Cusmanian Eucharistic Adoration
Eucharistic devotion is fundamental in Cusmanian spirituality and it was for Blessed James Cusmano lived in a threefold dimension: as “bread of life”, as “Poor Sacrament of Christ” and as “Eucharistic morsel-bread broken”, to feed the poor through material and spiritual food.
For the Cusmano, first of all, the Eucharist, in line with the Tradition of the Church and in the wake of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, is “Sacrament of love” and “Bread of life”. It is the “great Sacrament of love, in which Jesus gives himself all to us in his body, in his blood, in his soul, in his divinity”. In the Eucharist, Jesus “exhausts his divine omnipotence”: “passionate lover”, he seeks us, receives our visits, invites us to the table. He gives everything to us, in food for our souls, as a “banquet of love. But this “sublime sacrament of love” is a model and a reminder for us: our human love, necessarily limited, is corroborated in Christ the Eucharist, is increasingly open to the dimensions of divine love and becomes capable of authentically loving others; it is therefore the secret of the effectiveness of our earthly love. Then, exhorts the Cusmano: “Let us live in him, for him, let us form one with him, and we will be one with him, even among ourselves!
In the secularized context in which we live, in the society that moves further and further away from God, holy communion is the most effective remedy. Jesus, “Bread of Life”, wants us all to be saved; in the drama of sin and in the systematic departure from God, Jesus intervenes with the Redemption and with his merciful love, giving everything to us. Even Cusmano, reacting to the rigorous Jansenistic influence and in the wake of the tradition of the Jesuits and Saint Alphonsus, insists on frequent communion, even daily.
We must therefore do all we can to “grow at the source of Eucharistic life”, to feel a true “hunger” for the Eucharistic bread, to participate in Holy Mass uniting ourselves to the offering of the Body and Blood of Christ, to intensify spiritual communions, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and other practices of Eucharistic devotion.
Secondly, there is a trait that qualifies Cusmanian Eucharistic devotion and that founds faith in apostolic service: “Sacrament of Christ” is the Eucharist, but so is the Poor; they are both “Body of Christ”. Jesus hides and annihilates himself for our love: the “humanized” Word, stripped of his glory and sharing our human nature, has become the “poor par excellence”. But the “hiding” and the stripping of Jesus did not cease with death: he wanted to remain with us in the sacrament of the altar and the same Jesus, who remained for us in the Eucharistic sacrament, is also in the “Sacrament of the Poor”. The Cusmanian texts on this subject are many and scattered throughout the entire epistolary: the theme of “Jesus present in the Poor”, more than a simple subject, is a “dimension” that permeates all his writings and constitutes its golden thread. Hence, for the Cusmano, the practice of Christian life cannot disregard the living faith working for charity. It is what is called the “Eucharist of the poor”: “The act of faith in the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist is unfinished until it is perfected by the act of charity towards the body of the Lord hidden in the suffering brother”. Contemplation and action, celebration and service, the Cusmanian charitable mysticism.
Finally, there is an apostolic trait specifically “bocconist”: the “Eucharistic morsel” and the shared table. Jesus feeds the double hunger, material and spiritual; thus the “morsel of the poor”. All Christians are called to cooperate so that the poor may have physical life, through material food, and divine life, through receiving the Eucharistic bread. The “morsel of the poor” is the table of love that unites rich and poor in charity, constituting for all a reason for salvation and sanctification, as well as offering the possibility of building a more just society, based on sharing and communion. The Cusmanian “morsel” was an absolute novelty in the Sicilian ecclesial nineteenth century, making Cusmano a forerunner and a prophet of the new times. Then it was an invitation to the charity of all in the Church, as an expression of the common sonship of the same.
Father, pedagogy of ecclesial charity, “sharing” and “open family table”, involvement of all and equality from the meeting at the Eucharistic table.
It constitutes the specific Cusmanian: still today it can and must lead to the defense and promotion of the poor; there is a close correlation between the “Eucharistic meal and the families of the world”. It is an invitation to commit ourselves strongly to the repudiation of all violence or struggle. According to the spirit of the early days of the Work, the “Boccone”, like the Eucharist from which it derives and to which it is linked, is an “atom of love”, which advocates the revolution of love.
