Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament

Province of Saint Ann

St Ann Crown red

Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament

Province of Saint Ann

St Ann Crown red
Eymard stained glass window

Daily Eucharistic Reflections

August 7, 2023

I cannot carry all these people on my own; the weight is too much for me.

God provided manna to our ancestors as sustenance for their journey through the desert to the Promised Land. While in the desert, they ground the manna and cooked it into cakes but hungered for meat and wept openly.

The Israelites’ cries angered God and disgraced Moses, who pleaded to God that the weight of the people was too burdensome for one man to bear.

In today’s gospel, Jesus readily takes on the burden of his people. When Jesus came ashore after retreating to mourn the loss of his cousin, John the Baptist, he was met by a large crowd for whom he felt compassion and healed their sick. When the crowd hungered, the disciples urged Jesus to send them away so they could buy food and feed themselves. Jesus ordered the crowd to stay, blessed five loaves, and two fish, multiplied the food, and they all ate as much as they wanted, with 12 baskets left over.

The world today is a spiritual desert and a veritable wilderness that, at times, is not easy to navigate, and our souls pang with hunger and thirst for Christ. God responded to Moses’ and our collective cries by sending his only Son as a sacrificial lamb so we could have spiritual nourishment on our way home.

Just as Jesus urged his disciples to “feed them yourselves,” speaking of the five-thousand-plus crowd in a deserted place, our faith in Christ allows us to feed others, bring them to Christ, and break bread together.

Where do we find ourselves today—in the desert crying for more or seeking Jesus to fill us?

Let Us Pray:

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us, and after this exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary, pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

 

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Who We Are

We are a Catholic religious congregation of priests, deacons and brothers whose mission is to share the riches of God’s love manifested in the Eucharist.

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Daily Eucharistic Reflection

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