Eugene wrote to the Novice Master:
I see a great disadvantage in not having the Blessed Sacrament within easy access of the novices. It is to Jesus Christ that they should go to be filled with fervour. It is not enough to drink from this fountain during the time of the common prayers; each should be able to go often according to his inspiration and present himself before the Saviour and converse with him for a few moments in silent meditation.
The novices did not have their own chapel in the building, so Eugene made a suggestion.
I am aware that in the present situation, there are serious difficulties, and even inconveniences, to go to the Blessed Sacrament where it is kept. Consider yourself deprived of a powerful means of making your novices fervent. Substitute for it at least by a quiet chapel of the Blessed Virgin, where a person can go and recollect himself. Have no fear in setting aside a room for this purpose.
Letter to Father Vincens, 3 December 1841 EO IX n 752
Most of us don’t have a chapel nearby to go and pray in, but each of us can set aside a prayer space in a special corner of a room we use all the time.
It is important to have a “God-space” in which I can spend some “God-time” each day where I can “present myself before the Saviour and converse with him for a few moments in silent meditation.”
How do we nourish our passion and fan the flames of the fire within us? It is not something that happens magically. The image before me is of a stove waiting to be fired up to bring heat and so life to the day. A person bends low over belly of the stove to stir the coals, and then lay kindling and wood on top of them. The person blows softly into that mix until a spark appears, a tiny flame catching another flame as the fire begins to burn steadily. That movement of breathing in and breathing out in which even the fire itself took part in taking in the oxygen to burn and giving off heat and light.
Now with the pandemic many if not most of the churches are locked. Daily Mass may no longer be an option and we are not able to slip into a church or chapel, to sit in the quiet and presence of the Beloved.
As Eugene and Frank suggest. we might find ourselves sitting in the chair at the desk or off to a small corner space in our room. We close our eyes and find our own way to enter the presence and heart of Jesus. It is not our doing but rather our being that becomes totally involved and a part of this presence that we seek. It might be for an hour, five minutes or even just for a few seconds. Here we lay our struggles to rest as we just “be”. Here we look upon the face of our Beloved and become lost and found in those moments.
It matters not if we are novices or priests, religious or lay people. Each of must find our way to experience and then share that space in our hearts – first with God and then with all those we meet. Is this not what we are doing here today?