Dr. Wojciech Kosek
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Meditations led by seven people:
A, B, D – women; L, W, P, Z – men.
This translation was published here on 27 Dec 2023.
To see the original Polish text ← click, please!
(Duration of meditations with songs: about 35 min)
B Beloved Savior! Behold, by Your graciousness, now begins the hour of our monthly adoration after the Holy Mass, the hour we call “the holy hour.” What is the purpose of our adoration? What do we expect during this holy time?… We highly desire to be with You… We desire to continue our Eucharistic encounter, which began with the Holy Mass, and thus in the most solemn of all ways of being with You. We now desire to abide with You in prayer during the time marked by Your most significant suffering: the time that follows the end of the Last Supper. With You praying in Gethsemane, we will try to rediscover the Eucharist Gift. For the painful fact that we do not fully understand this extraordinary Gift and are not fully able to meet You through it – is not this very fact pressing a bloody sweat on Your body then, when in Gethsemane, after the end of the Eucharist, You abide in prayer? (1:37)
P Jesus! We will look with the eyes of the flesh where we see the Most Holy Host, while with the eyes of the spirit we will look at You, hidden and beneath its whiteness… and beneath our hearts… Yes, now we most desire to be here with You… We wish in our adoration today to fulfill what Pope Pius XII wrote in 1947 in his encyclical Mediator Dei, No. 123: “When the Mass … is over, the person who has received holy communion is not thereby freed from his duty of thanksgiving; rather, it is most becoming that, when the Mass is finished, the person who has received the Eucharist should recollect himself, and in intimate union with the divine Master hold loving and fruitful converse with Him. Hence they have departed from the straight way of truth, who, adhering to the letter rather than the sense, assert and teach that, when Mass has ended, no such thanksgiving should be added, not only because the Mass is itself a thanksgiving, but also because this pertains to a private and personal act of piety and not to the good of the community.” [1] (1:48)
P Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 1st stanza (0:30)
A Beloved Savior! Pope Pius XII wrote (No. 123–125), “Hence they have departed from the straight way of truth, who, … assert and teach that, when Mass has ended, no such thanksgiving should be added … But, on the contrary, the very nature of the sacrament demands that its reception should produce rich fruits of Christian sanctity. Admittedly the congregation has been officially dismissed, but each individual, since he is united with Christ, should not interrupt the hymn of praise in his own soul, ‘always returning thanks for all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.’ The sacred liturgy of the Mass also exhorts us to do this when it bids us pray in these words, ‘Grant, we beseech thee, that we may always continue to offer thanks … and may never cease from praising thee.’ Wherefore, if there is no time when we must not offer God thanks, and if we must never cease from praising Him, who would dare to reprehend or find fault with the Church, because she advises her priests and faithful to converse with the divine Redeemer for at least a short while after holy communion, and inserts in her liturgical books, fitting prayers, enriched with indulgences, by which the sacred ministers may make suitable preparation before Mass and holy communion or may return thanks afterwards? So far is the sacred liturgy from restricting the interior devotion of individual Christians, that it actually fosters and promotes it so that they may be rendered like to Jesus Christ and through Him be brought to the heavenly Father; wherefore this same discipline of the liturgy demands that whoever has partaken of the sacrifice of the altar should return fitting thanks to God. For it is the good pleasure of the divine Redeemer to hearken to us when we pray, to converse with us intimately and to offer us a refuge in His loving Heart. Moreover, such personal colloquies are very necessary that we may all enjoy more fully the supernatural treasures that are contained in the Eucharist and according to our means, share them with others, so that Christ our Lord may exert the greatest possible influence on the souls of all.” (3:19)
A Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 2nd stanza (0:30)
