Living Hosts
Excerpts from “Conchita, A Mothers
Spiritual Diary” (Blessed Conchita de Armida)
"You
will be My altar and at the same time My victim. Offer yourself in union with Me, offer Me at
each moment to the eternal Father, with the so exalted purpose of saving souls
and of glorifying Him. Forget everything
and above all forget yourself. Let that
be your constant occupation. You have
received a sublime mission, the mission of a priest. Admire My bounty and show your
gratitude. Without you knowing it, I
have given you what you desired so much, and much, much more than that: the
ability to be a priest, not that of holding Me in your hands but in your heart
and the grace of never separating Myself from you. Achieve the grandiose finality of this
grace. As you see, it is not for you
alone but universal, obliging you with all possible purity to be at one and the
same time altar and victim, consumed in holocaust with the other Victim, the
sole Host which may be agreeable to God and which may save the world.
The Lord had
told Conchita, sometime after the mystical incarnation. "You are at once
altar and priest, since you possess the most holy Victim of Calvary and of the
Eucharist and since you have the power of offering Him constantly for the
salvation of the world. It is the most precious fruit of the great favor of My
mystical incarnation in your heart… You are My altar and at the same time you
will be My victim. Offer yourself in union with Me. Offer Me at every instant
to the eternal Father, with the sublime intent of saving souls and of
glorifying Him. Forget all and especially yourself. Let this be your constant
concern, You have received a sublime mission. As you see, it is not for
yourself alone but universal, obliging you with all purity possible to be at
the same time altar and victim consumed in holocaust with the other Victim, the
Unique Host, pleasing to God and able to save the world" (Diary, June 21,
1906).
"In the
concrete, the mystical incarnation is nothing other than a most powerful grace
of transformation which simplifies and unites to Jesus by purity and by
immolation, rendering the being in its entirety, as much as possible, like to
Him. Because of this likeness of the soul to the Incarnate Word, the eternal
Father finds pleasure in it, and the role of Priest and Victim which Jesus had
on earth is communicated to it, in order that it obtain graces from heaven for
the whole world. That is why, the more a soul is like Me, the more the Eternal
Father hears it, not due to its worth but due to its likeness and its union
with Me and in virtue of My merits which constitute what counts for obtaining
graces" (Diary, Dec. 11, 1913).
Briefly, the
mystical incarnation is a grace of identification which Christ, Priest and
Host, a grace which makes Him continue on in the Members of His Mystical Body,
His mission of glorifier of the Father and Savior of men. It is a special grace
of transformation in the priestly soul of Christ.
"I want
you to be My host and have the intention, renewed as often as possible day and
night, of offering yourself with Me on all the patens on earth. I want you,
transformed in Me by suffering, by love and by the practice of all the virtues,
to raise heavenward this cry of your soul in union with Me: 'This is My Body,
This is My Blood.' Thus by making yourself but one with the Incarnate Word out
of love and suffering, with the same intentions of love, you will obtain graces
for the whole world. You will offer Me Myself and yourself also, with the Holy
Spirit and through Mary, to the eternal Father.
"Such
is the end and essence of My Works of the Cross; a likeness of victims united
to the great Victim, Myself, all pure, without the leaven of concupiscence.
They will be marked by the reflection of My Passion, in order that there rise
heavenward a unanimous cry: 'This is My Body, This is My Blood.' Transformed
into priests in union with the eternal Priest, they will offer to heaven, on
behalf of the Church and of priests their brothers, their crucified bodies
forming but one single Body with Mine, since they are members of Him who is the
Head, Christ the Redeemer.
"…one only Host, one only Victim, one
only Priest immolating Himself and immolating Me in your heart on behalf of the
whole world. The Father pleased, will receive this offering presented through
the Holy Spirit, and the graces of heaven will descend as rain on the earth.
"When I
pronounced these words: 'Do this in memory of Me,' I was not addressing Myself
only to priests. Of course, they alone have the power to change the substance
of bread into My most holy Body and the substance of wine into My Blood. But
the power to unite in one single oblation all oblations belongs to all
Christians. It belong to all Christians, members of one single Body, to become
one with the Victim on the altar by faith and works, offering Me as Host in
appropriation to My eternal Father" (Diary, June 7, 1916).
