That the Frequentation of Holy Communion Is a Great Remedy against All Temptations, and Particularly for the Preservation of Chastity

fei saints say that the frequentation of this Divine Sacrament is a great remedy against all temptations because, besides giving great strength, it weakens the passions and evil habits and inclinations, and allays the fire of concupiscence, the origin of all evils, and makes us prompt and ready to fulfil the will of God. St. Thomas says that one of the reasons why this Most Holy Sacrament defends and delivers us from temptations and falls is because it is a memorial of the Passion of Christ. Now it was by the Passion of Christ that the devils were overcome; so when they see in us the body and blood of Christ, they take to flight, while the holy angels accompany and aid us. St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Cyril advise for this reason the frequentation of this Most Holy Sacrament, that the devils may fly from us. And St. Chrysostom says: If the blood of the lamb, the figure of this Sacrament, put on the doorposts of houses, delivered the inmates from the chastisement and slaughter which the destroying angel was working (Exod. xii. 22-23), how much more will this Divine Sacrament do!

Going into details, the saints say that this is a most efficacious means of overcoming impure temptations and preserving chastity, since it quietens the movements of the flesh, mitigates concupiscence, that fuel of sin, and appeases the ardor and appetite of sensuality as water extinguishes fire. In this way St. Jerome and St. Thomas and other saints explain that text of the Prophet Zachary: What is the good gift of God, and what the beauty of the Lord, but the wheat of the elect and the wine that beareth virgins? (Zach. ix. 17). They say that the special virtue and effect of this food is to engender virgins. Bodily nourishment, when it is good, engenders good blood and good humors; so this divine food engenders in us chastity and purity of affections. Hence St. Cyril came to say that this Divine Sacrament not only sanctifies the soul, but the body also, fulfilling what the Church asks for in the Sacrifice of the Mass, salutem mentis et corporis. This is the handful of meal, thrown in by Eliseus, that removed the poison that was in the pot, and seasoned the contents for food (IV Kings iv. 41). And as by that woman in the Gospel touching the hem of the Savior’s robe, there ceased in her the issue of blood (Luke viii. 44) ; and by the entry of the Ark into the Jordan the waters were arrested and thrown back and ceased their onward flow (Jos. iii. 16) ; so, when Christ enters into this body of ours, temptations are arrested and the fiery ardor of concupiscence cools down. With reason do the saints exclaim: “O blessed fruit, engendering chastity and making virgins!” A grave doctor says that there is no means so effectual for being chaste as the devout frequentation of Holy Communion.

Nicephorus Callistus, Gregory of Tours, Nauclerus, and other grave authors relate a wonderful incident that happened in the City of Constantinople. It was this. There was a very ancient custom in the Greek Church of consecrating the most holy body of our Lord in loaves such as are used at table. From these consecrated loaves the people communicated; and if there was any left over in the sacristy, the priests called in some children of the most virtuous of those who attended the school, of whose innocence they could be better assured, and gave them these most holy remnants to receive, fasting. Nicephorus says that this often happened to himself, he being a child under age, getting his education at the church school. Now it happened one day, when the children came who were called in for this purpose, there was among them the son of a Jew, a worker in the glassworks, and he communicated along with the rest. The child in consequence being late and not coming home at the accustomed hour, his father asked him where he had been; he said, at the church of the Christians, and that he had eaten of that strange bread which they gave to their boys. The father flew into a great passion with his son, and without waiting for further explanations took him and threw him into the glass furnace, which was alight, and shut the door of the furnace upon him. The mother, missing her child, seeing that much time had gone by and there was no sign of him, went out to seek him all over the city with great anxieties and solicitudes and, not being able to find him or any trace of him, she returned home in deep sorrow, till at the end of three days, being near the furnace, renewing her tears and sighs and tearing her hair, she began to call her boy by his name. He hearing and recognizing his mother’s voice, answered from within the furnace where he was, whereupon she broke open the door of the furnace, and saw her son standing in the middle of the fire, so whole and unhurt that the fire had not touched a hair of his head. The child came out, and when they asked him who had preserved him, he said that a lady clad in purple had come there many times, and with water that she threw kept down the fire, and besides that had brought him food as often as he needed it. When this marvel came to the ears of the Emperor Justinian, he ordered them to baptize the child at once, and the mother, both of whom wished to become Christians. As for the unhappy father, who would not be converted, the emperor ordered him to be fastened on a tree as a parricide, and so he died of hanging. Now what this Most Holy Sacrament wrought in the body of that child who had received it, preserving him unhurt in the midst of the fire, it works Spiritually in the souls of those who worthily receive it, defending and preserving them unharmed in the midst of the fire of temptations.