To Someone Very Special

SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY

14th FEBRUARY

J.M.J.

Dear Father Thomas:

Today, during my holy hour, I saw something peculiar, a chocolates box on the altar. I first thought someone had forgotten it there, until I read the card attached to the the box; "To Jesus, from Ninay, because your love is the sweetest of all".

One day Ninay was so self-absorbed on the love of Jesus that she didn't want to leave the chapel. her husband used to pick her up after her holy hour, but Ninay fervently prayed asking Jesus that let her a bit longer. Her husband's car didn't ignite and when he achieved to fix it, our dear Ninay have had six additional hours with the Lord.

One prayer that our Father God can't refuse, is when we beg to be able to desire more to His Son in the Holy Sacrament. Love is sweet, because it make us feel very special. The love quality is what really make us feel special. For this, the love of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament is the biggest and sweetest that our hearts could ever know.

His love makes you the most special and important person in the world. God has many individual attributes. Every person represents a special an unique attribute of God, never before created and never reproduced. God sees himself in us.

In every one of us, God sees this unique quality and special attribute that we only posses. And He would do only for you everything that has done for the human race. Jesus would do everything again for you, if that would mean your salvation.

As special you are to Him. But you'd never know this unless you reach near to know him in the Holy Sacrament. The Holy Sacrament is God, the divine lover, that tells us how infinitely special we are to Him. God didn't send candies or a Saint Valentine's card to us, but to His only Son.

"Because He loved the world so much that He sent His only Son (...) not to judged the world, but to save it through Him" (Jn 3, 16-17). God so loved the world that, through the Holy Sacrament, He continues sending His only Son that says that His Father loves us as much as He loves His Son. (Jn 17:23) In other words, every one of us is so special to the Father as Jesus himself. What a tender love!

For that reason in the rite of the entrance for the Solemnity of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ, it is exclaimed: "But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you" (Ps 81:16) The honey from the 'rock', is the sweet divine love of Jesus, that springs from his Heart is the Holy Sacrament. Only a wounded heart can appreciate this sweetness. Only a humbled heart could recognize it. Only a child's heart could love Him. This is the reason for God allows suffering in our lives. It is the medicine that cures our pride. Only when our heart is wounded, crushed, defeated, humiliated, or suffering from any reason, we could experience the the sweetness of His love. Because He, is the most dejected of all.

A spear opened the side of Jesus, so from His wounded heart, could spring the sweetness of His divine love on everyone that approach Him in the Holy Sacrament. For this we proclaim in the blessing: "You gave us, Lord, the bread of heaven (...) that itself contains all delights." When I was in Mexico, I saw some children playing with a 'piñata'. With covered eyes, they beat an object filled with candies until they succeed in breaking it, so all the candies fell on the children for they could eat until were satisfied.

To the chattered Heart of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament approach all the shattered hearts from the world. The sweetness of His love is a consolation to the bitterness of life, and its painful rejections. because "Yahveh is close to the sunken spirits" (Ps 34:19) "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all".

This should be the reason why the countries of the third world welcome the perpetual adoration with more enthusiasm that the more opulent nations. Father Lorenzo Guerrero S.J. had a dream, where he saw The Philippines at night, from a long distance from the earth. It was a stunning view, with dotted lights cloistered in hearts that lit the whole island. In the dream, he was told that those shinning lights were the graces that came from the many perpetual adoration chapels.

Father Martin arrived to The Philippines in 1986, just before the ESDA revolution. Howard Dee took him to the restaurant Josefina, on Roxas avenue. Howard is a great friend of the Cardinal Sin, he has a profound love for the Eucharist and an eagerness for the the perpetual adoration. This was one of the main reasons why he was invited by Father Martin. The entrance of the restaurant was decorated with thousands of small electric lit hearts, in commemoration of Valentine's Day. father Martin said that that were the amount of perpetual adoration chapels that Our Lady wanted The Philippines had. In views that The Philippines has a special place in Her Heart and in of Her Son's, She desires that there were thousand chapels of perpetual adoration. Father Roger Cortez is eagerly working to achieve this objective.

There was a song that said: 'What the world needs now is love, sweet love". Pope Paulo VI said: :The Holy sacrament is the living heart of every one of our parishes" (the Creed of the people of God). When I think about the Church and about the world of today, I believe that we lack of spiritual power, some call it lost, we call it a partial shut down. "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil." (Jn 3:19)

We should return to the source of the sweet love of the living life, to the divine lover, who creates the true light, through which we can see how special we are.

When one feels like garbage, we treat other likewise. When one knows how infinitely special is, then he/she treats others in a very special way. The more we see each other in the light of the Eucharistic love, the more we will love each other. The Holy Sacrament is for someone very special. For you! The lyric of the song "So Rare", can't compare with how special you are for Him. Jesus wants you, more than anything that ever existed in the world, since the beginning of times. His very presence says: "Let me call you Beloved because I'm in love with you. Let me hear you wispering me that you love me so as well."

Above the Holy Sacrament is written: "Falling in love with God is the biggest romance of all." Seeking for Him, the greatest adventure. Finding Him, the human conquest most important."

This morning, the vice-president Salvador Laurel came to the inauguration of the Street Carnation's Chapel. He is a real hero of the Revolution EDSA, and is considered for many as the greatest statesman of the XX century. Addressing to the Missionaries of the Holy Sacrament said that we needed another revolution, one that bring the world to the Holy Sacrament.

Fraternally yours in His Eucharistic Love,

Mgr. Pepe