To Be a Saint: Imitate Christ
My Eucharistic Wake Up Call
During my last confession right before Corpus Christi, the priest gave me a penance of spending some time in silent prayer and Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.
This was my Eucharistic wake up call.
Admittedly, I hadn’t been to in person Adoration in a few months since my grandmother’s death when I made a Holy Hour for her. It was a struggle to not only find time in my day to get there in order to do my penance, but to actually sit there in silence and stillness for so long in an empty church.
There had been fewer opportunities to go, due to COVID, and I couldn’t seem to fit it into my schedule lately. My life had gotten busy with plenty of service, relationships, and responding to God’s day to day calls -- as well as personal prayer each day -- but it was lagging in devotion to Eucharistic Adoration which had been so present in my life for years.
Christ gently called me back through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Have you ever had a Eucharistic wake up call? The call that wakes you up to the fact that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic life? The food that feeds us to do God’s work? The Real Presence of Jesus that sustains us?
Perhaps it’s a call to get back to mass more regularly to receive the Eucharist, get back to going to regular Adoration or even just to recognize more deeply the significance and sustenance of the Eucharist -- the gift God gave us as Catholics. It really does give us strength, healing, and nourishment as disciples.
Maybe this is your Eucharistic wake up call.
About the Author
Katie Zalany lives in Cleveland Ohio. She is a Third Order Secular Franciscan (OFS), spiritual director, benefits/wellness leader, and certified health and life coach. She volunteers with St. Vincent de Paul Society serving the poor, is an active mentor to many individuals, and a prolific writer. Her writing interests and focus areas include spiritual development, reflections on the Gospel life, Franciscian spirituality, prayer, and integration of faith and work/daily living. She is the published author of Called to Corporate: Lessons of Growing in Faith and Holiness from the Corporate Cubicle.
