p. 45Holy Communion

1. What St. Alphonsus says of Holy Communion

(“True Spouse of Jesus Christ,” Chap. XVIII., Sec. III.)

Of all the sacraments the adorable sacrament of the altar is the most excellent. The other sacraments contain the gifts of God, but the Holy Eucharist contains God Himself. Hence St. Thomas says that the other sacraments have been instituted by Jesus Christ to prepare men either to receive or to administer the Blessed Eucharist, which is the consummation of the spiritual life, because from this sacrament is derived all the perfection of the soul. For all perfection consists in a union with God; and of all the means of uniting the soul to Him there is none more effective than holy Communion, by which the soul becomes, as it were, one with Him, for Christ Himself says, “He that eateth My flesh, … abideth in Me and I in him” (John vi. 57).

Our Saviour instituted this sacrament under the form of food to show that, as corporal food is changed into our flesh, so this heavenly bread becomes one thing with us; but with this difference, that earthly food is converted into our substance, whilst this divine bread transforms those who eat it into Jesus Christ. Wherefore Rupert puts these words into our Lord’s mouth, “Eat, and you shall be by grace what I am by nature.” And this is what our Lord deigned one day to say to St. Augustine, “I will not be changed into you, but you shall be changed into Me.” And St. Paul says also, “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. ii. 20). The principal effect of this sacrament is to preserve in the soul the life of grace. Hence it is called bread; for, as earthly bread supports the life of the body, so this heavenly bread preserves the life of the soul, which consists in the grace of God.

The Eucharist is, according to the Council of Trent, the divine medicine that purifies the soul from venial and preserves it from mortal sins. Like a stream of water, this sacrament extinguishes the ardor of the passions consuming us. If he, whose soul is all aglow with the fire of some particular passion, approaches holy Communion, he will find the passion, if not altogether, at least in a great measure, extinguished. “If,” says St. Bernard, “any of you no longer experience so frequent or so violent motions of anger, of envy or of lust, let him give thanks to the Body of the Lord that p. 46produces fruit in his soul.” The Angelic Doctor teaches that holy Communion imparts strength to us “to repel every assault of the demons.” This sacrament, moreover, infuses into the soul great interior peace, a strong inclination to virtue, and a great willingness to practise it, and thus renders it easy to walk in the path of perfection.

Holy Communion, as St. Thomas teaches, infuses divine charity into the heart. Jesus Christ declared that He came into the world for no other purpose than to kindle in our souls the holy fire of divine love. “I came to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?” (Luke xii. 49.) The Venerable Father Olympio, of the Order of Theatines, was wont to say, that there is no mystery of redemption more apt to inflame us with the love of Jesus Christ, than the sacrament of the altar, in which He gives Himself entirely to us, and pours forth all His love. Hence, speaking of the institution of this sacrament, St. John says, “Jesus, knowing that His hour was come to pass from this world to His Father, when He had loved His friends who were in the world, He loved them even to the end” (John xiii. 1). “He loved them to the end” means, according to the commentators, that He loved them to the utmost of His power. Hence the Council of Trent said that in this sacrament Jesus “poured forth, as it were, all the riches of His divine love towards men.” St. Thomas calls holy Communion “the sacrament of love,” and St. Bernard terms it “the love of loves.” St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi used to call the day of Communion “the day of love,” and said that a soul, after holy Communion, might exclaim with Jesus dying on the cross, “It is consummated” (John xix. 30); for, “after giving Himself to me, God has nothing more to give me; nor can I desire anything else from Him.”

Should not all, then, ardently desire to receive Jesus as often as possible in holy Communion? The sentiment of the Church may be inferred from the Council of Trent, which expresses a strong desire that all the faithful present at holy Mass should receive holy Communion. The practice of frequent and even of daily Communion was always praised by the holy Fathers. Pope Innocent XI. exhorts the bishops of those places in which the faithful communicate every day, to give God thanks for such a privilege, and to cherish by all means in their power so useful a devotion, and commands that the reception of Communion be left to the discretion of one’s confessor. Our Lord once said to a holy nun, “If you receive holy Communion frequently, I will forget all your ingratitude.” The Venerable Father Antony Torres after death appeared in glory to a certain person, and said that his beatitude in heaven had been increased, because he had recommended frequent Communion to his penitents. Frequent Communion is that which is received several times a week.

