Our Lady of the most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.
Peter Julian Eymard was born on 4 February 1811 in La Mure d’Isere near Grenoble in the French Alps, and was baptised there the following day. The younger of only two surviving children of his parents, Madeleine and Julien, he showed a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament from his earliest years. As a small child, he took on the task of ringing a bell through the streets of La Mure to announce that Mass time was near. This was indeed prophetic as his whole life would eventually be dedicated to proclaiming Jesus’ Eucharistic Presence in the world and encouraging devotion to Him.
AND YOU LITTLE CHILD, YOU SHALL BE CALLED PROPHET OF GOD THE MOST HIGH FOR YOU WILL GO BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE THE WAY FOR HIM. TO GIVE TO THE PEOPLE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION… (Luke 1:76-77).
St Peter Julian,
We pray that through your intercession and inspired by your example, people may be drawn to honour and join Jesus in the Eucharistic celebration, and that those who have drifted away may once again find fullness of joy in His Presence.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.
- DAY TWO O Sacrament most Holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
Our Lady of the most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.When St.
Peter Julian was still very young, his Father became seriously ill. The child went missing one evening during this time, and his half-sister Marianne found him in the parish church, nestled close to the Tabernacle. When she questioned him, as to what he was doing there, he answered that he was closer to Jesus there and could hear him better! This simple incident typified the child like devotion and hunger for Jesus which was to be the main-stay of St. Peter Julian’s life and work. When he tells us ‘Jesus is there, let us go to him’, he wants us all to listen to the word of Jesus and to centre our lives on Him.
IN THE COURSE OF THEIR JOURNEY HE CAME TO A VILLAGE AND A WOMAN NAMED MARTHA WELCOMED HIM INTO HER HOUSE. SHE HAD A SISTER CALLED MARY WHO SAT DOWN BY THE LORD’S FEET AND LISTENED TO HIM SPEAKING. (Luke 11:38-39)
St. Peter Julian,
We pray that through your intercession and inspired by your example, people may be drawn to honour and join Jesus in the Eucharistic celebration, and that those who have drifted away may once again find fullness of joy in His Presence.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.
- DAY THREE O Sacrament most Holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
Our Lady of the most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.
Mr. Julien Eymard, experienced a lot of sorrow in his life through the deaths of his first wife and all but three of his children. All his hopes for the future of his oil-press business were pinned on his son Peter Julian. Against this background, it is perhaps easier to understand his vehement opposition when Peter Julian wished to become a priest. The situation seemed to be impossible, but through his persistent prayer and trust in God and Our Lady, one by one the obstacles (not only parental opposition, but also ill-health and lack of education) were overcome. Fr. Eymard was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Grenoble on 20th July, 1834 having had to abandon his earlier hope of becoming an Oblate due to a near fatal illness. He celebrated his first Mass at the Oblate shrine of Notre Dame de L’Osier on 22nd July, 1834.
ASK AND IT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU: SEARCH AND YOU WILL FIND; KNOCK AND THE DOOR WILL BE OPENED TO YOU. FOR THE ONE WHO ASKS RECEIVES, THE ONE WHO SEARCHES ALWAYS FINDS, THE ONE WHO KNOCKS WILL ALWAYS HAVE THE DOOR OPENED TO HIM. (Matt. 7:7-8)
St. Peter Julian,
We pray that through your intercession and inspired by your example, people may be drawn to honour and join Jesus in the Eucharistic celebration, and that those who have drifted away may once again find fullness of joy in His Presence.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us. - DAY FOUR O Sacrament most Holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
Our Lady of the most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.
Following ordination, Fr. Eymard was assigned as curate to the parish of Chatte where he ministered for two and a half years. He was then transferred to Monteynard just a short distance from his native La Mure. The parishioners of Monteynard loved him and he was very happy working among them, and being looked after by his half-sister Marianne. However, he knew that God was calling him further and he was accepted as a member of the newly founded Marist Congregation. This was bound to cause a lot of distress to his sister, and he feared that faced with her distress, his reslove would weaken. He planned to slip away quitly, but she found out about his plans, and confronted him as he was just about to leave. She pleaded with him ‘Wait until to-morrow’. He replied, ‘God calls me to-day. To-morrow will be too late’.
EVERYONE WHO HAS LEFT HOUSES, BROTHERS, SISTERS, FATHER, MOTHER, CHILDREN, OR LAND FOR THE SAKE OF MY NAME, WILL BE REPAID A HUNDRED TIMES OVER, AND ALSO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE. (Matt: 19:29)
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St. Peter Julian,
We pray that through your intercession and inspired by your example, people may be drawn to honour and join Jesus in the Eucharistic celebration, and that those who have drifted away may once again find fullness of joy in His Presence.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us. - DAY FIVE O Sacrament most Holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
Our Lady of the most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.
Having devoted his life and his priesthood to Our lady, Fr. Eymard threw himself wholeheartedly into the life of the Marists. He worked initially in the education of young boys, in the college of Belley, as Director of the Third Order in Lyons, and eventually as Provincial Superior of the Congregation. However, his peace was to be disturbed again. While in prayer at the shrine of Our Lady of Fourviere (in Lyons) he felt called by God to establish a Congregation dedicated to honouring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. He tried at first to answer this call from within the Marist Congregation by encouraging adoration societies, but he knew deep down that God wanted more from him. After 17 years, he came to the painful decision to leave the Marists and found a society ‘…not for men only, but for men and omen in all states in life’, and dedicated to honouring and proclaiming Jesus’ Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. He always maintained a special devotion to Mary … Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament… believing that we come ‘To Jesus through Mary’.