1. JESUS BREAD OF LIFE
1 – SINGING OF EXPOSITION OF THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT
2 – PRAYER OF ADORATION
G. Be praised and thanked every moment
All. The Most Holy and Divine Sacrament.
G. Glory be to the Father….
All. As it was in the beginning…
Or:
G. We adore the Lord, here present among us
All. His love forever.
G. We pray
O Christ, Word of the Father,
glorious king among the angels,
light and salvation of the world,
in you we believe.
All. Food and drink of life,
balm, dress, dwelling,
strength, shelter, comfort,
in you we hope.
Enlighten with your Spirit
the dark night of evil,
guides our path
meeting with the Father. Amen.
3 – LISTENING TO THE WORD
G. We are a community united in the name of the Lord. A certainty must animate us: the Lord is present among us in true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. He is the “Brother and our God, life and treasure of our souls, eternal our happiness, our good, our everything. We often participate in his immaculate flesh for which life is communicated to us; every treasure will be given to us with this treasure of every treasure” (James Cusmano).
L.1 From the Gospel according to John: John 6, 48-58.
“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the desert and died; this is the bread that descends from heaven, so that those who eat it do not die. I am the bread of life, descended from heaven. If one eats of this bread he will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.
Then the Jews began to discuss among themselves: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said, ‘Verily, verily, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread your fathers ate and died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
Or: Jn 6,26-34 – Jn 6,35-40
PAUSE FOR REFLECTION
L.2 From the letters of P. Giacomo Cusmano
“In the Sacrament of Love, God exhausts his omnipotence. Being the great God that He is, He cannot give us more than He has given us. He Himself gives Himself to us in that Sacrament; night and day He waits for us in the sacred ciborium, to receive our visits, to communicate His enlightenment, His graces. And it is precisely the passionate Lover who does not heal hardships and sufferings, as long as he sees a moment only the object of his love. And almost as if we were the object of his happiness, he is imprisoned there, suffering carelessness, contempt, forgetfulness. He is waiting for the moment when we will approach him.
Love, my brother, tends towards perfect union […]. What do two people who love each other desire, if not to be united, to prevent each other’s thoughts and desires? And this great desire for perfect union is so great that it is never satisfied: time is always short for lovers; if only for a century, their union is imperfect and leaves one wishing for greater intimacy; that which makes two souls become one body, or rather, as they say, one body and one soul! And if it were possible that one
If the lovers were to constitute food of the other, he would do so not only out of good will, but with great desire […]. And this not for a moment, but forever.
What the world does not know and cannot do, what the limited creature cannot do, God does, Jesus Christ does, our life, for us in the heavenly banquet of the Eucharistic Canteen. Yes, God who really loves us, God, who is true love, and is the omnipotence of love, has been able to do so much! And if redemption had not been necessary for our health, he would have been incarnated only to establish
this great sacrament of love, in which everything is given to us in Body, Soul, Blood, Divinity. God, being that great God that He is, has exhausted the true treasures of Love and Omnipotence, giving Himself as food to souls, establishing this sublime gift to human nature in general, but to each man in particular. Indeed, the incarnation, the passion, the death and all the mysteries of the
Redemption, were directed to this end.
For the Church, our mother, teaches us that the beloved Jesus loves each one of us with the same love with which he loved everyone, and did and does for each one of us what he did and does for everyone”.
Or else:
“Do not leave, my daughter, Holy Communion: without this daily bread, the soul weakens and dies. Ah, my daughter, do not let die what the Lord feeds with his body, with his blood, with his soul, with his own divinity; instead, make every effort to maintain this life which is a deposit of the life you will enjoy in eternity.
“Oh, He is the most beautiful among the children of men. And being God equal to the Father, he has not been able to hide this great desire of his to be the food of our souls. Why so much coldness? He is the Bread of Life, and he who eats it will have eternal life. He himself teaches us to pray for it daily.