According to St. Thomas, it is certain that frequent and even daily Communion is in itself most useful, but only for those who have the proper dispositions, and not indiscriminately for all that are in the state of grace. “Receive daily,” says St. Augustine, “that it may every day be profitable to you; but live in such a manner, that you may be worthy to receive every day.” A person that commits deliberate venial sins, or that is guilty of faults which he knows to hinder his advancement in perfection, and that does not endeavor to correct these defects, should not be permitted to communicate more frequently than once a week. For my part, I should have great difficulty in allowing frequent Communion to persons disposed to persevere in any defect, which, though not clearly a venial sin, would be certainly contrary to perfection, especially if it were a defect against humility or obedience. But if a person has no affection for any venial sin, if he abstains from deliberate venial sins and attends to prayer and the mortification of his passions and senses, the confessor may permit him to communicate three, four, or even five times a week. And when a person has attained a considerable degree of perfection, when he spends several hours a day in mental prayer, and has, moreover, conquered the greater part of his evil inclinations, he may, according to St. Francis de Sales, be allowed to receive holy Communion every day. St. Thomas teaches that “if any one finds by experience that by daily Communion the fervor of his love is increased, and his reverence not diminished, such a person ought to communicate every day.” Hence, in permitting more or less frequent Communion to his penitents, a confessor should be regulated by the fruits of their Communions.

Listen to the words of St. Francis de Sales: “If worldlings ask you why you communicate so often, tell them that two classes of persons should communicate frequently; the perfect, to preserve perfection, and the imperfect, to attain perfection; the strong, that they may not become weak, and the weak, that they may grow strong; the sick, that they may be cured, and the healthy, that they may not get sick. And as to yourself, tell them that because you are imperfect, weak and infirm, you stand in need of frequent Communion.”

2. Preparation for Holy Communion. The Blessed Eucharist is, in a special manner, the food of our soul. St. Augustine says that, when we ask God to give us this day our daily bread, we ask principally for holy Communion, which should constitute the daily nourishment of our soul. In this sacrament God “has made a remembrance of all His wonderful works” (Ps. cx. 4). It sums up all the wonders of His infinite love for us. It is the greatest gift that God can bestow, for He cannot give anything greater than Himself. We ought to hunger and thirst after this bread of angels, after this “wine that produces virgins” (Zach. ix. 17). We ought to receive our Lord frequently, as often as we are permitted. “Holy Communion,” says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, “is our greatest possible action.” It, therefore, demands great and careful preparation on our part. How happy were St. Martha and Zacheus to receive Jesus Christ into their house! How happy would we not feel, p. 48if He were to come in person to visit us in our house, in our convent! What preparations would we not make to receive Him in a becoming manner! How carefully would we not cleanse and polish the whole building and put everything in order! We would, moreover, spare no pains to decorate, to the best of our ability, the whole building, so as to render it as fit as possible to receive so great a Guest. When, however, there is question of receiving Jesus Christ into our soul, we should most assuredly leave nothing undone to render it worthy of receiving Him. It, then, behooves us, above all, carefully to purify our conscience. It were a thousand times better not to receive holy Communion at all, than to commit the horrid crime of sacrilege of profaning the Body and Blood of our Redeemer, and thus eating and drinking our own condemnation.

But, while dreading sacrilege above every other evil, we should not be too scrupulous and omit holy Communion for every trifle, for a little fault that can be effaced by an act of contrition, of humility, of mortification, or of charity. We should not for the whole world wilfully lose a holy Communion. “A wilful omission of holy Communion,” says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, “is a great injustice against divine love, and may deprive us of necessary special graces.” This is one of the points on which St. Alphonsus insists the most in his correspondence with his penitents; he threatens to give up directing their souls, if they will not obey him and receive holy Communion as often as he prescribes.

But those who frequently receive holy Communion should be very holy. “He who often receives holy Communion,” says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, “should be so filled with holy indifference and so resigned to the divine will and that of his superiors, that no one may be able to discover his likes and dislikes. Nothing imparts greater perfection to the soul than holy Communion. A single Communion well made is sufficient to make us saints.” The reason why we do not obtain such happy results from our holy Communion, is because we carelessly make, or even omit, our immediate preparation for it. The fruits of our holy Communions are always proportionate to the fervor of our preparation. We should, then, strive with all possible earnestness to prepare ourselves for so great an action, beginning to do so already on the eve of our holy Communion.

In the first place, we should excite within us the most lively faith, believing most firmly in the real presence, and most vividly representing to ourselves the great happiness p. 49holy Communion has in store for us, since it will most intimately unite us with the God of heaven and earth, with our loving Redeemer, with the Beloved of our heart, who will dwell therein and bestow on us His choicest graces. Let us pray for an increase of faith—that first and most necessary of virtues, which is now especially necessary, since our fervor in the reception of this adorable Sacrament will be proportionate to the liveliness and intensity of our faith. Were our faith in holy Communion and its advantages as ardent as it ought to be, we would not remain so cold or so lukewarm at the thought of receiving our loving Jesus.

