Quotes from Saints on the Blessed Sacrament

"I no longer take pleasure in perishable food or in the delights of this world. I want only God's bread, which is the Flesh of Jesus Christ, formed of the seed of David, and for drink I crave His Blood which is love that cannot perish."

- St. Ignatius of Antioch

"My sweetest Joy is to be in the presence of Jesus in the holy Sacrament. I beg that when obliged to withdraw in body, I may leave my heart before the holy Sacrament. How I would miss Our Lord if He were to be away from me by His presence in the Blessed Sacrament!"

- St. Katharine Drexel

"O Jesus! on this day, you have fulfilled all my desires. From now on, near the Eucharist, I shall be able To sacrifice myself in silence, to wait for Heaven in peace. Keeping myself open to the rays of the Divine Host, In this furnace of love, I shall be consumed, And like a seraphim, Lord, I shall love You."

- St. Therese of Lisieux

"O Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, and our dear Mother! O all ye holy angels, who, by your adoration in our churches, make up for the little love which your God and our Saviour receives from men, obtain for us the grace to comprehend a little the love of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament."

- St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

"United with the angels and saints of the heavenly Church, let us adore the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. Prostrate, we adore this great mystery that contains God’s new and definitive covenant with humankind in Christ."

- Pope John Paul II

"Let weak and frail man come here suppliantly to adore the Sacrament of Christ, not to discuss high things, or wish to penetrate difficulties, but to bow down to secret things in humble veneration, and to abandon God's mysteries to God, for Truth deceives no man—Almighty God can do all things. Amen."

- St. Paul of the Cross

"O King of glory, though you hide your beauty, yet the eye of my soul rends the veil. I see the angelic choirs giving you honor without cease."

- St. Mary Faustina Kowalska

"When she [Mother Frances Cabrini] went to the chapel … her whole attitude … revealed that she was completely immersed in the Divine Presence. One day, during the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, a sister brought her a telegram. Observing that Mother made no response, the sister put the telegram on the prie-dieu. Then, perceiving that Mother still did not move, the sister looked into her face. She saw there a seraphic expression, the eyes openly fixed upon the Sacred Heart; but Mother was not able to see nor hear anything that was going on around her."

- Mother Saverio De Maria, MSC, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini

"From the Eucharist comes strength to live the Christian life and zeal to share that life with others."

- Pope John Paul II

"I understand that, each time we contemplate with desire and devotion the Host in which is hidden Christ's Eucharistic Body, we increase our merits in heaven and secure special joys to be ours later in the beatific vision of God."

- St. Gertrude

"The Eucharist bathes the tormented soul in light and love. Then the soul appreciates these words, 'Come all you who are sick, I will restore your health.'"

- St. Bernadette Soubirous

"As a man must be born before he can begin to lead his physical life, so he must be born to lead a Divine Life. That birth occurs in the Sacrament of Baptism. To survive, he must be nourished by Divine Life; that is done in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist."

- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

"Go with Him, as His inseparable companion, to the wedding feast of Cana, and drink of the wine of His blessing. Let you have ever before you the Face of the Lord, and look upon His beauty, and let your earnest gaze turn nowhere away from His most sweet countenance. Go before Him into a desert place and see the wonder of His works, where He multiplied in His own Holy Hands the bread that sufficed the great multitude. Go, my brother, go forward, and with all the love of your soul follow Christ wherever He may go… And lovingly behold Him as taking bread into His hands, He blesses it, and breaks it, as the outward form of His own Immaculate Body; and the chalice which He blessed as the outward form of His Precious Blood, and gave to His Disciples; and be you also a partaker of His sacraments."

- St. Ephrem of Syria

"You consider Zacheus happy because Our Lord vouchsafed to enter his house and eat with him; you deem St. John happy because he rested on the breast of our Saviour at the Last Supper; and, above all, you regard St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary so very happy because they nourished and supported Our Dear Lord. But are you not as happy as they? Are you not even happier? You do not hold Our Lord in your arms as Simeon did, but you receive Him into your heart in Holy Communion; you do not rest on the bosom of St. John, but the Saviour rests in your heart after Holy Communion; you do not nurse and support Our Lord like St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin, but you have a still greater happiness, for the Saviour Himself nourishes you and gives Himself to you as your food. O Love! O Love! O who can understand the love of God for men!"

