Eucharistic Reflection - Our Blessed Mother Lovingly Challenges Us

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

Mother Mary:…You receive in Communion the all-holy God, yet you yourself are far from holy.

A single Communion should be enough to fill you with all the fervor of the saints, yet all your Communions leave you as cold as you were before You are always to some degree reserved in dealing with Jesus, though He does not hold back at all in heaping His blessings upon you.

His presence when you have received Him indeed inspires in you great desires of virtue, and you promise Him much. But the desires and the promises soon fade.

You would certainly not deal in this way with an important man of this world if he honored you with a visit.

How aware you are of the gifts a friend gives you! How ready to thank him! Love cannot rest until it has found a way of expressing its gratitude.

Can it be, my child, that you lack occasions for practicing virtue, such as the saints made use of after Communion when they wanted to show Jesus how sensible they were of the graces they received?

What He asks for more than anything else is that you keep careful watch over your affections so that they are directed too Him.

If you were to keep careful watch over yourself after receiving Communion, you would retain the devotion you had at the time of Communion. Such watchfulness after every Communion is the best means you have of preparing for the next.

(From The Imitation of Mary)