Introduction
How to Be His is a 33-day Eucharistic dedication designed to help us fully belong to Christ—to be totally His—through a Eucharistic life, the principal means by which we participate in Christ’s life. The authors present this as a dedication to emphasize our intentional response to the consecration already received in Baptism: a commitment to “bind and give ourselves to Jesus in the way that He comes to us in the Eucharist,” reforming our lives around Holy Mass and Eucharistic Adoration.
In this summary, I have synthesized the key insights into 5 main categories.
1. Eucharistic Desire
“Prayer,” the Catechism teaches, “is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him” (CCC 2560). This conviction lies at the heart of St. Mother Teresa’s Eucharistic spirituality: Christ’s cry from the Cross, “I thirst” (John 19:28), reveals His infinite longing for every human soul. Before we can truly desire Jesus, we must first be convinced that He desires us—that He passionately pursues, heals, and loves us with “a perfect, infinite love” (29).
Fr. Jesse presents Eucharistic Adoration as the place where this desire is awakened and deepened. Gazing upon Christ hidden in the Eucharist gives us a real taste of divine love while increasing our longing for its fullness in heaven. St. John of the Cross expresses this holy ache in the words, “I die because I do not die.” Such longing is not a sign that something is missing or wrong; it is a grace that draws the heart more deeply toward God. As Fr. Jesse writes, “The Eucharist is the narrow gate that opens us up to the great transcendent mystery of God’s tremendous love,” causing us to “hunger for more” and “thirst for more” (118; cf. Sir. 24:21). Our desire for Jesus is always a response to His desire for us: “We love because he first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19).
St. Catherine of Siena describes this encounter as a fire of holy desire. Immersed in the love revealed in Christ crucified, the soul discovers that everything God does is done with “hearty love”—a strong, personal love—and is set ablaze. Eucharistic adoration thus becomes a “prayer furnace,” where believers receive the fire of Christ’s Heart and are sent forth to share it. The desire awakened before the tabernacle is not meant to remain private; it becomes love in action, enabling us to “set the world ablaze” (158).
2. Eucharistic Minds
The Eucharist is meant to become the lens through which we see the whole of life. Just as our deepest loves shape how we think and act, the saints allowed the Eucharist to become their fundamental perspective. St. Irenaeus expresses this beautifully: “Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking” (CCC 1327; 73). Rather than seeking wisdom on our own terms—as Adam and Eve did in reaching for the forbidden fruit—God heals and enlightens us by feeding us with the true Fruit of the Tree of Life: Jesus Himself in Holy Communion. As Pope Francis writes, “The Church draws her life from Christ in the Eucharist; she is fed by him and by him she is enlightened” (Vultum Dei Quaerere, 22). The Eucharist does not merely offer new ideas; it gradually gives us the mind of Christ. As Fr. Jesse explains, our identity as God’s sons and daughters is shaped by sharing in His wisdom: “a loving, intimate knowledge of the Father as revealed and experienced in Christ” (101).
A Eucharistic mind changes how we receive every joy, suffering, duty, plan, and decision. Everything is lived in relation to the Mass, united to Christ’s perfect offering, and carried into the world through thanksgiving. St. Josemaría Escrivá described his life as lived “between one Holy Mass and another,” while St. Charbel’s preparation for Mass and prolonged adoration expressed the same all-encompassing devotion. This perspective deepens as we contemplate the gaze of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. St. Manuel González García experienced this gaze as personal and demanding: “My faith was looking at Jesus… gazing right back at me… His gaze was telling me much and asking me for more” (89). Christ’s gaze meets us with love, mercy, and hope; as Fr. Jesse writes, “The Eucharistic gaze meets you where you are. His gaze is not passive; it calls for more and it empowers us for more” (93). Before that gaze, “all falsehood melts away,” and our minds and hearts are gradually healed (Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, 47).
Finally, learning to recognize Jesus hidden in the Eucharist trains us to recognize Him in our neighbor. Christ’s Eucharistic presence is unique, and we do not respond to our neighbor with the adoration due to the Blessed Sacrament. Yet the same faith that leads us to reverence Christ in the Eucharist should lead us to serve Him in “the least of these.” As Jesus says, “You did it to me” (Matt. 25:40). A Eucharistic mind therefore sees Christ at the altar and responds to Christ in the world.
3. Eucharistic Virtues
St. Peter Julian Eymard calls the Eucharist is the living school of every virtue, because Jesus remains there to form us into His likeness: “Our Lord lives and acts in the Eucharist. Look at Him, study, and imitate Him… All our virtues must come from the Eucharist.” But this transformation is not automatic. As Fr. Jesse writes, “When Jesus comes with all His power and grace to make us His own by transforming us into Himself, the extent of this transformation depends on our preparation and openness of heart” (60). Our hearts are opened above all by the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, which dispose us to receive the life of Christ more deeply. In the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus silently teaches every virtue. His hiddenness reveals perfect humility: “In the Eucharist, Jesus makes humility His royal virtue.” His quiet endurance teaches patience and forgiveness: “Patience and forgiveness He still practices in a higher degree than on Calvary.” His obedience, purity, meekness, generosity, and complete availability become the pattern for our own lives. In Eucharistic Adoration we are not merely praying before Jesus; we are sitting at the feet of the Divine Teacher until His virtues gradually become our own.
