A thematic book review by Fr George M. Roth
In the book In Sinu Jesu: When Heart Speaks to Heart, The Journal of a Priest at Prayer we find the teachings of Jesus to a Benedictine Priest at adoration before the Blessed Sacrament in the form of interior locutions. His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke in his comments on the back cover of the book says: “In Sinu Jesu recounts the graces experienced in the life of one priest through the healing and strengthening power of the Eucharistic adoration.” The Servant of God, Fr. John A. Hardon S. J. tells that what is true adoration: “The act of religion by which God is recognized as alone worthy of supreme honour because he is infinitely perfect, has supreme domination over humans and the right to human total dependence on the Creator. It is at once an act of the mind and will, expressing itself in appropriate prayers, postures of praise, and acts of reverence and sacrifice. (p. 13 John A. Hardon, S. J., Modern Catholic Dictionary) Our Catholic priests and laypeople need to adore Our Blessed Lord in the Blessed Sacrament in these days of crisis. Those who have read this book know this truth so well as so many readers have promoted this book by word of mouth and by buying books for their bishops, priests and friends.
Sadly, so many today do not believe in the Holy Eucharist and are like the Jews and many of Jesus’ disciples who walked away from Him at Capharnaum, when in Chapter 6 of St. John’s gospel on the day after He had multiplied the loaves and fishes for five thousand men, not counting the women and children, He said I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world.” Jn. 6: 51-52 They murmured and said: “This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” Jn. 6:61 So, today, according to In Sinu Jesu (On the Bosom of Jesus), the single most important means of transforming and restoring the crisis in the Catholic Church today is the adoration of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. Everyone in the Church today, priests and laypeople, need to learn how to adore Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
The dialogue between Jesus and the Benedictine priest at prayer is a good way to learn about adoration. Jesus shows us that adoration given to Him is nothing else than every act of praise, honour, trust, confidence, glory, thanksgiving and all other acknowledgements of His infinite goodness and power is adoration. Jesus, by speaking to the heart of the Benedictine priest at prayer tells him and all the faithful: “I will speak to your heart as I spoke to the heart of My beloved disciple John, the friend of My Heart, the priest of My open Heart.” (p. 5)
Adoration
What is most important in this book is the means by which we can adore Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Jesus tells us to come to Him in His Divine Presence in every tabernacle: “Adore Jesus at every moment: Never miss an opportunity to greet Me, to adore Me, to remain with Me, even if only for a moment, in the Sacrament of My love. In eternity you will see the inestimable value of every moment spent in My Eucharistic presence.” (Ibid, p. 32) We are to adore the face of Jesus which represents His divine person: “To adore Me is to see My Face and to approach My heart, full of wonder and of holy fear, and above all, full of love, Adoration is the wordless confession of My divinity. Adoration proclaims that I am all and that all else is nought. …. When St. Francis repeated during the hours of the night, ‘my God and my all!’ he was offering Me the adoration in spirit and in truth that My Father desires.” (p. 40) Sadly, so many priests today do not adore Jesus and seek their consolations in creatures and useless pursuits: “So many of My priests have never really heard and understood the invitation to an exclusive and all-fulfilling friendship with Me. And so, they feel alone in life. They are driven to seek out in other places and in creatures unworthy of the undivided love of their consecrated hearts, the fullness of happiness and hope and peace that only I can give them. So many go forward in bitterness and disappointment. They seek to fill the emptiness within with vain pursuits, with lust, with possessions, with food and drink. They have Me, very often, near to them in the Sacrament of My love, and they leave Me there alone, day after day and night after night.” (p. 27)
Only Jesus Can Help Us
On many occasions, Jesus reminds that He alone can help us and that without Him we can do nothing. “Did I not say to My Apostles on the night before I suffered, “Without Me, you can do nothing”? (cf. Jn. 15:5) Why is this word of Mine so often forgotten? It is a word of immense power for the healing and liberation of souls because, understood rightly, it obliges them to run to Me in every necessity of body, mind, or spirit, and to allow Me to be their Saviour, their Physician, and their God. (p. 163)
Priestly Pentecost
Jesus spells out that the renewal of His Church will only begin with the renewal of the priest in adoration: “Every priest is called to be a priest adorer. Every priest is invited to experience the most fruitful hours of his ministry in the radiance of My Eucharistic Face. For every priest My Heart remains open, a refuge ready to welcome him, in the Sacrament of My love. This is part of the message that I am giving you for My priests. It is time for My priests to return to the Sacrament of My divine friendship for them, and through them, for all believers. The priestly Pentecost of which I have already spoken to you will begin when priests return to My Eucharistic presence, when they return to the cenacle wherein I will bless them with a holy intimacy with My Sacred Heart, and with a chaste and fruitful union among themselves. (p. 67)
