Only Sex, No Intimacy of Heart?  (journal of the heart, pt 2)

By lilla marie lottinger 

(Columnist’s Note: The following is a journal reflection that flowed from time spent in Eucharistic Adoration. As a Catholic, my life is deeply immersed in the riches of the faith; but may all faiths and denominations glean from this an encouragement to seek God as they know Him, with their whole heart, mind and strength.)

As you tell us Jesus, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me” (Jn 4:34).

It is by living in the Divine Will that we find life and nourishment.

Truly in the Most Holy Eucharist, your Kingdom has “come on earth as it is in Heaven” (Jn 6:10); and thus as we turn to you, tap into you, reach out and touch you in the “breaking of the Bread,” “your will [will] be done” in our lives.

You tell us “unless you eat my body and drink my blood you have no life within you.”  As we take you into us, we become living, consecrated hosts of your presence in this world, to bring communion with you to all of humanity.

But how do we allow ourselves to be such receptive brides in receiving you, to the point of becoming one with you? … It is by growing in knowledge and love of you, spending time with you in your Eucharistic presence, in your sacred word.

What would a marriage be if the husband and wife only entered into the sexual act, thinking this is all they need to grow in communion??

First they must get to know one another and foster a deep bond of the heart.

Can we see the parallel? How many marriages are faltering, or just not fulfilling because growing in a personal intimacy of the heart is not there.

How many holy communions are made with the same disposition of a disconnected heart in this “one flesh union”.

If the husband and wife are not disposed to one another with a bond of the deeper heart, the physical communion will be unfruitful, and even can have adverse effects (whether one is conscious of it or not).

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As we as Catholics receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, our Divine Bridegroom is giving himself fully to us, calling forth His bride to receive him. But are we as bride really open and disposed to receive Him. Are we aware of whom it is we are receiving? Do we have a deep bond of the heart with him, that allows us to be vulnerable and enter fully into this nuptial communion of life and love?

This is why we must spend quiet time with Him each day, to get to know Him personally; to share our lives and our hearts with Him, so that when we receive Him it won’t be a mere obligational fulfillment, but rather a fulfillment of the deepest longing, that reaches to the core of who we are.

“Let the King bring me into His chamber…into his wine celler…that I may drink deeply of love” (cf Song of Songs)

(Lilla Marie Lottinger is a lay missionary living in Houma, LA. Her mission website is: www.ourmotheroftheeucharist.org. She can be contacted at [email protected])