SINGING
4 – LITANIC PRAYER
G. “Without this daily bread the soul weakens and dies […]. It is the Bread of life and whoever eats it will have eternal life. He himself teaches us to pray for it daily”.
Let us pray together:
All. Jesus, Bread of eternal life, arouses in us the hunger of You
– Lord, always give us some of your bread so that we do not fail on the road.
– Lord, do not extinguish the enthusiasm of our donation to Thee.
– Lord, communion with You continually strengthen our purpose of perfection, against everyone.
stagnation and tiredness.
– Lord, make us announce the joy of your resurrection in the world sick with sadness.
– Lord, by the strength that you give us with the divine food, let us die every day to sin for
rise with you to new life.
– Lord, we want to bring our sufferings and sorrows to the Eucharistic banquet every day to offer them as the seed of resurrection and glory.
G. Let us conclude this prayer of ours with an invocation to the Heavenly Father, who has given us his
Son for our vital food.
All. Our Father
5 – EUCHARISTIC BLESSING AND CONCLUSION
2. “DO NOT MARK DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE POOR SUFFERING PERSON
AND JESUS IN SACRAMENT
1 – SINGING OF EXPOSITION OF THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT
2 – PRAYER OF ADORATION
G. Lord, we adore you,
All. My Lord and my God.
G. Christ, we believe in you,
All. My Lord and my God.
G. Lord, we hope in you,
All. My Lord and my God.
G. Lord, forgive us our indifference before You,
All. Have mercy on us!
G. Christ, forgive the little faith of humanity,
All. Have mercy on us!
G. Lord, forgive our search for false security,
All. Have mercy on us!
3 – LISTENING TO THE WORD
G. The well-known Gospel passage of Matthew, which affirms as done to God all that is done to the least of the brethren, has charitably motivated all the mystics of charity, including Father Giacomo Cusmano, who has made it a continuous and meaningful reflection with accents of high lyricism. In our spirituality the poor is the “sacrament of Christ” and we bend our knees in adoration before the Eucharistic Christ as we venerate, with the same devotion, Christ present in the poor.
L.1 From the Gospel according to Matthew: Mt 25, 31-45.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory with all his angels, he will sit on the throne of his glory. And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate one from the other, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you gave me shelter, naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, imprisoned and you came to visit me’. Then the righteous will answer him: ‘Lord, when have we ever seen you hungry and given you food, thirsty and given you drink? When have we seen you stranger and sheltered you, or naked and dressed you? And when have we seen you sick or in prison and come to visit you?’.
Answering, the king will say to them: ‘Truly I say to you, every time you have done these things to one of these my younger brothers, you have done it to me.
Then he will say to those on his left: ‘Away, away from me, damned, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Because I was hungry and you did not give me food; I was seated and you did not give me drink; I was a stranger and you did not take me in, naked and you did not dress me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me’. Then they too will answer: ‘Lord,
when have we ever seen you hungry or thirsty or stranger or naked or sick or in jail and we have not assisted you?’
But he will answer: ‘Truly I say to you, whenever you have not done these things to one of these younger brothers of mine, you have not done it to me. And they will go away, these to eternal torment, and the righteous to eternal life.
Or else:
L.1 From the “Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew” of St. John Chrysostom.
“Do you want to honor the body of Christ? Do not allow it to be the object of contempt in its limbs, that is, in the poor, without clothes to cover themselves. Do not honor him here in church with silk cloth, while outside you neglect him when he suffers from the cold and nudity. He who said: ‘This is my body’ confirming the fact with the word, also said: ‘You have seen me hungry and you have not fed me’ and ‘Whenever you have not done these things to one of the smallest among them, you have not done it to me either’. The Body of Christ standing on the altar does not need cloaks, but pure souls; while the one standing outside needs much care.
Let us therefore learn to think and honor Christ as he wishes. In fact, the most pleasing honor we can give to the one we want to worship is that which he himself wants, not that which we have devised. Even Peter believed he was honoring him by preventing him from washing his feet. This was not honor, but true discourtesy. So also to give him that honor that he commanded, let the poor benefit from your riches. God does not need vases of gold, but souls of gold.
