Adoration should lead to greater union with Jesus, Pope teaches

Vatican City, Mar 13, 2009 / 07:39 am

Eucharistic adoration was the focus of remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI today as he received participants in the plenary assembly of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist must lead us to union with "the living Lord and with His mystical Body," Benedict emphasized.

Speaking to the Congregation’s full assembly, Pope Benedict said that he hopes their reflection on Eucharistic adoration "may help to clarify… the liturgical and pastoral means by which the Church of our time can promote faith in the real presence of the Lord in the Blessed Eucharist, and to ensure that the celebration of Mass fully incorporates the aspect of adoration."

The Pope also took care to highlight the truths of the faith that adoration is rooted in. "The doctrine of the transubstantiation of the bread and wine, and of the real presence, are a truth of faith, already evident in Holy Scripture and later confirmed by the Fathers of the Church," noted Benedict XVI.

After then explaining that, "in the Eucharist, adoration must become union: union with the living Lord and with His mystical Body," the Pope illustrated this reality by drawing upon what he said at World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne: "God no longer simply stands before us as the One who is totally Other. He is within us, and we are in Him. His dynamic enters into us and then seeks to spread outwards to others until it fills the world, so that His love can truly become the dominant measure of the world."

"On that occasion," he recalled, "I also reminded young people that in the Eucharist we experience the fundamental transformation of violence into love, of death into life. This brings other changes in its wake."

Renewing and promoting Eucharistic adoration is also important, the Holy Father stated, adding that it "will only be possible through a greater awareness of the mystery in complete faithfulness to Sacred Tradition, and by enhancing liturgical life within our communities."

In this context, he also expressed his appreciation at the fact that the plenary had examined the question of "the formation of all the People of God in the faith, with particular concern for seminarians, favoring their development in a spirit of authentic Eucharistic adoration."

"Recalling three penitential practices particularly dear to biblical and Christian tradition (prayer, almsgiving and fasting)," he exhorted the assembly to "encourage one another to rediscover and practice fasting with renewed fervor, not only as a form of asceticism but also as a preparation for the Eucharist