THERE WAS A WEDDING AT CANA IN GALILEE. THE MOTHER OF JESUS WAS THERE AND JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES HAD ALSO BEEN INVITED. WHEN THEY RAN OUT OF WINE, THE MOTHER OF JESUS SAID TO HIM ‘THEY HAVE NO WINE’. JESUS SAID ‘WOMAN, WHY TURN TO ME? MY HOUR HAS NOT COME YET’. HIS MOTHER SAID TO THE SERVANTS ‘DO WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU’. (John 2:1-5)
St. Peter Julian,
We pray that through your intercession and inspired by your example, people may be drawn to honour and join Jesus in the Eucharistic celebration, and that those who have drifted away may once again find fullness of joy in His Presence.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us. - DAY SIX O Sacrament most Holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
Our Lady of the most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.
In founding the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament in 1856 it was St. Peter Julian’s desire not just to draw people towards devotion in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament, but also to give people everywhere an awareness of Christ’s Eucharistic power to change the Church and society. His first foundation was in the centre of Paris, but he was again faced with all kinds of troubles… accommodation problems, financial problems, reluctance of Church authorities to sanction the foundation, and even betrayed by members of the congregation. On one terrible day, he found himself completely alone as the last remaining member left in a fit of pique. He returned a few hours later however, and driven by their determination to bring Christ to the poor people of Paris, they overcame their difficulties one by one, and more and more young men became drawn to help them in their work of prayer and of preparing many youths for their First Holy Communion.
AND YET I AM NOT ALONE, BECAUSE THE FATHER IS WITH ME. I HAVE TOLD YOU ALL THIS SO THAT YOU MAY FIND PEACE IN ME. IN THE WORLD YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE BUT BE BRAVE: I HAVE CONQUERED THE WORLD. (John 16:32-33)
St. Peter Julian,
We pray that through your intercession and inspired by your example, people may be drawn to honour and join Jesus in the Eucharistic celebration, and that those who have drifted away may once again find fullness of joy in His Presence.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us. - DAY SEVEN O Sacrament most Holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
Our Lady of the most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.
Fr. Emard’s eucharistic family began to grow rapidly from the foundation of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament in 1856, the servants of the Blessed Sacrament in 1858, the People’s Eucharistic League in 1859. The work of Eucharistic evangelisation spread from Paris to Marseilles, Brussels and Angers. He had one great dream however… to establish a Blessed Sacrament shrine in the Cenacle in Jerusalem. In 1865 he travelled to Rome to seek permission for this and while there went on retreat. during the retreat, he became aware of the greatness of Christ’s gift of Self to each one of us, and of His Presence in the Cenacle, not just in Jerusalem, but in every heart open ho Him. He considered this to be a revolution in his spirituality; and indeed in the post-jansenist era in which he lived, the revelation of a loving God was revolutionary. Graced with the peace of this revolution, he could accept with less sadness, the disappointment of the Jerusalem project.
THIS IS MY COMMANDMENT: LOVE ONE ANOTHER, AS I HAVE LOVED YOU. A MAN CAN HAVE NO GREATER LOVE THAN TO LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS. (John 15:12-13)
St. Peter Julian,
We pray that through your intercession and inspired by your example, people may be drawn to honour and join Jesus in the Eucharistic celebration, and that those who have drifted away may once again find fullness of joy in His Presence.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us. - DAY EIGHT O Sacrament most Holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
Our Lady of the most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.
Following his long retreat in Rome, Fr. Eymard continued to try to perfect in himself and in those around him, the ‘Gift of Self’ to Jesus, to spread far and wide the good news of His Presence in the world. His personal holiness and dynamism drew many people to his way of life and many priests, religious and lay people turned to him for spiritual direction on their journey to God. One incident particularly sums up his spirituality. He wrote to a Servant of the Blessed Sacrament saying that “Ifsomeone came to me telling me that he thinks of me in his heart”, I would say to him “How is this possible?… have a respectful love for those who represent God and render them filial obedience, but reserve your heart for God. May it rest in Him. He will fill it.
IF ANYONE LOVES ME HE WILL KEEP MY WORD, AND MY FATHER WILL LOVE HIM AND WE WILL COME TO HIM AND MAKE OUR HOME IN HIM. (john 14:23)
St. Peter Julian,
We pray that through your intercession and inspired by your example, people may be drawn to honour and join Jesus in the Eucharistic celebration, and that those who have drifted away may once again find fullness of joy in His Presence.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us. - DAY NINE O Sacrament most Holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
Our Lady of the most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.
Throughout the many distinct phrases in his life, St. Peter Julian always drew strength from the Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and with this strength he worked constantly to share with others both by his example and by his preaching and writing, the joy which no one could take away, and to encourage others to turn to Jesus for their strength also. His life was centred on the Eucharist, and he himself became a Monstrance … an instrument of showing to the reality of the Presence of Jesus among us. The Congregations and Association he founded, and the Secular Institute he inspired, are a living reminder of his teaching, and a continuing witness to the message he taught.
A MAN CAME SENT BY GOD. HIS NAME WAS JOHN. HE CAME AS A WITNESS. AS A WITNESS TO SPEAK FOR THE LIGHT, SO THAT EVERYONE MIGHT BELIEVE THROUGH HIM. HE WAS NOT THE LIGHT, ONLY A WITNESS TO SPEAK FOR THE LIGHT. (John 1:6-8)
St. Peter Julian,
We pray that through your intercession and inspired by your example, people may be drawn to honour and join Jesus in the Eucharistic celebration, and that those who have drifted away may once again find fullness of joy in His Presence.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.
