Reflections for the “Holy Hour”
during adoration after the Holy Mass
on the second Thursday, 14 May 2015,
at the Church of Divine Providence in Bielsko-Biała.

Prayer before the Holy Rosary.

Written by Dr. Wojciech Kosek in collaboration with Beata Krochmal,
who found the texts of Blessed Candida and Blessed Michał Sopoćko,
testifying to the great value of prayer after the Eucharist.

Please click here to download the same text in format: a/. Word,         b/. PDF

Meditations led by eight people:

A, B, D, J – women; L, P, W, Z – men.

(Duration of the meditations with songs: about 56 min.)

This translation was published here on 7 Jul 2022.

To see the original Polish text ← click, please!

Z Song: Garden of Olives – 1–2 stanza (1:20)

Z Beloved Jesus! Abiding in sacramental union with You through Holy Communion, which we have just received from the priestly hands during the Eucharist, we wish – according to the custom of our Second Thursday “Holy Hour” vigils – to enter with You into the Garden of Gethsemane. We believe that by the power of Thy divine right hand, we are now taken to the place and time of those events which followed the Last Supper and which are realistically available to us and after this Last Supper, which is this Eucharist in which we have just concluded our co-participation with Thee and with the Apostles. Abiding with You in prayerful contemplation, we wish, with the help of Blessed Candida, a Carmelite nun, and Blessed Father Michał Sopoćko, St. Faustina’s confessor, to renew in ourselves our love and reverence for You, coming in Holy Communion. (1:30)

Z Song: The Hidden Jesus – 1–3 stanzas (0:53)

J Beloved Savior! How good it is that we are given the grace of being so close to You – with You so closely present and thirsty for the closeness of our weak hearts… Amazing is Your love, O Jesus! You want me not to fear You, the All-Powerful Ruler, the Creator of incomprehensible cosmic spaces, the Creator of countless creatures … You do not only want me not to fear You but to be able to live in the kind of intimacy with You in which friends live, in which persons-in-love live, in which husband and wife live…How great is Your goodness, O Jesus! How inconceivable are Your Divine salvific plans according to which You lead me toward You, to the fullness of my openness to Your loving devotion to me and, simultaneously, to the fullness of my loving devotion to You? I know, O Beloved that we all access an admirably extraordinary endowment when You profess love to each of us and desire a reciprocation of that love… Jesus, my Jesus, … I love You, Jesus… (1:42)

J Song: Garden of Olives – 3–4 stanza (1:20)

L Dearest Jesus, so intimately present under the species of the Most Holy Host. Our sojourn today in loving intimacy with You is extraordinary, utterly different from what was available to Israel-Bride in the Old Covenant. In order to know the greatness of Your gift of intimacy to us, we will now listen to the description of that extraordinary encounter that the Israelites, coming out of Egyptian slavery, experienced at Mount Sinai. We will see how, thanks to Your love, O Lord, we were gifted with such closeness to God that the Israelites, members of the Chosen People of God, could not even imagine. (1:06)

D Reading from the Book of Exodus 19:1–19: In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. ² When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain. ³ Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. 5 ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” 7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the Lord had commanded him. 8 All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. 9 The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe in you forever.” Then Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. 10 The Lord also said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments; 11 and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 “You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. 13 ‘No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” 14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments. 15 He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman.” 16 So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. 17 And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. 19 When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder. (2:49)

D Song: Jesus, Veiled in the Sacred Host – 1–3 stanzas (2:03)

W Beloved Jesus, our Savior, our God! On Israel’s journey from Egyptian slavery to the Promised Land, a covenant was made at Mount Sinai. Just now, we heard a description of the events that immediately preceded that event. The mountain, chosen by God to meet with Moses, could not even be touched by any of the People. Coming of God was cognizable through the senses: the Israelites, with the eyes of the flesh, saw fire and smoke, with the ears of the flesh heard the voice of mighty trumpets, and with their whole bodies perceived the mighty shaking to which the power of God subjected this mountain, which was made holy by the very fact that God descended to its summit. None but the chosen intermediary – Moses – could approach not only You but even the mountain that the poignant Divine Presence touched. Each of the gathered Israelites felt with his whole being the Majesty of Almighty God, who descended from the inaccessible heights of heaven to earth. (1:40)

B How different it is now, O Almighty Jesus, hidden under the veils of the Sacred Host, when we abide with You in adoring familiarity … How close You are, how close You are … You are and love us so discreetly … You are discreet because You love us and want not to frighten us with the greatness of the majesty of Your Person… Oh, yes, you love me with all the Heart of the Incarnate God, you love me beyond what I can comprehend … How extraordinary is this abiding with you … Extraordinary, extraordinary, and yet I have known so little about it so far, I have meditated so little on its miraculousness… The miracle of your love does not impose itself but waits to be discovered by a heart thirsting for love and ready to love… From now on, I want to perceive with greater attention, with more powerful gratitude, with more fervent love this great good, which is the reality of so close being with you in Eucharistic union, a union that nothing in mortal life can match – not even the unity of people in love, not even the unity of spouses in love with each other … (1: 53)

P O, Lord Jesus! We desire to consciously enter into communion with You, who are coming out after the Last Supper among the Apostles from the Upper Room in the historical time of two thousand years ago. With You, therefore, we have descended to the brook Kidron; with You, we have climbed the mountain so that here, in the garden, we may watch with You in anticipation of what is most challenging in Your life… With the heart burning with love for You, we desire to listen to the beating of Your Heart. We desire to listen to Your expectations, to Your longings, to Your pains, to Your love… We want to read Your love and know this love’s most secret desires. We ask, O Beloved, now grant to our hearts the grace of deeply listening to the loving beats of Your Heart… (1:17)

P Song: Garden of Olives – 5–6 stanza (1:20)

A Dearest Jesus, my Love! So close are You now, so close, O Beloved, hidden under the species of Holy Communion under my heart! You have come to me, and You are with me, and You abide in the waiting for the love of my heart… You have come with a heart burning with love for me because You love me above life… You have come. You stand at the door of my heart and gently knock… How You desire the response of my heart…, how You desire the signs of my love for You, how You desire my love… You love me so much, so much You desire the reciprocation of love. (1:01)

A Song: Here in this Sacrament – 1 stanza (0:53)

Z O, Dearest Savior! Free us now, I beseech Thee, free us now – in this hour of grace – free us from succumbing to the common habit of not-noticing You in the time that strikes on the world’s clocks after the end of the holy Eucharistic liturgy. Save us from not-understanding You… Save us from not-loving You according to the measure of Your expectations… Save us from not-loving You according to the desires with which Your Heart is filled when You come to us invisibly in Your human body, hidden under the species of Bread and Wine… Save us from diminishing the greatness of this Holy Mystery of Love, save us from failing to respond with love centered on You – invisible but truly present in Your human body still for some time after the end of Holy Mass. (1:21)

Z Song: Here in this Sacrament – 2 stanza (0:53)

J O beloved Jesus! I want to earnestly ask You for us, gathered by the power of Your love here in adoration after Mass: give us that love that You thirst from every one of us during the thanksgiving after Communion and after the end of Holy Mass. Give us to be moved by the words with which You Yourself filled the heart of Blessed Maria Candida of the Eucharist, who wrote in her book entitled “Eucharistic Conversations” (Colloqui Eucaristici) as follows: “How many tears my heart has shed, what martyrdom it suffers seeing the lack of thanksgiving after receiving the Eucharist or receiving it as if out of habit, without proper preparation. Jesus, oh Jesus, may I be wrong, but love for You makes it possible to sense with what indifference You are received by many, what ingratitude we repay for Your great gift! Oh, what anguish! You know everything about my life, thanks to the Eucharist. You are heavenly; You are too good. That is why we relate to You so badly and respond to Your love with such indifference, O Jesus! What fruit can Holy Communion bear without proper thanksgiving? It is in its loving warmth that feelings and stirrings similar to Yours are born in the soul, Jesus. And it is then that unity is truly nourished and established” [1]. (2:10)

