03-30-2021, 06:52 PM
MEDITATION 15: THE DISPOSITION OF SOUL FOR HOLY COMMUNION
Zacheus, having heard about Jesus Christ desired ardently to see Him. As he could not,
because of the great crowd, he climbed a tree. But Our Lord saw him: “Zacheus come down
because I wish to spend today in your houseZacheus made haste to come down and ran to
prepare as well as he could to receive theSaviour. When Our Lord came in He said: “This day is
salvation come to this house.” Zacheusmoved by the great kindness of Jesus Christ who had
come to stay in his house, cried out: “Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I
have wronged anyone I will restore him fourfold.”
O Jesus, give me the ardent desires of this sinner, his lively faith and immense joy in receiving
You, and when You come into my heart bring it also salvation.
1. TO HAVE A LIVELY FAITH.
As this sacrament is a sacrament of faith, we must believe firmly that Jesus Christ is really
present in the Holy Eucharist, that He is there living and glorious as He is in heaven. In former
times, before giving Holy Communion, the priest, holding the Sacred Host between his fingers,
said aloud: “Do you believe, my brethren, that the adorable Body and precious Blood of Jesus
Christ is truly in this Sacrament ?” Then all the faithful answered: “Yes, we believe it.” Let us have
the same faith.
2. TO HAVE A GREAT DESIRE TO BE UNITED TO JESUS CHRIST.
Observe the earnestness of the Magi in seeking Jesus Christ in the manger. See holy Magdalen,
as she eagerly seeks the risen Saviour. Do you seek Jesus Christ with the same desire, the. same
ardour, and nothing will hinder you from receiving Him. Long to communicate because there is
nothing so great as the Eucharist. Put all the good works against one good Holy Communion. By
one Communion you give more glory to God than by giving a hundred thousand francs to the
poor.
Have a desire to go to Communion because it is the only food which suits perfectly your soul.
Oh, if Christians could understand the language of Our Lord, who says to them: “In spite of
thy misery, I wish to see very near to Me this beautiful soul that I have created for Myself. I have
made it so great that I alone can fill it. I have made it so pure, that only My Body can nourish it.”
St. Catherine of Siena cried out in her transports of love: “O my God! O my Saviour! Ah, what
excess of love and goodness for creatures to give yourself with so much eagerness!; and in giving
Yourself, you give all that You have, all that You are! My loving Saviour, I beg you to water my soul
with your precious Blood, nourish my body with your adorable Flesh, so that my body and my soul
may belong only to Thee, and aspire only to please You and to possess You.”
St. Catherine of Genoa was so eager for this heavenly bread, that she could not see it in the
priest’s hands without feeling as if she would die of love; so very great was the desire she felt to
possess It, she exclaimed: “Oh Lord, come to me! My God, come to me! I can wait no longer. Oh!
My God come, please, to the depth of my heart. No, my God, I can wait no longer. You are all my
joy, all my happiness, and all the nourishment of my soul.”
3. TO HAVE A RIGHT INTENTION.
There are some people who go to Holy Communion to gain the esteem of the world. It avails
them nothing. Others go out of habit. Poor Communions, they have not the right intention.
Go to Communion to obey Jesus Christ, who has commanded you to do so, under pain of not
having eternal life.
Go to Communion to obtain the graces that you need, humility, patience, purity.
Go to the Holy Table to unite yourself to Jesus Christ so that He will make of you other
Christ’s, which happens to those who receive Him worthily.
When you go to Holy Communion you should always have an intention, and say when about
to receive the Body of Our Lord: “O my good Father, who art in heaven, I offer you, at this
moment, your dear Son, such as He was when He was taken down from the Cross, and laid in the
arms of the Holy Virgin, and as she offered Him to You in sacrifice for us. I offer Him to You by
the hands of Mary, to obtain such or such graces, faith, charity, humility.” My children, listen well
to that. Every time I have obtained a grace, I have asked it like this, I have never been disappointed.
