Tomorrow I will mark another year of life. A birthday turns the mind toward gifts received. I find myself asking another question: **What gift can I give Him?**¹
Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, who will be beatified later today in St. Louis, wrote of Holy Communion a sentence that has stayed with me: **“We give Him our time; He gives us His eternity.”**² God has given me another year of time. What will I give Him from it?
St. Manuel González García, whose pages Ted and I have been reading, says what is simplest and most true: **the Heart of Jesus is here.**³ The tabernacle is the place on earth where the best is spoken and the most fruitful work is done.⁴ Jesus is not idle in His silence. He looks. He loves. He waits. I do not have to invent an offering worthy of Him. I can give Him my presence.
In Gethsemane He did not first ask His friends for activity. He asked them to watch one hour with Him. Sheen called that hour a sharing in the work of redemption and reminded us that Christ asked for companionship.⁵ That is part of why we come.
At Fatima the Angel of Peace taught the children to offer the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended. Then the Angel said, **“Console your God.”**⁶ Our Lady led them more deeply into that same work. She knows how to remain with her Son, how to love Him, and how to stand with Him.
Pius XI taught that Christ in His agony already knew the sins that, in human history, were still to come, and He also knew the acts of love and reparation that would be offered to Him. From that foreseen love He could draw solace. In a wondrous yet true manner, we can and ought to console the Sacred Heart.⁷ The hour we give Him now is not late. He knew it.
Another year is not only a year I have received. It is a year from which I can give.
Jesus, Eucharistic Heart, receive the time You have given me and whatever time remains. Through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, teach me to remain with You, and receive my presence, my adoration, my reparation, and my love. Amen.
Notes
- Reflection given September 24, 2026, on the eve of the author’s birthday, September 25.
- Fulton J. Sheen, Calvary and the Mass: A Missal Companion(New York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 1936), “The Seventh Word,” Communion section: “We give Him our time; He gives us His eternity.” Sheen continues, “We give Him our humanity; He gives us His divinity. We give Him our nothingness; He gives us His all.” Pagination varies by edition.
- St. Manuel González García, What the Heart of Jesus Does and Says in the Tabernacle, trans. Eileen Wood (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2024), chap. 1, “The Heart of Jesus Is Here.” Spanish original, Qué hace y qué dice el Corazón de Jesús en el Sagrario, first published 1925.
- González García, What the Heart of Jesus Does and Says in the Tabernacle, chap. 4, “The Tabernacle Is the Place on Earth Where the Best Is Spoken, and the Most Fruitful Work Is Done.”
- Fulton J. Sheen, “The Hour That Makes My Day,” in Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980). Sheen describes the Holy Hour as “a sharing in the work of redemption” and reflects upon Christ’s question in Gethsemane, “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” as a call to companionship and reparation.
- Lúcia dos Santos, Second Memoir(1937), account of the third apparition of the Angel of Peace at Fatima, 1916. The Angel taught the children to offer the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, “present in all the tabernacles of the world,” in reparation for “the outrages, sacrileges and indifference” by which He is offended. After giving Holy Communion to the children, the Angel instructed them: “Make reparation for their crimes and console your God!”
- Pius XI, Miserentissimus Redemptor(Encyclical on Reparation to the Sacred Heart), May 8, 1928, no. 13. Pius XI teaches that because sins still future in human history were foreseen by Christ in His agony, “He derived somewhat of solace from our reparation, which was likewise foreseen”; therefore, “even now, in a wondrous yet true manner, we can and ought to console that Most Sacred Heart.”