- The Blessed Eucharist, Fr. Michael Muller, C.S.S.R.

"Nothing is nearer to Our heart than that devotion to the Holy Eucharist grow from day to day throughout the world,"

- Pope Benedict XV

"You must propagate veneration of the Most Blessed Sacrament with all your might, for the devotion to the Holy Eucharist is the queen of all devotions."

- Pope Benedict XV

"The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life,"

- St. Thomas Aquinas

"Our Lord came to the aid of each great tribulation with a special devotion. The present and future tribulations of the Church and of nations are greater than at any other period, and this persecution is more dangerous than those of previous times. Hence, the devotion which God sends to the succor of His Church and of the nations at the present time is the devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist. It is the highest of all devotions."

- Pope Leo XIII

“Yes, I am happy, perfectly happy; and do you wish to know where I find true happiness? At the feet of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,"

- Augustine Maria of the Blessed Sacrament, Herman Cohen

"We must visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament a hundred thousand times a day."

- St. Francis de Sales

"What happiness do we not feel in the presence of God, when we find ourselves alone at his feet, before the holy tabernacle! … 'Come, my soul, redouble your ardor! You are here alone to adore your God! His look rests on you alone!' Ah! if we only had the angels' eyes! Seeing our Lord Jesus Christ here, on that altar, and looking at us, how we should love him! We should want to stay always at his feet; it would be a foretaste of heaven; everything else would become insipid to us."

- St. John Vianney

"The Eucharist had so powerful an attraction for the Blessed Virgin that she could not live away from it. She lived in it and by it. She passed her days and her nights at the feet of her divine Son…. Her love for her hidden God shone in her countenance and communicated its ardour to all about her."

- St. Peter Julian Eymard

"I have a burning thirst to be honored by men in the Blessed Sacrament, and I find hardly anyone who strives, according to My desire, to allay this thirst by making Me some return of love."

- Words of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary

"I am not in an audience with our Holy Father, not am I in the presence of a saint from heaven, nor with some distinguished personality. Before me, dear Jesus, You are present under the frail appearance of the host. With the eyes of faith I believe that You are present as my God, my Lord, my Redeemer, the Creator of heaven and earth, my all. I believe, dear Jesus, that You are truly present, body and blood, soul and divinity, in the most Blessed Sacrament."

- Reflections and Prayers for Visits with our Eucharistic Lord, John J. Cardinal Carberry

"Ah! What can I desire on earth, what hope for in Heaven but Thee, my Jesus! Thou art the God of my heart, and the inheritance I desire for eternity. O infinite God, God thrice blessed, Thou before whom the very angels are not sufficiently pure, what is man in Thy presence? Should he even dare to enter Thy temple, or address his prayers to Thee? It is true, my God; and yet, though I am a thousand times unworthy to enter into Thy temple, it pleases Thee to enter into Thy temple, it please Thee to enter into my heart; it please Thee to unite Thy soul to my soul, to incorporate Thy Flesh with my flesh, to mingle Thy Blood with my blood, and to press, in the sweet embrace of a brother and a friend, Thy Heart, so holy, to my heart …"

- St. Francis de Sales

"Let every knee bend before Thee, O greatness of my God, so supremely humbled in the Sacred Host. May every heart love Thee, every spirit adore Thee and every will be subject to Thee!"

- St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

"I desire but this one grace, and long to be consumed like a burning candle in His holy Presence every moment of the life that remains to me. For that I would be willing, I think, to suffer all the pains imaginable till judgment day, if only I should not have to leave His sacred presence. My only motive would be to be consumed in honoring Him and to acknowledge that burning love He shows us in this wonderful Sacrament. Here His love holds Him captive till the end of time. It is of this one can truly say, 'Love triumphs, love enjoys, Love finds in God its joys.'"

