The Eucharist and Self-Gift: always be the smallest

“Always be the smallest, think of the size of the host.”

Jesus to Gabrielle Bossis, April 11, 1946, He and I, page 172

Lord, You come to me with such docility, giving me the entirety of Who You are. You do so day after day with utmost humility, letting me decide how to receive You: with deep reverence or with a distracted heart; fully conscious to Your Self-gift or with my mind on other things. As You dissolve into my being, all that You are is poured into me. What will I do next? What will be my response to Your offering?

Lord, I beg for the grace to remain always aware of You in me. I beg for the grace to recognize that all that I am, all that I have and possess actually belongs to You. All is gift.

“…my words are your words…

I love you with the love with which you have first loved me…

the wine in my mouth comes to me from your mouth…

the scent of my breath is that of your breath.

This then is like a continuous ebb and flow between us. From my heart to your heart, from your heart to my heart.”

Father Blaise Arminjon, Cantata of Love, page 318

Lord, help us to remain always aware that we are each imbued with Your divinity and that Your desire is for us to become smaller and smaller – think of the size of the host - allowing more space for Your glory to reign in us and through us. May we remember to stop and ask You what You are seeing as we are looking at the people who we see every day. Often, we don’t see them at all! Give us Your grace, Lord!

“To be bread and host, the wine and blood of Christ, to be that drop of water that is put in the chalice to symbolize, in this awesome sacrifice of Calvary, the union of the Head and the Body—this means to love as Christ loved. We must be food and drink for our brethren…” 

Servant of God Catherine de Hueck Doherty

Lord, may Your Eucharistic Self become in us the food of love and compassion. Speak through our mouths. Work and care for others through our hands. See them through our eyes. May each Eucharist unite us more fully to You, and prepare us to respond as You would to the needs around us.

The words of Jesus that I quoted at the beginning of this article struck me quite profoundly: “Always be the smallest, think of the size of the host.” Later in that same entry in Gabrielle Bossis’ journal, our Lord spoke these three words to her – and to each of us:

“Begin. I’ll continue.”

All we need to do is begin; and to begin anew each day. He will continue and He will perfect. May we daily make our self-offering, using the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola:

Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O Lord, I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and thy grace, for this is sufficient for me. Amen.

De Yarrison, Copyright 2025