Ponder and Magnify: A Rosary Podcast

S3, E14 - The Institution of the Eucharist Bible Study (Luke 22: 14-20)

• John and Jessica Helling • Season 3 • Episode 14

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The mission of the Ponder and Magnify Podcast is to seek an encounter with Jesus through praying the rosary, relying on the grace of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Mary. Join us as we dive into the Fifth Luminous Mystery of the Rosary! In this episode, Jess, John, and Fr. Philipp discuss the Institution of the Eucharist using the account from Luke 22: 14-20. May we all be in Heaven together! Praise be to God!

Jessica:

Hello, and welcome to the Ponder and Magnify podcast, where our mission is to seek an encounter with Jesus through praying the rosary, relying on the grace of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Mary. I am so happy that you are here. We have made it to our final episode of this season three, this our final Bible study episode, I should say, on the fifth luminous mystery, the institution of the Eucharist. I'm particularly excited to jump into this one because in my own relationship with Mary and with the Rosary, praying the rosary and doing that with Mary has just really brought my heart to a deeper love of the Eucharist. So I'm really excited to jump into this with John and Father Philipp. Father Philipp, would you mind opening us up in prayer?

Fr. Philipp:

Sure. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Jesus, we turn to you and we turn our attention to you who dwell in the tabernacles across the world and the tabernacles of our parishes. And we desire to love you there, where you are sometimes left alone and sometimes maybe not noticed, not thought of. We desire to love you there, Lord, and your goodness and your gift to us, that we might return that love. Help us to be attentive to you and to your voice as we pray, as we enter into this mystery. Help us to love you all the more. We ask this in your name. Amen. In the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.

Jessica:

Amen. Thank you so much for that. I love love the image of the tabernacles all around the world. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Okay, Johnny, what's your word?

John:

Just feeling grateful. I'm grateful for the company of you two tonight. Getting to dive into this episode. I'm grateful for just kind of how a lot of things are going. Like I think Jess mentioned, you know, our daughter's starting kindergarten and she's adjusting well, and school's just seems to be a really good fit, and we just really appreciate the the community that we kind of have going into it. Um that really helps. I'm just so I'm I'm grateful for that and grateful that it is Friday Eve. How about you, Jess?

Jessica:

I feel like our hearts are in the same place. Um mine is just honestly a word of praise of just God as provider. So I just feel so much in this moment, just like really reflecting on his providence, how he's provided for our family. Um, but also just in a lot of prayer intentions of friends and family that I'm been holding and praying for, I just feel like there's been a lot of providence there, even if it hasn't been answered exactly as we had hoped, just knowing that the Lord provides and and is just delighted to provide for us. It's just such a gift. And even just thinking about as we are in this final episode with Father Philipp discussing our scripture, just the providence that has come to make all of this come to be. So I just, yeah, just a word of praise, God as provider. Yeah. Father Philipp, what about you?

Fr. Philipp:

Yeah, the the word that I have coming to mind is tired, but I feel like I don't know, for some reason, and uh like that that seems harsh. Like it seems like one of those words that you're not that you really shouldn't say to people, like I'm tired. Like you found sound like you're complaining. But like when I was thinking about that and I was just processing that with the Lord, it reminded me of like the the the phrase in Italian for tired is like un postanko, like a little bit, a little bit, a little bit tired and I feel like for some reason for me, like that's a little bit less uh intrusive to say that. And I know it sounds super pretentious. So, anyways, I was just talking to the Lord about that, and the thing that that kind of I guess that that that gives me is the um like if I'm if I'm a little bit tired, then it means that like I can rest uh on on the Lord. So like that that that invitation to that kind of the rest in him, I think is part of part of what that where I am right now. So tired, but then invitation to rest.

Jessica:

That's beautiful. All right, Father Philipp, would you proclaim our scripture for us that we settled on for this mystery?

Fr. Philipp:

Sure. Yeah, we're gonna be reading Luke 22, verses 14 through 20. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. When the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles. He said to them, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I shall not eat it again until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God. Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and said, Take this and share it among yourselves, for I tell you that from this time on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which will be given for you. Do this in memory of me. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.

