of priests, are obstacles to sacramental life. May this Eucharistic fast bring me to understand that the Eucharist is an over-abundant gift of Your love and not a given for my spiritual comfort. May this Eucharistic fast be a reparation for all the times when I received you with a heart that was badly prepared, cold, indifferent, without love nor thanksgiving. May this Eucharistic fast ever increase my hunger to receive You truly and substantially in Your body, Your blood, Your soul and Your divinity when the circumstances will allow me. And until then, Lord Jesus, come to visit us spiritually through Your grace to strengthen us in our trials. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus.