An Extremely Powerful Prayer of Thanksgiving For Holy Communion

Some time within the last year or so, I began to pray Mary’s Magnificat as part of my thanksgiving for Holy Communion, in imitation of Bl. Mary d’Oignies and other holy souls who have profited immensely thereby. What profit there is in clinging to the Mother of God, the sole Spouse of Christ! We cannot separate Jesus and Mary: in Christ, we are sons in the Son; in Mary, we are spouses in the Spouse. To be all hers is to the best way to be all His.

In addition to the Magnificat, I also like to add various Scriptural passages, including the first verse of Psalm 102: ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul: and let ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME bless His Holy Name.’

I was very pleased, then, to discover the prayer of St. John Eudes at the time of receiving Holy Communion:

My soul doth magnify the Lord.
Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and let all that is within me bless His holy Name.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and let all that is within me bless His holy Name.
Because He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and let all that is within me bless His holy Name.
Because He that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is His Name.
Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and let all that is within me bless His holy Name.
And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him.
Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and let all that is within me bless His holy Name.
He hath shewed might in His Arm: He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and let all that is within me bless His holy Name.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and let all that is within me bless His holy Name.
He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away.
Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and let all that is within me bless His holy Name.
He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy:
Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and let all that is within me bless His holy Name.
As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.
Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and let all that is within me bless His holy Name.
(Lk. 1:46-55; Ps. 102:1)

Why did I write ‘Soul’, rather than ‘soul’? Listen to Our Lord’s words to Ven. Anne-Marguerite Clement (‘Divine Communications’, Vol. II, p. 156, Saudreau, OP):

“Since I have indeed given you My heart, why can I not give you My Soul as well? Yes: I will that It shall be yours, in order that, even as we have but one Heart, so may we also have but one Soul; and so you shall be able to say continually in Me and by Me: Benedic, anima mea, Domino: bless the Lord, O my soul.”

Read also Our Lord’s words to Mother Deleloe (which I have shared before):

“What more can you desire than to have within you the true source of all good, My Divine Heart?… All these great things are yours, all these treasures and riches are for the heart that I have chosen… Draw as much as you desire of these infinite delights and riches.”

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Jesus Lives On In The Church (Pt. 2): The Mystical Tradition

God Deserves Infinite Praise
‘Great is the Lord,’ says the Psalmist, ‘and exceedingly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain’ (Ps. 47:2). Truly, God is worthy of infinite praise: ‘exalt Him as much as you can: for He is above all praise’ (Ecclus. 43:33). How then are we to praise God adequately?

The Chalice of Salvation
The answer is simple: unite yourself to Christ; live by His life (1 Jn. 4:9), by His hidden, Eucharistic life. There is no other way: ‘What shall I render to the Lord, for all the things He hath rendered unto me? I will take the Chalice of Salvation; and I will call upon the Name of the Lord’ (Ps. 115:12-13).

God Alone Can Praise God Worthily
God alone can praise Himself sufficiently. For this reason, God was made man; to this end He established the Church (‘the City of our God’), which offers to Him, upon her Altars (‘His holy mountain’), the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, that is, the perfect ‘sacrifice of praise’ (Ps. 115:17), which mystically renews the offering of Christ on Calvary:

‘For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, My Name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for My Name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts’ (Mal. 1:11).

God is ALL
To reiterate: ‘What shall we be able to do to glorify Him? for the Almighty Himself is above all His works’ (Ecclus. 43:30). Be a host. Thus we shall realise, in full, the prayer of Jeremiah: ‘Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be saved, for THOU ART MY PRAISE’ (Jer. 17:14). This is the key to Christianity:

‘Sing to the Lord,
in union with His Bride, the Church, Who lives by His life,
O ye His saints: and,
through the Holy Mysteries,
give infinite praise,
through Christ, the God-Man,
to the memory of His infinite holiness.’
– Ps. 29:5 (the words in italics are mine)

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SOME REVELATIONS ON THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS AND THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT

(1) A Vision of St. Hildegarde of Bingen
“As I gazed upon this Flesh and Blood I saw the signs of the Incarnation, the Birth, the Passion, of Our Saviour reflected in them as in a mirror, and just as we know these events to have been accomplished when the Son of God was on earth.” (‘Scivias’)

(2) Another Revelation of St. Hildegard of Bingen
Words of the Eternal Father: “Hence these mysteries shine before Me in the Heavenly places; for I have not forgotten them, but they will appear before Me in great brightness, like the dawn, until the end of the world.” (‘Scivias’)

Bl. Columba Marmion: “Doubtless we must never forget that under the Eucharistic species is found only the substance of the glorious Body of Jesus, such as it is at present in Heaven, and not such as it was, for example, in the crib of Bethlehem.
But when the Father looks upon His Son Jesus in the Heavenly splendours, what does He behold in Him? He sees the One Who lived thirty-three years upon earth for us; He beholds all the mysteries that this mortal life contained, the satisfactions and the merits whereof these mysteries were the source; He beholds the glory that His Son gave Him in living each of them.” (‘Christ in His Mysteries’)

