How to Receive the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist, or to Receive the Lord Christ Sacramentally—in the Mysteries

In order to attain the purpose for which we approach this Divine Mystery, we must have certain particular dispositions, perform certain particular acts, and employ certain particular measures—before Communion, during Communion, and after Communion. Before Communion, one must cleanse oneself from every defilement of sin—both mortal and less serious—through the Mystery of repentance and Confession, and fulfill whatever the spiritual father enjoins at Confession, joining to this a firm resolve with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with all one’s strength, and with all one’s thought to serve the one Lord Jesus Christ alone and to do only what is pleasing to Him. Since in this Mystery He gives us His Body and His Blood, with His soul and divinity and all the power of the incarnate Economy, and since we reflect on how negligible is what we give Him in comparison with what He gives us, let us resolve in our hearts to do, at the very least, everything in our power with wholehearted zeal for His glory; and were we to come into possession of the greatest gift ever offered to Him by earthly and heavenly rational creatures, let us declare our readiness to present it without hesitation to His Divine Majesty.

Having desired to receive this Mystery so as by its power to overcome and defeat your enemies and the Lord’s, begin the evening before—or even earlier—to reflect on how earnestly our Savior, the Son of God and God, desires that in receiving this Mystery you make a place for Him in your heart, so that, uniting Himself with you, He may help you to drive out from it all your passions and overcome all your enemies.

This desire of our Lord is so great and so ardent that no created mind can fully comprehend it. Yet so that you may at least approach some understanding of it, strive to impress the following two thoughts as deeply as possible upon your mind: first, how unspeakably joyful it is for the All-Gracious God to dwell in the most intimate communion with us, as the sacred Wisdom Herself attests, saying: ”My delight… is with the children of men” (Prov. 8:31); and second, how intensely God hates sin—both because it hinders the union with us that is so dear to Him, and because it is directly opposed to His divine perfections. Being by nature infinitely good, pure light, and unspeakable beauty, He cannot but be immeasurably repelled by sin, which is nothing other than the uttermost evil, darkness, corruption, abomination, and filth in our souls. And this divine intolerance of sin is so great that from the very beginning all God’s providential acts and ordinances of the Old and New Testaments have been directed toward its destruction and the erasure of its traces—and above all the wondrous Passion of our Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God. Some theologians and teachers even say (recall the account of St. Dionysius the Areopagite’s vision to Titus) that if it were required, the Lord Jesus would have been ready to endure countless other deaths in order to annihilate the power of sin. Such is the divine abhorrence with which it is pursued.

Having understood from such thoughts and contemplations how great is God’s desire to enter your heart—so that He may there finally defeat your enemies, who are also His enemies—you cannot but feel within yourself a living longing to receive Him, that He may accomplish such a work in you in very deed. Having thus enkindled yourself with such courage, taking boldness from the sure hope that the Heavenly Captain of your host, Jesus, can come into you, challenge frequently to battle the passion that troubles you and that you wish to overcome, and strike it with hatred, contempt, and aversion—while at the same time arousing within yourself a prayerful longing for the virtue opposed to it, with readiness also for the corresponding acts, such and such as they may be. This is what you should do in the evening before Communion.

In the morning, a little before Holy Communion, pass in one swift gaze of the mind over all the lapses, wrongdoings, and transgressions committed by you since your previous Communion until now, recalling at the same time with what fearlessness and blindness all of this was done—as though you had no God, no Judge, no Rewarder who saw it all and who, in order to deliver you from such deeds, endured dreadful sufferings and a shameful death on the cross, which you trampled upon when, giving way to sin, you placed your shameful desires above the will of God your Savior. Let shame cover the face of your soul in the awareness of such ingratitude and such fearlessness. Yet do not allow yourself to be overwhelmed and drowned by agitation at this, and drive all despair far from you. Behold, the long-suffering Lord, moved to mercy by your repentance and by the readiness you have expressed to serve Him alone from this time forth, comes again to you and into you—to drown and swallow up the abyss of your ingratitude and fearlessness and weak faith in the immeasurable abyss of His own goodness. Approach Him, therefore, with a humble sense of your unworthiness, but also with full confidence, love, and surrender—making ready a spacious tabernacle for Him in your heart, that He may dwell in you wholly. How and in what way? By expelling from the heart every thought of anything created—let alone attachment and sympathy toward it—and by shutting its door, that nothing and no one may enter except the Lord.

After receiving Holy Communion, enter at once into the secret places of your heart and, bowing there before the Lord with reverent humility, address to Him inwardly this kind of conversation: “You see, my most gracious Lord, how easily I fall into sins to my own destruction, and how great a power the passion warring against me has over me, and how powerless I am myself to be free from it. Help me and strengthen my feeble efforts—or rather, take up my weapons Yourself and with them strike a final blow against this raging enemy of mine in my stead.”

After this, finally, turn to the Heavenly Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and ours—who by His goodwill has descended into you together with Him in these Holy Mysteries—and to the Holy Spirit, who by His grace has stirred and prepared you for the reception of the Body and Blood of the Lord and now, after their reception, abundantly overshadows you. Bow before this one God, glorified in the Holy Trinity and bestowing blessings upon us, and having offered Him reverent thanksgiving for the great mercy shown you in this moment, present to Him—as a kind of offering—your unwavering resolve, your readiness, and your striving to fight against your sin, in the hope of overcoming it by the power of the one triune God. For know that if you do not employ all your efforts to overcome your passion, you will receive no help from God; and if, striving with utmost zeal, you rely on your own strength alone, you will achieve nothing. Strive with wholehearted effort—but await success from God’s help alone. Help will assuredly come and, making your feeble efforts all-powerful, will grant you an easy victory over that with which you are struggling.