W Dearest Jesus! Pope Pius XII writes next (No. 126): “Why then, Venerable Brethren, should we not approve of those who, when they receive holy communion, remain on in closest familiarity with their divine Redeemer even after the congregation has been officially dismissed, and that not only for the consolation of conversing with Him, but also to render Him due thanks and praise and especially to ask help to defend their souls against anything that may lessen the efficacy of the sacrament and to do everything in their power to cooperate with the action of Christ who is so intimately present. We exhort them to do so in a special manner by carrying out their resolutions, by exercising the Christian virtues, as also by applying to their own necessities the riches they have received with royal Liberality. The author of that golden book The Imitation of Christ [Book IV, c. 12.] certainly speaks in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the liturgy, when he gives the following advice to the person who approaches the altar, ‘Remain on in secret and take delight in your God; for He is yours whom the whole world cannot take away from you.’” (2:10)
W Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 3rd stanza (0:30)
D Dearest Jesus! Pope Pius XII then explains the purpose of adoration after Mass in this way (No. 127–128): “Therefore, let us all enter into closest union with Christ and strive to lose ourselves, as it were, in His most holy soul and so be united to Him that we may have a share in those acts with which He adores the Blessed Trinity with a homage that is most acceptable, and by which He offers to the eternal Father supreme praise and thanks which find an harmonious echo throughout the heavens and the earth, according to the words of the prophet, ‘All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord.’ Finally, in union with these sentiments of Christ, let us ask for heavenly aid at that moment in which it is supremely fitting to pray for and obtain help in His name. For it is especially in virtue of these sentiments that we offer and immolate ourselves as a victim, saying, ‘make of us thy eternal offering.’ The divine Redeemer is ever repeating His pressing invitation, ‘Abide in Me.’ (John 15:4) Now by the sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ remains in us and we in Him, and just as Christ, remaining in us, lives and works, so should we remain in Christ and live and work through Him.” (1:44)
D Song: Adoro Te Devote – 1st stanza (0:39)
L Dearest Jesus! We desire to meet You as fully as possible now. We desire to immerse ourselves in Your soul, that is, into the center of Your love for us. So now let us reflect momentarily on how You are here with us. Instructed by the Church, we know that during the Holy Mass, when the priest says the words of consecration, the extraordinary miracle of the transubstantiation of unleavened bread into Your Body and grape wine into Your Blood takes place. As a result, after the consecration, there really is no more unleavened bread, which was there on the paten before the consecration. After consecration, there is no bread: there is no substance of bread, and there is only its white color, its round shape, and its taste; that is, there are its species, its material forms. Pope Leo XIII stated in his encyclical Mirae caritatis about the miracle of transubstantiation as follows, “Here all the laws of nature are suspended; the whole substance of the bread and wine are changed into the Body and the Blood; the species of bread and wine are sustained by the divine power without the support of any underlying substance” [2] (1:41)
L Song: Adoro Te Devote – 2nd stanza (0:39)
B Jesus! We believe, instructed by the Church’s Magisterium, that there is no bread on the priestly paten after the consecration, even though our eyes see its color, its shape, and although we used to say not very precisely that there is a consecrated Host or consecrated unleavened Bread… We believe, instructed by the Church, that the bread ceases to exist after the consecration, and only its properties remain. Therefore, with amazement, we could cry out during the Holy Mass and every adoration, and so also at this moment: oh, how our eyes are mistaken, if they still see the host or bread, yet here there is no more bread! Moreover, we could cry out even so: oh, how our eyes are mistaken since they do not see You, beloved Jesus, even though You are here indeed! You are present in the reality of this human body, which You took from the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. You are truly present, although in a way that is inaccessible to our senses, and therefore to our eyes, ears, touch, smell, taste… (1:38)
B Song: Adoro Te Devote – 3rd stanza (0:39)
Z Jesus! How we desire to enter truly consciously into a personal relationship with You, how we long to dismiss all unnecessary thoughts so that we may be in Your presence now in the total concentration of consciousness… With the eyes of the flesh, we will look at the whiteness and shape, that is, the species of the Most Holy Host placed over the tabernacle. However, with the eyes of spirit, we will look at You, hidden under the whiteness and shape of that Host which we see over the tabernacle and that which we no longer see because it is hidden under our hearts by our bowels… Yes, yes, it is also under our hearts that the Blessed Sacrament is… that is, You Yourself are, hidden under the species of the Host, which we received during the Holy Mass in Holy Communion… How close, then, are You now to the heart of each of us… (1:16)
