Part 2, lesson 15. That the happiness of Christians in medi tation and holy communion, approaches the happiness of the blessed in heaven

Q. If I understood well what you told me, it seems that our happiness on earth approaches that of the blessed in heaven ?

A. That is true; and it is for this reason that our Lord said to his disciples; "the kingdom of God is within you."* For when we possess him in us by meditation or communion, we possess heaven itself.

The happiness of heaven con sists in contemplating one God

• Regnnm del iotra vos est. Luc. xvii, 21.

in three persons, and the sacred humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, overflowing with the torrents of the Deity. It con sists also in seeing the blessed Virgin Mary, filled with Christ, as Christ is filled with his Fa ther; in seeing the brilliant as sembly of the saints, and the magnificent body of the Church, animated by Christ, filled by him with love, praise, adoration, and glorifying through him God the Father. Now, he who pos sesses our Lord in the adorable Sacrament of the altar, possesses him, such as he is in heaven. For our Lord carries every where what he is; he is then in us, the temple of his Father, the host o/ praise that praises God in all his saints. The church of earth possesses then the same trea sures as heaven itself, with this difference only, that here below we do not participate in them so perfectly as we shall in heaven, because upon earth our Lord does not pour forth into us the torrents of his divine essence with the same abun dance as he will in heaven, as here below we have not sufficient capacity in our hearts to receive them.

OLIER, J.J. Catechism of