“O Church, pilgrim
and suffering, of which I am the Mother, you must understand that the center of
your life, the fount of your grace, the source of your light, the beginning of
your apostolic action is found only here in the tabernacle where Jesus is truly
kept…The more your life revolves wholly and entirely at the foot of the
tabernacle, in intimate union with Jesus in the Eucharist, the more you will
increase in holiness. (#360 c, d, B).
This is a quote from Fr. Gobbi’s book on what Our Lady spoke
to him for the Church. I read this on a
card given to me by Lilla Marie, a woman that is now a part of me, not
merely someone I met or someone that I know.
In fact, I know her as an experience, which is internal rather than external. I met the love of God in that place. I learned something about God there and so
desire to share it with anyone who is seeking their own identity or seeking to
“know” God and His calling on and in their own lives.
I think for me, this is going to transform how God will evangelize in
and through me. Here is what I believe
the Holy Spirit showed me.
The source of light, the font of grace is to be the center of our
lives and it is the tabernacle. This is not an external thing (although certainly we
know Jesus is there) but rather I speak of a mystical tabernacle within our hearts. Mary is the mystical declaration of this
truth as she was and is the first tabernacle. She embodied
the incarnation of God, literally. Jesus Christ, God within the tabernacle of her womb and she
brought HIM within this tabernacle of her heart to the world when she visited
Elizabeth. In this demonstration of gift of herself, she
revealed what we are to do when Christ “lives” within us. We are to bring Him to others and in doing so, their
birthplace within them, will “leap” for joy when they encounter Him through us.
Intercourse of the heart is a 2-fold mystery. When we spend time with Jesus in the flesh a
mystical infusion, penetration and intercourse takes place within our own hearts. His mystical “seed” is ejaculated there into an open and receptive heart, the fertile ground
within us which will bring about supernatural life.
An intimate encounter of love with the Beloved renews and refreshes us, it restores us. When we receive Him in the flesh, in the eucharist, it is a unification of the body, soul and spirit
within us. We are receiving His Holy Seed, His Word, made flesh within
us through Eucharist.
As living tabernacles, we enflesh it when we live out the
fruit that begins to grow within our tabernacle of personhood. We are then “possessed” an enfleshment of
this spiritual reality, communing with God.
The body, soul
and spirit is 3 in 1, a Trinitarian view of our personhood. The Divine Trinity comes to us
in a profound way in all three of these parts of our own personhood.
God the Father gave Himself as a full, free, faithful and
fruitful gift to the son and the Son openly received this gift and gave Himself
to the father in this same way and the love between them IS the Holy Spirit.
The more your life revolves wholly, surrendering
your all and everything at the foot of the
tabernacle within you, the more we allow Him to possess us and conforms
our will more perfectly to His. Through
this possession of our being, our tabernacle of our personhood then is more perfectly possessed by the Holy Spirit, an intimate union (intercourse
of the heart) with Jesus in the Eucharist.
When we are in His presence (Adoration) or receive Him in
Holy Communion, a mystical restoration takes place through an intercourse of
our person with God in His Three Persons. This brings new meaning to “you are what you
eat”.
We need to be recharged, to receive and be filled to
overflowing so that we can be filled so as to spill out to those who are
desperate for their thirsts to be quenched.
It seems that intercourse of the heart with God is a profound way to do
this and the purer the form of Him we receive the more capable we are to
enflesh Him in and through our own lives, families, communities and
friendships. The more we do this the
more we will increase in holiness.
I desire to be filled.
I desire to be capable of evangelizing in the way that Heidi Baker,
founder of Iris Ministries declared in the foreword of Michelle Perry’s book
LOVE HAS A FACE. She said “I have seen visions of a radical army of
laid down lovers- a whole generation of those who are so full of passion and
intimacy that they run into the darkness without fear to bring in the lost
bride.” What I have to say to that is
this. COME HOLY SPIRIT COME.
For more on this go to "Missionaries of Our Mother of The Eucharist. The website is linked HERE.
