Author name: Molly Hostetler

The highest form of devotion is actually more than a devotion: Eucharistic adoration. This personal, devotional prayer is also truly a form of liturgical prayer. Because the Eucharist comes only from the Church’s Liturgy, there is always a liturgical dimension to Eucharistic adoration.

The Catholic Church has always taught that in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus—the whole Christ—is truly, really, and substantially present. This teaching is rooted in Scripture, taught by the Fathers and doctors of the Church, and reaffirmed by popes and ecumenical councils throughout Church history. This teaching is summarized in paragraphs 1373-81 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

The line is worth repeating: “This he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive.” Jesus issues his invitation to “anyone” who thirsts for salvation. To those who believe he promises salvation through the gift of the Spirit.  

Most people are familiar with Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, two of the most important Catholic theologians and leaders of the twentieth century. But less well-known is the nineteenth-century theologian who had a profound impact on the work of both these great thinkers: Fr. Matthias Joseph Scheeben.  

The Church encourages us to hope and pray for all those we’ve lost. She asks us not to presume that anyone has gone straight to heaven or hell, but rather to petition God with loving confidence on their behalf.  

In death, the divide between hope and fear is unbridgeable. Each of the waiting dead knows what will happen to them at the time of the Final Judgment. They know if their body will be resurrected to death or to life. Those who hope, hope with certainty.

Well before he walked up the steep road to Calvary, Jesus told his listeners how our resurrection would take place: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever” (John 6:51).  

Catholics often accuse the culture of being too materialistic. But our real problem is that the culture isn’t materialistic enough. We undervalue matter. We undervalue how God works through the physical to affect the spiritual. Most of all, we undervalue the body.