St. Gertrude in ecstasy

(3) A Revelation to St. Gertrude the Great
“It is related in the life of St. Gertrude, that one day, on the Festival of the Ascension, when she received the Sacred Host from the hand of the priest, she heard Jesus say to her: ‘Behold Me: I come, not to bid thee farewell, but to take thee with Me to Heaven, and present thee to My Father.'” (‘Christ in His Mysteries’)

Some Consoling Biblical Titles for Christ

FROM THE BOOK OF PSALMS
My Mercy (Ps. 58:18)
My Saviour (Ps. 26:9)
My Helper (Ps. 18:5)
My Redeemer (Ps. 18:5)
My Patience (Ps. 70:5)
My Protector (Ps. 3:4)
My Joy (Ps. 31:7)
My Hope (Ps. 70:5)

FROM ELSEWHERE
‘My Beloved’ (Cant. 2:16)
‘Our Everlasting Saviour’ (Bar. 4:22)
‘Saint of Saints’ (Dan. 9:24)

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A Prayer Inspired by Some of the Aforementioned Titles
My Mercy (Ps. 58:18), have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy (Ps. 50:3).
My Saviour (Ps. 26:9), save me for Thy mercy’s sake (Ps. 6:5).
My Helper (Ps. 18:5), make haste to help me (Ps. 69:2).
My Redeemer (Ps. 18:5), redeem me and have mercy on me (Ps. 25:11).
My Patience (Ps. 70:5), give me constancy in my mind (Jud. 9:14).
My Protector (Ps. 3:4), protect me under the shadow of Thy Wings. (Ps. 16:8).
My Joy (Ps. 31:7), give joy to the soul of Thy servant (Ps. 85:4).
My Hope (Ps. 70:5), I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps. 26:13).

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An Important Spiritual Lesson
All that you seek can be found in Christ. Do you desire mercy? He is mercy. Are you in need of joy? He is joy. Are you wanting in patience? He is your patience. Go to Him for everything.

God Loves Nothingness
Believe and know that He draws you by His love alone. Give Him the consent of your faith. Give Him your poverty, your misery, your sins. God does not disdain nothingness; this is His vast domain of activity. “My child,” said Our Lord to Armella Nicolas, “make room for Me.”

‘To Live is Christ’
Know that God is the sanctity of the soul. Your wretchedness is no obstacle to His goodness; the only hindrance is your lack of faith and abandonment. Be little in His arms! He is your Abba, your ALL!

You will learn this littleness by gazing at your Mother, the littlest of all of His ‘most dear children’ (Eph. 5:1): ‘BEHOLD THY MOTHER’ (Mt. 12:47).

The Most Essential Christian Prayer Book

On the Lips of Saints
During the final days of Bl. Columba Marmion (d. Jan 30, 1923), a certain individual was trying to encourage him to confide in God’s mercy. The gist of what the latter said was this: “Think of all the good works you have performed: remember all the conferences you have given, the books you have written, the sermons you have preached.” Shaking his head, the holy Abbot simply had this to say: ‘Deus meus, misericordia mea!’ (‘My God, my mercy!’).

Where did he learn this beautiful little prayer? Was it his own composition? Did he find it in the writings of a pious author? Was it revealed to a chosen soul? No. These words come straight from the Psalter – that is, the book of Psalms. We will find no better prayer book; every word comes from the Heart of God. This explains the preference of so many desert fathers, priests, religious, and Saints in general, for the Psalter.

‘Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Thy name:
the just wait for me, until Thou reward me.’
– Final words of St. Francis of Assisi (Ps. 141:8)

What better way to address Him than in those words which were inspired by the Holy Spirit, Who ‘searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God’ (1 Cor. 2:10)? Are His words not ‘spirit and life’ (Jn. 6:64)?

If you wish to ‘put on Christ’ (Gal. 3:27), you must have ‘the mind of Christ’ (1 Cor. 2:16), and if you wish to have the mind of Christ, you must let your heart be dissolved in His prayer, in His life. ‘It is written,’ said Our Lord (quoting the book of Deuteronomy), ‘that Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God’ (Lk. 4:4). Open your Bible, then; listen to your God, Who calls on you, saying: ‘For I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it’ (Ps. 80:11).

“The Psalms form indeed the chief of all books of prayer.”
– Bl. Ildephonsus Schuster

The Psalms: A Key to the Heart of Christ
“The holy Gospels, writes Bl. Cardinal Schuster, “relate the life of Jesus in all its details and expound His teaching, but the Psalms of David show us the mind of our Saviour, and make known to us His preferences, His feelings, His struggles and His anxieties, and tell us of the accents of deep love in which He prayed to His heavenly Father.

