I. Contemplation naturally follows adoration and thanksgiving, whilst, at the same time, it nourishes and perfects them. Eucharistic contemplation is the look that the soul fixes on Jesus in the Sacrament, to know His perfections in detail, to see His goodness in the institution of the Eucharist, to study its motives, examine its sacrifices, weigh its gift, and appreciate its love.
The first fruit of Eucharistic contemplation is to fix, to recollect the soul in Our Lord, discovering to it the mystery of His perfections and the love of the ineffable Gift of the Eucharist. This view, thoughtful and reflective, of the excessive love of Jesus preparing, instituting, and perpetuating the Adorable Sacrament, produces in us first, adoration, then praise, and lastly, expansion of love. A soul goes out of self in order to unite, to adhere to the Divine Object of her contemplation. Whence it results that contemplation is the essential part of adoration. It is its focus.
II. Mary before the Eucharist was in contemplation such as neither human nor angelic tongue could express. Jesus Christ alone, the object of it, knew its value. Mary had the highest knowledge of the love that Jesus had shown in instituting the Eucharist. She knew what combats His Heart had to sustain, and the sacrifices exacted of Him by the institution of this Sacrament; combats of His love against the incredulity and the indifference of the greater part of mankind; combats of His sanctity against the impiety, the blasphemy, and the sacrileges of which His Eucharist would be the object, not only from heretics, but even from His friends themselves; combats of His goodness against the ingratitude of Christians who neglect to receive Him in Holy Communion, thus refusing His best graces, His most tender invitations. But Jesus love triumphed over all these obstacles. I shall love men under all circumstances, and their malice shall neither discourage nor conquer My goodness!
Mary had followed these combats, she had shared these sacrifices, and she saw the victory. She revived them in her adoration. She recalled them to the Saviour, and she exalted the love that had made Him a victor.
III. To appreciate the gift of the Eucharist, an adorer ought, like Mary, and with her, to go to Its source, to the sacrifices It demanded of Our Lord's love. If that love is beautiful on Calvary, it is yet more beautiful in the Cenacle and on the altar. It is there love forever immolated. The sight of those combats and of that victory, will suggest to the adorer what he owes in return to a God so good. And then with Mary, His divine Mother, he will offer himself to Jesus in the Eucharist with his whole heart, to bless Him, to thank Him for so much love. He will consecrate himself to honor the various states of our Sacramental Jesus, practicing in his life the virtues that the Saviour continues therein and glorifies therein most admirably. He will honor the pro found humility of the Saviour, which goes so far as to annihilate Him entirely under the Sacred Species. He will honor the abnegation of His glory and power, which makes Him the Prisoner of men. He will honor the obedience, which makes Him the servant of all. He will take Mary as the mother of his Eucharistic life, in order to aid him in his practical study. He will love her and confide himself to her as to the Mother of Adorers, which is the title most dear to her heart and most glorious to Jesus.
Practice. Pray incessantly to Mary for the interests of the Eucharist.
Aspiration. Mary, no one can approach so near to Jesus as thou!
- from Month of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, by Saint Pierre-Julien Eymard