- St. Margaret Mary

"Mostly [St.] Bernadette's thoughts were fixed beyond this earth. 'During her long nights,' reported Canon Perreau, 'she used to say the Rosary.' At other times she placed herself as it were in adoration before the Tabernacle. On her curtains had been fastened the picture of a monstrance. 'I am happy in my sleepless hours,' she confided to Mother Audidier, 'uniting myself with our Lord. One glance at this picture gives me the longing and strength to immolate myself, when I am feeling my loneliness and my pains.'"

- Saint Bernadette Soubirous, Francis Trochu

"The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time that you will spend on earth. Each moment that you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him and make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in heaven, and will help bring about an everlasting peace on earth."

- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

"The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host."

- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

“The holy hour in our modern rat race is necessary for authentic prayer. Our world is one of speed in which intensity of movement is a substitute for lack of purpose; where noise is invoked to drown out the whisperings of conscience; where talk, talk, talk gives the impression that we are doing something when really we are not; where activity kills self-knowledge won by contemplation…

There seems to be so little in common between our involvement with the news of the world and the Stranger in whose Presence we find ourselves. The hour means giving up a golf game or a cocktail party, or a nap…

Sometimes it is hard, especially during vacation when we have nothing to do. I remember once having two hours between trains in Paris. I went to the Church of Saint Roch to make my holy hour. There are not ten days a year I can sleep in the daytime This was one. I was so tired, I sat down at 2:00p.m.--too tired to kneel--and went to sleep. I slept perfectly until 3:00p.m. I said to the Good Lord: "Did I make a holy hour?" The answer came back: "Yes! That's the way the Apostles made their first one." The best time to make a holy hour is in the morning, early, before the day sets traps for us. By being faithful to it, and letting nothing interfere with it, we use it as the sign and symbol of our victimhood. We are not called to great penances, and many would interfere with our duty, but the hour is our daily sacrifice in union with Christ.”

- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

"Know also that you will probably gain more by praying fifteen minutes before the Blessed Sacrament than by all the other spiritual exercises of the day. True, Our Lord hears our prayers anywhere, for He has made the promise, 'Ask, and you shall receive,' but He has revealed to His servants that those who visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament will obtain a more abundant measure of grace."

- St. Alphonsus Liguori

"The Sacrament [of the Holy Eucharist] is the Gift of gifts, and the Grace of graces. When the almighty and eternal God comes to us with all the perfection of His thrice holy humanity and His divinity, He surely does not come empty-handed …"

- Bl. Angela of Foligno

"The Eucharist is source and pledge of blessedness and glory, not for the soul alone, but for the body also…. In the frail and perishable body that divine Host, which is the immortal body of Christ, implants a principle of resurrection, a seed of immortality, which one day must germinate,"

- Pope Leo XIII

"If souls but understood the Treasure they possess in the Divine Eucharist, it would be necessary to encircle the tabernacles with the strongest ramparts for, in the delirium of a devouring and holy hunger, they would press forward themselves to feed on the Bread of Angels. The Churches would overflow with adorers consumed with love for the Divine prisoner no less by night than by day."

- Bl. Dina Belanger

"At Nazareth Joseph's days were filled with work which necessarily took him away at times from his Infant God. During these hours Mary replaced him, but when evening brought him home again, he would pass the entire night in adoration, never tiring, only too happy for the chance to contemplate the hidden riches of Jesus' divinity. For he pierced the rough garments the Child wore, until his faith touched the Sacred Heart. In profound adoration he united himself to the special grace of each one of the events in the life of Jesus. He adored our Lord in His hidden life and in His Passion and Death; he adored in advance the Eucharistic Christ in His tabernacles: there was nothing that our Lord could hide from Saint Joseph. Among the graces which Jesus gave to His foster-father (and He flooded him with the graces attached to every one of His mysteries) is that special to an adorer of the Blessed Sacrament. That is the one we must ask of St. Joseph. Have confidence, strong confidence in him. Take him as the patron and the model of your life of adoration."