A Beloved Savior! I want to love You with all my heart and mind, so I am looking for the answer to the question: where are You when the priest hands me the Blessed Sacrament? Can I say that You are hidden in the bread? No, I cannot say that because the bread, indeed, is gone after the consecration. Pope Paul VI wrote in his encyclical Mysterium fidei: “since once the substance or nature of the bread and wine has been changed into the body and blood of Christ, nothing remains of the bread and the wine except for the species – beneath which Christ is present whole and entire in His physical “reality,” corporeally present, although not in the manner in which bodies are in a place.” (No. 46) [3] (1:02)
P Beloved Savior! According to the words of Pope Paul VI, the priest giving me Holy Communion does not give me ‘consecrated bread’ but the color of bread only, the shape of bread only, the smell of bread only, the taste of bread only – they all united by the power of God as if they came from bread substance. However, the bread is no longer here. So, following Paul VI, I can only say that you are hidden under the appearances or species of bread, that is, under the color of bread, the shape of bread, the smell of bread. However, what does it mean that You are hidden under the color of bread, the shape of bread, and the smell of bread? What does it mean, O Jesus? (0:57)
D Light for the answer to this question is shed by the custom of the early Christians, who, having received Holy Communion at the foot of the altar and returned to their seats, used to worship You there, O Jesus, by kneeling and bowing deeply. They believed they worshipped You as physically present right before each of them! They believed that although the physical appearances of the consecrated Host were hidden in their bowels, You Yourself were not physically present there, in their bowels, but right in front of them. Thanks to this firm conviction, the early Christians were able to worship You by making a deep bow toward You because they saw with the eyes of spirit, not of the flesh, that they were a short distance from You and that they were bowing being right in front of You… (1:17)
D Song: Let us Love the Lord – 1st stanza (0:40)
W Dearest Jesus! By the power of our Eucharistic union in Holy Communion, we abide with You in the prayer that You address to the Father in Gethsemane and with which are filled Your thoughts and Your Heart. We abide with You in Gethsemane, kneeling right beside You. We know how much You love us, how again and again You bestow countless goods upon us. You give so much, but do we do the same? Don’t we usually limit our encounters with You to uttering requests whose fulfillment would benefit us or our neighbors? However, is this what our relationship of love is supposed to consist of: You will only give, and we will only take? O Jesus! No… no… such love is not enough for us; such love cannot be enough for us! Such love is incomplete and immature. We desire to change this today. Don’t You also have a Heart that awaits signs of our love for You alone? Should our love for You only be the love of a tiny baby who is so clumsy that she needs constant bestowal? Are we not able by Your grace to rise above our desires towards Yours? Yes! We desire today to rise to the desires of Your Heart that loves us… (1:56)
W Song: Let us Love the Lord – 2nd stanza (0:40)
B We desire to be with You and for You so that we may respond this way to the longing of Your Heart, which is thirsty for our love. We believe and are amazed that You, Almighty God, Creator of the whole world, indeed long for our mature love. Jesus, we long to love You today, direct our hearts toward You, and expect all good for You… Love, after all, is thirsty for good for the one it loves… Jesus, I love You… (0:50)
B Song: Let us Love the Lord – 3rd stanza (0:40)
L We want to bestow goodness on You; we desire to direct toward You the loving signs of our intimacy with You… After all, we remember the words of confession that You confide to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, “I thirst with such a terrible thirst to be loved by men in the Blessed Sacrament that this thirst consumes Me. Yet I find no one trying to quench it according to My desire by some return of My love.” [4] (0:44)
A Speaking to the saint these words, You nourish the hope that we too will hear Your confession. We hear… and undertake with poignancy to do what You desire… However, You know it is not easy to love You, the invisible One… Therefore, we wish to ask You for the grace to focus our eyes, thoughts, and feelings on You, hidden as well as under our hearts, and, some further, under the whiteness of the Sacred Host, placed by the priest in the golden monstrance above the tabernacle… During this adoration, in the holy time of our loving being with You, grant our hearts the grace of fire, burning with love for You… (1:01)
A Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 4. i 5th stanza (1:00)