The Priest as Victim
Jesus calls all His priests to imitate Him in His sufferings: “The holiness to which I call My priests, the holiness to which I am calling you, consists in a total configuration to Me as I stand before My Father in the heavenly sanctuary, beyond the veil. Every priest of Mine is to be with Me both priest and victim in the presence of My Father. Every priest is called to stand before the altar with pierced hands and feet, with his side wounded, and with his head crowned as My head was crowned in My Passion. You need not fear this configuration to Me; it will bring you only peace of heart, joy in the presence of My Father, and that unique intimacy with Me that I have, from the night before I suffered, reserved for My priests, My chosen ones, the friends of My Heart. Say “yes” to Me. Tell Me that you want for yourself only what I want for you. Tell Me that you desire what I desire for your life, and nothing else.” (p. 64-5)
Jesus Waits for us
As Jesus says so often in this book, He wants us to come to Him as He anxiously waits for us: “In this Sacrament I wait for you. So many emphasize that they must wait for Me, and yet I am already present, close to them, and disposed to reveal to them the secrets of My Heart. They forget that it is I who wait for them to come to Me. How often did I say to My disciples, “Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.” (cf. Mt. 11:28-30) They understood, at least most of them did, the intensity of My longing for the company of souls. I would have all souls come to Me and remain with Me.” (p. 94).
The Need for Reparation
Adoration includes reparation for the sins of the world. “A priest at adoration should also be a priest who is making reparation for his own sins and the sins of the world. “This is where reparation begins: in the identification of your soul with all My interests, with all My sorrows, with all that offends Me; and in the union of your soul with My burning zeal for the glory of My Father and for the holiness of all people.” (p. 53)
Heavenly Intercessors
Jesus proposes several teachings to help us to adore Him. First there is the intercession and mediation of His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary: “Speak often of My Immaculate Mother’s mediation. For you and for many souls, this doctrine is the secret of holiness. Trust in the goodness of My Mother’s Heart. Know that her gaze is ever upon you. Her mantle surrounds you like a protecting shield. She is attentive to every detail of your life. Nothing of what you need or suffer is insignificant to her, and this because I have given her a Heart capable of mothering My entire Mystical Body and each of its members from the greatest to the least.” (p. 21) Of special importance to obtain the virtues needed in these critical days of the lack of holiness in the priesthood is the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock in Ireland. In one of his interior – now Marian – locutions, the Benedictine priest reports this in his Journal: “Here at Knock I want to reveal myself to priests as Virgin Bride and Mother. This is a secret that I have held in my heart for this time of trial for the Church. To every priest who desires it and asks me for it, I will give the grace of living in my presence as Virgin Bride—this was the vocation given to Saint Joseph—and of living in my presence as Mother—this was the vocation given to Saint John when, from the Cross, my Son entrusted me to him, and him to me.” (p. 35)
“I want priests to begin to come to Knock. I want them to come with their bishops. The desire of my merciful and Immaculate Heart is that Knock should become a wellspring of purity, holiness, and renewal for all priests, beginning with those of Ireland. I have waited until now to reveal this project of my Heart. The time is short. Let priests come to me here at Knock. I wait for them as Virgin Bride and as Mother. Let them come to wash themselves in the Blood of the Lamb, my Son, and to be united to Him, Priest and Victim, in the Mystery of His Sacrifice.” (p. 35) Jesus reveals how much His Mother Mary and devotion to her is important for overcoming evil in these days of darkness: “Love My Mother, love My Mother more and more. You will never approach the love of My own Heart for her by yourself, but I, by My free gift, can and will unite you to the love of My Sacred Heart for her. Thus will you come to experience the ineffable union of our two Hearts in your own heart. Be faithful to her Rosary. It is the shield and sword of spiritual combat. It assures your victory over the powers of darkness. Why? Because it is a humble prayer, a prayer that binds the soul who prays it to the victory of My Mother over the ancient serpent. (cf. Gen. 3:15) ‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.’ (Gen. 3:15) And yes, pray the Ave Maris Stella for all your brother priests, daily if you can. My Mother loves that hymn and responds to it as often as she hears it, with an abundance of graces poured out on those for whom it is offered. (p. 59)
Other Heavenly Intercessors
