Divine Appeal Reflection - 242
Today, consider in Divine Appeal 242: "I give him a word with you belong under his guidance and care. “Hermitage of Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament”. As he receives your final vows I give you this name, Sr. Anna Ali of the Holy Eucharist. For it pleases Me to erect an altar in your heart and Eucharistic victim soul."
There is no greater dignity bestowed upon the human soul than to become a dwelling place for God. These words, spoken to Sr. Anna Ali, are not only a personal commission but a theological revelation of immense magnitude. They unveil God’s desire — not just to be worshipped in cathedrals or adored in golden tabernacles, but to make His resting place within the soul that loves Him. This gesture is not an isolated grace but a symbolic revelation of God’s universal desire to dwell in the depths of every human soul. The hermitage that Christ refers to is not merely a space of solitude, but a metaphysical dwelling — a sanctified interior where the soul becomes altar, offering, and temple. Theologically, this echoes the mystery of divine indwelling articulated in Trinitarian theology: that the baptized person, in a state of grace, becomes the dwelling place of the Trinity (cf. CCC 260). Yet Christ’s words here speak of something even more intimate — an invitation to live the Eucharistic mystery not only at the altar but within the interior life, making the soul a perpetual act of adoration and sacrifice.
This Eucharistic indwelling is a participation in Christ’s own kenosis — His self-emptying love (cf. Philippians 2:7). The soul becomes a hermitage when it is emptied of ego, attachments, and noise, and reordered entirely toward the presence of God. Philosophically, we might say that the will, once fragmented and disordered by sin, is recollected and reoriented to the summum bonum — the highest good, which is God Himself. Saints like Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross spoke of this transformation as a journey through interior mansions and dark nights, where the soul, stripped of all self-sufficiency, becomes capable of receiving God as He is. The Eucharist, in this light, is not simply a sacrament to be received but a mystery to be lived — a pattern of surrender, love, and oblation written into the soul itself. To become a Eucharistic victim soul is to allow oneself to be united to Christ’s offering, not in dramatic gestures, but through the quiet crucible of daily fidelity and hidden suffering.
Our Adorable Jesus, present in the Blessed Sacrament, longs to find hearts that mirror His hiddenness — hearts that are not looking to be seen, but to see Him; not yearning to be understood, but to understand Him. This longing of Christ reveals His poverty — that He, who gives Himself entirely in the Eucharist, often remains unloved and forgotten. In her diary, St. Faustina sorrowfully recorded how Jesus expressed His deep loneliness in the tabernacle—waiting for souls who never come to visit Him. This heartbreak mirrors the repeated pleas found in the Divine Appeals, where Heaven laments the world’s indifference to God’s love and presence. This divine solitude is remedied not primarily by external acts, but by souls who offer themselves as interior tabernacles, welcoming Him with reverence, love, and reparation. The soul becomes a true hermitage when it not only houses Jesus but adores Him within — with every thought recollected, every desire purified, and every action conformed to His will. Here, the soul enters into a silent liturgy, a continuous Mass celebrated in the secret chapel of the heart.
Such a life is deeply Eucharistic, not in the sense of merely frequenting the Sacrament, but in embodying its mystery: presence, silence, sacrifice, love. To become a living altar is to allow Christ to offer Himself again and again through our lives — through our patience, our humility, our forgiveness, our hidden acts of service. The saints teach us that union with God is not a matter of extraordinary experiences but of fidelity to grace. As St. Catherine of Siena wrote, the soul in grace becomes another “house of God.” In light of this, the call given to Sr. Anna Ali is a luminous path for all Christians: to allow our Adorable Jesus to dwell, suffer, rejoice, and reign in the hermitage of our hearts. May we guard this inner sanctuary as more sacred than any cathedral, and may we offer it — daily and quietly — as a resting place for Love Himself.
Prayer
O our Adorable Jesus, who delights to dwell in souls, prepare our hearts as living altars for Your Eucharistic love. Consume us in the silence of Your will. Make us victim souls in hidden union with You. And in us, establish Your hermitage, Your joy, and Your perpetual presence. Amen.
Sr. Anna Ali of the Most Holy Eucharist, intercede for us.
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