Chapter LVI. Of Spiritual Communion

ALTHOUGH we may not receive the Lord sacramentally more than once a day, yet we may, as I have before remarked, receive Him spiritually every hour, and every moment; and nothing but negligence or some other fault on our part can deprive us of this privilege.

Spiritual Communion may even be more advantageous to us and acceptable to God than many Sacramental Communions, when the latter are received with imperfect dispositions.

As often then as you shall dispose yourself and prepare for spiritual Communion, you will find the Son of God ready to give Himself with His Own Hands to you for your spiritual food.

By way of preparation, turn your thoughts to Him for this end; and after a short examination of your failings, mourn with Him over your offences, and with all humility and faith beseech Him that He would vouchsafe to enter into your poor soul with some fresh gift of grace, to heal it and fortify it against the enemy.

When about to do violence to yourself and to mortify some appetite, or to do some act of virtue, do all with the motive of preparing your heart for your Lord, Who is continually demanding this of you; and then turn to Him and invite Him with earnestness to come with His Grace to heal you and deliver you from your enemies, to the end that He Alone may possess your heart. Or else, calling to mind your last Sacramental Communion, say with enkindled heart, "When, my Lord, shall I again receive Thee?—when? when?"

But if you desire to prepare yourself, and spiritually communicate in a more orderly manner; on the previous evening address all mortifications, acts of virtue, and every other good work to this end, that you may spiritually receive your Lord.

And in the early morning, consider what great happiness and benefit the soul gains by worthily receiving the most holy Sacrament of the Altar (for in it lost virtue is regained, the soul is brought back to its first beauty and receives the fruits and merits of the Passion of the Son of God); and consider how pleasing it is to God, that we receive it and possess these blessings, so that you may inflame your heart with a great desire to receive it to give Him pleasure.

When this desire is enkindled within you, turning to Him, say: "Inasmuch as it is not granted to me, Lord, to-day to receive Thee Sacramentally, grant, O uncreated Goodness and Power, that I—every fault having been pardoned and healed—may now worthily receive Thee spiritually, every hour and every day, and provide me with fresh grace and strength against all my enemies, and particularly against that one, upon whom, for Thy pleasure, I am making war."