Although most of us are familiar with union of the souls in the Mystical Body, few realize the powerful intercession of those in the Church Triumphant in heaven for those in the Church Militant on earth. Jesus reminds our Benedictine priest and us that He has special intercessors for all of us here on earth: “Mother Yvonne-Aimée is very close to you. It is she who obtained for you great graces from My Heart. It is she who obtained that you should come back to France again. She will never forsake you. You are for her a beloved son. Dom Marmion also intervenes on your behalf, as well as a multitude of saints whom you know and love. Saint Peter Julian Eymard recognizes you as one of his own. He will communicate to you a share in his spirit. You will live from this and you will cause others to live from it.” (p. 7) Jesus tells our anonymous Benedictine priest of one of his special intercessors. “How have you won the love of My Heart? you ask. By learning to say sincerely and with confidence, ‘O Jesus, King of Love, I put My trust in Thy merciful goodness.’ (Mother Yvonne-Aimee de Jesus—Yvonne Beausvaism 1901-1951) That little invocation expresses all that a soul needs to say to win My Heart’s tenderness and favour. (p. 116)
Intercessory Prayer
One of the many revelations that has been overlooked in the Church is the need for intercessory prayer. In the book In Sinu Jesu, Jesus tells us that He wants us to pray for others by praying that they would do the will of God in their lives. “There is no form of intercessory prayer more efficacious than that of the soul who approaches My Eucharistic presence, certain of finding Me and certain of being heard. I am not distant from souls in need. I have made Myself close to them, as close as the nearest tabernacle. Would that My people understood this! My churches would be filled to overflowing at every hour of the day and night. I would never be left alone in the Sacrament of My love. (p. 213-4)
Union of Jesus and Mary
Jesus reveals a most important teaching about His Co-Redemptive relationship with His beloved Mother: “She is the Coredemptrix. Just as My Sacrifice is renewed mystically in every Mass, her offering, her participation in My offering, is also renewed. The priest who knows this and allows it to penetrate his heart will be graced with a holy fervour in every Mass he celebrates.” (p. 44) Although it is not a defined dogma of the Church, Jesus reveals how this little understood teaching of His union with Our Lady in the offering of the sacrifice on the Cross was so important for the Redemption: “I offered myself to the Father from the altar of My Mother’s Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. She accepted, consenting to bear the full weight of My sacrifice, to be the very place from which My holocaust of love blazed up. She, in turn, offered herself with Me to the Father from the altar of My Sacred Heart. There she immolated herself, becoming one victim with Me for the redemption of the world. Her offering was set ablaze in My holocaust by the descent of the Holy Spirit. Thus, from our two hearts become two altars, there rose the sweet fragrance of one single offering: My oblation upon the altar of her heart, and her oblation upon the altar of Mine. This, in effect, is what is meant when, using another language, you speak of My Mother as Co-Redemptrix. Our two hearts formed but a single holocaust of love in the Holy Spirit.” (p. 168)
Keep the Churches Opened
One of the major reasons for the lack of adoration in Church today is that churches are closed. “How I desire to see My churches open! Open the doors of My consecrated houses and trust Me to fill them with adorers in spirit and in truth! Come to Me in the Sacrament of My love and I will fill you with the sweetness of My friendship. Know that there is no companionship on earth that can be compared with Mine. For this too did I institute the Sacrament and Sacrifice of My Body and Blood: so that souls might find Me present in My churches and, by remaining in My presence, learn from Me all that I have heard from My Father. For this reason, do I call you friends.” (p. 55) Jesus reminds us of the inestimable treasure of Holy Eucharist, “the pearl of great price”: “The emptiness of My churches apart from the hours of the liturgical offices is an indictment, first of all, of My priests, and then, of My faithful. My Eucharistic presence meets with coldness, with indifference, and with a chilling ingratitude, even on the part of My priests and of consecrated souls. They fail to recognize in the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist the pearl of great price, the treasure once hidden in the field but now offered freely to all who would partake of its inexhaustible riches. (p. 215)
Gift of the Eucharist
Jesus continues to remind us of the treasure of the Holy Eucharist: “My intention was threefold. It was first to perpetuate My one Sacrifice through all ages and even to the close of the age. It was to nourish souls with My Body and Blood for their healing, their sanctification, their union with Me and with all the members of My Mystical Body, in view of My return in glory when all will be one in Me, and I will be in them, and the sacrifice of our praise to the Father in the Holy Spirit will be unending. But I had a third reason as well: it was to offer souls—and especially My priests—the companionship and light and warmth of My Real Presence.” (p. 85) Sadly, Jesus reminds us what this loss of faith in Holy Eucharist causes in His priesthood: “The loss of faith that afflicts so many souls is incompatible with a life of adoration. Souls do not stop adoring because they have lost their faith; they lose their faith because they have stopped adoring Me. This is why I would have you hold fast even to the outward forms of adoration.” (p. 87)
Transformation into Christ
