Let Us Approach With Confidence
May 10, 2023
Fr John Riccardo
I recently witnessed something that I can’t get out of my mind.
We are blessed in ACTS XXIX to have a transitional deacon named Mark Moriarty from the Diocese of Kerry, Ireland, with us. Mark had heard from a friend a few years back about the work God has called us to and reached out to us. We’ve stayed in touch since then, and his bishop was gracious enough to let him come over during Easter week. He’s been with us the past month and will be returning in another month to Ireland, where he will be the first priest to be ordained in his diocese in five years! Ireland, the land which once supplied our country with so many missionary priests, is now in desperate need of vocations itself. All told, there are only a dozen men currently studying for the priesthood in the entire land. St. Patrick, pray for the people who are so dear to you!
Deacon Mark has been a great gift to us as we travel on mission, and he’s teaching us as much as we’re teaching him. One of the things he taught us was what I mentioned at the start. We were leading a retreat a little more than a week ago, and in the evenings on retreat there were extended times for Eucharistic Exposition. He eagerly told us about something he had encountered in Ireland and suggested we try it.
One of the places back in Ireland where Mark regularly gathers to pray with others hosts weekly holy hours, where the monstrance on the altar is draped with a priest’s stole. The people present are then invited to come forward to touch the stole, if they so choose. The idea is based on the woman with the hemorrhage in the gospel, who in faith stretches out her hand to touch the tassels of Jesus’ garments and is healed. As touching as all this sounded, I wasn’t sure how this was going to be received by those in attendance.
The time came for Exposition, and Mark explained what he was going to do and then exposed the Lord in the Eucharist and slowly placed the stole around the monstrance on the altar. Almost immediately, in my mind’s eye, I “saw” Jesus standing there on the altar, the one and only true Priest. It’s powerful enough to have the chance to pray before the Eucharist, but seeing Jesus’ true Presence surrounded by the priestly stole brought it to an even higher level somehow. I knelt there wondering if anyone would come forward, or if that was too intimate for the people gathered.
All it took was one.
Over the course of the next hour, most of the people present in the chapel stood up, walked to the altar, knelt down, and either kissed or touched the end of the stole. It was truly amazing to behold, and most powerful to do myself.
The Church in the US is praying these days for a Eucharistic revival in our land. As she does so, let us all avail ourselves of the opportunity to pray as often as we can before Jesus hidden under the appearance of bread in the Blessed Sacrament. He waits uniquely there for us, hoping that we too will approach Him like the woman in the Gospel, asking for whatever it is we most need.
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).