Book 4, Chapter 3: It Is Profitable to Communicate Often.
Chapter Focus: The disciple approaches the altar to receive Holy Communion, overwhelmed by God’s grace and generosity. The disciple reflects on
the need for frequent Communion as a means of sustenance on the daily walk of life, where we become weak with temptation and laziness. Like the Hobbits of the Shire, we need our Lembas Bread to sustain us during the journey. Holy Communion helps us “draw back from evil and strengthens us for good.” Thomas gives us a single principal to follow, which is to keep God continually on our mind in order to receive Him with a devout spirit. God’s wisdom is infinite, beyond nature. And when we grasp that we are receiving Him in the Eucharist, our one response should be that of joy.
Chapter 3, In Short.
1. I come to You, O Lord, that I may be blessed through Your gift.
2. Give me Yourself and it is enough.
3. The imaginations of our hearts are evil from our youth.
4. Our Lord condescends to come to us as soul so poor and weak: to appease our hunger with His whole Divinity and Humanity.
The text of Chapter 3: That It Is Profitable To Communicate Often.
The Voice of the Disciple:
Behold I come to You, O Lord, that I may be blessed through Your gift. Make me joyful in the holy feast which You, O God, in Your goodness have prepared for the poor (Psalm 68:11). Behold in You is all that I can and ought to desire, You are my salvation and redemption, my hope and strength, my honor and glory. Therefore rejoice in the soul of Your servant this day, for to You, O Lord Jesus, I lift up my soul (Psalm 86:4). I long to receive You devoutly and reverently. I desire to bring You into my house, so that with Zacchaeus I may be counted worthy to be blessed by You and numbered among the children of Abraham. My soul has an earnest desire for Your Body. My heart longs to be united with You.
2. Give me Yourself and it is enough, for besides You no comfort provides relief. Without You I cannot be, and without Your visitation I have no power to live. And therefore I must draw close to You often, and receive You for the healing of my soul, lest by chance, I might faint along the way if I am deprived of such heavenly food. For so You, most merciful Jesus, preaching to the people and healing many sick, once said, “I will not send them away hungry to their own homes, lest they faint by the way (Matt 15:32).” Therefore, deal with me now in like manner, for You left Yourself for the consolation of the faithful in the Blessed Sacrament. For You are the sweet refreshment of the soul. Whoever eats worthily shall be partaker and inheritor of the eternal glory. Because I often slide backwards and sin, and quickly become cold and fainthearted, it is important for me to renew myself: cleanse and enkindle myself by frequent prayers and penitences through receiving of Your sacred Body and Blood. Otherwise I might easily I fall short of my holy resolutions by waiting too long.
3. The imaginations of our hearts are evil from our youth (Gn 8:21), and unless divine medicine helps us, we slide away continually to the worse. Holy Communion draws us back from evil, and strengthens us for good. For if I now be so negligent and lukewarm when I communicate [or celebrate], how should it be with me, if I do not receive this medicine, and do not seek so great a help? [And though I am not fit every day nor well prepared to celebrate Mass, I will nevertheless give diligent attention in time, in order to receive the divine mysteries, and to become partaker of so great a grace]. For this is the one principal consolation of a faithful soul: so long as it is absent from You in mortal body, that being continually mindful of its God, it receives its Beloved with devout spirit.
4. Oh what a wonderful condescension of Your pity surrounds us, that You, O Lord God, Creator and Quickener of all spirits, should see fit to come to such a poor, week soul, and to appease its hunger with Your whole Divinity and Humanity. Oh happy mind and blessed soul, to which is granted devoutly to receive You its Lord God, and in so receiving You to be filled with all spiritual joy! Oh how great a Lord it entertains, how beloved a Guest it brings in, how delightful a Companion it receives, how faithful a Friend it welcomes, how beautiful and exalted a Spouse, above every other Beloved, it embraces, One to be loved above all things that can be desired! Oh my most sweet Beloved, let heaven and earth and all the glory of them be silent in Your presence. Whatever praise and beauty they have it is of Your gracious bounty and they shall never reach the loveliness of Your Name, Whose Wisdom is infinite (Psalm 147:5).