ON entering the church, ask yourself, as Blessed Berchmans was
accustomed to do: Where am I going? I am going to present myself
before the Eternal Father, to offer Him the sacrifice of His Divine
Son. Then, knowing that you are in the presence of God, kneel with
deepest respect before the holy altar. Renew your general intention
to honour God; add to it expressly the offering of your Communion
in union with the objects of the Sacrifice. Propose to yourself a
special intention, which you may plainly express, so as not to
content yourself with vague prayer; which are apt to be made
without sufficient fervour. Consider this meditation: THE soul, a
simple and spiritual being, has need of motion, of food, and of
rest, like the body. Being created in sympathy with God, it finds
in Jesus Christ its type, its sphere, its aliment Being made in the
divine image, its activity is thought, its light is truth, its rest
is in confiding prayer. In the soul, all activity and all lively or
profound feelings tend to produce actions equivalent to their
strength; it is then necessary for its welfare that it should be
united to Jesus Christ on earth, because He alone can feed it with
food suitable for it, capable of developing its activity; of
satisfying its needs. In the Holy Eucharist our Lord places Himself
at the disposal of the soul. One Communion ought to be enough to
attach us irrevocably to Him. Between God and the soul there exists
a resemblance, and therefore a harmony; in the beginning there was
even a close intimacy. But sin has destroyed the resemblance, and
turned the harmony into discord. And now the infinite greatness of
God, and our littleness, are brought near to each other, by means
of the Incarnation and the Holy Eucharist. Nothing more venerable
or more tender can be imagined than the relationship established
between Jesus in the Eucharist and the soul of man. This
relationship begins upon the blessed day of first Communion, which
develops the germ of supernatural life first implanted in us at
baptism: and in everyone of our future Communions our Saviour
increases and perfects that supernatural life in the soul. I have
had a spiritual childhood of which I remember even less than of my
bodily infancy. Perhaps the first awakening of reason implanted in
my mind the remembrance of some early fault. My youth, though
marked by precious graces, yet leaves me the regret that at that
age I did not do good without constraint. I deluded myself with
passing desires which had not Jesus for their object and end. How
carefully I observed the rules laid down for my studies, but how
little solicitude I showed to keep faithfully the solemn compact
made with my God in presence of the Sacred Host Still more do I
grieve for having afterwards tarnished the beauty of my soul by
contact with the world. My soul perhaps loved that imperfect life
and desired not its own revival. If I dwell upon those days of
error and illusion, it is in order to feel more deeply how much I
ought to love Jesus who has delivered me from them. o my Saviour,
it was not Thine intention to come into my soul to form with it a
passing union only, neither to dwell inactively therein. Thine
intention was to make it better. Thou didst seal it with Thy Blood,
with the intent that it should retain a sign to call ever to my
remembrance Him who for my sake delivered Himself up freely to the
bitter death of the Cross for me. Thou hast signed me with that
sacred unction which Thou hast Thyself received, and caused my name
of Christian to be formed out of Thy name of Christ. May that
mysterious sign shield me from all my enemies. Preserve to my soul
the health which Thou hast restored to it, and keep it ever under
the direction of Thy grace.
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