The Eucharist is powerful, glorious, divine, amazing, breathtaking. We are people of the Eucharist.

It was a typical Wednesday morning in Naples, Italy. The year was 1273, and it was the Feast of St. Nicholas. The temperature hovered around 50 degrees, as it mostly does at that time of year. And the burly priest wearing the same black habit he had worn for years was doing what he loved more than anything in the world. He was offering mass. His focus and commitment were pulpable to all those in attendance. The priest was known to have mystical experiences during Mass. Many had seen him burst into tears or become dumbstruck during the consecration. Others had heard stories. So it wasn't that unusual that on this day, as he consecrated the bread and wine, a vision overcame his senses. Later, some would say he saw Jesus. Others, that he was granted a glimpse of the glory of heaven. The priest himself never explained what happened or described what he saw. It wasn't the vision that shocked those who knew the priest. It was what he did next. After a lifetime using his unrivaled intellectual genius to write, the priest declared that his work was finished.

When his secretary and friend asked him what had happened, he replied, "All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me." Now that wouldn't mean much coming from most people, but it was a staggering statement for this particular priest. His name was Thomas Aquinas. Over the 2000-year history of Catholicism, Thomas Aquinas is amongst the greatest theologians and philosophers the Church has known. Many believe his intellectual contribution to be unmatched. His theological and philosophical works are still studied today in all manner of schools and universities across the world. His Summa Theologica is a masterpiece of epic proportions.

And yet, after whatever he saw at mass on that fateful December day, he decided to leave it unfinished. He would die just three months later without penning another word. Thomas Aquinas had one of the greatest minds in human history, but he was intimately aware of two important truths that elude many great minds. The first was this, the longest journey we make is from the head to the heart. It is a spiritual journey, a pilgrimage of prayer. We think of the heart as emotional and it is, but it is also deeply spiritual this was the second. There is a vast difference between knowing about God and knowing God. Do you know Jesus, or do you just know about Jesus? Saint Thomas Aquinas wasn't just a brilliant mind. He was a man driven by a deep love for God. He was a man of deep prayer. And at the very center of his life, the source of his wisdom and joy was the Eucharist. The same man who used Aristotelian philosophy to define transubstantiation, the moment the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ, could hardly speak at times during the Mass because he was so moved when he participated in the actual miracle.

One night, in the chapel of the Dominican Priory in Naples, a sacrosanct concealed himself to observe Thomas Aquinas at prayer. He saw Thomas lifted into the air and heard Jesus speak to him from the crucifix on the chapel wall, "Thomas, you have written well of me. What reward will you have?" "Lord, nothing but yourself," was Thomas' reply. Anytime we think we want something other than Jesus, we are mistaken, confused, disoriented, disillusioned or deceived. For it is in him that we live and move and have our being. As one of the greatest writers of all time, Thomas said it more profoundly than I could ever hope to. The Eucharist is the sacrament of love. It signifies love. It produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life. Trust, surrender, believe, receive.

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Jesus, I believe that you are truly present

In the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist.

Every day, I long

For more of you. I love you above all things.

And I desire to receive you into my soul.

Since I cannot receive you sacramentally at this moment,

I invite you to come and dwell in my heart.

May this spiritual communion

Increase my desire

For the Eucharist.

You are the healer of my soul.

Take the blindness from my eyes.

The deafness from my ears.

The darkness from my mind. And the hardness from my heart.

Fill me with the grace, wisdom,

And courage.

To do your will in all things.

My Lord and my God,

Draw me close to you.

Nearer than ever before.

Amen.

Consecrate America to the Eucharist.

Bye-bye.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Come on.

Have a great day.

Hey, Isabel, one simple way to be mindful of God's presence in the world is to know where the nearest Tabernacle is. So, while we've got a couple of minutes, I thought we might work on your geography a little.

Sounds good, Dad. You're always coming up with something.

What about if I was at a latitude of 42.37 and a longitude of -71.05, where would the nearest Tabernacle be?

St. Stevens, Boston, Massachusetts.