These Eucharistic virtues are meant to overflow into every aspect of our lives and become the soul of the Church’s mission. The Eucharist does not simply make us holier; it makes us more like Christ for the sake of the world. As Fr. Jesse beautifully says, one of the greatest fruits of the Eucharist is “the transformation of the soul in love to be sent to love” (47). This is why St. Mother Teresa insisted, “I know I would not be able to work one week if it were not for that continual force coming from Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,” and why she could also say, “Our Eucharist is incomplete if it does not lead us to the service and love of the poor.” Likewise, St. Charles de Foucauld believed the Eucharistic Jesus was the first evangelizer because “Jesus cannot be in a place without shining.” The more we contemplate Christ in the Eucharist, the more His humility, charity, patience, and self-giving love radiate through our own lives. The greatest witness we can offer the world is not merely our words but a life that has been transformed into the image of the One we receive in Holy Communion.
4. Eucharistic Transformation
The Eucharist’s greatest fruit is our transformation into Jesus Christ. This is the “Eucharistic fire” experienced by St. Pier Giorgio Frassati: the burning love of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, gradually setting our hearts aflame and conforming us to Himself. This is the principal fruit of Holy Communion. As the Catechism teaches, “What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life” (CCC 1392). Unlike ordinary food, which becomes part of us, the Eucharist transforms us into Christ. Jesus Himself promises, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (Jn 6:56). St. Augustine marveled that we do not change Christ into ourselves; rather, He changes us into Himself. St. Cyril of Jerusalem compared this union to melted wax poured into melted wax, so completely united that the two become one. Fr. Jacques Philippe captures the wonder of this mystery, calling the Eucharist “the mad dream of all lovers… to be one in being with the object of our love.”
This transforming union continues to deepen in Eucharistic Adoration. St. John Paul II taught that adoration “prolongs and increases the fruits” of Holy Communion, while Pope Benedict XVI explained that adoration is itself a form of spiritual eating: “Eating it means worshipping it… so that my ‘I’ is transformed… and we become ‘one’ in Him.” Like sitting in the warmth of the sun, we need only place ourselves before the Eucharistic Lord, and He does the work of transforming us. Fr. Bernadot describes this astonishing union by saying that Christ’s thoughts and ours, His love and ours, mingle like “two grains of incense burned together… emitting one single fragrance toward heaven.” Yet this Eucharistic fire burns most brightly in hearts prepared by faith, hope, and love. As Fr. Jesse reminds us, “No one ever comes to Jesus with faith, hope, and love and leaves empty-handed.” St. Pier Giorgio Frassati experienced this fire as the source of his purity, strength, and joy, while Ven. Fulton Sheen summarized its transforming power with unforgettable simplicity: “We become like that which we gaze upon.” The more we behold the Eucharistic Jesus in Holy Communion and Adoration, the more His life becomes our life, His Heart our heart, until we can say with St. Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). From this transforming fire flow every other Eucharistic fruit—renewed minds, Christlike virtues, courageous mission, and the holiness to which every Christian is called.
In the rhythm between Holy Communion and Eucharistic Adoration, we not only receive Christ but allow ourselves to be transformed by Him. In Communion, we receive the Sacred Host; in adoration, we learn to surrender our trials, wounds, and attachments so that Christ may “consume” the old self and remake us more fully in His image. The authors compare this encounter to opening our souls like spring flowers before the sun: in the Eucharistic presence, we receive Christ’s light, life, and warmth, and gradually take on His qualities—becoming brighter in faith and more aflame with charity. Gazing upon “the gentle eye of divine charity” teaches us to see all things in the light of God’s love, until we begin to love what He loves and reject what separates us from Him.
5. Eucharistic Adoration
For Fr. Jesse, the most practical response to the world’s needs is simply to be with Christ in Eucharistic Adoration. Far from withdrawing from the world, adoration places us before its Creator and makes us vessels of His grace for others. Peter Kreeft writes that Eucharistic Adoration touches “everyone and everything in the world” because it brings us to the One who holds all things in being. Before the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus gently clears away the falsehoods, shame, and distractions that obscure our true identity. As St. Elizabeth of the Trinity says, “We shall not be purified by looking at our miseries, but by gazing on Him who is all purity and holiness.” This gaze restores us to who we are in Christ and gives strength for loving service. St. John Paul II called adoration “the secret of my day” because it gave “strength and meaning” to his service of the Church and the world; it also “prolongs and increases the fruits” of Holy Communion.
The authors also present adoration as a real conversation with Jesus, nourished by Scripture and sustained by faith. The Gospels are the best companion in adoration because “the Jesus of the Gospels is the same Jesus before us in the Eucharist” (97). With the help of the Holy Spirit, Scripture teaches us to hear Christ’s voice in the tabernacle; yet adoration is not only about listening to Him. Christ also listens to us. We can bring Him anxieties, hopes, plans, wounds, and even the wordless prayer of exhaustion. In times of dryness, the reader is encouraged to remain with the Word of God rather than depend on consolation: “Believe, and you have found Him.” The book ultimately joins Sacrament and Scripture, “Blood and Bible,” as the Christian’s place of triumph—standing before the Eucharistic Lord with an open Bible and a heart ready to receive Him (Revelation 12:10-11).
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