In the Eucharist, the Lord Speaks the Language of Love

“There is nothing greater than the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, he would have given it to us.” — St. John Vianney

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I am a Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth. With my sisters, we are called to extend the Kingdom of God’s love among ourselves and others by living the spirit of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. I am also a mental health provider.

Born and raised in Poland, I came to this country as a young sister without any knowledge of the English language. How I missed my family, my native country, and even my scrumptious Polish food!

The Eucharist has always been the strongest way I know God’s love for me. It is the way he reaches me. At Mass, Jesus, really and substantially present, establishes with me a living relationship through Holy Communion. When I receive Jesus in the Eucharist, I know I belong to him. I know I am seen and valued by him.

During those difficult times in my first years here in the United States, I remember some profound experiences in prayer through which I encountered the power of the Eucharist.

One day, during Mass, I asked Jesus to let me feel the touch of his presence. I needed to know I wasn’t alone in my pain. After receiving Holy Communion, I closed my eyes and began to cry. Immediately, I felt a heavy and strong hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and looked up. To my surprise, a gentleman stood beside me, and my eyes met his gentle but permeating gaze. I didn’t know who he was. He didn’t say anything. He just stood next to me and looked deeply into my eyes. I felt like it was Jesus fulfilling my deepest desire at that moment. The unknown gentleman walked away without a word, and I never saw him again. In my heart, however, I knew Jesus was telling me through this experience that he sees my tears and is there to protect me and to love me unconditionally.

From this and other early encounters with the power of the Eucharist, I knew even in those early years that in some way God would use me to accompany others on their way to healing and fullness of life.

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A Very Delicate Ministry

As I kneel before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament day after day, I rediscover again and again that each of us is worthy of happiness, love, healing, and forgiveness.

Prayer before the Eucharist has led not only to my own healing but also to my being instrumental in the healing of others who have known trauma, betrayal, and abuse. As a young mental health professional, I learned quickly that I needed to come face-to-face and heart-to-heart with the Eucharistic Lord daily in the Mass. It is only there that I would be strengthened in my very delicate ministry which is, at the same time, a rocky, exhaustive, beautiful, and fragile journey. The paschal dynamic of the Eucharistic sacrifice helps me respect the dynamic of change and acceptance in my clients that leads to their healing.

It is in the silence of the Adoration chapel, also, that I reflect at length upon the healing journeys of my clients. In those quiet hours of prayer, I bring to Jesus the work I do to accompany each one on their journey to wholeness. He alone is Wonderful Counselor and God Almighty, and it is he who governs each human heart in the same way as he governs the entire universe. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

In this way, through prayer before the Eucharist, I bring God into the entire treatment process. When I intentionally do this, I find that I more deeply connect with my clients:

• There are many aspects to the healing process, all of which work together. In prayer, I bring my clients before God, the Ultimate Healer, and beg him that they find wholeness and health in every dimension of their existence and a balance in their daily lives between work, celebration, prayer, and rest.  
• In his Eucharistic Presence, Jesus prepares me and teaches me how to accompany others in healing the areas of their life in which they are the most vulnerable. For me, the Eucharist is a source of consolation, strength, illumination, and guidance.
• My clients’ nights and days can be filled with bitterness, anger, tears, betrayals, fears, enemies, persecution, punishment, and anxiety. They are often weak and bear the burden of sin—their own and others who have sinned against them. Frequently, these experiences lead to feelings of misery, worthlessness, and exclusion. When I bring my clients to prayer, I often notice the way becomes cleared for them to experience deeper healing and greater ease in their journey.
• Christ’s presence in the host is overwhelmingly humble, meek, silent, tender, and loving. From the Eucharist, I have learned that I need to be humble and vulnerable. I am wounded, as are my clients. It is so transforming in therapy when a client and I can acknowledge that we are defined only by God’s love. It is a gift to share a wounded heart.

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Three Graces I Pray for Daily

The Eucharist is the restorative fountain where we go to drink hope in God’s power to save us, where we slake our thirst for God’s love which overcomes evil and death. Those who yield to this grace will discover in the small white host a captain at the helm of their lives who can rescue and revive them.

He is! He is Jesus Christ! If we are willing to surrender to his plan, we discover in the Eucharist the One who helps us navigate our lives.

Before the tabernacle, there are three graces I pray for:

1. I ask to be a mentor like Jesus in the Eucharist, who is humble, meek, open to everyone, and characterized by goodness. It is not an easy task, yet this grace, I believe, is offered to us in the silence of Eucharistic adoration.
2. I pray for the insight to see beyond the issues raised by my clients in a session. I want them to be able to explore deeply what is ultimately true and good and real about their lives and God’s love for them, as well as become proficient in the spiritual and psychological tools that will assist them in their search for wholeness. As my clients and I work together, we seek to integrate all the aspects of their lives within the search for the sacred, for meaning, development, purpose, and destiny. I truly believe that no matter what struggles we grapple with in our work together, we ultimately learn from Jesus that we can love even more than we ever thought possible.
3. It is in life-giving prayer before the Blessed Sacrament that I attend to my self-care, seeking balance in life. In my life as a consecrated religious, I need the grace of God to turn away from the disorder in my own heart, to go on the way proclaiming God’s Kingdom, and to allow God to deepen his life within me.

In the end, in wonder before the power of Jesus in the Eucharist, I can only exclaim: Who will guide me to lift my eyes beyond my human understanding? Only the Lord! He is the One who guides and heals. I consider it a great mercy that the Lord has called me to work as a mental health counselor.

The Foundress of my community, Blessed Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd, was particularly devoted to Jesus in the Eucharist and shared this love for the Eucharist with her sisters. She would often say of the Eucharist: “May it stimulate you to live, labor and sacrifice for God, yielding submissively to him, grateful for the privilege accorded you in the work for souls and for the growth of his Kingdom on earth” (L60, December 23, 1885).

In the Eucharist, we can trust that Jesus is with us along the way and sends us on a mission to communicate his unconditional love to the world.

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Sr. Marcelina Mikulska is a bilingual (Polish and English) licensed professional counselor. Her love of Existentialism, Christian Anthropology, Judeo-Christian Tradition, and Spirituality of Relationship led her toward Logotherapy, which she incorporates as she accompanies others on their way to discovering beauty, goodness, truth, meaning, and purpose in life.