4. TO PREPARE WITH FERVOUR.
During the days before Communion, desire to communicate as worthily as possible to have as
much love as all the saints put together. Your mere desire will be rewarded. Do all your actions as a
preparation for Holy Communion. Converse with Jesus Christ who reigns in your heart by His
grace. Think how He will come on the altar and from there into your soul to visit it and to enrich it
with all sorts of good things and happiness. Implore the Blessed Virgin, the angels and the saints to
pray to the good God for you and prepare you to receive Him. The day of your Communion, come
to Holy Mass a short time before it begins. Hear it still better than at other times. Have your beads
or your office book, that your mind and heart may be all the time at the foot of the tabernacle; that
it may long continually for the happy moments when Our Lord will come; that your thoughts may
not be of this world, but all of heaven, and be so lost in God that you seem to be dead to the
world. Make acts with all possible fervour to reanimate in your soul, faith, hope and a great love for
Jesus Christ, who will come soon to make of your heart his tabernacle, or if you wish a little
heaven. My God, what a happiness, what an honour for such miserable creatures like us!
After you have made your acts of preparation, you must offer your Communion for yourself or
for others.
MEDITATION 16: UNWORTHY COMMUNION
UNWORTHY Communions are made very often. How many there are who have the temerity
to come to the Holy Table with sins unconfessed or disguised in Confession. How many have not
the contrition that the good God demands of them, and keep a secret will to commit sin again and
not to make every effort to correct themselves. How many do not avoid the occasions of sin when
they could do so, and bring to the Holy Table enmities in their heart! If ever you have been in these
dispositions when going to Holy Communion, you have been guilty of sacrilege. Horrible crime on
which we are going to meditate.
1. THE UNWORTHY COMMUNICANT IS A TRAITOR AND A HYPOCRITE.
Having lied to the Holy Spirit in Confession by hiding or disguising some sin, he dares, this
wretch, to take his place among the faithful about to eat this bread, with a hypocritical look of
respect! Ah! no, no, nothing prevents the monster; he goes forward to bring about his reprobation.
In vain this loving Saviour, seeing him come to Him, calls out from the tabernacle as to the
perfidious Judas: “My friend, whereto art thou come ?” Why my friend, do you betray your God
and Saviour with a sign of peace! Stop, stop, my son, ah! for mercy’s sake spare Me! But no, no,
neither the remorse of conscience nor the loving reproaches which his God makes to him can
prevent his criminal steps. Ah, he goes forward, he is going to pierce his God and Saviour! Oh,
heavens, how terrible! Can you support without trembling this miserable murder of your Creator?
Ah! is it not the crime of crimes and the abomination in the holy place.
2. THE UNWORTHY COMMUNICANT IS AN UNGRATEFUL PERSON.
“Why do you persecute Me?” Jesus Christ said to the Jews. “Is it because I have opened the
eyes of the blind, made the lame walk, cured the sick and raised the dead? Is it a crime to have
loved you so much?” Such is the language that Jesus Christ speaks to those who profane His
adorable Body and precious Blood. The greatness of their ingratitude is shown in that they outrage
their benefactor through the greatest of his benefits, even worse, they use Himself to insult Him.
Jesus Christ says to us by the mouth of one of the prophets: “If this affront had been offered to Me
by enemies, by infidels who had never had the happiness of knowing Me, or even by heretics born
in error, there might have been some reason for it. But you, He says to us, whom I have set in the
bosom of My Church, you whom I have enriched with My choicest gifts; you who by Baptism have
become My children and heirs to My kingdom! What! is it you who dare to outrage Me by this
horrible sacrilege? What! you can still break the heart of the best of fathers, who has loved you even
unto death. Well! ungrateful ones, are you not satisfied with all the tortures that have been
inflicted on My innocent Body during My sorrowful passion? Oh! for mercy’s sake, spare your God
who has loved you so much; why do you wish to give Me to death a second time, by receiving Me
into a heart stained with sin?”
3. THE UNWORTHY COMMUNICANT IS A PARRICIDE.
Would you know what he does? Listen well so that you may understand your cruelty towards
Jesus Christ. What would you say of a man whose father was about to be led to the place of
execution, if he found that the executioners had not the power to hang him, should say to them:
“You have not the strength. Here are my arms, let them serve you to hang my father”? Such an
action would make you shudder with horror. That would be as it should be. Ah, well, if I dare, I
would say to you that that is still nothing if we compare it with the appalling crime those commit
who communicate unworthily. What indeed is natural death, even violent death, if we compare it
to that which the sinner inflicts on Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic. The Jews persecuted Jesus
Christ during His mortal life, but the unworthy communicant is the dwelling place of His glory.