In the next place, we should deeply humble ourselves as entirely unworthy of so inestimable a favor on account of our misery and sinfulness. This sentiment of humility will incite us to make repeated acts of the sincerest contrition for our sins, of regret for our base ingratitude, and of the firm resolution rather to suffer all, and even death itself, than again offend God; and it will also urge to do all in our power henceforth to serve Him with the utmost fidelity. Being, however, aware of our extreme spiritual weakness and helplessness, we shall naturally be led to place all our confidence in the divine goodness and mercy, and to expect great things from Him who is so soon to give Himself to us. Our confidence should be boundless, for the number and effectiveness of the graces we receive in holy Communion are always in proportion to the confidence with which we approach our loving Saviour. Our confidence is the vessel into which He pours His favors, says St. Bernard. Jesus will surely fill the vessel of our confidence when He comes to us; but He will give us only as much as it can contain. Let us, then, greatly dilate our heart and expand our confidence, so as to secure an abundance of graces.

In the next place, we should strive to excite in our heart the tenderest love for Jesus Christ, who loves us so greatly as to give Himself to us. In fact, His love for us is so excessive, that it would seem as if He could not do enough to win our miserable love. To show His love for us, He was not content to die for us, but He has gone so far as to feed us in this Sacrament with His own flesh and blood. Let us, then, love Him with our whole undivided heart.—Lastly, we should desire most eagerly, yearn most intensely, to receive the Blessed Eucharist. Our longing for it should be so great as to consume us. We should experience a ravenous hunger, a burning thirst for this heavenly food and drink. We should be like St. Catherine of Siena, who every morning felt like one famished, until she had received her divine Spouse. We should so long for this Bread of Angels, as scarcely to be able to wait until the happy moment arrives when Jesus gives Himself to us.

Whilst we are receiving Jesus Christ, how eagerly, lovingly, and tenderly we should welcome Him as our only love, as the beloved Spouse of our soul, as our all, and with what transports of the deepest and most intense love and joy should we not embrace Him!

3. Thanksgiving after Holy Communion. Having received Jesus, let us thank Him with our whole heart, and prolong our conversation with Him as long as obedience permits. We should not lose a single one of those precious moments during which Jesus is personally within us. “Holy Communion,” says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, “is the greatest treasure we can possess. After receiving Jesus we ought to be forgetful of everything else, just as if we were alone in the world with Jesus.” Having welcomed our divine Spouse with the tenderest affection, we should express astonishment at His condescending to enter our miserable heart. Let us, then, in the most lively manner, reanimate our faith in His presence within us, and with the most ardent love express our gratitude to Him for His infinite goodness and condescension in thus giving Himself to us, and let us unite ourselves most intimately with Him. Having done this, we should listen to Him saying to us, “My child, give me thy heart” (Prov. xxiii. 26). Let us then comply with His desire, and consecrate ourselves wholly and unreservedly to Him, giving Him our heart and all its affections, and our whole being, and most fervently renewing the vows of our profession (or our baptismal vows). After doing this with all possible sincerity p. 50and earnestness, let us imitate Zacheus, who, to express his gratitude for our Lord’s visit to his house, made and executed various good resolutions. In like manner, we should make good resolutions appropriate to our spiritual wants, taking care to specify them. Although we should not make too many, we should, nevertheless, be generous. Perhaps some heavy cross, or trial, is oppressing us, and making us discontented and despondent, and inciting us to murmurs and complaints, and rendering us miserable and unhappy. Now, then, is the time to show to Jesus our generosity and gratitude for His boundless love and generosity in our regard. Now is the time for us cheerfully and lovingly to accept this cross, this burden, this trial. Let us now tell our loving Jesus that, for His sake, we will cheerfully bear this cross, and other crosses also, if it so please Him to make a trial of our love; but that He should mercifully strengthen our weakness.

Having thus proved that our love and gratitude do not consist in vain words and protestations, we may now in all confidence make petitions for ourselves and others. But we ought to ask our divine Saviour for great things, such as the forgiveness of our sins, the gift of divine love, a boundless confidence in His merits and in Mary’s intercession, the grace to pray well and to become a saint, and final perseverance. Let us entreat Him to tear out of our heart every affection and every attachment to creatures. After this let us pray for our companions in religion, for our superiors, our relatives, friends, benefactors, enemies, poor sinners, the souls in purgatory, the sick and the afflicted, those who are in their agony, those for whom we have promised to pray, and those who have recommended themselves p. 51or been recommended to our prayers. We should try to spend the whole day in sweet joy at the remembrance of the gracious visit of our loving Spouse, and to carry out faithfully the promises we have made Him.

A holy Communion, well made, is the best preparation for the next one. To draw greater profit from our holy Communions we should strive, in our preparation, to enter into the dispositions that would animate us, if we knew that this were to be our last holy Communion, and that we should die immediately after it and be summoned before the formidable tribunal of Jesus Christ. Oh! if this were to be the case, how carefully and fervently would we not prepare for that great action, and how eagerly and lovingly would we not receive that pledge of life eternal!