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
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.)
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