By this I certainly do not intend to forbid you to make gifts to the church. No. But I beg you to give, with these and before these, alms. In fact, God accepts the gifts to His earthly home, but He is much more appreciative of the help given to the poor. In the first case only the one who offers benefits, in the second case only the one who receives. There the gift could be an opportunity for ostentation; here instead is
charity and love.
What advantage can Christ have if the table of sacrifice is full of golden vessels, while he dies of hunger in the person of the poor? First he satiates the hungry, and only later adorns the altar with what remains. Will you offer him a golden chalice and not give him a glass of water? What is the need to adorn his altar with gold veils, if you do not offer him the necessary dress? What does he gain from it? Tell me: if I saw someone without the necessary food, and without caring about it I would only adorn his table with gold, do you think he would thank you, or rather he would not rage against you? And if you saw a man covered in rags and numbed by the cold, neglecting to dress him, raising golden columns, saying that you do it in his honor, wouldn’t he consider himself to be mocked and insulted in an atrocious way?
He thinks the same thing of Christ, when he goes wandering and pilgrim, in need of a roof. You refuse to welcome him into the pilgrim and instead adorn the floor, walls, columns and walls of the sacred building.
PAUSE FOR REFLECTION
L.2 From the writings of his father Giacomo Cusmano
“Poor people of Jesus Christ, you are God’s friends, you are our protectors, and your prayers for us are as valid with God as those of the saints in Heaven. You with God are omnipotent, you have the keys to Heaven, your vows regulate the times and seasons. You spare us the scourges of God, you deliver us from eternal death, you are the image of Jesus Christ, and you are the image of Jesus Christ.
That is why the Saints, prevented from visiting Jesus in the Sacrament, knelt before the poor sick. Unhappy are those who do not want to know you, unhappy are those who do not want to appreciate you; they have their pupils turned upside down. Ah! that I would like to raise my voice aloud, and make it heard to the most remote ends of the world, to invite all souls to know and serve you.
O chosen souls who are scattered all over the face of the earth; chosen souls who desire to see Jesus, desist from this pious desire: in this there would be satisfaction of the senses, but the senses could deceive you; but come with me and I will fulfill your desire. Do you want to see Jesus? Here are the poor: they are another sacrament, because in the person of the poor he is hidden away
Jesus […]. Great thing are you, O poor people of Jesus Christ. He employed much of His divine mission for you, He raised poverty to the sacrament, making you an object of worship. Being so, behold, I prostrate myself at your feet and kiss them. I believe that by doing this with you, I do it to the very person of Jesus Christ. I touch your wounds; heal them and heal them with my priestly hands, I believe that by doing this with you, I am doing it to the person of Jesus Christ himself. You remain humiliated and confused, when I exercise these offices, and I regard this as a disheartenment for priestly dignity. No, let me do it freely, with this I ennoble my sacred character.
Did Jesus Christ demean his dignity when he cared for and served the poor and the sick? Did he demean his divinity when he touched the dead and the hares? The priest who practices in these offices renews what Jesus Christ did. He, in my opinion, continues or remembers the sacrifice of the altar; for on the altar he treats and handles the body of Jesus Christ who was sacrificed and crucified […]
and in the sick man’s bed he treats and handles the poor man covered with wounds, who is the image of Jesus Christ. In the eye of the flesh these are disgusting things, but in the eye of the spirit they are divine things” (Homily to the Poor of the Fifth House, 1884).
Or:
L.2 “I cannot find words to express to you the ineffable joy that floods my heart and spirit. To be able to have Jesus in our house! poor! suffering! desirous of the cares of our love, and to have him, not in vision or ecstatic contemplation, but in faith! means by virtue of that word for which he assures us that it is he who receives our help, our relief, our cares, when we have used them towards the smallest, the most wretched of our brothers…” (Homily to the Poor of the Fifth House, 1884).
And so that the harmony of your singing may be constant, you are perennially in the spirit of your holy observance, which binds your heart and soul to Jesus and His Poor Ones, so as not to make any difference between the suffering Poor Man and Jesus in the Sacrament.