- St. Peter Julian Eymard

"So immense are its spiritual benefits that Pope St. Pius X hailed perpetual adoration as the devotion which surpasses all others. And Paul VI had it mainly in mind when he echoed the hope generated by Vatican II that a new era of Eucharistic piety would pervade the whole Church. "As we would expect, an outstanding spiritual growth and impetus tend to spring from perpetual adoration. It brings heaven's choice blessings in the first place on those generous souls that keep their hour-long tryst with the Lord. But, being such a powerhouse of grace, the devotion extends its influence far beyond the individual adorers, touching their homes and families and reaching out to the parish community and beyond."

- Fr. Richard Foley, S. J.

"When later he [St. Joseph] carried the Child in his arms, acts of loving faith welled up constantly in his heart. It was a worship that pleased our Lord more than that which he receives in heaven. Picture to yourself Saint Joseph, adoring the little Child in his arms as his God. He tells of his readiness to die for Christ, of all his plans to promote Christ's glory, and to win more souls to his love. No lover builds more scintillating plans for his loved one than a saint."

- St. Peter Julian Eymard

"This is the wonderful truth, my dear friends: the Word, which became flesh two thousand years ago, is present today in the Eucharist,"

- Pope John Paul II

"O Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, and our dear Mother! O all ye holy angels, who, by your adoration in our churches, make up for the little love which your God and our Saviour receives from men, obtain for us the grace to comprehend a little the love of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament."

- St. Margaret Mary

"When there are two roads which will bring me to some place, I take the one with more churches so as to be nearer the Blessed Sacrament. When I see a place where my Jesus is, I could not be happier, and I say, 'You are here, my God and my All.'"

- Venerable J. J. Olier

"Heaven for me is hidden in a little Host Where Jesus, my Spouse, is veiled for love. I go to that Divine Furnace to draw out life, And there my Sweet Saviour listens to me night and day."

- Heaven For Me, St. Therese of Lisieux

"The Eucharist is connected with the Passion. If Jesus had not established the Eucharist we would have forgotten the crucifixion. It would have faded into the past and we would have forgotten that Jesus loved us. There is a saying that to be far away from the eyes is to be far away from the heart. To make sure that we do not forget, Jesus gave us the Eucharist as a memorial of his love … When you look at the Crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then, when you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you now."

- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

"To withdraw from creatures and repose with Jesus in the Tabernacle is my delight; there I can hide myself and seek rest. There I find a life which I cannot describe, a joy which I cannot make others comprehend, a peace such as is found only under the hospitable roof of our best Friend."

- St. Ignatius

"Our hours of adoration will be special hours of reparation for sins, and intercession for the needs of the whole world, exposing the sin-sick and suffering humanity to the healing, sustaining and transforming rays of Jesus, radiating from the Eucharist."

- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

"Trust all things to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to Mary Help of Christians and you will see what miracles are."

- St. John Bosco

"We adore Thee most holy Lord Jesus Christ, here in all Thy Churches, which are in the whole world, because by Thy holy cross, Thou hast redeemed the world."

- St. Francis of Assisi

"This practice of adoration is based on strong and solid reasons. For the Eucharist is at once a sacrifice and a sacrament; but it differs from the other sacraments in that it not only produces grace, but contains in a permanent manner the Author of Grace Himself. When, therefore, the Church bids us to adore Christ hidden behind the Eucharistic veils and to pray to Him for spiritual and temporal favors, of which we ever stand in need, she manifests faith in her divine Spouse who is present beneath these veils, she professes her gratitude to Him, and she enjoys the intimacy of His friendship"

- Pope Pius XII

"O Jesus of the Eucharist! O consecrated Host! O envied Monstrance! O blessed Ciborium, beloved of my heart! The Tabernacle is my Treasure, and, far or near, my eyes never lose sight of it, for it contains the God of Love."

- Concepcion Cabrera de Armida

"It is most heartening to learn that young men and women, in their late teens and twenties, are increasingly attracted to meditative prayer in the Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. May all the faithful find in the Eucharist their source of strength and courage to imitate our Lady, totally open to his will in their daily lives. It is my hope that this devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist will spread to more and more parishes and dioceses across our nation."

