Eucharistic Reflection - The Prince Is In Disguise

Let us say some prayers before Communion, but let us spend at least a quarter of an hour in making profound reflections on the action we are about to perform. It is very difficult for a person to be convinced that he is going to receive Jesus Christ, and yet to have no desire of it, not to think of it, and to be but little impressed with it.

The presence of a prince in disguise does not in any

degree diminish the respect due to Him on the part

of those who really believe him to be the prince.

Any signal benefit, any mark of friendship he may

show us under this condition, obliges us to love him

all the more, especially if he has assumed this disguise

in order to render us some important service.

Let us apply this to Jesus Christ. Oh Jerusalem, if

thou didst but know who He is that comes to visit thee,

and the benefits thou canst derive from this visit!

Consider particularly that you are about to receive the

adorable Body of Jesus Christ, with the sacred wounds

which He allowed His disciples to touch ; and with this

adorable Body you are going to receive His Sacred

Heart.

Into this Sacred Heart, Which is open to us,

we must enter. In this Sacred Heart we must learn

to pray, to thank God, to praise Him, to annihilate

ourselves in His presence, but above all, to love Him.

What wonders does not Jesus Christ work during these

precious moments in a pure soul, in a soul that really

loves Him. The mere thought of this divine Heart fills us, at

that time, with extraordinary devotion. 

         If Jesus Christ, in coming to us, gives us sensible marks

of His presence, as is generally the case with those

who have a tender devotion to His Sacred Heart, let us

profit by these precious moments, let us preserve great

interior recollection, let us listen to our Lord, let us

allow grace to work. If we do not hinder its operation

by voluntary distractions, and a kind of dissipation by

which the devil seeks to make us lose all the fruit of

                   Communion, it will work wonders in us.  

(From Devotion to the Sacred Heart by Father John Croiset, S.J.)