![]() ![]() Ever since I was a baby my hope in the Holy Eucharist has been strong”. Secondly, Hope: “O My Divine Eucharist, my dear Hope, all our hope is in You. Contemplate with ever greater faith our Dear Lord in the Sacrament: live with Him who comes to us every day”. Firstly, Faith: “O my Beloved Sacrament, I see you, I believe in you!. ![]() She saw all the dimensions of Christian life summed up in the Eucharist. It is a long and profound meditation on the Eucharist, which had as its goal a record of her own personal experiences and her deepening theological reflections on those same experiences. On the Feast of Corpus Christi during the Holy Year of 1933, Mother Candida began to write what was to become her little masterpiece, entitled The Eucharist, “true jewel of eucharistic spirituality”. She was directly responsible for the expansion of Carmel in Sicily, making a new foundation in Syracuse and helping to secure the return of the male branch of the Order. She established in her community a profound love for the Rule of St Teresa of Jesus. In 1924 Sr Candida was elected Prioress, a position in which she was to remain, except for a brief period, until 1947. It was in the Eucharist that the saintly Foundress experienced the mystery of the humanity of Christ. The pages in which St Teresa of Avila describes her own particular devotion to the Eucharist are well known. Maria Candida fully developed what she herself was to describe as her Â’vocation for the EucharistÂ’, helped by Carmelite spirituality, to which she was attracted after reading Story of a Soul. It was the Eucharist that gave her the strength to consecrate herself as a victim to God on 1st November 1927. The Eucharist really dominated her entire spiritual life, not so much for the devotion, as for the fundamental effect it had on her spiritual relationship with God. She said that she wanted “to keep Jesus company in the Eucharist for as long as possible.” She prolonged the time of her adoration, especially every Thursday, when from eleven to midnight she would be before the tabernacle. Maria entered Carmel and took the name Maria Candida of the Eucharist, which in certain aspects was prophetic. In fact, after the death of her mother in 1914, she could only rarely receive Communion, so as to not offend her brothers who would not allow her to go out on her own. From then on, to be deprived of Holy Communion was for her Â’a great and painful crossÂ’. There I stood on tiptoe to reach up to her and cried, “I want God too!” My mother would bend down and softly breathe on my lips I immediately left her, and placing my hands across my chest, full of joy and faith, jumping for joy I would keep repeating: “I have received God too! I have received God too!” These are signs of a vocation, for one who is called by GodÂ’s free and gratuitous will as a gift for the Church.įrom the age of ten, when she made her First Holy Communion, her great joy was to be able to receive Communion. “When I was still a child she testified, and before I was old enough to receive Jesus in Communion, I used to rush to the front door to greet my mother when she returned from Mass. Her love for the Eucharist was evident from the very beginning. During this time she was sustained by a special devotion to the Eucharist, in which she saw the mystery of the sacramental presence of God in the world, the concrete symbol of His infinite love of humanity, and the reason for our trust in His promises. Her trials were to last until she entered the Teresian Carmel, Ragusa, on 25th September 1919. During these years of waiting she suffered interiorly but showed a remarkable strength of spirit and fidelity to her calling, unusual in one so young. The deeply-religious family returned to Palermo when she was two years old.įrom the age of fifteen Maria felt called to Religious Life but her family strongly opposed this she had to wait for twenty years before she could fulfill her calling. However, Pietro BarbaÂ’s work as a Judge in the Appeal Court took the family briefly to Catanzaro in Italy and it was there that Maria Barba was born on the 16th January 1884. Maria BarbaÂ’s family home was in Palermo, Sicily. Maria Candida of the Eucharist (1884-1949) Maria Candida of the Eucharist (1884-1949), biography ![]()
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