Friday, May 5, 2017

THE EUCHARIST AS A SCHOOL



BL CANDIDA of the EUCHARIST  was born Maria Barba on 16 January 1884 in Catanzaro as the tenth of twelve children (five who died in their childhoods) to the appellate court judge Pietro Barba and Giovanna Flora. Her parents and siblings all hailed from Palermo but moved to Catanzaro while Pietro was in that town during a brief assignment. In 1886 her parents returned to Palermo.

At the age of fifteen, Maria underwent an interior conversion that turned her heart and mind totally to God. Sadly, her desire to enter religious life was opposed by her family. During this time, Maria found consolation in developing a profound love for the Eucharist and in reading the autobiography of St Thérese of Lisieux.

After her parents both died, Maria was finally able to become a religious, at the age of thirty-six. She entered the Discalced Carmelite Order, having already assimilated their spirituality. Taking the religious name Maria Candida of the Eucharist, she soon became her convent's prioress.

Ever zealous for the faithful observance of the Carmelite rule, she once admonished a nun for her laxity, asking her, "My daughter, why do you insult the Lord like this? Don't you realize that mankind needs you?" In the 1930s, Mother Candida wrote a book on the Eucharist steeped in her own devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.


On the Feast of Corpus Christi during the Holy Year of 1933, Bl. Candida began to write what was to become her little masterpiece, entitled "The Eucharist, true jewel of eucharistic spirituality”. It is a long and profound meditation on the Eucharist, which had as its goal a record of her own personal experiences and her deepening theological reflections on those same experiences. 

She saw all the dimensions of Christian life summed up in the Eucharist. Firstly, Faith: “O my Beloved Sacrament, I see you, I believe in you!... O Holy Faith. Contemplate with ever greater faith our Dear Lord in the Sacrament: live with Him who comes to us every day”. Secondly, Hope: “O My Divine Eucharist, my dear Hope, all our hope is in You... Ever since I was a baby my hope in the Holy Eucharist has been strong”. Thirdly, Charity: “My Jesus, how I love You! There is within my heart an enormous love for You, O Sacramental Love...How great is the love of God made bread for our souls, who become a prisoner for me!”

The model of a eucharistic life is, of course, the Virgin Mary, who carried the Son of God in her womb and who continues to give birth to him in the souls of his disciples. “I want to be like Mary,” she wrote in one of the most intense and profound pages of The Eucharist, “to be Mary for Jesus, to take the place of His Mother. When I receive Jesus in Communion Mary is always present. I want to receive Jesus from her hands, she must make me one with Him. I cannot separate Mary from Jesus. Hail, O Body born of Mary. Hail Mary, dawn of the Eucharist!”

For Mother Maria Candida the Eucharist is a school, it is food and an encounter with God, a coming together of hearts, a school of virtue and wisdom. “Heaven itself does not contain more. God, that unique treasure is here! Really, yes really: my God is my everything”. “I ask my Jesus to be a guardian of all the tabernacles of the world, until the end of time”.

Bl. Candida died on the evening of 12 the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, June 1949 due to  liver cancer and her remains were interred at Ragusa. She  had struggled with this cancer and its great pain since the previous February though was first diagnosed with a tumor in her liver back in 1947.

 Pope  (St.) John Paul II beatified her in Saint Peter's Square on 21 March 2004.




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1 comment:

  1. Venerable Sister,
    I am grateful to God for this great fervor of Blessed Candida to remind us of the necessity of adoring the Lord Jesus after receiving Him in Holy Communion. Blessed Candida’s words regarding this holy and loving duty are particularly valuable.
    I have used them for meditation while leading adorations after Mass, for example, the text on my website:
    https://www.adoracja.bielsko.opoka.org.pl/Godzinaswieta07USA.html
    O beloved Jesus! I want to earnestly ask You for us, gathered by the power of Your love here in adoration after Mass: give us that love that You thirst from every one of us during the thanksgiving after Communion and after the end of Holy Mass. Give us to be moved by the words with which You Yourself filled the heart of Blessed Maria Candida of the Eucharist, who wrote in her book entitled “Eucharistic Conversations” (Colloqui Eucaristici) as follows: “How many tears my heart has shed, what martyrdom it suffers seeing the lack of thanksgiving after receiving the Eucharist or receiving it as if out of habit, without proper preparation. Jesus, oh Jesus, may I be wrong, but love for You makes it possible to sense with what indifference You are received by many, what ingratitude we repay for Your great gift! Oh, what anguish! You know everything about my life, thanks to the Eucharist. You are heavenly; You are too good. That is why we relate to You so badly and respond to Your love with such indifference, O Jesus! What fruit can Holy Communion bear without proper thanksgiving? It is in its loving warmth that feelings and stirrings similar to Yours are born in the soul, Jesus. And it is then that unity is truly nourished and established” (it is my translation from Polish text from the book: Bł. Kandyda od Eucharystii, Rozmowy eucharystyczne [Eucharistic Conversations], edited by Wojciech Ciak OCD, Poznań 2010, p. 53-54)
    Let God bless You and whole your religious community!
    Wojciech Kosek from Poland

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