Jessica:

Okay, after taking some time to pause and reflect and pray, John, what's sticking out to you?

John:

So this one was interesting to me because obviously this is something we hear or uh an iteration of it during mass. Usually there's like a part of a reading where it's like it it seems new or there's something that's feels different to me that it's like easier for me to latch on to. But the one part of this that did was the line I've eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. That's kind of a cool thing to imagine, like just before communion at Mass, just to imagine I Jesus saying, I've I've eagerly desired to do this with you and for you. Yeah. So I mean, just kind of a simple takeaway, but was definitely unique to this reading for me.

Jessica:

There's something there about that eagerness that is just particularly hitting my heart as you're saying that too. Just his strong, strong desire. It's almost like, you know, whenever we pray or think about the Passion or read about it, it's always like, oh, he willingly gave up himself. But I feel like that eagerness is an expression of like his willingness, his like strong, strong desire to just save souls. So I love that that stuck out to you.

John:

What about you guys?

Fr. Philipp:

The thing that jumped out to me was actually the the first line. Um when the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles. And the thing that stuck out or that kind of like you welled up in me was this the way in which that it seems like you have this this place that's made for him, that's set for him, that's been prepared for him, at this long awaiting, like when the hour has come, and like what welled up was the like all the things that the Lord had done and for for like since the beginning of the world, right? So you have the miracles of like the manna and Elijah in the desert getting the the the hearth cakes from the ravens and like all of these images of of bread given to the the people before and the miracles of the multiplication of loaves with Jesus, like him preaching the in the synagogue in capernum, that his flesh is going to be given for the life of the world. This is the bread that he's going to give is his flesh for the life of the world. All of these things that finally lead up to this moment when the hour had come and he took his place at table, and just the kind of following on your your insight, like this great desire and delight that's like now, now I get to do this, the thing that I've been prepared for, like I've been preparing for like all these years, all the ways that I've made sure that you can understand what I'm doing. Um, and just then the sense of like I had like the the Eucharistic hymn from St. Thomas Aquinas, Sedatsu Ismanibus, like he gives himself with his own hands. Like, this is my body uh given for you. Do this in memory of me. And like I just, I don't know, there's some other things that kind of arose from that. Like Jesus in like his apparitions to Margaret Mary Alacoque, like holding his heart in his hand during the feast of Corpus Christi, the the feast of the body and blood of our Lord, like in those days of the octave, like behold the heart that is so loved man, like the the same thing. It's like he gives all of himself and like the Eucharist is this gift of all of him. And when the hour had come, he took his place because this is the thing he's been preparing for. that was yeah, that's the that's what welled up in my in my my heart when we were reading this.

Jessica:

I love that because part of what welled up in me when reading this was also this image of his heart and just like the Eucharist being his heart offered to us. John and I were in Florida a few years ago, just the two of us. We left the kids behind, but while we were there, we went to adoration in this little adoration chapel where I've never seen anything like it. It was a carving on the wall that like the monstrance was incorporated into, and it was a carving of Jesus at the Last Supper, surrounded by the 12 apostles, and he's holding his hands in front of him, but the the Eucharist is positioned like right over his heart. And so it was such a visual to me of this is the heart of Jesus that is being offered. And I I like thinking about that too, with like these Eucharistic miracles that have happened all over the world. And when they go to do studies on them, it's it's always like heart tissue, heart muscle tissue too. It just it's so so beautiful. Of course, uh, Father Philipp, you're gonna jump in here with me. But of course, the Eucharist is like his whole body, soul, divinity, but just thinking of his heart as a representation of that.

Fr. Philipp:

Sure.

