SSS Sri Lanka

“All my graces have been graces of preparation; every state of my soul was a novitiate. The Most Blessed Sacrament has always dominated my life.” If we read the first pages of the Great Retreat of Rome, we see that our founder St. Peter Julian Eymard had started his retreat by meditating upon grace, especially in relation to St. Paul’s conversion. According to our holy father Eymard: “The first grace is how Our Lord pursued St. Paul. The second grace is how St. Paul answered the first grace. The third grace is the conditions of that grace.” (From the Retreat Notes) Therefore, grace is a preparation of man to complete in us what God has begun. This is true when we look at the life of our father Eymard. Furthermore, he became a student and pupil of his master in order to learn and to study the true meaning of life and his vocation. Moreover, what is clear is that Fr. Eymard became a traveler and navigator and everywhere he discovered a new continent, he prepared himself to lose the sight of the familiar shores. This statement of Fr. Eymard clearly shows us his spiritual maturity. It summarized not only his entire life but our own Christian life and vocation.

The novitiate is the place where we break our former pattern of life as well as deeply touch the paschal mystery of Christ. Further Fr. Eymard united his own sufferings and death of his master and Lord, experiences the resurrection of the Lord. Therefore our father suffers and dies to himself in order to offer his entire being as a sacrifice to his Lord, reminding his sons that “Unless a grain of wheat is forced into the earth and dies it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruits” (John 12:24). In his death to self, he saw his Eucharistic mission, not of his but a calling from his Master. Therefore he was attracted so much to the Eucharist that he could not think otherwise than of the greatest self- giving love.

– Fr. Thilina Lakshan, SSS