If you have not yet seen Our Lady of America in New York City, you will be lifted up to see her amongst the people there by watching this video at Air Maria. The pictures are wonderful and the video is worth a million words!
The following is a wonderful reflection I found to meditate on before communion (before you even get to the church even) that I would like to share. The meditation comes from a book translated by the late Henry Cardinal Manning of Westminster Cathedral in London. Cardinal Manning was a convert from Anglicanism and apparently had a great influence over the mind and philosophy of the great British writer Hilaire Belloc. This is the 13th Meditation in the book and is entitled, “The Prelude to Heaven”.
Ask Him that Holy Communion may deliver you
from having the misfortune to offend Him, and may
support you in the trials which are inherent in every
situation in life.
Preparation.
ENTER the church with as much joy as if you knew
that you were going there to behold Jesus in His
glory. For although He is obliged to hide His visible
majesty and glory from our feeble sense, He is none
the less truly in the tabernacle, in all His beauty and
grandeur, and as fully deserves the respect and love
which you would show to Him if He were to appear
visibly before our mortal eyes.
This idea is so truly Catholic, that the entrance of
the church was formerly called Paradise (now abbre-
viated to farvis) because by it we really enter the
presence of God. As soon as you have chosen your
place, prostrate yourself as if Jesus were about to
appear to you. He does more than that in giving
Himself to you.
I. Earth Heaven.
When we remember that the whole world was
created for the use of man, we may imagine the
admiration, the transports of love into which saints
would be thrown by the sight of an exquisite flower,
when they said, God created this flower for me. This
thought applied to all the noble and lovely works of
God that met their eye, filled them with lively and
uninterrupted gratitude. But compared to Jesus in
the Blessed Sacrament, the most magnificent works
of creation sink into insignificance; and my heart is
more deeply affected when I consider the tabernacle,
which was also erected for me, than when I look at
all the marvellous works that the Almighty Hand of
God has created out of nothing. For then all the
beauties of earth dwindle into insignificance in the
presence of their Creator. When I look abroad I
say, My God, how beautiful are Thy works ! They
incline my soul to love Thee ; but I feel more strongly
inclined by far to forget all besides in the contempla-
tion of the Sacred Host, in which I adore and love
the Eternal Creator of all perishable things.
In permitting me to receive Holy Communion, our
Lord bestows upon me the most wonderful gift, except
the Incarnation, that the power of God has made.
It is a marvel which surpasses the Creation as much
as heaven surpasses earth; and this marvellous thing
is but the prelude to heaven.
But if you wish to enjoy celestial things, you must
impose silence upon your thoughts; repress every
word which is contrary to charity ; refrain from scru-
tinizing the intentions of your neighbour; fix the eyes
of your heart upon heaven alone; and you will then
find it easy to let earthly things pass away from your
mind without causing you any further distraction or
agitation. Look steadfastly at heaven and at the
tabernacle. In these two directions you are certain
to find Jesus, and when you fix your eyes upon Him
let them be accompanied by your heart.
In everything you do, Sursum corda, So will you
find peace; and peace in this world is equivalent to
happiness.
Yes, you should lift up your eyes to heaven, your
country, your everlasting resting-place. There you
will shed no more tears ; you will feel no more sad-
ness. God will be known, loved, possessed eternally
by you. Is not this hope satisfying enough to make
you forget yourself and fix your heart on things
above?
How glorious are Thy tabernacles; how dear are
they to me, O my God! If I find such happiness in
them upon earth, what shall I feel when I enter Thine
abode in heaven? My soul rejoices to enter into
the house of the Lord ; it rejoices still more in the
assurance that it will not quit His abode until it has
itself become His sanctuary and dwelling-place. Thy
tabernacle, O my Jesus, is the place of my repose.
I come to ask Thee for grace to forget myself in
thinking of Thee alone; for grace to love Thee only,
like the saints in heaven, who can never cease to
think of Thee and to love Thee for ever.
