Visit VI

Ubi thesaurus vester est, ibi et cor vestrum erit (Luc. XII, 34).

Jesus Christ says that where a man believes his treasure to be, there he keeps his heart. For this reason the saints, who esteem and love no other treasure than Jesus Christ, keep their heart and all their love in the Blessed Sacrament. My most lovable Jesus in the Sacrament, who for the love you bear me remain night and day enclosed in this tabernacle, draw to yourself, I beg you, my whole heart, so that it may think of none other than you, may love, seek, and hope for nothing but you. Grant this through the merits of your Passion, for which I ask it of you and for which I hope.

Ah, my Savior in the Sacrament, O divine Lover, how lovable are the tender inventions of your love to make yourself loved by souls! O Eternal Word, you who became man were not content to die for us; you also gave us this Sacrament as a companion, as nourishment, and as a pledge of paradise. You appear among us now as a child in a stable, now as a poor man in a workshop, now as a criminal upon a cross, now as bread upon an altar. Tell me, is there anything more that can be devised to make yourself loved? O infinitely lovable One, and when shall I truly begin to correspond to so many acts of love? Lord, I wish to live for nothing but to love you alone. And what good is life to me, if I do not spend it all in loving and pleasing you, my beloved Redeemer, who spent your entire life for me? And what should I love, if not you who are all beautiful, all gracious, all good, all loving, all lovable? Let my soul live only to love you; let it melt with love at the mere memory of your love; and at the mere mention of the manger, the cross, the Sacrament, let it be all aflame with the desire to do great things for you, O my Jesus, who have done and suffered such great things for me. -- Grant, my Lord, that before I die I may do something for you.

Spiritual Communion.

To Mary

Quasi oliva speciosa in campis (Eccli. XXIV, 19). I am, says Mary, the beautiful olive tree from which there always flows the oil of mercy. And I stand in the open fields, so that all may see me and all may have recourse to me. -- Memorare, let us say to her with St. Augustine, piissima Maria, a saeculo non esse auditum, quemquam ad tua praesidia confugientem esse derelictum. Most compassionate Queen, it has never been heard that anyone who has had recourse to your aid was left abandoned. I do not wish to be the first unfortunate soul who, having recourse to you, is abandoned by you. -- O Mary, give me the grace always to have recourse to you.

Prayer of the same St. Bernard:

You are, O Mary, that unique woman in whom the Savior found his rest and in whom he has stored without measure all his treasures. For this reason the whole world, O my holy Lady, honors your chaste womb as the temple of God, in which the salvation of the world had its beginning. There the reconciliation between God and man was accomplished. You are the enclosed garden, O great Mother of God, into which the hand of the sinner has never entered to pluck a flower. You are the beautiful garden in which God has placed all the flowers that adorn the Church, and among others the violet of your humility, the lily of your purity, and the rose of your charity. To whom shall we compare you, O Mother of grace and beauty? You are the paradise of God. From you has come forth the fountain of living water that irrigates the whole earth. Oh, how many benefits you have bestowed upon the world by meriting to be so salutary an aqueduct!

Vita, dulcedo, spes nostra, salve.