BL. MARIA CANDIDA OF THE EUCHARIST - 21 MARCH

 

 ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 21st March

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BL. MARIA CANDIDA OF THE EUCHARIST

Maria Candida of the Eucharist, OCD, (1884 - 1949) was a Carmelite nun, beatified by Pope John Paul II.

The daughter of an appellate court judge, her family home was in Palermo, Sicily.

A SPECIAL DEVOTION TO THE HOLY  EUCHARIST

From the time Maria made her First Holy Communion at the age of ten, she had a special devotion to the Eucharist and developed what she called her ‘vocation for the Eucharist’, feeling deeply if she was not able to receive Communion frequently.

This devotion was nurtured by Carmelite spirituality, inspired by her reading ‘The Story of a Soul’, the autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux.

At the age of 15, she felt a calling to religious life but her family opposed it. She had to wait 20 years before she could enter the Carmel of Ragusa in 1919.

SHE WAS ELECTED PRIORESS

At that time, she took the name under which she is known now. Upon completion of her formation period five years later, she was elected prioress of the community, a position she held almost continuously until 1947. Under her leadership, the community grew to a point where a new foundation could be made in Syracuse.

"EUCHARIST: TRUE JEWEL OF EUCHARISTIC SPIRITUALITY"

In 1933, she began writing the book: ‘Eucharist: True Jewel of Eucharistic Spirituality’ as a record of her own personal experiences and reflections on Eucharistic meditation.

She wrote: “I want to be like Mary,… to be Mary for Jesus, to take the place of his Mother. When I receive Jesus in Communion, Mary is always present…’

After a long period of painful illness, she died on 12th June. Her feast day is observed on 21st March.”

(This article was published in “The Catholic Universe”, paper edition, issue Sunday 14th April, 2013.)