| In Order to Frequent Holy Communion, One Ought to Have Great Purity and Fervor |
,For Sunday’s Living Jesus Chat, we will again read an article from a book by St. Francis de Sales called Of Devotion, and of the Principal Exercises of Piety. It explores the importance of our disposition for frequency of communion.___________________________________________To prepare for our chat, please read the article, which is reproduced below, and review the questions at the end.Click for Living Jesus Chatroom  Photo by BETZY AROSEMENA on UnsplashI would not wish you to bring your daughter so frequently to communion as that she should not be well aware of what this frequent communion really is. There is a difference between distinguishing communion from other food, and distinguishing frequent communion from rare communion. If this little soul sees clearly that, in order to frequent holy communion, one ought to have great purity and fervor; and if she aspires to it, and is diligent in adorning herself with its virtues,—then I am quite of opinion that she ought to be made to approach it frequently, that is to say, once a fortnight. But if she is strongly disposed to communion merely, and not to the mortification of her little imperfections of faith, I think it would be sufficient to make her go to confession once a week, and to communion once a month. It is true that the communion is the great means of arriving at perfection; but we ought to receive it with the desire and the pains to remove from our heart all that is displeasing to Him whom we would lodge there. To put yourself into such a state as to profit well by your communions, persevere in conquering those little daily contradictions which you feel; make the great proportion of your aspirations for this end; know that at present God only requires this of you. Do not amuse yourself, then, by doing anything else. Do not sow your desires in the garden of another; cultivate only your own, and do it well. Do not desire not to be what you are, but be content to be what you are. Occupy your thoughts in perfecting yourself therein, and in carrying the crosses, little or great, which you find there; and believe me, here is the great word, and the word least understood in the spiritual life: every one loves according to his own taste; few love according to their duty and the taste of our Lord. What is the use of building castles in the air, when we must live upon the earth? It is my old lesson, and you understand it well. Tell me if you practice it well. By practicing it well, you will not fail to find in your communions greater enjoyment and greater fruit. You have done well in obeying your confessor, whether he has deprived you of the consolation of frequent communion in order to try you, or whether he has done it because you have not been at sufficient pains to correct your impatience: as for me, I think he has done it for both these reasons, and that you ought to persevere in this penance as long as he orders it, since you have every reason to think that he does nothing without due consideration; and if you obey humbly, one communion will be more really useful to you than two or three made otherwise. For nothing makes our food so beneficial to us as taking it with appetite and after exercise. But the delay will give you greater appetite; and the exercise of mortifying your impatience will give a new vigour to your spiritual constitution.Humble yourself sweetly, however, and often make the act of the love of your own abjection. Abide for a little time in the position of the woman of Canaan. (St. Matt. xv. 27.) Yea, Lord, I am not worthy to eat the bread of the children. I am truly a whelp, who look angry and bite my neighbour without reason, by my words of impatience; but if the whelps eat not of the entire bread, at least they eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their master. Thus, my sweet Master, I ask of Thee, if not Thy holy body, at least the benedictions which it diffuses over those who approach it with love. This is the feeling which you may have on those days on which you were accustomed to communicate, but on which you now do not. Reflections: Why does our disposition for receiving communion matter, whether we receive once a month, once a week or once a day? Shouldn’t our disposition always be the same?How does this apply in Eastern Catholic churches that give communion to babies who have no dispositions yet?If communion is a remedy for venial sins, shouldn’t we frequent communion so as to help improve our disposition?How can one obtain a “great purity and fervor” to ensure that one has a suitable reception of communion? And why does this matter?What do you think actually happens when we receive communion?Discuss this question from Saint Francis: “What is the use of building castles in the air, when we must live upon the earth?”St. Francis advised the woman’s daughter to take communion only once a month. In 1905, Pope St. Pius X authorized and promoted frequent — even daily — reception of the Eucharist for all the faithful, provided they were in a state of grace and approached with the right intention. He taught that the Eucharist is “the antidote whereby we are freed from daily faults and preserved from mortal sins.” Do you think limiting communion would help give us a greater fervor for it, as the saint suggests? How do we avoid taking it too casually at times? Sign up for our Living Jesus Chat Room:Come to our Living Jesus Chat Room, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern Time U.S. |