I. In attentively considering the reasons that induced Our Lord to separate from and to leave His Mother, it seems to me that He did so because He distrusted our weakness and inconstancy. Our Lord feared that men, not knowing how to find and adore Him in His Sacrament, would become discouraged and forget Him. The child, as we know, does not search long. If he does not at once find what he wants, he changes his desire, and runs after something else. This is what Our Lord feared for us. So, He left us His Mother, whose mission it should be to take us by the hand and lead us to His tabernacle. The Blessed Virgin, then, became our Mother in view of the Eucharist. It is for her to show us how to find our Bread of Life, to make us appreciate and desire it. It is her mission to form us to adoration. She gathered at Jerusalem a community of pious women; she remained in the midst of them, distributing to each one her treasure and her grace of love.
Her influence extended to the disciples, to the first Faithful. Like a true mother she reared her children, training them to virtue and to the duties of their state. What Mary did then she will do again for us. She will instruct us, showing us Our Lord in the Eucharist, sharing with us her own reverence for Him, and her devotedness to His service; for all that a mother has belongs to her children, and it is for them that she stores it up. Mary is a mother. She will, then, educate us. When the child goes wrong in its work, the mother is there to put it right. If it is sick, she cares for it. She never leaves her child, for she must fulfill her mission of teacher. It is Mary who will train you. She will inspire you with her manner of adoring, she will even make your adoration in you, for she can breathe into you the spirit of true and earnest adoration. It is only the heart of a mother that can make itself perfectly understood by her child. The Blessed Virgin must say to you: "Come, adore with me." Our Lord has given us Mary to be the bond of union between Him and us. Mary gives us the first attraction to Jesus. The child goes first to its mother, by instinct; the mother leads it to its father. But it does not run of itself to the father; at first, it follows the mother. Our Lord has, then, given us Mary for Mother, that she may be for us a first centre of easy attraction. Before knowing the Eucharist, we knew the name of our Mother, we already loved her. Mary attracted us to herself. She formed us to the virtues necessary for the Eucharistic life. It was meet that it should be thus, and it is evident that there will be good vocation to the Blessed Sacrament, true devotion to the Eucharist, only among those that Mary shall have formed. Yes, yes! The child is formed only in its mother's arms and on her bosom. To be agreeable to the Heart of Our Lord, all vocations must pass through Mary's hands.
II. Study your past life. Had you not a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin before devoting yourself to the Eucharist? You sighed for her purity, her love. Without knowing the Eucharistic life of Mary, you said: "O if I had her virtues to serve Jesus!" That was the first attraction. You behaved like a little child. When it cannot take its mother by the hand, it grasps her apron or the hem of her gown. If it leaves her for an instant it thinks itself lost. The mother is the centre. She is always the centre. We have need to live with her, to dwell with her. The Blessed Virgin is not like the saints, who gain for us certain graces once in a while; she obtains for us all graces. We have need of her at all times. Again, it is the mother who teaches the child the word that pleases the father. She composes the little speech for the child to recite; she prepares the feast according to the father's taste. Do you see at what I am aiming? I would say to you: Adore Our Lord in the company of the Blessed Virgin. I do not say dwell in her. No! Jesus is there before you, that you may address yourself directly to Him; but do so in union with Mary. Live with her, live in her house. Since Our Lord has given her to you as a teacher, never adore without her. Say to her: "Sweet Mother, come with me. A mother always goes with her child. With out thee I should not know what to say."
Represent to yourself Mary on her knees in the Cenacle. Behold her adoring her Son hidden in the Eucharist. O how pleasing to Him were her words! How well she knew how to touch the heart of her Son! Kneel at Mary's side. Seek not to walk alone. Do not walk before her, but keep at her side. Make the same adoration as she does, offer the same homage. "O Jesus, I do not know how to adore, but I offer Thee the words, the ecstasies of Thy Mother's heart, which is mine, also. I do not know how to adore, but I repeat to Thee her adoration for sinners, for the conversion of the world, and for all the wants of the Church."
By so doing, you will rejoice Mary's heart. She will show you to Jesus, saying: "Behold, my Son, how I live again in this soul, how I again adore Thee in and by him."
O yes, if anyone ought to honor, love, and serve Mary, it is he who makes profession of living for the Eucharist. He has need of Mary, in order to adore. He must make but one with her in his adoration.
Ah! let the Blessed Virgin govern your life. Let her lead you to Jesus. She desires only one thing, the glory of her Divine Son and your happiness.
Practice. As much as possible, prepare yourself for Holy Communion by assisting at Holy Mass.
Aspiration. The Divine Sparrow of the tabernacle has found in thee His nest, O Blessed Virgin, and He lovingly dwells therein.
- from Month of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, by Saint Pierre-Julien Eymard