Chapter CLII. Of his devotion to the Lord's Body

201. Toward the Sacrament of the Lord's Body he glowed with the fervour of all his being, marvelling at the thought of that loving condescension, of that most condescending love. He deemed it to be treating the Sacrament with no small contempt if, having leisure, he did not hear at least one mass daily. He often communicated, and that so devoutly as to make others devout. Attending on that reverend Ordinance with all reverence, he offered the sacrifice of all his members; and as he received the immolated Lamb, he immolated his spirit with the fire that was ever burning on the altar of his heart. Therefore he loved France as the friend of the Lord's Body, and longed to die there by reason of her reverence for hallowed things. At one time he determined to send brethren throughout the world with precious pyxes in order that wheresoever they might observe the Price of our Redemption unmeetly kept, they might deposit it in the best place possible. It was his will that great reverence should be shown to the priestly hands which in the offering of that Sacrifice have been invested with an authority so Divine; and he used often to say: "If I chanced to meet at the same time any Saint coming from heaven, and any poor priest, I would do honour to the presbyter first, and would sooner go to kiss his hands; and I would say [to the other], ' Oh, wait, S. Lawrence! for this man's hands handle the Word of Life, and possess something that is more than human ' ".