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Before Holy
Communion
266. 1) Place yourself
humbly in the presence of God.
2) Renounce your corrupt nature and dispositions, no matter how good self-love
makes them appear to you.
3) Renew your consecration saying, "I belong entirely to you, dear Mother,
and all that I have is yours."
4) Implore Mary to lend you her heart so that you may receive her Son with
her dispositions. Remind her that her Son's glory requires that he should
not come into a heart so sullied and fickle as your own, which could not
fail to diminish his glory and might cause him to leave. Tell her that if
she will take up her abode in you to receive her Son - which she can do because
of the sovereignty she has over all hearts - he will be received by her in
a perfect manner without danger of being affronted or being forced to depart.
"God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved."
Tell her with confidence that all you have given her of your possessions
is little enough to honour her, but that in Holy Communion you wish to give
her the same gifts as the eternal Father gave her. Thus she will feel more
honoured than if you gave her all the wealth in the world. Tell her, finally,
that Jesus, whose love for her is unique, still wishes to take his delight
and his repose in her even in your soul, even though it is poorer and less
clean than the stable which he readily entered because she was there. Beg
her to lend you her heart, saying, "O Mary, I take you for my all; give me
your heart."
During Holy Communion
267. After the
Our Father, when you are about to receive our Lord, say to him three times
the prayer, "Lord, I am not worthy." Say it the first time as if you were
telling the eternal Father that because of your evil thoughts and your
ingratitude to such a good Father, you are unworthy to receive his only-begotten
Son, but that here is Mary, his handmaid, who acts for you and whose presence
gives you a special confidence and hope in him.
268. Say to God the Son, "Lord, I am not worthy", meaning that you are not
worthy to receive him because of your useless and evil words and your
carelessness in his service, but nevertheless you ask him to have pity on
you because you are going to usher him into the house of his Mother and yours,
and you will not let him go until he has made it his home. Implore him to
rise and come to the place of his repose and the ark of his sanctification.
Tell him that you have no faith in your own merits, strength and preparedness,
like Esau, but only in Mary, your Mother, just as Jacob had trust in Rebecca
his mother. Tell him that although you are a great sinner you still presume
to approach him, supported by his holy Mother and adorned with her merits
and virtues.
269. Say to the Holy Spirit, "Lord, I am not worthy". Tell him that you are
not worthy to receive the masterpiece of his love because of your lukewarmness,
wickedness and resistance to his inspirations. But, nonetheless, you put
all your confidence in Mary, his faithful Spouse, and say with St. Bernard,
"She is my greatest safeguard, the whole foundation of my hope." Beg him
to overshadow Mary, his inseparable Spouse, once again. Her womb is as pure
and her heart as ardent as ever. Tell him that if he does not enter your
soul neither Jesus nor Mary will be formed there nor will it be a worthy
dwelling for them.
After Holy Communion
270. After Holy
Communion, close your eyes and recollect yourself. Then usher Jesus into
the heart of Mary: you are giving him to his Mother who will receive him
with great love and give him the place of honour, adore him profoundly, show
him perfect love, embrace him intimately in spirit and in truth, and perform
many offices for him of which we, in our ignorance, would know nothing.
271. Or, maintain a profoundly humble heart in the presence of Jesus dwelling
in Mary. Or be in attendance like a slave at the gate of the royal palace,
where the King is speaking with the Queen. While they are talking to each
other, with no need of you, go in spirit to heaven and to the whole world,
and call upon all creatures to thank, adore and love Jesus and Mary for you.
"Come, let us adore."
272. Or, ask Jesus living in Mary that his kingdom may come upon earth through
his holy Mother. Ask for divine Wisdom, divine love, the forgiveness of your
sins, or any other grace, but always through Mary and in Mary. Cast a look
of reproach upon yourself and say, "Lord, do not look at my sins, let your
eyes see nothing in me but the virtues and merits of Mary." Remembering your
sins, you may add, "I am my own worst enemy and I am guilty of all these
sins." Or, "Deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man." Or again, "Dear
Jesus, you must increase in my soul and I must decrease." "Mary, you must
increase in me and I must always go on decreasing." "O Jesus and Mary, increase
in me and increase in others around me."
273. There are innumerable other thoughts with which the Holy Spirit will
inspire you, which he will make yours if you are thoroughly recollected and
mortified, and constantly faithful to the great and sublime devotion which
I have been teaching you. But remember, the more you let Mary act in your
Communion the more Jesus will be glorified. The more you humble yourself
and listen to Jesus and Mary in peace and silence - with no desire to see,
taste or feel - then the more freedom you will give to Mary to act in Jesus'
name and the more Jesus will act in Mary. For the just man lives everywhere
by faith, but especially in Holy Communion, which is an action of faith.
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