On this propitious 13th day of May, we should also commemorate Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, a feast propagated by the saint of the Blessed Sacrament, Peter Julian Eymard. In a vision on February 2nd, 1851 – the Presentation of the Lord and Purification of Our Lady – the Blessed Virgin appeared to the saint, and said: “All the mysteries of my Son have a religious order to honour them. The Eucharist alone has none..’. Thus began the Congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament, under Our Lady’s patronage. The title we honour today was given in May, 1868 by Saint Peter Julian, and an indulgence given by the Pope Saint Pius X for those who invoke Our Lady under this title, and this was further cemented by Pope Saint John XXIII during the Second Vatican Council, in 1962, with the following prayer, compose by Saint Peter Julian Eymard:
Virgin Immaculate, perfect lover of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, we ask you to obtain for us the graces we need to become true adorers of our Eucharistic God. Grant us, we beg of you, to know Him better, to love Him more, and to centre our lives around the Eucharist, that is, to make our whole life a constant prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and petition to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Amen.
V. Pray for us, O Virgin Immaculate, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
R. That the Eucharistic Kingdom of Jesus Christ may come among us!
In some connection with this devotion, we should also recall Saint André-Hubert Fournet (1752 – 1834), a priest who live, and survived through, the French Revolution. As a youth, he was utterly bored with religion, the Mass, and all the trappings, giving his pious mother great grief, who thought he did have a vocation to the priesthood – with which many pious mothers may commiserate. He began his studies, but ran off to join the military, but the example of a holy uncle drew him back to the Faith, and so convinced was the young André that he decided to follow his path, become a priest himself. The rest of his life was dedicated to his priestly office, in a quiet, unassuming, and unwavering manner. He refused to take the evil constitutional oath, and so was arrested on Good Friday, April 6, 1792, at the height of the ‘Terror’, but managed to escape, and avoided capture at one point by playing dead. Fleeing to Spain, he returned to his homeland in 1797, just before the Napoleonic era, when the Faith would be re-established in France. Father Fournet founded the Sister of the Cross with Joan Elizabeth Lucy Bichier des Âges, to care for and educate poor, rural children, neglected in that aristocratic age. Father died on May 13th, 1834, and was canonized by Pope Pius XI on June 4th, 1933, after the requisite two miracles. May the good priest perform many more miracles for France, not least her conversion to the fullness of the Faith. He could the patron saint of those who say they ‘get nothing out of the Mass’. Well, we get out what we put in, and we have to see behind the ‘veil’, the signification of sacrament, to the reality.
Like the seers of Fatima, once that is seen – with the eyes of Faith – it can never be unseen, and one’s whole life is changed, all for the good, and ultimately for the best.
On that note, a final note: One of my former students is working in France, and wrote to me the other day saying that the Faith is indeed growing, in pockets, amongst young people drawn there, like the André-Hubert, by the example of others. Holiness is indeed a stronger magnet that doctrine itself, without. Curiously, they think Canadians are all Protestants. We have some work to do here in Canada to shape our international image.