One of the most important effects of adoration is transformation of the priest into Jesus Christ: “The work of transformation into Me is My work. My priests have only to expose themselves to My Eucharistic Face. Little by little, the radiance of My Face will cause the indelible character of My priesthood in them to emerge from the sin that has obscured it and defaced it. It will begin to shine, and this will draw souls to Me through My priests. (p. 112)
Spousal Love in Christ
This transformation into Christ comes about by spousal union of Christ with the priest: “This is why I so insist on adoration for all My priests. It is the crucible of their priestly perfection. It is the furnace of love in which I purify them like gold in the fire. It is the nuptial chamber in which I draw them to My Heart, and speak to them face-to-face, as a bridegroom to his bride, and as a man to his friend. (Song 2:4) The nuptial bond of the priest with Me pertains to the relationship between My divinity and the priest’s soul. My humanity offers the priest a divine friendship, but that friendship leads to the union of the soul with My divinity and to a fruitfulness that surpasses every action and work of the priest acting of his own initiative. Consent to My friendship and I will espouse your soul. Espousal means the most intimate union in love; it is in this sense that the soul is espoused by the Persons of the Adorable Trinity. The Father nonetheless unites Himself to the soul as a Father; the Son unites Himself to the soul as Bridegroom and as the Father’s only begotten Son; the Holy Spirit unites Himself to the soul as the fruition and completion of love. This is why I so insist on adoration for all My priests. It is the crucible of their priestly perfection. It is the furnace of love in which I purify them like gold in the fire. It is the nuptial chamber in which I draw them to My Heart, and speak to them face-to-face, as a bridegroom to his bride, and as a man to his friend. (p. 133)
Divine Radiance
An important teaching about Jesus’ presence in the Blessed Sacrament is the radiating effect of the sacrament. Jesus told St. Faustina that when a soul trusts in Him, she will radiate grace to all those around him. How much more will it be for the Holy Eucharist where Jesus Himself is present: “Where there is faith in My real presence, there will be adoration; and where there is adoration, there will also be an efficacious radiance of My presence, drawing souls to My Eucharistic Heart and surrounding them, even at a distance, with the healing influence of My Eucharistic Face. In those places where I am exposed upon the altar to receive the adoration, the reparation, and the companionship of My friends—and, first of all, of My priests—My radiance is powerful and strong. Faith, adoration, and love act as receptors; thus, is My power drawn out and made effective, invisibly but really, in space and in time. (p.169)
The Source of Priestly Holiness.
Another important teaching about the Holy Eucharist is the altar of sacrifice: “The altar is the source of priestly holiness. The kiss given to the altar at the beginning and end of Holy Mass means that the priest recognizes this. By kissing the altar, he makes himself vulnerable to My piercing love. By kissing the altar, he opens himself unreservedly to all that I would give him and to all that I hold in the designs of My Heart for his life. The kiss to the altar signifies total abandonment to the priestly holiness that I desire and to the fulfilment of My desires in the soul of My priest.” (p. 64)
Jesus Inspires Our Prayers
Many people think that they initiate their prayers. Jesus reveals that it is He who inspires all of our prayers: “See, you have prayed according to the inspirations I gave you through My Holy Spirit. There is no better way to pray. One who listens to my Eucharistic Heart will pray rightly. His petition will be heard by My Father. It is I who will tell you how to pray. (cf. Lk. 11:1-4) I will make known to you those things for which I want you to ask. And I will grant the graces that I will have caused you to desire and for which I will have inspired you to pray. This is what My Apostle meant when he wrote that ‘the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness, for we know not how to pray as we ought.’” (Rom 8:26) Ibid. , p. 73-4
When you pray, there is no need to worry about what you will say or for what things you ought to ask. (cf. Mt. 6:7-8) It is enough to come humbly into My presence and to pray as My Holy Spirit gives you to pray. Such prayer will always be fruitful. Such prayer is always efficacious because it springs not from you, but from Me, not from what you may desire, but from what I desire to give you. (p. 74)
Jesus Shows Himself to Adorers
There is nothing more important than time spent in adoration: “The more time you dedicate to Me alone in the Sacrament of My love, the more will I bless you in all that you are called to do. Resist every temptation to cut short the time dedicated to adoration. You are set apart for that work of reparation and of love, and nothing can take its place in your life.” (p. 97) “What matters is that you have come into My presence, seeking My Face and offering Me all the love of your heart. This is enough. With this little act of adoration and love, I will do great things. I do not ask for things beyond your strength. I am not a harsh and demanding taskmaster; I am the most loving and grateful of friends. No moment spent in My sacramental presence goes unrewarded, for I love those who love Me. I show My Face to those who seek Me, and I give My Heart to those who yearn for My friendship.” (p. 217-8)
