Article VI — How to Practice This Devotion at Holy Communion

I. Before Communion

First, you will humble yourself profoundly before God. Second, you will renounce your utterly corrupt nature and your dispositions, however good your self-love may make them appear. Third, you will renew your consecration, saying: Tuus totus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt — "I am all yours, my dear Mistress, with all that I have." Fourth, you will beg this good Mother to lend you her heart, so that you may receive her Son there with the same dispositions as hers. You will represent to her that it concerns the glory of her Son not to be placed in a heart as defiled and as inconstant as yours, which would not fail either to take away from his glory or to lose him; but that if she will come and dwell in you to receive her Son, she can do so by the dominion she has over hearts, and her Son will be well received by her, without stain and without danger of being outraged or lost:

Deus in medio ejus, non commovebitur — "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved."

You will tell her confidently that all you have given her of your goods is little enough to honor her, but that by Holy Communion you wish to make her the same gift that the Eternal Father made her, and that she will be more honored by it than if you gave her all the goods of the world; and that Jesus, who loves her alone, still desires to take his delight and repose in her, even though in your soul, which is dirtier and poorer than the stable where Jesus did not hesitate to come because she was there. You will ask her for her heart with these tender words:

Accipio te in mea omnia, praebe mihi cor tuum, o Maria! — "I take you for my all; give me your heart, O Mary!"

II. At Communion

About to receive Jesus Christ, after the Our Father, you will say three times Domine, non sum dignus — "Lord, I am not worthy" — as if you were saying, the first time, to the Eternal Father, that you are not worthy, because of your evil thoughts and ingratitude toward so good a Father, to receive his only-begotten Son; but that "here is Mary, his handmaid" — Ecce ancilla Domini — who acts on our behalf and who "gives us a singular confidence and hope before his Majesty": Quoniam singulariter in spe constituisti me.

You will say to the Son: Domine, non sum dignus — that you are not worthy to receive him, because of your idle and evil words and your unfaithfulness in his service; but that you beg him to have pity on you; that "you will bring him into the house of his own Mother and yours, and that you will not let him go until he has come to lodge with her": Tenui eum nec dimittam, donec introducam illum in domum matris meae, et in cubiculum genitricis meae (Song 3:4). You will ask him "to arise and come into the place of his rest and into the ark of his sanctification": Surge, Domine, in requiem tuam, tu et arca sanctificationis tuae. You will tell him that you place no confidence whatever in your own merits, strength, or preparations, as Esau did, but in those of Mary, your dear Mother, as little Jacob did in the care of Rebecca; that sinner and Esau that you are, you dare to approach his holiness, supported and adorned with the virtues of his holy Mother.

You will say to the Holy Spirit: Domine, non sum dignus — that you are not worthy to receive the masterpiece of his charity, because of the lukewarmness, wickedness, and resistance to his inspirations in your actions; but that all your confidence is in Mary, his faithful spouse. And you will say with St. Bernard: Haec mea maxima fiducia, haec tota ratio spei meae — "She is my greatest confidence; she is the whole ground of my hope." You may even ask him to come upon Mary, his indissoluble spouse; that her womb is as pure and her heart as burning as ever; that without his descent into your soul, neither Jesus nor Mary will be formed nor worthily lodged.

III. After Holy Communion

After Holy Communion, being interiorly recollected and with your eyes closed, you will introduce Jesus Christ into the heart of Mary. You will give him to his Mother, who will receive him lovingly, place him honorably, adore him profoundly, love him perfectly, embrace him closely, and render to him, in spirit and in truth, many duties that are unknown to us in our thick darkness.

Or you will hold yourself profoundly humbled in your heart, in the presence of Jesus dwelling in Mary.

Or you will remain like a slave at the door of the King's palace, where he is speaking with the Queen; and while they speak to one another without needing you, you will go in spirit to heaven and throughout all the earth, asking all creatures to thank, adore, and love Jesus and Mary in your place: Venite, adoremus, venite — "Come, come, let us adore!"

Or you will yourself ask Jesus, in union with Mary, for the coming of his kingdom on earth through his holy Mother, or for divine wisdom, or for divine love, or for the pardon of your sins, or for any other grace — but always through Mary and in Mary, saying, while looking at yourself askance:

Ne respicias, Domine, peccata mea — "Lord, look not at my sins."

Sed oculi tui videant aequitates Mariae — "But let your eyes see in me only the virtues and merits of Mary."

And, remembering your sins, you will add:

Inimicus homo hoc fecit — "It is I, the enemy, who have committed these sins."

Or: Ab homine iniquo et doloso erue me — "From the unjust and deceitful man that I am, deliver me, Lord."

Or: Te oportet crescere, me autem minui — "My Jesus, you must increase in my soul, and I must decrease." Mary, you must increase in me, and I must become less than I have been.

Crescite et multiplicamini — "O Jesus and Mary, increase in me, and multiply outwardly in others."

There are an infinity of other thoughts that the Holy Spirit will furnish, and will furnish you, if you are truly interior, mortified, and faithful to this great and sublime devotion I have just taught you. But always remember that the more you let Mary act in your Communion, the more Jesus will be glorified. And you will let Mary act for Jesus, and Jesus in Mary, all the more as you humble yourself more profoundly and listen to them in peace and silence, without troubling yourself to see, taste, or feel; for "the just man lives everywhere by faith," and particularly in Holy Communion, which is an act of faith.

Justus meus ex fide vivit — "My just one lives by faith."