While Jesus Christ was on earth, there was only one Calvary where He could be crucified, but
here there are as many crosses as there are sacrilegious hearts. Jesus Christ died only once a natural
death, but this death that you inflict on Him by unworthy Communions, ah! when will they end!
O what a long agony!
On Calvary, even the most insensible creatures seemed to be afflicted by the death of the
Saviour, and seemed in some way to wish to share in His sufferings. But here, nothing of all that
appears. He is insulted, outraged, murdered and slaughtered by a vile nothing, and all is done in
silence. The sun is not darkened, and the earth does not tremble, the altar is not torn down. This
good God so unworthily outraged, can He not complain even more justly than from the tree of the
Cross, that He is abandoned? Ought He not to cry out: Ah I my Father, why have You abandoned
Me to the fury of My enemies? Must I then die every moment? My God, how can it be that a
Christian can have the audacity to go to the Holy Table with sin in his heart, and so put You to
death there? There is neither Cross nor Calvary, as formerly, he says to the demon, but I have
found something to take its place. How? replies the demon, very astonished. it is my heart. Be
prepared. I am going to seize Jesus. He has sent you to Hell, now take your revenge, slaughter Him
on this cross. O my God, can one think of this without trembling with horror? No, no, if there
were a thousand hells that would not be enough to avenge such a crime. Alas, says St. Paul, the
unworthy communicant eats and drinks his judgment (1 Cor. x. 29). O terrible misfortune! It is
not on paper that the decree of reprobation of these sacrilegious ones is written, but in their own
hearts. At the hour of death Jesus Christ will come down with a torch in His hand into the
sacrilegious hearts, and will find there His adorable Body, so often profaned, which will cry to
heaven for vengeance. O divine Saviour, will the anger and power of your Father be strong enough
to cast down these miserable Judases into the depths of the abyss.
Zacheus, having heard about Jesus Christ desired ardently to see Him. As he could not,
because of the great crowd, he climbed a tree. But Our Lord saw him: “Zacheus come down
because I wish to spend today in your houseZacheus made haste to come down and ran to
prepare as well as he could to receive theSaviour. When Our Lord came in He said: “This day is
salvation come to this house.” Zacheusmoved by the great kindness of Jesus Christ who had
come to stay in his house, cried out: “Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I
have wronged anyone I will restore him fourfold.”
O Jesus, give me the ardent desires of this sinner, his lively faith and immense joy in receiving
You, and when You come into my heart bring it also salvation.
1. TO HAVE A LIVELY FAITH.
As this sacrament is a sacrament of faith, we must believe firmly that Jesus Christ is really
present in the Holy Eucharist, that He is there living and glorious as He is in heaven. In former
times, before giving Holy Communion, the priest, holding the Sacred Host between his fingers,
said aloud: “Do you believe, my brethren, that the adorable Body and precious Blood of Jesus
Christ is truly in this Sacrament ?” Then all the faithful answered: “Yes, we believe it.” Let us have
the same faith.
2. TO HAVE A GREAT DESIRE TO BE UNITED TO JESUS CHRIST.
Observe the earnestness of the Magi in seeking Jesus Christ in the manger. See holy Magdalen,
as she eagerly seeks the risen Saviour. Do you seek Jesus Christ with the same desire, the. same
ardour, and nothing will hinder you from receiving Him. Long to communicate because there is
nothing so great as the Eucharist. Put all the good works against one good Holy Communion. By
one Communion you give more glory to God than by giving a hundred thousand francs to the
poor.
Have a desire to go to Communion because it is the only food which suits perfectly your soul.
Oh, if Christians could understand the language of Our Lord, who says to them: “In spite of
thy misery, I wish to see very near to Me this beautiful soul that I have created for Myself. I have
made it so great that I alone can fill it. I have made it so pure, that only My Body can nourish it.”