Throughout His life, Jesus addressed Him in the words of the Psalter, and on the Cross, during His last agony, the twenty-first psalm was on His lips. We might almost liken the Psalter to a sacerdotal book of prayers which the eternal Pontiff recited whilst offering up to His Father the sacrifice of His own life…

The private piety of present-day Catholics would gain much if, letting themselves be influenced by the example of our common Mother, the Church, who appoints for her ministers the weekly recital of the Psalter, they, too, would make more use of this prayer-book, which was inspired by the Holy Ghost and adopted for our example by our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself.” (‘The Sacramentary,’ p. 156, vol. II)

The Value of a Fervent Communion

‘Miraculous communion du Saint Teresa of Jesus’ by Niccolò Bambini.

‘Deus Cordis Mei: Thou art the God of my heart’
The graces of a fervent Communion are incalculable. One Communion was sufficient to cause Bl. Imelda (d. May 12, 1333) to die of love, so great was her longing for the God of her heart (Ps. 72:26).  “Tell me,” she would sometimes say, “can anyone receive Jesus into his heart and not die?” ‘My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready!’ (Ps. 41:3; Ps. 107:2).

“No tongue can express,” writes the Venerable Abbot Blosius, “no heart can comprehend how boundless are the spiritual goods which come to the soul from the devout reception of this sweet Sacrament of the Eucharist.” (‘A Spiritual Mirror’) ‘He that spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not also, with Him, given us all things?’ (Rom. 8:32)

Four Fruits of a Fervent Communion
Listen to the words of “the devout Blosius” (St. Alphonsus), “a great Benedictine mystic” (Bl. Columba Marmion). The following words are from his work, ‘A Book of Spiritual Instruction’:

“O most worthy and most sweet Sacrament, in which, under the species of bread and wine, we receive the whole Christ, namely, the Body, the Blood, the Soul and the Godhead of Christ; we receive the whole Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. For the three Persons of one Godhead and essence cannot be separated from one another. The whole Trinity, therefore, dwells in the Body of Christ, because the whole Godhead is in It. The fruits, therefore, of the most Blessed Sacrament are many and precious.

(1) He who receives the Lord’s Body with due devotion is cleansed from all sins, even from those mortal sins of which he is not conscious or does not remember to have committed, provided only that he is in the disposition of mind to confess and do penance for them if he did know that he had fallen into them.

(2) He is made partaker of all those good things which Christ has merited for us in His Life, Passion and Death.

(3) Yea, also, he becomes a sharer in all the good things that have been done since the time of Adam, and will be done until the end of the world.

(4) Lastly, he is united to Christ and incorporated with Him, and therefore receives force and power to resist vice and to persevere in good works; and now, adorned with a more pure and excellent life, he is transformed and changed into God, and filled with all the grace of the most glorious Trinity.”

‘Elevation of the Host’ by Wenceslaus Hollar

‘Thou hast prepared a Table before me against them that afflict me.’
– Psalm 22:5

Consoling Revelations

[I was hoping to publish something else today, but was prevented from doing so due to time constraints. Not to worry: I will complete the post next week.]

“Paternal help shall never be wanting to those who place themselves in My hands.”

– Jesus to St. Gemma Galgani

(p. 43, ‘The Life of St. Gemma Galgani’ by Her Spiritual Director Venerable Fr. Germanus, C.P.)

“Come all of you to Me and fear not, for I Love you all.”

– Jesus to Sr. Josefa Menendez

“Fear nothing, for the Heart of Jesus is the throne of Mercy, where the miserable are the most readily received.”

– Jesus to St. Gemma Galgani (p. 54–55, Ibid.)

“I will be a mother to thee. Wilt thou be a true child?”

– Our Lady to St. Gemma Galgani (after saying this, Our Lady opened her mantle and covered her with it)

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‘The rich have wanted, and have suffered hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good.’

– Psalm 34:1

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“Be like a child with Me,” says Jesus.

The following words were revealed by Our Lord to Sr. Gertrude Mary, a holy nun of the community of St. Charles in Angers, France (1870 – 1908):

“… you must be like a child with Me. There is in you too strong a feeling of fear and I wish you to exchange it for a feeling of filial love…

Your joy must be greater than your fear. Excessive fear is not the feeling of a loving daughter. And in so far as your soul is not dilated with joy, trust and abandonment, there will be obstacles…

The thing that checks Divine effusion in your soul is your want of simplicity and abandonment with your heavenly Father. I desire to be lavish with your soul, and you prevent My doing what I wish with you.”

Simplicity and abandonment. This is the key to happiness and holiness. Sr. Gertrude Mary writes: ‘We say: “God loves me dearly; God is very good” and we are not convinced of its truth; and this is what prevents our perfect correspondence with God’s plan for us – it is Our Lord who says so.’

 “Whosoever is a little one, let him come to Me.” (Proverbs 9:4). “To him that is little, mercy is granted.” (Wisdom 6:4).

“Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in thee.” (Psalm 33:22)

“Trusting souls are the robbers of My graces. Write that the pleasure I take in the trusting soul is inexpressible.” (Jesus said to Sr. Benigna Consolata)

“Souls that trust boundlessly are a great comfort to Me, because I pour all the treasures of My graces into them. I rejoice that they ask for much, because it is my desire to give much, very much. On the other hand, I am sad when souls ask for little, when they narrow their hearts.” (Jesus to St. Faustina)