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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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