I doubt that you will identify me as a pelican at first sight – I’m afraid that whoever chiseled me had never seen one and I look more like an eagle … But what’s certain is that my figure wants to evoke the loving and life-sustaining gesture that the female pelican carries out to feed its chicks (whom you can see at my feet). And what does she do? She wounds her chest to feed them with her blood.
What a beautiful allegory of the Eucharistic offer of our Lord Jesus Christ, who feeds us with his Body and his Blood! Not only that, but I’m a monstrance, which means I was made to show (that’s the origin of the word in Latin), to expose the Most Holy Body of the Lord for adoration.
That’s why I was created. And can I share a secret with you? I miss that …