L Blessed Candida then confesses with poignancy and fervor of heart: “Give me, O Jesus, souls who receive Communion out of love and with love, who do everything in their power to abide in thanksgiving, and I, O Beloved, will give You in short time souls passionate about You, grounded in the gift of self and sincerely working on their sanctification. May they all, O Jesus, experience the graces of well-received Communion and what You can and want to give by descending into our hearts. Without a doubt, O my Jesus, if the eyes lovingly close to looking only at You, if all the senses are silenced, if every extraneous thought is restrained – will You not act? You who passed through the earth, doing good, would You pass by indifferently, like a stranger, without granting Your mercy to our souls, now, here on earth? O my Jesus, how I would like to express well what I feel!” [2] (1:39)

D O Jesus! Blessed Candida in such a way summarizes this prayerful call for You to raise such people who, like her, will burn with love for You, coming in Holy Communion: “How I would like to be an apostle of Holy Communion! How I long for everyone to experience its graces!…. Eucharistic Jesus, who became in my life love and martyrdom also, remember that in my infinite sacrifices and anguish, suffering and weeping, I understood that I was to spread the love for You, knowledge of You, the holy frenzy of Communion. Abandoned Prisoner! Remember that I have comprehended that I am to spread You. Let Your Eucharistic Kingdom come!” [3] (1:13)

D Song: Here in this Sacrament – 3 stanza (0:53)

W Dearest Jesus! How necessary it is for us to discover with renewed fervor the value of the time of adoration immediately following the Holy Mass! It is a time especially rich in grace, a privileged time. Blessed Fr. Michał Sopoćko, St. Faustina’s confessor, wrote thus: “Without preparation and due thanksgiving, Communion is not only ineffective but sometimes harmful, causing the soul’s culpable coldness. Then the recipient does not mend from his vices, does not make progress in virtue, and abuses God’s graces for which responsibility awaits. For such a soul, religion no longer has anything that could move it; it becomes cold as marble, insensitive as stone, hard as a rock. Such a person does not mortify himself in anything, seeks consolation in creatures, does not think about his sanctification, and inclines himself to fall. ‘I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth’ (Rev 3:15–16), says the Holy Spirit in Revelation.” [4]

B Blessed Father Sopoćko explains the importance of acts of thanksgiving after Mass as follows: “These acts can take about half an hour of the time in which, according to the last opinion of the physiologists, the forms of bread remain in us for final digestion, and – under them – the true and living body and blood, soul and divinity of the Lord Jesus. This time could be shortened only if necessary, but even then, the acts mentioned can and should be continued on the way back from church or even at work or in necessary conversation with others. We attach great importance to such thanksgiving after Communion because religion, gratitude, and self-interest demand it, for the soul feels the greatest sweetness in Communion with the Lord Jesus in these moments. At that time, He is most willing to enlighten it, warm it, move it; this sacrament has an effect at that time mainly. He who neglects thanksgiving puts obstacles in the way of grace and imitates the poor man who refuses to wait for the alms the rich man is about to give him.”  [5]. (1:25)

P Beloved Jesus! Under the species of the Sacred Host, not only You alone are hidden… Here – under the whiteness, the shape, the fragrance, the taste of the consecrated Host – here are also hidden the loving sighs and longings of Your Heart… Yes, yes… You are hidden under the species of the Sacred Host, and You hide the longings of Your Heart… You are here because You love me, and You desire my love… You came, in the thorny crown of invisibility, wounded by my heaviness in perceiving You, the invisible One… Yes, yes, I still can not take my eyes off the persons and things I see, I still among the visible persons and things of this world can not meet fully with You, in Holy Communion coming so imperceptible to the senses… Jesus, remedy the heaviness of my heart, heal the weakness of my spiritual sight… (1:25)

P Song: Here in this Sacrament – 4–5 stanzas (1:46)

