Visit XXI

Ubicumque fuerit corpus, ibi congregabuntur et aquilae (Luc. XVII). By this body the saints commonly understand the Body of Jesus Christ, and by the eagles they understand the detached souls who rise like eagles above the things of the earth and fly to heaven, for which they always sigh with their thoughts and affections and where they make their continual dwelling. These eagles then find their paradise on earth wherever they find Jesus in the Sacrament, for they can never seem to be satisfied with lingering around him. If eagles, says St. Jerome, catching the scent of a dead body, come from afar to find it, how much more are we obliged to run and fly to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, as to the dearest food of our hearts! For this reason the saints in this valley of tears have always sought, like thirsting deer, to run to this fountain of paradise. Fr. Baltasar Alvarez of the Society of Jesus, in whatever occupation he found himself, often cast his eyes toward where he knew the Sacrament was kept; he visited it very often, and at times he spent entire nights there. He wept to see the palaces of the great filled with people paying court to a man from whom they hoped for some wretched benefit, while the churches where the supreme Prince of the world dwells were so abandoned -- he who remains with us on earth as on a throne of love, rich in immense and eternal goods. And he used to say that the fortune of religious was too great, since in their own houses they could visit this great Lord in the Blessed Sacrament whenever they wished, night and day, which lay people cannot do.

Since you, my most loving Lord, even though you see me so wretched and so ungrateful to your love, still call me with such goodness to draw near to you, I do not wish to be discouraged by my miseries. I come and I draw near to you; but do you change me entirely. Drive from me every love that is not for you, every desire that does not please you, every thought that does not tend to you. My Jesus, my love, my treasure, my all, I wish to please you alone, I wish to give pleasure to you alone. You alone deserve all my love; you alone I wish to love with all my heart. Detach me from everything, my Lord, and bind me to you alone; but bind me so tightly that I may never be separated from you, neither in this life nor in the next. -- Iesu mi dulcissime, ne permittas me separari a te.

Spiritual Communion.

To Mary

Denis the Carthusian calls the Blessed Virgin: Advocata omnium iniquorum ad se confugientium -- Advocate of all sinners who have recourse to her. Since, then, O great Mother of God, you hold the office of defending the causes of the most wicked criminals who have recourse to you, behold me today at your feet. I have recourse to you and I say to you with St. Thomas of Villanova: Eia ergo, Advocata nostra, officium tuum imple. Come, fulfill your office; take up my cause. It is true that I have been too guilty before my Lord, offending him so greatly after so many benefits and graces bestowed on me; but the evil is already done. You can save me; it suffices that you say to your God that you defend me, and I shall be pardoned and I shall be saved. -- My dear Mother, you must save me.

Prayer of William, Bishop of Paris:

To you I turn, O Mother of God, whom the whole Church calls the Mother of mercy. Can you deny sinners your intercession, you whose prayer is always pleasing to God and never receives a refusal? St. Bernard says with truth that let no one speak more of your mercy if there is ever found anyone who, having invoked you in his needs, was failed by you. You, then, will not deny me your compassion. I trust that you will pray for me with greater earnestness than I myself would, and that you will obtain for me greater goods than I dare ask of you. O Mother of mercy, can your goodness, which has never failed anyone, deny me its assistance in the danger I see of being lost?

O Mary, tuus sum ego, salvum me fac.