Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa, a Salesian Cooperator who lived from 1904 to 1955, was an apostle of the Eucharist. Jesus entrusted her with the task of spreading love for the Eucharist and Communion on the first six Thursdays of the month, inviting people to adore his real presence and contemplate his perpetual sacrifice by recalling the holy wounds. Let us discover more about her and her mission together.

Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa

 Alexandrina is living proof that the Eucharist can work miracles in life; she spent thirty years bedridden and paralyzed, suffering excruciating pain due to myelitis of the spinal cord, yet she became a beacon of light for everyone. She never stopped loving, radiating hope, joy, and peace through her smile and gaze to those who were blessed to approach her.
In her, the Lord brings about the mystery that Saint Paul expresses in his Letter to the Galatians: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (2:20); and Jesus in the Eucharist becomes an authentic “medicine of immortality,” enabling her to live solely on it, in a total fast from food and water for thirteen years.

Jesus’ requests and promises

On February 25, 1949, Jesus asked her to be loved, consoled, and made reparation to in the Most Holy Eucharist, and clearly indicated the practice of the six first Thursdays of the month. Here are Jesus’ beautiful words:
“My daughter, my dear bride, see to it that I am loved, consoled, and made reparation to in my Eucharist.
Tell them in my name that I promise heaven to those who receive Holy Communion well, with sincere humility, fervor, and love, on the first six consecutive Thursdays, and spend one hour in adoration before my tabernacle in intimate union with me.

And to honor, through the Eucharist, my holy wounds, honoring first the wound of my sacred shoulder, which is so little remembered. Those who, when remembering my wounds, also remember the sorrows of my blessed Mother and ask us for both spiritual and bodily graces because of them have my promise that these graces will be granted, unless they would harm their souls. At the moment of their death, I will bring my most holy Mother with me to defend them.”

Spread love for Jesus in the Eucharist through your life

 The invitation Jesus extends to us through Alexandrina is to remain united with him always, extending this intimate and familiar union into every moment of life and safeguarding the gift of his presence in our inner home through love of neighbor, silence, and prayer:
“Speak about the Eucharist, proof of infinite love: it is the nourishment of souls. Tell souls to love me, to remain united with me during their work; in their homes, both day and night, let them often kneel in spirit and, with bowed heads, say: ‘Jesus, I adore you in every place where you dwell sacramentally; I keep you company on behalf of those who despise you, I love you on behalf of those who do not love you, I offer you consolation on behalf of those who offend you. Jesus, come into my heart!’ These moments will be a source of great joy and consolation for me. What crimes are committed against me in the Eucharist!”

Alexandrina reminds us that Jesus desires all of us to live a life of communion and worship. And devotion to the first six Thursdays of the month is a truly authentic path of faith that invites us to immerse ourselves in Jesus’ love and presence in the Eucharist.