A Gazing at You, Jesus, hidden beneath the whiteness of the Most Holy Host, I try – with the help of Your grace – to enter with my heart into the mysteries of Your Heart as You are immersed in prayerful pain in the Garden of Olives. So concentrated, You are praying in this Garden of Passion, pondering, no doubt, and the extent to which the people of the following centuries will manage to discover the meaning of the Eucharistic liturgy which You have just celebrated in the Upper Room. Will they be able to comprehend and love these mysteries with all their hearts, will they be able to enter into their salvific depths, will they be willing to devote time to pondering the truths that, in the centuries to come, Your Holy Church will discover by the power of the Holy Spirit? Will they manage to love You, so mysteriously present with Your salvific work under cover of the signs of the sacred liturgy? (1:25)

A Song: I Know in Whom I Believe – 1–3 stanzas (2:24)

Z Dearest Savior! I ask in the depths of my heart about my faith: do I believe that during the Mass, this heartbreaking Holy Sacrifice, You give us all to touch Your mortal wounds, the cause of which is the sin of the world – my sin, the sin of my brothers and sisters? … Yes, yes … how many times have we inflicted wounds on You, eager to satisfy our own lusts, our sometimes very mundane tastes … And You, in love with us to a truly divine measure, so wounded by us, so mistreated by us, came with the gift of Your love in Holy Communion …. You came with forgiving love, You came with healing love, You came with hugging love, You came with unifying love… What did You receive in response to such extraordinary love? Did you receive love or the indifference of our hearts as a gift? (1:32)

Z Song: Let us Love the Lord – 1–4 stanzas (2:48)

A The time of Holy Eucharist is for me a much desired time of being with You, a time of gazing into Your eyes, a time of listening to Your voice… The time of the Holy Eucharist makes me every day stand with the priest-celebrant and brothers and sisters among the Apostles in the Upper Room, where You, O Beloved, celebrate the Last Supper – Your Paschal Feast, immediately preceding Your way from the Upper Room through the Garden of Olives, the Judgments, up to the Cross, and then on – through the Abyss, to the shore of new life in the Resurrection… (0: 58)

L Do I believe in the miracle of taking us, participants of the Divine Liturgy, to a time two thousand years distant from our own time?…. Do I believe in You, and do I love You with my presence, O Jesus, by consciously and realistically participating in what, from the point of view of our merely human understanding, has already irretrievably passed away two thousand years ago?… Do I believe in You as a God who can do everything and therefore can give us to participate in what already seems absolutely closed as a past event? What is my faith in You, O God? What is my love?… (1:01)

L Song: Let us Love the Lord – 5–8 stanzas (2:48)

D Blessed Fr. Michał Sopoćko teaches: [6] “The more the Lord Jesus lowers Himself in the Most Holy Sacrament, the more reverence we should show Him. The Heavenly Father has given us an example of this when He sends angels to the manger of the humbled Son to honor the King over kings and to declare His glory to the neighboring inhabitants. On the banks of the Jordan, in turn, He opens the heavens and bears witness from heaven to the Most Beloved Son in Whom He is pleased, standing among sinners. However, when God’s Son was nailed to the cross by human malice and covered with the greatest insult, Heavenly Father causes an eclipse of the sun, a resurrection of the dead, and an earthquake resulting in the rocks crack. Hence it follows how deep our reverence should be towards the humiliation of the Lord Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament because He humbled Himself the most here.” (1:27)

W Blessed Fr. Sopoćko further explains in this way about You, Jesus, hidden under the Eucharistic species: „In the manger, He had at least the form of a child; on the cross, He retained the shape of a man, and here there is nothing that shows a man, much less God. Weak species present themselves to the eyes, but they hide a radiance of the same magnitude whose ray dazzled Moses on Mount Sinai and the disciples on Mount Tabor. This small particle on the paten contains the Infinite God, whom the heavens cannot encompass. What a great humiliation, in the face of which many holy souls (including Sr. Faustina) saw the hosts of angels for the perpetual worship of the hidden King of heaven, as St. John the Evangelist saw twenty-four elders before the Lamb.” [7] (1:22)

B Lord Jesus! In a moment, we will be praying the Holy Rosary. We will walk with You on the path leading us from the Garden of Olives to Golgotha. We will not only remember those very challenging events but also truly participate in them by the power of the Holy Communion. Through our close presence with You, we want to express all the love of our hearts for You. Jesus, Divine Savior, lead us toward the fullness of love! (0:46)