Jessica:

Yeah. Anyway, I just that really stuck out to me. And I feel like as I pray the rosary more and more and contemplate, contemplate when I'm praying like the heart of Jesus, like what is in the heart of Jesus during this mystery, and how does that influence the way, like my own circumstances, what I'm facing, and that sort of thing. And I just feel like it was a big inspiration, even for the artwork on this podcast of just like the heart of Mary, the heart of Jesus, and that third heart, which is supposed to represent your own heart like being wrapped up in the rosary, that Mary and praying the rosary for me have been such, such a tool to just bring me in closer proximity to his heart, which is just fulfilled in the Eucharist. I think it was St. Bernadette when Mary was appearing to her and praying the rosary with her, and then she got her first communion, and someone asked her, like, what was better, praying the rosary with Mary or having the Eucharist for the first time? And she was like, that's impossible. They feed into each other. Praying the rosary with Mary was preparation for my reception of the Eucharist, and my reception of the Eucharist enlightens my time in the rosary and like that prayer time. And I just I love that. Um, but particularly kind of just with this image of Jesus offering his heart, the words that were really sticking out to me was when Jesus says, take this. I heard that take this, like you can read that almost like as a command or like that sort of thing. But when I was, when you were proclaiming this, Father, I was just reading it as like a plea, like a desperate plea, like, oh, please, please take this, doing that with that eagerness, that desire for our good. It kind of inspired me. I went into our catechism and looked up what the church teaches are the effects of receiving the Eucharist. And in paragraph 1416 it says, communion with the body and blood of Christ increases the communicant's union with the Lord, forgives his venial sins, and preserves him from grave sins. Since receiving this sacrament strengthens the bonds of charity between the communicant and Christ, it also reinforces the unity of the church as the mystical body of Christ. And then later, in paragraph 1419, having passed from this world to the Father, Christ gives us in the Eucharist the pledge of glory with him. Participation in the holy sacrifice identifies us with his heart, sustains our strength along the pilgrimage of this life, makes us long for eternal life, and unites us even now to the church in heaven, the blessed Virgin Mary, and all the saints. And oh my gosh, I feel like I could dive into a whole thing about each of those. But in this prayer book that I referenced in our previous episode that I've been reading about Pope John Paul II, he was writing about the Last Supper. And about the Eucharist, he just wrote, What more could Jesus have done for us? And that really struck me because I've heard that like in reference to the Passion, but not necessarily like the Eucharist or the Last Supper, and just reading the effects that the Eucharist stands to offer us in in our souls. Just I don't know, the pledge of glory with God. When we were trying to pick our reading, which scripture passage we are really torn between our Luke passage and John chapter six, the bread of life discourses. And in one point in particular, Jesus says, Whoever eats this bread will live forever. And just this idea that when we are offered the Eucharist at Mass, it's almost like an invitation of Jesus saying, like, come live with me forever. And by consuming it, we're accepting that invitation and saying, Yes, take me there. And just doing that through his heart and the reception of his heart. It just so beautiful. And the last thing I promise, I think about my time as a teacher teaching theology and teaching about the Eucharist. And every year I would have students who were so concerned like, it's just really hard for me to wrap my head around that. That's like actually Jesus' body and blood. And Jesus does say that, and that is the truth. But also, like, if we can even just receive the Eucharist with a longing for what is offered to us and what is promised with us through it, I just feel like that would bring so much delight to the Father, even if we're not there yet, even if our heart still has to be transformed and still stands to come into a deeper belief of like, yes, this is actually Jesus, body and blood, Jesus' heart. Even if we're not quite there yet, we can receive it with like, okay, I long to receive the things that I am promised through this, and just how powerful that would be receiving the Eucharist, desiring, desiring those things that we are promised from it. Johnny? Father Philipp?.

Fr. Philipp:

I think there's I think just to sit in the Yeah. To contemplate the gift the Lord has offered. Yeah. That's all I got.

Jessica:

I just remember reading somewhere at some point that even receiving the Eucharist one time provides enough race for you to make it to heaven. Like just one reception of the Eucharist. I don't know. It's just so powerful and so beautiful. Anyway, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for being a provider. Thank you, providing us with so many gifts, but principally the gift of your heart in the Eucharist and the gift of desiring our eternal good and always, always offering that promise to us and the reception of the Eucharist. Thank you so much for that. To all those who are listening, thank you so much uh for being with us through this season. Praise be to God for another season of ponder and magnify. May it lead all of us closer to the heart of Jesus through through the companionship and attentiveness of the heart of Mary. Please, please count on our continued prayers and we ask you to keep praying for us. Praise be to God.