Z Beloved Savior! Today, at 6 p.m., when the Holy Mass began, we again experienced a miracle! Behold, You opened the invisible gate of time for all of us with Your Divine right hand and allowed us to pass from the Church of Divine Providence to the Upper Room for the Last Supper in the blink of an eye. In a way invisible to our bodily eyes, ears, and hands – we found ourselves, together with the celebrating priest, in Your time… in Your celebration of the Last Supper. There, in the Upper Room, together with the Apostles, we have reclined by Your side to partake of the sacred sacrificial feast… (1:02)
Z Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 6. i 7th stanza (1:00)
D Dearest Jesus, the Messiah sent by the Father! There, in the Upper Room, together with the Apostles, we sat down to the mystical Supper, celebrated by You on the last night of Your mortal life, the night before Your Death on Golgotha. It was there, in the Upper Room, that we were when, during the holy Eucharistic liturgy, together with the Apostles, we heard from You the words of divine instruction, recorded in the pages of the Holy Scriptures and the words of the homily, spoken by You through the intermediary of the celebrant. It was also there that You performed the Transubstantiation of bread and wine so that You might feed us together with the Apostles with Your Body and Blood. (1:03)
D Song: Christ the Lord Feeds us – 1st stanza (0:35)
P Jesus, our Divine Lover! There, in the Upper Room, in order to give us a share in Your saving Sacrifice offered on Golgotha, You gave us to eat that wonderful Divine Blessed Sacrament. There struck the hour of our sacramental union with You in the mystery of Your death, in the mystery of Your love for each of us… For You fed us not with ordinary bread, but with the Body being delivered to death; You have given us to drink not ordinary wine, but the Blood being shed during the agony on the tree of the Cross… (0:49)
P Song: Christ the Lord Feeds us – 2nd stanza (0:35)
B Jesus! If You had fed me with ordinary bread, You would have satisfied my bodily hunger, the hunger of my flesh. You, however, did not feed me with ordinary bread, but with extraordinary bread, the Divine Bread, the Bread that is You Yourself, hanged on the tree of the cross on Golgotha, dying out of love for the Father and for me… Eating such Bread cannot be ordinary, but extraordinary… Eating this Bread requires me not so much to set in motion my digestive processes, but above all to move my heart, from the moment of Holy Communion beating strongly out of love for You… (0:56)
B Song: Christ the Lord Feeds us – 3rd stanza (0:35)
L Jesus! Eating the Divine Sacrament of Love requires of me, above all,… love – love for You. Eating the Divine Sacrament requires of me loving heartbeats, a heart taken over by the genuinely physical proximity of You as my Beloved…, a heart moved by Your loving proximity to me…, a heart amazed by the fact that here and now I am really meeting You, I am close to You – close to the One who loves me very, very much…; close to You who thirsts for my physical proximity, my loving presence to You… (0:56)
L Song: Christ the Lord Feeds us – 4th stanza (0:35)
A Jesus! Coming in the reality of Your human flesh, You desire my conscious presence with You… You desire that I unite with You with poignancy in love toward You…, that I consciously enter into a close personal relationship with You. What, then, do you look like, O Beloved? What is Your robe, O my Love? Is it the robe of glory, the robe of the victorious Messiah, the Risen Lord, who descends on the altar from heaven, from the throne of heavenly glory? (0:45)
A Song: Christ the Lord Feeds us – 5th stanza (0:35)
W Jesus! Instructed by the Magisterium of the Church, I know that in Holy Communion You come to me not as the Risen Lord of glory, but as the Messiah giving Himself up to death, as the One who at the time of the Transubstantiation and Holy Communion is in a state of dying, in a state of agony on the cross rammed in the rock of Golgotha… The state of dying is indicated by the fact that the priest separately consecrates the bread and separately consecrates the wine; after the consecration, the two Eucharistic signs are separated. Pope Pius XII explained it in his encyclical Mediator Dei, No. 70, thus: “By the ‘transubstantiation’ of bread into the body of Christ and of wine into His blood, His body and blood are both really present: now the eucharistic species under which He is present symbolize the actual separation of His body and blood. Thus the commemorative representation of His death, which actually took place on Calvary, is repeated in every sacrifice of the altar, seeing that Jesus Christ is symbolically shown by separate symbols to be in a state of victimhood.” In No. 115, the Pope adds: “Now it cannot be over-emphasized that the eucharistic sacrifice of its very nature is the unbloody immolation of the divine Victim, which is made manifest in a mystical manner by the separation of the sacred species and by their oblation to the eternal Father. Holy communion pertains to the integrity of the Mass and to the partaking of the august sacrament; but while it is obligatory for the priest who says the Mass, it is only something earnestly recommended to the faithful.” (2:35)
