Visit XIII

Erunt oculi mei et cor meum ibi cunctis diebus (III Reg. IX, 3).

Behold Jesus, who has fulfilled this beautiful promise for us in the Sacrament of the altar, where he has remained with us night and day. My Lord, it might have been enough to remain in this Sacrament only during the day, when you could have worshippers of your presence to keep you company; but what purpose did it serve to remain also throughout the night, when men close the churches and retire to their homes, leaving you entirely alone? But I understand: love has made you our prisoner; the passionate love you bear us has bound you to earth in such a way that night and day it never allows you to depart from us. Ah, most lovable Savior, this single refinement of love should oblige all men to attend you always in the sacred tabernacles until they are driven away by force; and on departing, they should all leave at the foot of the altars all their hearts and all their affections for a God made man who remains alone and enclosed in a tabernacle, all eyes to watch over and provide for our needs, and all heart, remaining to love us and waiting for the next day to be visited by his beloved souls.

Yes, my Jesus, I wish to content you; I consecrate to you my entire will and all my affections. O infinite Majesty of God, you have left yourself in this divine Sacrament not only to be present and near to us, but principally to communicate yourself to your beloved souls. But, Lord, who shall dare to approach and feed upon your flesh? Yet who, on the other hand, could go far from you? For this purpose you hide yourself beneath the consecrated Host, to enter within us and to possess our hearts. You burn with the desire to be received by us and you delight in being united with us. Come, then, my Jesus, come: I desire to receive you within me, so that you may be the God of my heart and of my will. Let all that is in me, my dear Redeemer, yield to your love: satisfactions, pleasures, self-will -- let all yield to you. O love, O God of love, reign and triumph over all of me; destroy and sacrifice in me all that is mine and is not yours. Do not permit, my love, that my soul, filled with the majesty of a God after having received you in Holy Communion, should ever again attach itself to creatures. I love you, my God, I love you; and always and you alone I wish to love. -- Trahe me vinculis amoris tui.

Spiritual Communion.

To Mary

St. Bernard exhorts us: Quaeramus gratiam, et per Mariam quaeramus. She is, says St. Peter Damian, Thesaurus divinarum gratiarum. She can enrich us and she desires to enrich us. Therefore she invites us and calls us: Si quis est parvulus, veniat ad me (Prov. IX, 4). -- Most lovable Lady, most exalted Lady, most gracious Lady, look upon a poor sinner who commends himself to you and places all his trust in you. -- Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, sancta Dei Genitrix.

Prayer of the same St. Ildephonsus:

O my sovereign Mistress, most humble handmaid of your Son, I prostrate myself before you, and I humble myself, O sole Mother of my Lord. I beseech you to obtain for me the pardon of my sins, and to order that I be purified of all the faults of my life. I beg you to grant me the grace of uniting myself in affection with God and with you; of serving your Son and you -- your Son as God, you as the Mother of my God; your Son as my Redeemer, you as the cause of my redemption; for if he paid the price of my ransom, he paid it with the flesh he took from you.

O my Mother, give me confidence in you, and grant that I may always have recourse to you.