“He who loves Jesus wants to receive him in Holy Communion.” – Fr. Mateo
One time a Jew said: “If I really believed Jesus Christ was present in the Eucharist, I would crawl to church to receive him.” Do lovers not want to be united? Then if we love Our Lord in the Eucharist, how can we not want to receive him?
It is said that Our Lord spoke to St. Gertrude the Great and He said to her, “Whenever one receives Me in Holy Communion devoutly and in the state of grace, something good happens to everyone in heaven, on earth, and in purgatory.” Each time we receive Holy Communion our venial sins are forgiven, and our place in heaven is raised forever, and, our stay in purgatory is shortened. When one considers that the fires of purgatory are the same as those of hell, one should try to shorten their purgatory as much as possible. St. Alphonsus de Liguori relates a story of a sick man who was given the option by God to live two more years on his sickbed, or choose three days in purgatory. He chose the three days, died, and went to purgatory. He started complaining to his guardian angel about being there for years and his angel replied, ”What’s that you say? Your body is still warm from your deathbed!” A nun who came back from purgatory and asked for prayers, to show how hot she was, put her little handprint on the door and burned her imprint on the door. Later, it was verified that it was indeed the nun who said she was, because she had a very small hand. Indeed, St. Peter Julian Eymard said souls would have to answer for every omitted Communion which they could have receive, and yet neglected to do so. The saints had a great longing to be united with Jesus. Do we?
Our souls live on the Holy Eucharist. That is why Jesus said, “Whoever eats this bread shall live forever.” St. John 6:52. And again, if we don’t eat this bread, we will not have life. “Amen. Amen, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall have no life in you.’’ Verse 54. No life, he says, without Holy Communion. And, do we want to be raised up to heaven on the last day, the end of the world? “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath life everlasting: and I will raise him up on the last day.. Verse 55. Pay attention my dearly beloved protestant brethren. No life without the Eucharist, Jesus says. But many will not come into the Church because they don’t believe. Jesus said of them, “But there are some of you who that believe not.’’ Verse 65.
Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.’’ How does He give us His life? He says, in the Eucharist. You just read it from the Scriptures. Here is St. Augustine speaking. “He, therefore who does not eat this bread and drink this blood does not have this life. A man may have temporal life without it, but in no way can he possess eternal life without it.”
St. Francis Xavier Cabrini: “Oh, if everyone understood what a treasure we have in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, what greatness, richness, sweetness, and joy they would possess! But what can we do to draw down the mercy of God on the earth, so that everyone may join the holy Catholic Church, the tree of life, and be saved?”
St. Ignatius Loyola: “How few there are who avail themselves of the precious blood of Jesus to purchase their salvation.’’ And what did St. Paul say? “The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?” 1 Cor. 10:16. ‘’For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And giving thanks, broke, and said: Take ye, and eat: this is my body, which shall be delivered for you: this do for the commemoration of me. In like manner also the chalice, after he had supped, saying: This chalice is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of me.
For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he come. Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep..’’ 1 Cor. 11:23-30.
Is Christ really alive in the Eucharist, or is he symbolic bread, as the protestants say? Jesus said, ‘’I am the living bread come down from heaven.” Verse 51. ‘’Living bread,’’ he said, not ‘’symbolic bread.’’ Paul Whitcomb, a former protestant minister once said, “If it was only symbolic, why does Jesus call it ‘’living bread?’’ If it were only symbolic, why have there been so many Eucharistic miracles to confirm this truth, even to the present day? When the Angel of Fatima, whom they believed was St. Michael, appeared to the three little children in 1916, he brought them Holy Communion, the Host with the chalice. Before he gave them Holy Communion, he left the chalice in the air, got on the ground, bowed all the way with his face to the ground and said a prayer of reparation for all the outrages, sacrileges, and indifference by which God is offended by men. In the meantime, the Host and chalice were suspended in the air, nothing holding them, and the Host was actually dripping blood down into the chalice! This was a Eucharistic miracle that proves Christ is truly present in the bread and wine after the priest consecrates it. “The Lord confirmed the word, with signs that followed.” St. Mark 16:20. Eucharistic miracles: https://tinyurl.com/y54ee577.
