Book Review: Fire of God's Love-120 Reflections on the Eucharist

Through the Eucharist God changes us as surely as he changed the elements of bread and wine into himself. He forms us as living stones in the temple of his Church. He builds up a eucharistic culture to replace the culture of death.

Think globally? Act eucharistically. It's the sacrament that renews the earth.

Asking what you can do for your country. Make a good Communion. Make a visit to the tabernacle. Much more will follow.

God will make limitless poetry out of the prose of your life, and he will renew the face of the earth, beginning with your little corner.

From the introduction

It is simply impossible to express what we gain from adoring the Eucharist as I know full well. How do we describe an encounter with God? Yet many Catholics have expressed some facet of it over the thousands of years since Christ gave us Himself in that gift.

Mike Aquilina has chosen 120 wonderful quotations that not only help us rise to meet God but that God uses to push aside the veil between us. Some are short and some are long, some are poetic and some are straight to the point, but all are well chosen. One of the surprising things I found what that Aquilina doesn't just include saints and popes, though they are well represented here as one might expect. I was pleased and interested to find reflections from more modern sources such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Maria Montessori, Conrad Hilton, and George Wiegel.

This book could do double service not only as a source for reflection during adoration but as a daily devotional if one wished. It is much more interesting and thought provoking than the usual quote collections. Also, it is beautifully typeset and organized which is something I always notice, especially in a book that is to be used in prayer. I am sorry to say, careful attention to layout is not something we see very often from small publishers. Servant Books is to be congratulated on this.

Highly recommended.

97 | The Best Prayer

We need not speak so much to pray well. We know the good God is in the holy tabernacle. We open our hearts to him, and delight in his holy presence; that is the best prayer.

--Saint John Vianney