Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

(Image Source: Hands At Mass ) Oh, how beautiful will be a soul that has often and worthily received the good God! It will be united to the soul of Our Lord. Then it will enjoy a happiness pure and perfect. It will shine like a beautiful diamond, because God will be reflected in it.  When the soul of a Christian who has received Our Lord enters Paradise, it adds to the joy of heaven. The Angels and the Queen of Angels come to meet it because they recognize the Son of God in this soul. Those who receive. Holy Communion at the moment of death are very fortunate. At the particular judgment which takes place immediately after death God the Father sees His Son in them! He cannot condemn them, Oh! no. (From The Eucharistic Reflections of the Cure of Ars )

(Image Source: Hands at Mass ) "A Christian on leaving the holy place moved by the holy thoughts that have been aroused in him by the sight of the ceremonies he has seen, and the prayers that he has said, ought to say to himself: 'I have just come from assisting at Holy Mass, a God has immolated Himself for me; He has shed His Blood for the salvation of our souls; what more could He do?'  Oh! how miserable I am, I who for so many years have refused Him my heart, which He has created for Himself and which He asks of me only in order to make it happy. I have just celebrated the praises of God with this same mouth that I had often sullied by all sorts of sins. Oh! my God, shall I always then beg from creatures the peace they are powerless to give me! My tongue shall it serve sometimes to praise You, sometimes to mispraise You.  No, Lord, I now wish only to bless and to love You.  Any Christian who has not, in going over these thoughts in his heart, assisted at the Holy Mass ...

“Receive Communion…and be deeply aware of the One who visits you, infinite love, divine madness; of One who not only became man like ourselves, but who became bread. After you receive Communion, ask Jesus, the God you hold prisoner in your soul, to stay with you throughout the day so that you may love Him and give Him thanks.”  (St. Teresa of the Andes , excerpt from  Letters of Saint Teresa of the Andes, Michael D. Griffin,  o.c.d. , tr.)

"You who only communicate rarely are like someone between two sleeps. You know that Jesus Christ is truly in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, that this food is absolutely necessary for your poor soul. Nevertheless, one sees in you little desire. There are long intervals between your Confessions and Communions. You decide to go because of a great feast or a jubilee or a mission, or because others are going, and not because your poor soul needs it. Not only do you not try to merit this happiness, but you do not even envy those who taste it more often. Thus you imitate the Jews.  They are reproached for refusing shelter to Jesus Christ on the first Christmas night although they did not know Him. You treat Him with the same discourtesy, you who neglect to receive Him into your hearts in Holy Communion.  Do not forget that at the Particular Judgment Jesus Christ will judge us on all the good we could have done. He will show you all the sacraments that you could have received during ...

"On the day that we receive Holy Communion we should endeavor to keep our hearts as living tabernacles of our Eucharistic Jesus, and then visit Him often with acts of adoration, love, and gratitude; this is what divine love will teach us." Saint Paul of the Cross 

[If you have not read (and completed) Father Donald H. Calloway's   3 0 Day Eucharistic Revival - A Retreat with St. Peter Julian Eymard - go get a copy now and begin! Father courageously writes the Truth - Truth that too many others have been unwilling or afraid to speak - Truths upon which authentic and lasting Eucharistic Revival must rest. Read this excerpt and you will understand: “…God’s goodness should not be taken advantage of or abused. In our times, some in leadership positions, warn people not to ‘weaponize the Eucharist’ and offer very confusing messages by seemingly encouraging everyone to receive Holy Communion, regardless of the state of their soul. For example, people living in unnatural relationships, those committing intrinsically disordered actions, and those who are in adulterous relationships are encouraged to receive Holy Communion. This is wrong. Such thinking is very dangerous and destructive to souls and their ultimate well-being. We must never forget...

(Image Source: Hands at Mass) "Dear Eucharistic soul: In that hour [of the Last Supper] Jesus thought of you. Have no doubt about it. He thought of you in particular, and had you before His eyes. He understood that, without that small, white, consecrated wafer, which you adore and which you receive every morning, you would feel lonely, very lonely, in your exile here below. He knew that your heart would hunger and thirst for love and be the prey of unmitigated nostalgia for heaven. He knew that on the road through life you would find many a cause for grief and, behind a smiling appearance, would have to conceal many a galling sorrow.  And for your sake, dear soul, lest you be orphaned and without a loyal friend in whose understanding heart you might pour out the overflowing bitterness of your heart, Jesus overlooked all those sacrileges, profanations and ingratitudes and, in that night, instituted the Eucharist for you—understand this well!—just for you. And for your sake He has r...

"Without the Holy Eucharist there would be no happiness in this world; life would be insupportable. When we receive Holy  Communion, we receive our joy and our happiness. The good God, wishing to give Himself to us in the Sacrament of His Love, gave us a vast and great desire, which He alone can satisfy.    In the presence of this beautiful Sacrament, we are like a person dying o f thirst by the side of a river — he would only need to bend his head; like a person still remaining poor, close to a great treasure — he need only stretch out his hand. He who communicates loses himself in God like a drop of water in the ocean. They can n o more be separated." (St. John Vianney)

 “And since so few people now hear the words, 'Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened,' let each of us, when he approaches the Holy Table, look upon himself as the delegate of all those he loves or has loved, living or dead. When God makes His way into our souls, He does not find us alone. All those from whom we proceed and who have gone to sleep before us may receive, in Purgatory, some benefit of grace pervading us, their living children, when we pray for them. And all our friends who are kept away from the Source of grace by sin, indifference, ignorance, and incredulity - those who have helped us and those we have harmed - are present in our thoughts in this ineffable instant." Francois Mauriac, Catholic Nobel Prize laureate in Literature