St. Catherine of Siena cried out in her transports of love: “O my God! O my Saviour! Ah, what
excess of love and goodness for creatures to give yourself with so much eagerness!; and in giving
Yourself, you give all that You have, all that You are! My loving Saviour, I beg you to water my soul
with your precious Blood, nourish my body with your adorable Flesh, so that my body and my soul
may belong only to Thee, and aspire only to please You and to possess You.”
St. Catherine of Genoa was so eager for this heavenly bread, that she could not see it in the
priest’s hands without feeling as if she would die of love; so very great was the desire she felt to
possess It, she exclaimed: “Oh Lord, come to me! My God, come to me! I can wait no longer. Oh!
My God come, please, to the depth of my heart. No, my God, I can wait no longer. You are all my
joy, all my happiness, and all the nourishment of my soul.”
3. TO HAVE A RIGHT INTENTION.
There are some people who go to Holy Communion to gain the esteem of the world. It avails
them nothing. Others go out of habit. Poor Communions, they have not the right intention.
Go to Communion to obey Jesus Christ, who has commanded you to do so, under pain of not
having eternal life.
Go to Communion to obtain the graces that you need, humility, patience, purity.
Go to the Holy Table to unite yourself to Jesus Christ so that He will make of you other
Christ’s, which happens to those who receive Him worthily.
When you go to Holy Communion you should always have an intention, and say when about
to receive the Body of Our Lord: “O my good Father, who art in heaven, I offer you, at this
moment, your dear Son, such as He was when He was taken down from the Cross, and laid in the
arms of the Holy Virgin, and as she offered Him to You in sacrifice for us. I offer Him to You by
the hands of Mary, to obtain such or such graces, faith, charity, humility.” My children, listen well
to that. Every time I have obtained a grace, I have asked it like this, I have never been disappointed.
4. TO PREPARE WITH FERVOUR.
During the days before Communion, desire to communicate as worthily as possible to have as
much love as all the saints put together. Your mere desire will be rewarded. Do all your actions as a
preparation for Holy Communion. Converse with Jesus Christ who reigns in your heart by His
grace. Think how He will come on the altar and from there into your soul to visit it and to enrich it
with all sorts of good things and happiness. Implore the Blessed Virgin, the angels and the saints to
pray to the good God for you and prepare you to receive Him. The day of your Communion, come
to Holy Mass a short time before it begins. Hear it still better than at other times. Have your beads
or your office book, that your mind and heart may be all the time at the foot of the tabernacle; that
it may long continually for the happy moments when Our Lord will come; that your thoughts may
not be of this world, but all of heaven, and be so lost in God that you seem to be dead to the
world. Make acts with all possible fervour to reanimate in your soul, faith, hope and a great love for
Jesus Christ, who will come soon to make of your heart his tabernacle, or if you wish a little
heaven. My God, what a happiness, what an honour for such miserable creatures like us!
After you have made your acts of preparation, you must offer your Communion for yourself or
for others.
MEDITATION 16: UNWORTHY COMMUNION
UNWORTHY Communions are made very often. How many there are who have the temerity
to come to the Holy Table with sins unconfessed or disguised in Confession. How many have not
the contrition that the good God demands of them, and keep a secret will to commit sin again and
not to make every effort to correct themselves. How many do not avoid the occasions of sin when
they could do so, and bring to the Holy Table enmities in their heart! If ever you have been in these
dispositions when going to Holy Communion, you have been guilty of sacrilege. Horrible crime on
which we are going to meditate.
1. THE UNWORTHY COMMUNICANT IS A TRAITOR AND A HYPOCRITE.
Having lied to the Holy Spirit in Confession by hiding or disguising some sin, he dares, this
wretch, to take his place among the faithful about to eat this bread, with a hypocritical look of
respect! Ah! no, no, nothing prevents the monster; he goes forward to bring about his reprobation.
In vain this loving Saviour, seeing him come to Him, calls out from the tabernacle as to the
perfidious Judas: “My friend, whereto art thou come ?” Why my friend, do you betray your God
and Saviour with a sign of peace! Stop, stop, my son, ah! for mercy’s sake spare Me! But no, no,
neither the remorse of conscience nor the loving reproaches which his God makes to him can
prevent his criminal steps. Ah, he goes forward, he is going to pierce his God and Saviour! Oh,
heavens, how terrible! Can you support without trembling this miserable murder of your Creator?