D Lord Jesus! Eating this extraordinary Divine Bread, then, requires me to believe that, behold, I accept You as the One who dies on Golgotha and who desires my conscious presence there, on Golgotha, right next to others who love You, gathered around Your Cross, standing right next to Immaculate Mary, Your and our Mother. St. Thomas Aquinas included this truth in the fifth stanza of the song, which we will now sing and ponder in our hearts. (0:46)
D Song: Adoro Te Devote – 5th stanza (0:39)
Z Jesus! Human friendship and human love are so often impermanent. Your love, Your friendship – they never fail. You love me; that is why You come to me repeatedly in Holy Communion with the gift of Yourself, with the gift of Your human presence – the full one because spiritual and physical. You come and are physically with me and for me because You truly love me with the fullness of Your human capacities… You come this way because You want me to love You, too, and You want me to love You more and more intensely and be happy in our love. (0:54)
B Jesus! Why do You come in Holy Communion not as the Risen Lord of glory, who lacks nothing, but as the suffering, anguished Messiah, who thirsts for the love of His well-wishers? Yes… my heart asks You today, O Beloved Jesus, why do You come to me in Holy Communion as the One who, amid many people angry with You on Golgotha, looks out for me and my love? Moreover, my heart today seems to whisper to me that You come like this, scarred by the world, longing for me and my love, because You want to bestow upon me a real opportunity to show love to You Yourself in response to Your love. Yes, yes… You love me so much that You come like this, scarred by the world… longing for me and my love because You want to bestow upon me the genuine opportunity to show love to Yourself in response to Your love. (1:26)
B Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 8. i 9th stanza (1:00)
P O Jesus, O beloved Jesus… Yes, I already know, I already believe, I already love! – You, O Beloved Bridegroom, come in Holy Communion while being in a state of dying, in a state of agony, in a state of mortal fear because of the abandonment of You even by Your Father, so that I, responding to Your authentic, not feigned need for closeness, may bestow upon You my loving presence close to You on Golgotha. O Jesus! I desire to love You and Your Immaculate Mother Mary, standing on Golgotha at Your nailed feet on the cross. I very much desire today and always after Holy Communion to bestow upon You my most ardent love by physically remaining in prayer after receiving You in Holy Communion… (1:10)
A Beloved Savior! In our time, You have reminded us of that poignant truth that You come in Holy Communion not as the Risen Lord of glory but as the suffering Servant of Yahweh. Behold, Archbishop Edward Ozorowski, in October 2011, having officially announced on behalf of the Church that an extraordinary Eucharistic event had indeed taken place in Polish town Sokółka, declared, “The Eucharistic Communion that fell to the floor during the distribution of Holy Communion, picked up and put into a vessel with water, turned red. When its microscopic particle was subjected to pathomorphological examination, it was found to contain heart muscle in agony.” [5] (1:05)
A Song: I Greet You – 1st stanza (0:30)
W Jesus! I believe that during Holy Communion, I stand with the Apostles on Golgotha; I stand there – taken there in some wonderful way by Your Divine right hand, taken there in a way that is imperceptible to my eyes, ears, or hands… I believe that I am there where You are dying – present in our world as a Man, present in human nature, present through this Your human, from Immaculate Mary taken body, the body that is now bodily, physically nailed to the cross… (0:47)
D Jesus! I believe that during Holy Communion, You really die – really give Your last breath in the saving Sacrifice on Golgotha. So believing, I am with You and for You… I am with You and Your Mother Mary… I am there after Holy Communion, immersed in prayer, and with my presence, I love You… I am there and I love You and Mary… I am there, and I love You there because You are there and love me and us… (0:41)
Z Beloved Savior! I believe that our Eucharistic union continues for some time after the Mass – until the sacramental species are fully digested. I believe that this is so that I may be with You like the Apostle John on Golgotha not only during the Eucharist but also in the time immediately following it. In a moment, we will begin the Holy Rosary… We will go with You along the way that leads from the Upper Room to Golgotha. We believe that You, passing this most difficult of Your ways, see us too, passing right next to You… next to Mary…. next to the Apostle John. Grant us the grace to participate consciously in Your pain… in Your saving work… Amen. (1:09)