Ebook Legends of the Blessed Sacrament

Union with God is the secret of the lives of the Saints. They left all to attain it, and trod in the one only path which leads up to it. We find them humbly and simply seeking Him in the ways He has appointed, most especially affectionate to the Blessed Mother of God, and most fervently devout towards the glorious Sacrament of the Altar. The Saints by this divine union became themselves vessels of grace, of which Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the living source.

God is always the same; sanctity is always the same. If we aspire to union with God, we must follow the footsteps of the Saints. We must empty ourselves of self before we can seek to be filled with God. This is not a figure of speech, but a literal truth. We are not full of God simply because we are content to be full of self. Yet He is in the midst of us now, as He was when He spoke to St. Teresa, St. Catharine, or Blessed Margaret Mary. Why do we not see Him? Why do we not, like them, return love for love, when His love is so great, so magnificent, so enduring, and ought to be so constantly before our eyes? If we loved as the Saints did, we might hope to attain to the graces of the Saints. But since we do not - and we know that we do not - it is most fitting that we should seek their society with great humility and reverence, and in their company and after their example try like them to contemplate Jesus our God in the Blessed Sacrament, in order that our devotion, according to the measure which God has given us, may really, although faintly, resemble theirs.

When a believer is worthy to receive Holy Communion - that is, when his soul is in a state of grace - it is not possible to reckon all the wonderful operations of grace which the participation of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ produces in him. These come from the interior union which takes place therein with Jesus the God-Man. Our Lord has Himself given us to understand this when He says, 'Whosoever eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood, he dwelleth in Me and I in him' (St. John vi.57). As bread when it is eaten becomes one with man, becomes a part of his flesh, and of his blood, 'so,' saith St. John Chrysostom, 'He mingleth Himself with us, we become one existence with Him, whereby we are one whole with Him, being with Him one flesh and one body.' He becometh the Soul of our soul, as it were, and the Life of our life.