The only love, only care, only observance is always Jesus. Run to Holy Communion, run to the bed of the sick, run to feed the hungry, run to clothe the naked, to quench the thirst, to teach the ignorant, to bury the dead, it is always Jesus; do not diminish your affection, do not slacken your cares, do not impair your spirit. He stands before you, he languishes in your love; and this He wants to give you when He calls you to Himself through all these ways, He brings you closer and holds you close to His Heart!
Or else:
L.2 “He has favored us, he has called us to a perennial feast; it is neither boredom nor suffering to serve the Lord! The Angels and Saints pull their eternal bliss into eternity, and we should feel all the joy and happiness in time. We should compete to serve Him and sacrifice ourselves for Him. He is, He is, and not men, showing Himself to us in the poor. He who joins us in toil, travail and observance. If we have the ravings in our eyes, if the private spirit and self-respect still holds us up, if we are pulled by the corruption of the heart, we will do what the Jews did, who had Him in their midst and did not recognize Him, and persecuted Him, and crucified Him! […].
How great is our fortune, having He called us to serve Him, and to love Him in our neighbor, in His Poor Ones! Deh, don’t look no more, don’t look with your own material eye at the creatures with whom God makes you live, and those yet to whose service He makes you dedicate yourself […]. Take a look at this beautiful image of your good Jesus, and particularly vague it with the eye of the
your faith; love her with the most intimate and ardent feeling of your charity in the person of His Poor Ones whom He entrusts to you.
4 – HOMILY OR PERSONAL REFLECTION
SINGING
5 – INVOCATIONS
G. Let us ask the Lord the grace to know how to recognize His presence in every person whowe meet and in every event, happy or sad it is.
All. Help us to discover your presence, O Lord!
– In your wonderful creation
– In the sun rising every morning
– In the sunset of every day
– In every event of life
– In every trial and in every pain
– In success as in failure
– In every person who is next to us or who we meet
– In those who guide us in society and life
– In political and social choices
– In the family in which you gave birth to us
– In the community in which we live and work
– In those who love us
– In those who are indifferent
– In who hurt us
– In every poor
– In every sick person
– In every elderly person
– In every child
– In every prisoner
– In every man without your grace
G. We pray
Lord, may your grace vivify the gift of faith that we have received from you. May we recognize your presence among us and in all those we meet today, especially in the Poor Man – your Sacrament. May this bond which unites us to you and in which you have established us not be broken. You are the faithful God, now and always.
All. Amen.
6 – EUCHARISTIC BLESSING AND CONCLUSION
3. EUCHARISTIC BITE BROKEN BREAD
1 – SINGING OF EXPOSITION OF THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT
2 – PRAYER OF ADORATION
G. “We adore you, Lord Jesus Christ, here and in all the churches that are in the whole world and we bless you because with your holy cross you have redeemed the world” (St. Francis of Assisi).
All. Lord, increase our faith!
G. Lord, to whom shall we go?
All. You alone have words of eternal life.
G. Lord, I believe! Help my weak faith!
All. Lord, may I feel at your side, the word of salvation, the bread of life, the deposit of glory.
G. Let us pray
Lord, that every day you call us to your table, grant, we pray you, that the celebration of the Eucharist be the true sign of our will of communion and the source of an everlasting union.
deeper between us and with you. Through Christ our Lord.
All. Amen.
3 – LISTENING TO THE WORD
G. The Eucharistic spirituality of the “broken bread” finds a particular expression in the “Eucharistic bite”, which is the genesis of the Cusmanian idea of the “Bite of the Poor”. To “break the bread” is a constant invitation, so that our charity, material and spiritual, may become active, and therefore credible.
“The two Disciples of Emmaus knew Jesus not while He was explaining the Scriptures, but while He was breaking bread. Therefore, if we want to make Jesus known, we must begin not with the ‘docere’, but with the ‘facere’. It is not enough for souls to listen. The poor, who lived far from God, want to see; and we must help them with our works, so that they, admiring their holiness, can give glory to God” (Father Giacomo Cusmano).
