Eucharistic Reflection - To Have A Right Intention

"There are some people who go to Holy Communion to gain the esteem of the world. It avails them nothing. Others go out of habit. Poor Communions, they have not the right intention. 

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

Go to Communion to obey Jesus Christ, who has commanded you to do so, under pain of not having eternal life. Go to Communion to obtain the graces that you need, humility, patience, purity. Go to the Holy Table to unite yourself to Jesus Christ so that He will make of you other Christ’s, which happens to those who receive Him worthily. 

When you go to Holy Communion you should always have an intention, and say when about to receive the Body of Our Lord: “O my good Father, who art in heaven, I offer you, at this moment, your dear Son, such as He was when He was taken down from the Cross, and laid in the arms of the Holy Virgin, and as she offered Him to You in sacrifice for us. I offer Him to You by the hands of Mary, to obtain such or such graces, faith, charity, humility.

My children, listen well to that. Every time I have obtained a grace, I have asked it like this, I have never been disappointed."

(St. John Marie Vianney from The Eucharistic Meditations of the Cure of Ars)