9781644135945

The Light of the World
Where the Father and the Son are, there also is the Holy Ghost. When we receive Holy
Communion, our soul is placed in an unspeakably wonderful state. The Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost live their mysterious life in us in blessed silence, just as They do in heaven.
At that moment we ourselves become the heaven of God. In our soul the Father declares,
“Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee” (Ps 2:7). In His Word the Father expresses
in our soul the fullness of His essence. Through His Word, through His Son, He produces in
our soul the image of His perfection and His essence. “God of God, light of light, true God of
true God, begotten not made” (Credo). He showers upon the Son divine and blessed love.
The Son responds to the Father with a similar eternal love. The Holy Ghost is the expression
of this mutual divine love, which binds the Father to the Son. All this takes place within
our soul. We are united to this life of the three divine persons in Holy Communion, so that
we share their life through sanctifying grace, supernatural virtues, and particularly through
the possession of the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. As yet we possess this
life only imperfectly and in the obscurity of faith; one day we shall possess it perfectly, in
the immediate vision of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. “O holy
banquet in which Christ is received!”
How unworthy we are of the grace of Holy Communion! It should give us an ever fuller participation
in the life of God. “He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me,
and I in Him” ( Jn 6:57). No closer union between Christ and us exists or is conceivable. His
body is joined to our body, His soul to our soul, His operations to our operations, and this
union is achieved in a supernatural manner that our sanctification and perfection in Him may
be assured. In this union our complete self, with all that we are, excepting our sins and our evil
inclinations, is drawn into the life of Jesus. This is a union which in the intention of the Lord is
never to be broken, and should endure for eternity.
Why is this union often less perfect than Jesus would have it be? The fault lies in us. We do
not treasure the privilege of Holy Communion highly enough. We fail most often in making an
adequate preparation for it. This preparation should consist primarily in our remaining united
with Christ from the time of one Holy Communion to the next. It should consist in our permitting
ourselves to be guided and directed by Him and by His spirit from day to day. It implies
that we avoid every thought, word, and action which He could not accept and acknowledge
as His own. But how often we fail to be sufficiently vigilant! How often we fail to carry out His
wishes and desires! We seem to be always following our own will, fulfilling our own desires,
and satisfying our self-love.
Prayer
Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that we may be satiated through the eternal enjoyment of
Thy divinity, for which the reception of Thy precious body and blood in this world prepares us.
Who livest and reignest for all eternity. Amen.
Wednesday
We are now within the octave of the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. With the holy liturgy we
pray: “Grant, we beseech Thee, that revering with meet devotion [the infinite wealth of Thy
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