Chapter LIV. Of the Way we ought to Receive the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist

THERE are many ends which we may propose to ourselves in approaching this most divine Sacrament, to attain which we have several things to do at three different times: namely, before Communion, when Communicating, and after Communion.

Whatever end we have in view in communicating, we must cleanse and purify our soul, in the sacrament of Repentance, if defiled with the guilt of mortal sin. After this we must offer ourselves with our whole heart, and our whole soul, and our whole strength, and our whole powers, without reserve, to Jesus Christ and to His good pleasure, since in this most holy Sacrament He gives us His Blood and His Flesh, with His Soul, His Divinity, and His Merits. And, with the consciousness that our gift is so narrow, nay nothing, when compared with His, we should desire to possess, and to present to His Divine Majesty, all that has been, or ever will be, offered and given to Him by all creatures, on earth and in Heaven.

If your intention in communicating be to obtain some victory over your enemies and His, and to destroy them, begin, in this case, on the eve of your Communion, or before, to meditate on the desire of the Son of God to enter into your heart, and to unite Himself to you, and to help you to overcome your evil passions.

This desire is so intense and so boundless in Christ, that a created intellect is unable to comprehend it.

But that you may in some measure approach a just idea of it, there are two things which must be impressed on your mind. One is the unspeakable pleasure which God in His Goodness takes in dwelling with us; for He calls it His delight.

The other, His infinite hatred of sin, both as a bar and hindrance to His union with us, which He so much desires; and because of its utter opposition to His Divine Perfections. For being Himself the Sovereign Good, Pure Light, and Infinite Beauty, He cannot but infinitely abhor and detest sin, which is nothing but darkness, defect, and an insufferable deformity of our souls.

So burning, indeed, is the hatred of the Lord against sin, that all that He has wrought both in the Old Testament and in the New had for its end the destruction of sin; above all, the most holy Passion of His Son, Who (as some of God's enlightened servants have said) would, if needful, expose Himself anew to a thousand deaths, to destroy in us every fault, even the smallest.

These reflections will aid you to form an idea, however imperfectly, of the intensity with which the Lord desires to enter into your heart, in order that He might drive out and exterminate every enemy both of Himself and of you; and thus will you yourself be stirred up with a lively desire to receive Him, for the same object.

The hope of the arrival of our Heavenly Captain will encourage and inspirit us to challenge repeatedly the passion which we have set ourselves to overcome, and to repress it by a constant and deadly opposition, and to make acts of the contrary virtue; and this you should continue to do, both on the evening and morning before the most Holy Communion.

Then, when we are on the point of Communicating, review for a moment all the faults of which, since your last Communion, you have been guilty, as though God did not exist, or as if He had not endured so much for you in the Mysteries of the Cross; how you have preferred a trifling pleasure and the gratification of your own desires to the Will of God and His Honour; and thus with holy fear you will be ashamed at the sight of your ingratitude and unworthiness. But consider, again, how the boundless deep of your Lord's Goodness calls to the deep of your ingratitude and unfaithfulness, and approach Him with trustfulness, giving Him a large place in your heart, that He may take absolute possession of it.

And you will be able to do this, as soon as you have driven out of your heart all attachment to creatures, closing it against them, that your Lord may enter it alone.

After Communion, withdraw at once into the inner sanctuary of your heart, and having first adored Him, then with all lowliness and reverence converse thus in spirit with your Lord:—"Thou seest, O my only Good, how prone I am to offend Thee, and what power this passion exercises over me, and how in my own strength I cannot free myself from it. This conflict, then, is chiefly Thine, and it is from Thee alone I can hope for victory, though I must do my part."

Then turn to the Eternal Father, and offer to Him His Blessed Son, Whom He has given to you, and Whom you now possess within you, as a thank-offering and for victory over yourself. Then, make a vigorous attack upon the passion, and wait in faith upon God for the victory, Who will (though for awhile He may seem to delay) never fail you, if you, on your side, make every possible effort.