L.1 From the Gospel according to Luke: Lk 24, 13-17, 27-3.
“And behold, on that same day two of them were on their way to a village about seven miles from Jerusalem, called Emmaus, and they were talking about everything that had happened. While they were talking and arguing together, Jesus himself approached and walked with them. But their eyes were unable to recognize him. And he said to them, ‘What are these speeches you are making among yourselves on the way? […]. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets he explained to them in all the Scriptures what he referred to him.
When they were near the village where they were going, he made it as if he had to go further away. But they insisted, ‘Stay with us, for it is evening and the day is already drawing to a close. He went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them. And behold, they opened their eyes and recognized him. But he disappeared from their sight. […]. They then reported what had happened along the way and how they had recognized him in breaking the bread.
PAUSE FOR REFLECTION
G. Material help must lead to spiritual nourishment, the Poor Man’s Bite to the Eucharistic Bite: like Jesus who, seeing his hungry listeners, multiplies the loaves and gives them to eat; then he breaks the bread of the Word and announces to them the gift of his Eucharistic Bread. In Cusmano it is the affirmation of the sacramentality of the poor that introduces the Eucharistic meaning of the Poor Man’s Bite. He himself communicates its Eucharistic genesis.
to alternate choirs
1 – “This mysterious name (the Mouthful of the Poor), under which a work for the benefit of the unhappy was born, came from the idea of the Holy Eucharist, Sacrament of Divine Love,
2 – through which Jesus Christ, making Himself bread of eternal life and communicating Himself in the fraction of it to sinners, who are in the true sense the poor because they are stripped of heavenly goods at all,
1 – comes to seek them by feeding them with every strange and harmful appetite and feeding them with the true nourishment that gives life and eternal life.
2 – So that the Poor Man’s Bite, in its first intention, is Holy Communion, for which, by procuring the participation of all sinners, the principle of generation and life is spread everywhere.
1 – From this it can be seen that the material help sought in the Association born under this name had no other purpose than to bring together means and workers to work for true life, for the observance of God’s holy law, for the imitation and union of Jesus Christ;
2 – and thus, by bringing the rich closer to the poor, unite all creatures in the bond of charity which forms the eternal bliss of the elect” (Father James Cusmano).
SINGING
4 – HOMELIA, or the following comment
G. The material morsel leads to the spiritual morsel, but it is also the Eucharistic morsel that suggests the work of charity of the “Boccone del Povero”. There is a bread that must be broken for us to love life: Christ, Bread of eternal life, which regenerates us all, poor, rich, sinners or not. All of us, feeding on this bread, receive “the principle of generation and life”. But this cannot happen without fraternal sharing. Holy communion is not an intimate fact. It is a convivial gesture, in which the common Bread is broken, that Bread that calls us to conversion, to make the Eucharistic table the table of charity, the fraternal agape, which does not end with the invitation: “Go, Mass is over.
Then the table of charity begins. That Eucharistic bread, broken in the sacred table, finds fulfillment in the daily bread broken with the poor brother, in whom we have recognized the same Body of the Lord, poor, wounded, crucified. “The material morsel must bring souls to the Eucharistic morsel, just as the Eucharistic morsel must unite the hearts of the rich to the hearts of the poor and make everyone one heart, one soul” (Fr. Giacomo Cusmano).
L.1 In the Eucharist our God manifested the extreme form of love, overturning all the criteria of domination that too often govern human relationships and radically affirming the criterion of service: “If one wants to be first, let him be last of all and servant of all”. (Mc 9.35). It is no coincidence that in the Gospel of John we do not find the account of the Eucharistic institution, but
that of the “washing of the feet” (cf. Jn 13:1-20): bending down to wash the feet of his disciples, Jesus explains unequivocally the meaning of the Eucharist. Saint Paul, in turn, vigorously reaffirms that a Eucharistic celebration in which the charity witnessed to by concrete sharing with the poorest people does not shine forth (cf. 1 Cor 11:17-22.27-34).
