The Holy Week Retreat - The Manna from Heaven - Station 5

Experience the ultimate Holy Week Retreat!

Join Fr. Jonathan Meyer (and Catholics across America!) on an epic journey through the Stations of the Eucharist. This incredible retreat will guide you through fourteen stations from Genesis to Revelation that will reshape the way you see the rest of your life. Get ready to break open the Scriptures, immerse yourself in the story of salvation history, and consider the sacrifice of Jesus Christ like never before. 

This year’s Holy Week Retreat is simple to follow. Each day, you’ll receive two reflections that will help you meditate on two of the fourteen stations. You can watch them both together, or space them out as morning and evening reflections. We’ll cover all fourteen stations by Holy Saturday so you can have the best Easter of your life!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:27

The fifth station of the Eucharist, the manna from heaven. O sacrament most holy, O sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine. Once the Israelites were set free from slavery, they were on a journey. Exodus chapter sixteen speaks about the daily miracle that God worked for his people. There's not a lot of food in the desert. And so on this journey, they were hungry. And yet God worked a miracle that six days a week, manna came down from heaven. This is something that is incomprehensible. Six days a week, God fed thousands upon thousands of people food that would just appear. On the sixth day, they would gather a double portion so they would have food to eat on the seventh, so that they would not work on the seventh day. God provided them food every day. And this was known as the manna that came down from heaven. God provides daily bread. God provides daily bread. I don't know if you pray the hour father every day. I know that I do. If you don't, I encourage you to do so. But at least you pray the hour father. And you go to Mass on Sunday. And when we pray the Our Father, we pray, give us this day our daily bread. What do we mean by that? What do we think daily bread is? I truly believe that daily bread is making reference to Exodus chapter 16. In the Old Testament, God gave daily bread. Why? So they could persevere in the midst of a desert. Life is like a desert. It's hard. It's harsh. It's challenging. And we need nourishment. We need food for the journey. And that's what daily bread is. And when I speak about daily bread, my brothers and sisters, I'm speaking about what Jesus says in John chapter 6. Your ancestors, they ate manna in the desert, but they died. I am the true bread that has come down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. That's what Jesus says in John chapter 6, making direct reference to the manna that came down from heaven. And how does he give us this bread? Daily. In the Acts of the Apostles, the first history of book about the earliest of Christians, it said that they daily participated in the breaking of the bread. What is that? Holy Mass. What do we do every day as Roman Catholics? We have Daily Mass. I remember being 20 years old. I made the decision to enter into seminary, and my mom one day looked at me and she said, Jonathan, don't you think that you should be going to daily mass? It was the summer before I entered seminary. I looked back at my mom and said, they have daily mass? I had gone to public school. Now, thanks be to God, I had never missed a Sunday Mass. I went to CCD class every single week. My mom was a catechist. But I didn't know there was daily mass. But I can tell you now that I can't imagine my life without it. I know for many of you, the same is true. Give us this day our daily bread. What is Jesus making reference to? I am the living bread that has come down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. Jesus gives us the great miracle of daily mass. And I want to encourage you, I want to encourage you to foster a relationship with daily mass. Even if it's just one day a week, I will tell you, it is one of the greatest gifts and the treasures that most people will never experience. I don't want it for just a few people. I want it for everyone. And I really want it for you. To listen to God's word every single day, but to be present at the great redemptive gift of the Mass. Where Jesus' body and blood are made present for us and offered to the Eternal Father. Why? So that we can be present, so we can make ourselves available to He who gives Himself so beautifully to us. What's your relationship with Daily Mass? Have you ever gone? What would have to happen in your schedule? What would have to happen in your life for daily mass to become a priority? I remember hearing a talk at a young adult event several years ago, and there was this beautiful young lady, and she gave this testimony and this witness about priorities. And she said, whenever I say to myself, I don't have time for that, I pause for a moment and I say, if I don't have time for that, then it's not a priority. I make time for things that are priority. So stop just saying I don't have time for that and just say I don't think that's a priority. And she began to give some examples in her life where she was like, I really didn't need to go to the gym and work out. And her first thought is, I don't have time to go to the gym. I don't have time to work out. And then she changed what she said. She said, My health is not a priority. And she said, I don't believe that. And she went to the gym. She was a college student. This is before texting and other forms of communication. And she she said, I have to study for the exam. I don't have time to call home and talk to my mom on the phone. And then she said, My mom's not a priority. And she said, Well, that's not true. And she called her mom. So what about daily mass? I don't have time for that. I don't have time for daily mass. Is God a priority? Is Mass a priority? Is being present at the great gift and mystery of the Eucharist a priority? I'm pretty sure your answer to that question is yes. And priorities have us actually change our lives. And as we know, if you change your lives, amazing things happen. We change our habits and we change our lives, and amazing things happen. Jesus said, Your ancestors ate manna in the desert and they died. I am the living bread that has come down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. Let's pray for the grace to have an encounter with this living bread, and let's pray that we will live forever. Amen.