The Boundlessness of Our Lady’s Annunciation<
Our Lady reveals one of most startling revelation of this book by expressing the hidden depths of Her joy in the Annunciation by which God becomes incarnate. “I am happy to have spoken to you on this feast of the Annunciation that filled me with divine joy so many years ago in Nazareth. That divine joy remains. No one will ever make it decrease. In eternity it multiplies itself to infinity; it is an ocean of joy having no boundaries, and its depth cannot be measured. This is the joy that I would share with you and with all my priest sons today.” (p. 111)
Purity of Heart
Another important revelation concerns the importance of purity. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus extolled the importance of purity: “Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see God.” (Mt. 5: 8) Here the Benedictine priest comments on the single most serious problem of the priesthood today: “I call you to newness of life in purity of heart and in faithful adoration. Purity of heart is the effect of persevering adoration, and its fruit. One cannot abide before My Eucharistic Face day after day without being changed from one degree of purity—that is, of brightness—to another. Those who adore My Eucharistic Face will be like mirrors in the Church, reflecting My holiness, My majesty, and My boundless pity for all to see. (p. 111) Every time a priest sins, he sins directly against Me and against the Most Holy Eucharist toward which his whole being is ordered. When a priest approaches My altar laden with sins that have not been confessed or for which he has not repented, My angels look on in horror, My Mother grieves, and I am again wounded in My hands and My feet, and in My Heart. I am again struck on My mouth and treated with a terrible ignominy. This is why I call My priests to purity of heart and to frequent confession. This is why I ask you to confess your sins weekly and to let the adoration of My Eucharistic Face purify your heart and make you less unworthy of offering My Holy Sacrifice. The sins of My priests are a grievous affront to My own priesthood and immaculate victimhood.” (p. 115)
The Father’s Goodness
Another valuable teaching that is not understood nor taught concerns the importance of the God the Father in the spiritual life: “My Father’s goodness and love remain hidden from so many souls. They have not understood that I came into the world to reveal My Father who is all love, and to draw souls to Him in filial confidence and in the joy of abandonment to His goodness. Love our Father. Trust our Father. Depend upon our Father in every weakness. This revelation of God as a Father who cherishes His children, and so loves them that He sent Me, His only-begotten Son, into the world to suffer and to die, lies at the very heart of My Gospel. (“For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting.” (Jn. 3:16) Love My Father and open your heart to the immensity of His love for you. Thus will you become for Him, in Me, a beloved son in whom He takes delight.” (p. 174)
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
One of the most important aspects in the faithfulness of the priest today is the misunderstanding of the of Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Jesus points out the importance of His Sacrifice of the Cross in the Mass for every priest. “Every moment of your life is a preparation for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, just as every moment of My life was a preparation for, and slow ascent to, the Sacrifice of the Cross. Understand this and you will see that nothing in your life is foreign to My plan for you: everything you have done, every place you have ever been, every person with whom have been or are connected, is part of My design for your life. All of your life moves towards the altar, just as all of My life moved toward the Cross. Even the things you have suffered are part of My preparation of your priesthood, part of the things by which I fit you to stand in My place as victim and priest.” (p. 257)
Priest as Victim for Christ
Jesus teaches how important it is to accept the sufferings in our lives when we united them to Him on the Cross. “When I find a priest who suffers—and who suffers with Me—becoming a victim with Me in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in every moment of his life, I embrace that priest with all the divine tenderness of My Heart, and I draw him to the wound in My side, there to drink deeply of the refreshing torrent that every flows from My Heart.” (p. 262)
The Words of Jesus for Our Time
The book, In Sinu Jesus, is a great blessing for our Church and our world in this critical time which Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan, calls one of “the four greatest crises in the history of the Church.” This book is a call, as Jesus tells us, for His “Priestly Pentecost” at a time when the priests of the Church have abandoned their true vocation which is to be “the praise and glory of God” at the Eucharistic altar of Sacrifice. Nothing the Church can do with its various programs, conferences or synods will be as effective as the renewal of the priesthood through prayer and adoration as In Sinu Jesu reminds us continually. All who will read this book will recognize the truth of Jesus’ spiritual teaching to the Benedictine monk as sole means of renewal of the priesthood and the Church. Every priest, bishop and Catholic should read “In Sinu Jesu.”
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