L.2 The true union of hearts takes place at the Eucharistic table, the sacrament of universal brotherhood. In this sense Cusmano speaks of the mouthful, material and Eucharistic, as a “love of charity” that unites all hearts at the table of love. Our table, of the Eucharist and charity, founded on the recognition of the Body of Christ itself, calls us to conversion. In celebrating the Eucharist, we recall Paul’s exhortation: “Let each one examine himself and then eat of this bread, and drink of this cup; for he who eats and drinks without recognizing the Lord’s body, eats and drinks his own condemnation” (1 Cor 11:28-29). Father Giacomo Cusmano indicated to us how to “recognize the body of the Lord”, not only in the real Eucharistic presence, but also in the poor, our brother. And to recognize it actively, day after day.
All. “See that brother of yours? He has no roof, no food, no medicine. Take something from your vanities, from your pleasures, from your superfluous; take a bite and give it to him; give a few hours to visit the poor, to console the afflicted; do not go to bed without your conscience testifying to a service rendered to your neighbor. (Father Giacomo Cusmano)
SINGING
5 – PRAYER OF INTERCESSION
G. And now we pray because, like the disciples of Emmaus, we know how to recognize Christ in breaking bread, sharing our material and spiritual morsel with our brothers who are without it.
All. Help us to recognize you in breaking bread.
– Because we know better how to share the bread we have received from you, Lord, we will
we pray.
– Because we share the joy that you instill in us, Lord we pray to you,
– Because we know how to share the hope that comes to us from you, Lord we pray to you,
– Because we better share all the riches we receive from you, Lord we pray to you,
– Because we share more of the love with which you love us, Lord we pray to you.
PAUSE FOR REFLECTION
The following invocations will each be interspersed with a moment of silence
– Father, give us solidarity with those who suffer and suffer.
– Give us solidarity with those who seek work in vain.
– Show solidarity with parents who are unable to give their children what they need.
– Show solidarity with children who are mistreated and with those in the world who are without bread.
– Show solidarity with young people in whom we no longer have faith.
– Show solidarity with exiles, refugees, and all those who are driven from their homeland.
– Show solidarity with those who are unjustly mistreated because of their faith.
– Show solidarity with all those close to us who are forgotten and who often we also tend to
ignore.
6 – PRAYER OF “OUR FATHER
G. “Jesus Christ taught only prayer for the poor and the rich. The rich man says: “Our Father who art in Heaven”, and “Our Father” repeat the poor who groan unprovided and languishing. Therefore, only one is the Father of all, and we are all brothers in Jesus Christ. Therefore, out of love for the Father we have in common, to whom, like the poor, we say: “Give us this day our daily bread”, we must take a bite to eat. Not to do so would be lack of love, it would be contempt, injustice, ingratitude” (Father Giacomo Cusmano).
All. Our Father
7 – EUCHARISTIC BLESSING AND CONCLUSION
SINGING FOR THE EUCHARISTIC BLESSING
We adore the Sacrament
that God the Father gave us.
New covenant, new rite
in faith was fulfilled.
The mystery is the foundation
the word of Jesus.
Glory to the Father Almighty,
glory to the Son Redeemer,
great praise, highest honor
to eternal Charity.
Immense glory, eternal love
to the Holy Trinity.
Amen.
EUCHARISTIC BLESSING
G. You have given them bread from heaven.
All. That carries within itself every sweetness.
G. We pray
Lord Jesus Christ, who in the admirable sacrament of the Eucharist, you left us the memorial of the
your Easter, let us adore with lively faith the holy mystery of your Body and Blood, for
always feel the benefits of redemption in us. You who live and reign forever and ever.
All. Amen.
Final Acclamations
– Blessed be God
– Blessed be his holy name
– Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man
– Blessed be the name of Jesus
– Blessed be his most sacred Heart
– Blessed be his most Precious Blood
– Blessed be Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar
– Blessed be the Holy Spirit the Paraclete
– Blessed be the Great Mother of God Mary Most Holy
– Blessed be her holy and immaculate conception
– Blessed be her glorious assumption
– Blessed be the name of Mary, virgin and mother
– Benedict be St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse
– Blessed be God in his angels and in his saints.
FINAL SONG