- John Cardinal O'Connor

"Every morning, even in the bitterest winter, she stood before the chapel door until it opened at four and remained there until after the last Mass. Out from her Caughnawaga cabin at dawn and straight-way to chapel to adore the Blessed Sacrament, hear every Mass; back again during the day to hear instruction, and at night for a last prayer or Benediction."

- From the Catholic Network's biography of Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha

"You come to me and unite Yourself intimately to me under the form of nourishment. Your Blood now runs in mine, Your Soul, Incarnate God, compenetrates mine, giving courage and support. What miracles! Who would have ever imagined such!"

- St. Maximilian Kolbe

"Wherever I may be I will often think of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. I will fill my thoughts with the holy tabernacle (even when I happen to wake up at night) adoring Him from where I am, calling to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, offering up to Him the action in which I am engaged. I will install one telegraph cable from my study to the Church, another from my bedroom, and a third from our refectory; and as often as I can, I will send messages of love to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament."

- Andrew Beltrami

"Put your sins in the chalice for the precious blood to wash away. One drop is capable of washing away the sins of the world."

- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

"The daily adoration or visit to the Blessed Sacrament is the practice which is the fountainhead of all devotional works"

- Pope St. Pius X

"A thousand years of enjoying human glory is not worth even an hour spent sweetly communing with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament."

- St. Padre Pio

"Do you want the Lord to give you many graces? Visit Him often. Do you want Him to give you few graces? Visit Him rarely. Do you want the devil to attack you? Visit Jesus rarely in the Blessed Sacrament. Do you want him to flee from you? Visit Jesus often. Do you want to conquer the devil? Take refuge often at the feet of Jesus. Do you want to be conquered by the devil? Forget about visiting Jesus. My dear ones, the visit to the Blessed Sacrament is an extremely necessary way to conquer the devil. Therefore, go often to visit Jesus and the devil will not come out victorious against you."

- St. John Bosco

"Certainly amongst all devotions, after that of receiving the sacraments, that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament holds first place, is most pleasing to God, and most useful to ourselves. Do not then, O devout soul, refuse to begin this devotion; and forsaking the conversation of men, dwell each day, from this time forward, for at least half or quarter of an hour, in some church, in the presence of Jesus Christ under the sacramental species. Taste and see how sweet is the Lord."

- St. Alphonsus Liguori

"The sovereigns of the earth do not always grant audience readily; on the contrary, the King of Heaven, hidden under the eucharistic veils, is ready to receive anyone…"

- St. Alphonsus Liguori

"The Eucharist, behold the Christian's treasure, his delight on earth. Since Jesus is in the Eucharist for him personally, his whole life ought to be drawn to it like a magnet to its center."

- St. Peter Julian Eymard

"When I stand up to talk, people listen to me; they will follow what I have to say. Is it any power of mine? Of course not. St. Paul says, 'What have you that you have not received and you who have received, why do you glory as if you had not?' But the secret of my power is that I have never in fifty-five years missed spending an hour in the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. That's where the power comes from. That's where sermons are born. That's where every good thought is conceived."

- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

"Jesus, my God, I adore You, here present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, where You wait day and night to be our comfort while we await Your unveiled presence in heaven."

- John J. Cardinal Carberry

"Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration with exposition needs a great push. People ask me: 'What will convert America and save the world?' My answer is prayer. What we need is for every parish to come before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in holy hours of prayer."

- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

"I encourage Christians regularly to visit Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament, for we are all called to abide in the presence of God."

- Pope John Paul II

"When the Sisters are exhausted, up to their eyes in work; when all seems to go awry, they spend an hour in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. This practice has never failed to bear fruit: they experience peace and strength."

- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

"I am quite sure that if we could but once approach the Most Holy Sacrament with great faith and love, it would suffice to make us rich. How much more so if we approach it often!"

- St. Teresa of Avila

"The faith I have when I am in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament is so strong that I find it impossible to express what I feel….When the time comes to leave I must force myself to overcome the inclination to prolong my stay with Jesus."

- St. Anthony Mary Claret