The Fifth Station of the Eucharist, the Manna from Heaven. O sacrament, most holy, oh sacrament divine. All praise and all Thanksgiving be every moment vine. Once the Israelites were set free from slavery, they were on a journey. Exodus 16 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 Our Father every day. I know that I do. If you don't, I encourage you to do so, but at least you pray the Our Father, and you go to mass on Sunday. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

The Sixth Station of the Eucharist, the Ark of the Covenant. O sacrament most Holy. O sacrament Divine. All praise and all thanksgiving, be every moment thine.

The Ark of the Covenant, which we hear about all throughout much of the Old Testament, but particularly in Second Chronicles is where God dwelt. Moses was given unbelievably detailed instructions on how to craft the Ark of the Covenant. King David, beautifully and gloriously with dancing and with joy, brings the Ark of the Covenant into the Holy of Holies. The Ark of the Covenant is God's presence among us. And God in His infinite wisdom knew that we needed to go to a place. He understood our need, our desire, and our attraction to places. I want you to pause just for a moment and think in your life about places that are important to you, the place that you go for your yearly vacation, the place where you proposed to your fiancé, or the place where your husband proposed to you, the place where you bought your first house, the place where you played as a kid in the backyard, the place where your mom or dad died, the place where you sit every day with a cup of coffee or a cup of tea and read a good book or pray your rosary. Places matter. And God knows our hearts. He created us. He knows our hearts.

He created us. And he knew that the Israelites needed a place to go. And so the Ark of the Covenant was where they went. And in fact, the whole temple system was established and designed because the Ark of the Covenant was in the center of it. And they came to worship at the temple because God was there. And in fact, since 70 AD, the Jewish people have not actually been able to authentically worship, which means to offer a sacrifice. They haven't been able to do that because the temple has actually been in the possession of the Muslims. And they can't offer a sacrifice in any other place. There is no other place that they can encounter God in sacrifice and in worship except on that specific spot. Places matter. And the same is true for us. Now Jesus Christ, because He told us to go out to all nations, "Go-- in Matthew 28, "Go therefore and baptize all nations in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit." Because of that mandate to go out, that one place of worship has now become every Catholic Church. And in every Catholic church, what do we find? We find a tabernacle, a place where we know that God dwells, a place where we know that God lives, a place where we can go, a place that is our refuge of consolation, of hope, of joy, of peace. I remember as a young adult, the first time that I really understood that Jesus was present in the blessed sacrament, the first time that I wrapped my brain around this mystery, I was so overwhelmed by this reality. I'd already fallen deeply in love with Jesus, and I was reading my Bible every day, and I was praying, and I was actually singing songs on my own. But once I came to understand this belief that Jesus was truly present in the blessed sacrament, I got the keys to the family station wagon, and I drove to my parish church looking for the tabernacle. It was in the 1990s. And in many churches in those days, the tabernacle was in a tiny little chapel or somewhere down a hall. And that was the case in my home parish in Indianapolis. And I couldn't find Jesus. I had read in this book about what Jesus said in scripture and what we believe about the Eucharist. And I couldn't find him. I could not find Jesus. And there was a woman in the church who was vacuuming. And I went up to her. I was like, "Hey, do you know where there's a golden box with a candle next to it and God lives there?" And she's like, "Oh yeah, I go down the hallway on your right." And so I did. And I remember entering into this room and falling on my knees and just knowing I'm home. I am home. Jesus, you are here, and I'm here, and it's lovely. And I want nothing else. When was the last time you visited tabernacle? When was the last time that you got in your car and drove to a church? When was the last time you went to a Eucharistic adoration? When was the last time that you wasted time with the one who loved you first? In the Old Testament, God had a clear place where we were to come and worship Him. And the same is true today. And praise God for that. Thanks be to God for that. Don't be afraid to go to Him, to take the time to just go and be in His presence. It matters. I want to share this with you as well. The next station of the Eucharist is Bethlehem. For us as Christians, we believe that Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament was a gold box, and inside of it were two stone tablets, the staff of Aaron, and a jar of manna. Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant because within her, God dwells. And if you actually look at Mary's life, just in the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant had an angel on each side. When Mary has Jesus within her, there is an angel on each side. There's the Archangel Gabriel that invites her to become the mother of God, and then Christ enters into her. And then as soon as she gives birth in Bethlehem, the Christmas angels start singing. And thus Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant. She carries the savior of the world. It is from her that our flesh mingles with divinity. So not only when was the last time that you went to a tabernacle and spoke to Jesus, when was the last time you've talked to our lady, the new Ark of the Covenant, who wants nothing more than to bring you to our son, Jesus, the savior of the world. So don't be afraid to go to a tabernacle, and don't be afraid to go to the woman who will lead you nowhere but to her son. Amen.