II. The Eucharistic joys are mingled with our tears.
Eternal happiness is but a transfiguration of our
souls in an ever-increasing glory: it is the eternal
flight of created love towards the Infinite. Heaven
is its glorious region above ; but we must not forget
that love must first commence its flight upon earth
before it can reach those blessed abodes where sorrow
shall be no more. Before we attain the heights of
heaven we must traverse the * valley of tears/ With-
out reckoning the adversities of life, the pious soul can
find in its ordinary occurrences abundant cause for
tears. The instinct derived from that infinite love of
which we are the objects causes us to feel the utter
impossibility of finding any affection upon earth which
is able to give full satisfaction to the soul. Sadness
arises in every soul that feels an unsatisfied craving
for the love of God. It finds itself pent in and cir-
cumscribed upon earth without knowing the true
cause of its uneasiness and longing desires. For on Y
the other side, our Lord presses our hearts in order
to wear out the life of nature in them and lead them
to seek the higher life of grace. We then feel deprived
of all outward or inward support, and attribute to
ordinary causes or chance events that distress of mind
which should be the first step to our spiritual trans-
formation. Out of Jesus we can find no rest. Our
sufferings, although they are severe, are yet not entirely
without sweetness, because God brings with Him a
feeling of celestial happiness, which the soul enjoys
without knowing from whence it derives it. This
feeling appears strange at first, because nothing upon
earth resembles it. We experience a sudden thrill of
happiness, strong as love, rapid as lightning, which
passes through the soul, leaving an impression of
sadness behind, because it is the remembrance of a
happiness which has passed away.
The soul that loves Jesus Christ only, finds no
difficulty in praying, humiliating itself, renouncing
worldly pleasures, and suffering patiently. The more
it acts, wearies itself, or suffers for Him, the more it
desires to act and suffer. Nothing can satisfy its
ardour, because love is a consuming fire that grows
by the sacrifices upon which it feeds, and it never
thinks it can do enough or devote itself sufficiently.
It is by love that Jesus rules the heart
O Jesus ! sorrow is one of the conditions of my
union with Thee. Receive, then, all that I suffer in
my heart, and my senses, as my preparation
for receiving Thee.
My cup of life is filled with bitterness. I might,
like many others, have only touched it with my lips,
and turned away without ever draining the bitter
dregs, or receiving the fullness of Thy heavenly con-
solations. But such was not Thy will, O my God.
The mournful shadows which have darkened my life
have always been brightened by the soft rays of the
Holy Eucharist. It is not in a complaining spirit that
I now speak of my trials; it is only in hopes of
receiving a little consolation. And yet I prefer the
grace of suffering to all the joys of earth, and I would
not exchange my tears for any worldly happiness.
O Jesus ! leave the sadness which oppresses me
always at the surface of my heart, and may its depths
be stirred only by the joy of Holy Communion,
mingled with perfect resignation to Thy will.
III. Preparing our souls to receive grace from God.
Lord Jesus, behold me before the Altar as if in the
porch of heaven and divided from Thy presence only
by a veil. Send Thine angels to purify my heart,
which is soon to be Thy abode, and to adorn it as
they invisibly adorn the Altar upon which Thou art
going to descend. On the day of my first Commu-
nion I was permitted to obtain a glimpse of heaven,
and the beatitude which my heart then first enjoyed
has been prolonged since then by successive Com-
munions, so that it has now only the intuitive vision
and perpetuity of enjoyment to expect in heaven.
But that I may really enjoy this beatitude, I must
faithfully preserve the graces of each succeeding
Communion.
What praise and blessings do I owe Thee, O my
God, for so mercifully admitting me to partake by
anticipation of the happiness of angels and saints !
But as a perfect union must embrace all our outward
and inward acts, I beseech Thee to enable me to
live in the purity of true love. Transform my whole
life by the uprightness of my desires, by the veracity
of my acts of love, into a succession of preparations
for Communion, followed by continual acts of thanks-
giving. Deign to establish my soul in such an union
with Thee as shall make it in some measure a partaker
of the lot of those blessed ones above, who enjoy the
unclouded sight of Thy Divine Essence.
O Jesus ! give my heart grace to love Thy house
upon earth. Its doors are always open to my desires.
I can go in and out freely; but grant also that nothing
may prevent me from enjoying to the full the infinite
good that I go thither to seek.
Reflections & prayers for Holy Communion by His Eminence, Cardinal Archiep. Westmon.
translated from the French by His Eminence, Cardinal Manning, Henry Edward
1876