Ah! is it not the crime of crimes and the abomination in the holy place.
2. THE UNWORTHY COMMUNICANT IS AN UNGRATEFUL PERSON.
“Why do you persecute Me?” Jesus Christ said to the Jews. “Is it because I have opened the
eyes of the blind, made the lame walk, cured the sick and raised the dead? Is it a crime to have
loved you so much?” Such is the language that Jesus Christ speaks to those who profane His
adorable Body and precious Blood. The greatness of their ingratitude is shown in that they outrage
their benefactor through the greatest of his benefits, even worse, they use Himself to insult Him.
Jesus Christ says to us by the mouth of one of the prophets: “If this affront had been offered to Me
by enemies, by infidels who had never had the happiness of knowing Me, or even by heretics born
in error, there might have been some reason for it. But you, He says to us, whom I have set in the
bosom of My Church, you whom I have enriched with My choicest gifts; you who by Baptism have
become My children and heirs to My kingdom! What! is it you who dare to outrage Me by this
horrible sacrilege? What! you can still break the heart of the best of fathers, who has loved you even
unto death. Well! ungrateful ones, are you not satisfied with all the tortures that have been
inflicted on My innocent Body during My sorrowful passion? Oh! for mercy’s sake, spare your God
who has loved you so much; why do you wish to give Me to death a second time, by receiving Me
into a heart stained with sin?”
3. THE UNWORTHY COMMUNICANT IS A PARRICIDE.
Would you know what he does? Listen well so that you may understand your cruelty towards
Jesus Christ. What would you say of a man whose father was about to be led to the place of
execution, if he found that the executioners had not the power to hang him, should say to them:
“You have not the strength. Here are my arms, let them serve you to hang my father”? Such an
action would make you shudder with horror. That would be as it should be. Ah, well, if I dare, I
would say to you that that is still nothing if we compare it with the appalling crime those commit
who communicate unworthily. What indeed is natural death, even violent death, if we compare it
to that which the sinner inflicts on Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic. The Jews persecuted Jesus
Christ during His mortal life, but the unworthy communicant is the dwelling place of His glory.
While Jesus Christ was on earth, there was only one Calvary where He could be crucified, but
here there are as many crosses as there are sacrilegious hearts. Jesus Christ died only once a natural
death, but this death that you inflict on Him by unworthy Communions, ah! when will they end!
O what a long agony!
On Calvary, even the most insensible creatures seemed to be afflicted by the death of the
Saviour, and seemed in some way to wish to share in His sufferings. But here, nothing of all that
appears. He is insulted, outraged, murdered and slaughtered by a vile nothing, and all is done in
silence. The sun is not darkened, and the earth does not tremble, the altar is not torn down. This
good God so unworthily outraged, can He not complain even more justly than from the tree of the
Cross, that He is abandoned? Ought He not to cry out: Ah I my Father, why have You abandoned
Me to the fury of My enemies? Must I then die every moment? My God, how can it be that a
Christian can have the audacity to go to the Holy Table with sin in his heart, and so put You to
death there? There is neither Cross nor Calvary, as formerly, he says to the demon, but I have
found something to take its place. How? replies the demon, very astonished. it is my heart. Be
prepared. I am going to seize Jesus. He has sent you to Hell, now take your revenge, slaughter Him
on this cross. O my God, can one think of this without trembling with horror? No, no, if there
were a thousand hells that would not be enough to avenge such a crime. Alas, says St. Paul, the
unworthy communicant eats and drinks his judgment (1 Cor. x. 29). O terrible misfortune! It is
not on paper that the decree of reprobation of these sacrilegious ones is written, but in their own
hearts. At the hour of death Jesus Christ will come down with a torch in His hand into the
sacrilegious hearts, and will find there His adorable Body, so often profaned, which will cry to
heaven for vengeance. O divine Saviour, will the anger and power of your Father be strong enough
to cast down these miserable Judases into the depths of the abyss.