What We Are to Do After Having Received the Divine Sacrament, and What Should Be Our Thanksgiving

AS some bodily exercise is generally useful before dinner to revive the bodily heat, so it is useful before Communion to take some exercise in the way of meditation or consideration to revive the heat of the soul, which consists of devotion and love, whereof we have already spoken. In like manner after dinner it is a wholesome practice to spend a little time in good conversation, and the same will hold good after this divine refection, and of that we will treat now. That is the best time to do our business with God and embrace Him within our heart. It is reasonable that we should know how to make the most of it, and not let one particle of so good a time slip by in vain, according to the advice of the Wise Man: Be not cheated out of a good time, and let not a particle of a good gift escape thee (Ecclus.

xiv. 14). As for how to spend this time, it should be in the like considerations and sentiments as those which we have mentioned as proper to go before Holy Communion.

Particularly we ought to occupy ourselves, first, in acts of praise and thanksgiving for benefits received, especially for the inestimable benefit of our redemption, and for the favor that the Lord does us here in giving Himself to us and entering into our breasts. And since we have neither the knowledge nor the power to render due thanks for such a high favor, to make up our insufficiency we should offer to the Lord all the thanks and praises that have been given and are being given Him by all the seraphim and choirs of angels from the beginning of the world, and by all the blessed saints while they lived in the world, and chiefly now what they offer in the glory of heaven, and what they are to give Him for all eternity, and join our voices with theirs, desiring to praise Him with the hearts and tongues of all, and inviting all creatures to help us thereto. Magnify the Lord with me, and let us all exalt His name together (Psalm xxxiii. 4). And because all this does not come up to what is due God, “since He is above all praise’”’—quia maior omni laude, we should seek to be glad and rejoice at His loving and praising of Himself, since He alone can love and praise Himself sufficiently.

Secondly, we should occupy the time in acts of love of God, since those holy aspirations are nothing else than so many loving acts and heartfelt desires of that sovereign good, such as those of the prophet when he said: J will love thee, Lord, my strength (Psalm xvii. 1); As the hart, wounded by the hunters, seeks after the fountains of water, so my soul, wounded by love, seeks after Thee, O Lord (Psalm xli. 2).

Thirdly, we should occupy this time in petitions, for it is a very proper time for dispatching our affairs and obtaining favors from God. Holy Scripture relates of Queen Esther that she would not disclose her petition to King Ashuerus, but simply asked him to be her guest, and said that she would disclose it then. It was done accordingly, and she there obtained all her request. So here in this banquet, where the King of Kings is our guest or, rather, we are His, we shall gain all our requests, since we come on a good day (I Kings xxv. 8), and at a happy conjuncture. We may say what Jacob, wrestling with God, said: J will not let Thee go till Thou hast blessed me (Gen. xxxii. 26). When Thou didst enter into the house of Zachary, Thou didst say: Today salvation hath come to this house (Luke xix. 9) ; say as much again, Lord, of this house which Thou hast entered; say to my soul, I am thy salvation (Psalm Xxxlv. 3). Here we should beg of God pardon of our sins, strength to overcome our passions and resist temptations, grace to acquire virtues, humility, obedience, patience, perseverance. And one should not only ask for oneself but pray to God for the needs of the Church, general and particular, for the pope, for the king, and for all rulers of the Christian commonwealth, spiritual and temporal, and for such other persons in particular as one has any special tie to, whether of duty or of devotion, as we do in the Memento of the Mass.