Eucharistic Reflection - Open Your Heart

[When you next receive Holy Communion, pause and imagine our Blessed Mother standing at your side. Hear and ponder these words that flow from her most Immaculate Heart:]

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

“My child if you knew the value of the gift Jesus gives you in giving Himself to you in Communion and the sentiments toward you which fill His soul, would you lack proper sentiment toward Him?

Here the creature is visited by the Creator; a beggar by the King of glory; an afflicted soul by the heavenly consoler; a man who is all sin by Him Who is holiness itself.

Humble yourself profoundly before Him; His goodness which is infinitely greater than anything you can imagine.

Loathe your own past ingratitude; ask His help for the future; promise Him undying fidelity.

Abandon yourself to the impulses of purest joy. Ask the angels and saints to offer Jesus thanks on your behalf, thanks that are adequate, if that be possible, to the splendid gift He give you.

Desire that a God so good and lovable be loved and glorified on earth as Her is in heaven.

Open your heart to His blazing love and desire to be consumed by it.

In gratitude for His blessings and to make up for your own weakness, offer Him all the sentiments which have filled holy souls as they received Him with devoted love in this sacrament.

Offer Him especially the sentiments with which He deigned to fill my soul when in His incarnation He united Himself so closely to me.

Think of the Power of which He offers you so marvelous an example in the Eucharist; think especially of His humility and ask Him for the grace to initiate it.

In this sacrament His humanity as well as His divinity is hidden. Nothing of Jesus is visible, excerpt to the eyes of your faith.

Ask Him that you may love a life that is hidden and despised; that you may flee from outward show and honors; that you may do all you do without any desire to be seen and esteemed.

In this sacrament Jesus is treated with contempt by many, and with indifference by many others who are little concerned with Him, much with the world, and entirely with themselves. Ask for the grace to bear patiently with insults and opposition. 

Such my child are the thoughts that ought to fill you at Communion time and throughout any day on which you have been privileged to receive Jesus.

(From The Imitation of Mary)