“Give us this day our supersubstantial bread.” St Matthew 6:11, From the Douay Rheims version, and the Latin Vulgate, which was in use many centuries before the protestant King James and other versions started coming out. Here is the Latin Vulgate, in use since the fifth century: ‘’ [11] Panem nostrum supersubstantialem da nobis hodie.’’ “The holy fathers of the Church unanimously teach that these words must be understood to mean the Eucharistic bread which ought to be our daily food. Frequent and daily Communion is greatly desired by Our Lord and the Church.’’ – Pope St. Pius X. You who partake of the Eucharist very seldom, read these words of Pope St. Pius X, ‘’Frequent and daily Communion is greatly desired by Our Lord and the Church.’’ – Pope St. Pius X. Those who receive infrequently are not following the counsels of holy Mother Church.
St. Alphonsus de Liguori: “The Eucharist is called “Heavenly Bread’’ because, as earthly bread maintains the life of the body, so does Holy Communion maintain the life of the soul.’’
St. John Baptist de la Salle: “He therefore, who does not eat this bread and drink this blood, does not have this life.”
St. Ephrem: “But if anyone despise it or reject it, or treat it with ignominy, it may be taken as a certainty that he treats with ignominy the Son of God himself, who called it, and actually made it to be His body.” Are we not despising Jesus in the Eucharist when we could go to Holy Communion and refuse to do so? Does not this show a great lack of love for Him who gave his life for us, in order to feed us with his Body and Blood?
St. Bernard: “It is a mark of reprobation not to have devotion to the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.’’
St. Francis of Assisi: ‘’We ought indeed to confess our sins to a priest, and receive from him the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who does not eat his flesh and drink his blood cannot enter into the kingdom of God…In all the preaching that you do, admonish the people that no one can be saved except him who receives the most sacred body and blood of the Lord. And while it is being sacrificed by the priest on the altar, and being carried any place, let all the people on bended knee render praise, honor, and glory to the Lord God living and true… Man should tremble, earth should quiver, all heaven should be deeply moved when the Son of God comes down upon the altar in the hands of the priest.” ‘’On bended knee?’’ St. Francis? No, we are too mature for that now. We Novus Ordo Catholics stand for Holy Communion!
“A threefold cord is not easily broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12, drbo.org. So you see, those of you who are reading this, there are three who give testimony of the truth of the Eucharist. One is the Church, which you read in the statements of the saints. Two is the testimony of the scriptures, which are in agreement with the saints. Three is the Eucharistic miracles, which confirm the truth of the other two.
Prayer of Pope Pius VI: I adore Thee, Eternal Jesus, and I thank Thee in company with Thy whole Church, Militant and Triumphant, for the infinite love with which Thou didst institute the Blessed Sacrament to be the food of my soul. I adore Thee in all the consecrated Hosts thoughout the whole world. I give Thee thanks also on behalf of those who do not know Thee and who fail to thank Thee. Would that I could lay down my life to cause Thee to be known, loved, and honored by all men in this Sacrament of Love, and to put an end to all the irreverences and sacrileges that are committed against Thee! Ah, most loving Spouse of my soul, come to me in Thy Sacrament and bring forth in me all those fruits for the sake of which Thou comes to us, and grant that I may die rather than ever receive The unworthily.’’
The horrible evil of sacrilegious Communions. Jesus to St. Bridget: ‘’There does not exist on earth a punishment sufficient enough to punish a sacrilegious Communion!’’ That is because, as St. Alphonsus said, “The sinner attempts to put Jesus on the throne of his heart beside satan.”
And so, St. Peter Eymard says, for those who do not wish to receive Holy Communion, “Do not pray the Lord’s Prayer anymore, since you pray for the Bread you wish to do without.”
Short Spiritual Communion: O Jesus, I love Thee. Please come into my heart. Make it like Thine own. Let me never be separated from Thee. Amen.
If you have benefitted from this article, please consider sharing it withothers.