Holy Communion

The result of a good Communion is, within, a fear of a sin, without, a love for others.

Holy Communion is a great aid to sanctification.

Jesus visits the soul, working in it, and filling it with His Grace, which is shed on all around, as the sun sheds forth its light, the fire gives out its heat.

It is impossible but that Christ, thus visiting the soul, should not leave something Christ-like within, if only the soul be disposed to receive it. Fire, whose property is to give warmth, cannot produce that effect unless the body be placed near enough to be penetrated with the heat.

Does not this simple thought explain the reason that there is often so little result from our frequent Communions?

Do you long at each Communion to receive the grace bestowed by Christ that shall little by little fit you for heaven hereafter?

Will you, receiving thus the God of Peace within, have for those around you kind words that shall fill them with calmness, resignation, and peace?

Will you, receiving thus the God of Love, gradually increase in tenderness and love that will urge you to sacrifice yourself for others, loving them as Christ would have loved them?

Will you, receiving Him you rightly name the Gracious God, become yourself gracious, gracious to sympathize, gracious to forbear, gracious to pardon, and thus in a small way resemble the God Who gave Himself for thee?

This should be your resolve when about to communicate.

Resolved: to obey God's Commandments in all their extensiveness, never hesitating in a question of duty, no matter how hard it may be; the duty of forgiving and forgetting some injustice or undeserved rebuke; accepting cheerfully a position contrary to your wishes and inclinations; application to some labor, distasteful, and seemingly beyond your strength....

If your duty seems almost impossible to fulfil, ask yourself, "Is this God's Will for me?" and if conscience answers yes, then reply also, I will do it.

All difficulties vanish after Holy Communion.

Generous: depriving yourself those days of Communion of some pleasures which though harmless in themselves, you know, only too well, enfeeble your devotion, excite your feelings, and leave you weaker than before. Generous means doing over and above what duty requires of us.

Conscientious and upright: not seeking to find out if some forbidden thing is really a sin or not, and whether it may not in some way be reconciled to conscience.

Oh! how hurtful are these waverings between God and the world, duty and pleasure, obedience and allurements. Did Jesus Christ hesitate to die for you? and yet you hesitate! Coward!

Humble and meek: treading peacefully the road marked out for you by Providence, sometimes weeping, often suffering, but free from anxiety, awaiting the loving support that never fails those who trust and renew their strength day by day. Living quietly, loving neither the world nor its praise, working contentedly in that state of life to which you are called, doing good, regardless of man's knowledge and approval, content that others should be more honored, more esteemed, having only one ambition,—to love God, and be loved by Him.

If this be the disposition of your soul, then be sure each Communion will be blessed to you, make you more holy, more like Christ, with more taste and love for the things of God, more sure of glory hereafter.