TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF MONSEIGNEUR DE LA BOUILLERIE,Archbishop of Perga, Coadjutor of Bordeaux.
My secret, O Christian soul, is contained in one word, "the Holy Eucharist." It is It which will make your prayer easier.
Your first care, when you pray, is it not to place yourself in the presence of God? As long as this Divine Presence shines upon your spirit, It keeps away all wandering thoughts; as long as It warms your heart, you fear less that your prayer will languish.
Ah ! how easy it is to keep oneself in the presence of God when one prays before the Eucharist! It has a powerful attraction for the soul, which draws it and attaches it. I said that the Angels and the Saints beholding the face of God were so enraptured by It that nothing could distract them. Being face to face with the Eucharist is what best reminds us here below of the Beatific Vision.
Our eyes, like those of Ezechias, weary themselves and fail if they would contemplate the heights of heaven,but they repose and revive when they behold the Sacred Host. Jesus Christ, in coming near to us, and condescending to present Himself on the altar to our worship, greatly helps us to be recollected.
From our heart to the altar the distance is really too short for our prayer to wander from the road. In the presence of the Eucharist prayer becomes easier; but especially does it become of incomparable power when united with It.
Contemplate Jesus Christ present in the tabernacle and on the altar. There it appears as if He were dead, and He lives; He appears silent and He speaks, " ever living," S. Paul tells us, "to make intercession for us."
His Eucharistic life is a prayer which never ceases. From the tabernacle where He dwells, He offers up to His Father, continues the same Apostle, prayers and supplications, which never fail to be heard through the respect due to Him.
On the altar where He offers Himself in sacrifice He also prays. " I have gone round," He tells us by the mouth of the Psalmist, " and have offered up in His tabernacle a sacrifice of jubilation." And, finally, when He comes to us in Holy Communion, listen to the sublime prayer which He addresses to His Father, " I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one."O prayer of the Eucharist, what infinite power dost thou give to mine Sweet and sublime belief. When I bend my knees before the tabernacle, I do not pray alone. A.God prays with me and He transforms my prayer. I no longer fear my unworthiness, I no longer dread my infirmity. The more unworthy I esteem myself, the more earnestly I call to my help the worthiness of the Eucharist ; the more miserable is my prayer, the more that of the Eucharist reassures me. What matters it that I am only man if God is with me? What matters it if my heart languishes, if I plunge it into the ardent fire which burns in the tabernacle? What matters it, finally, if my prayer stammers, as it is united with that Prayer which expresses Itself in Divine accents ? Is it necessary that I should add that our prayer, made more powerful through its union with the Eucharist, will also be more efficacious ?
The tabernacle is the throne of grace where S. Paul says that we should present ourselves to receive mercy and to gain there the help of which we stand in need. In truth the God of the Eucharist, who prays with us and for us, is at the same time the God who answers us. Sole Mediator between His Father and us, He combines in His own Person all celestial grace. But He only receives it in its fulness in order to transmit it to us in exceeding abundance. When the mountain has received rain from heaven it gives out from its sides the river which waters the plain. The tabernacle is this mountain, the rain of grace comes down to it, and from it flows the river which purifies our souls.
Also, sweet experience proves the efficacy of the prayers which the Eucharist inspires, and which are united with It. Since the day when the Saviour of the world concealed Himself in the tabernacle, who may count the lovely virtues, the pious wishes, the noble self-devotion, the beginning of which has been a prayer in the presence of the Eucharist ? Do you wish, O Christian soul, that I should take you with me up to the source of holiness ? No one is holy unless he fulfils the divine law; no one fulfils the law without the help of grace; no one receives grace without prayer; and no one prays better than at the feet of the tabernacle.
My secret, O Christian soul, is contained in one word, "the Holy Eucharist." It is It which will make your prayer easier.
Your first care, when you pray, is it not to place yourself in the presence of God? As long as this Divine Presence shines upon your spirit, It keeps away all wandering thoughts; as long as It warms your heart, you fear less that your prayer will languish.
Ah ! how easy it is to keep oneself in the presence of God when one prays before the Eucharist! It has a powerful attraction for the soul, which draws it and attaches it. I said that the Angels and the Saints beholding the face of God were so enraptured by It that nothing could distract them. Being face to face with the Eucharist is what best reminds us here below of the Beatific Vision.
Our eyes, like those of Ezechias, weary themselves and fail if they would contemplate the heights of heaven,but they repose and revive when they behold the Sacred Host. Jesus Christ, in coming near to us, and condescending to present Himself on the altar to our worship, greatly helps us to be recollected.
From our heart to the altar the distance is really too short for our prayer to wander from the road. In the presence of the Eucharist prayer becomes easier; but especially does it become of incomparable power when united with It.
Contemplate Jesus Christ present in the tabernacle and on the altar. There it appears as if He were dead, and He lives; He appears silent and He speaks, " ever living," S. Paul tells us, "to make intercession for us."
His Eucharistic life is a prayer which never ceases. From the tabernacle where He dwells, He offers up to His Father, continues the same Apostle, prayers and supplications, which never fail to be heard through the respect due to Him.
On the altar where He offers Himself in sacrifice He also prays. " I have gone round," He tells us by the mouth of the Psalmist, " and have offered up in His tabernacle a sacrifice of jubilation." And, finally, when He comes to us in Holy Communion, listen to the sublime prayer which He addresses to His Father, " I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one."O prayer of the Eucharist, what infinite power dost thou give to mine Sweet and sublime belief. When I bend my knees before the tabernacle, I do not pray alone. A.God prays with me and He transforms my prayer. I no longer fear my unworthiness, I no longer dread my infirmity. The more unworthy I esteem myself, the more earnestly I call to my help the worthiness of the Eucharist ; the more miserable is my prayer, the more that of the Eucharist reassures me. What matters it that I am only man if God is with me? What matters it if my heart languishes, if I plunge it into the ardent fire which burns in the tabernacle? What matters it, finally, if my prayer stammers, as it is united with that Prayer which expresses Itself in Divine accents ? Is it necessary that I should add that our prayer, made more powerful through its union with the Eucharist, will also be more efficacious ?
The tabernacle is the throne of grace where S. Paul says that we should present ourselves to receive mercy and to gain there the help of which we stand in need. In truth the God of the Eucharist, who prays with us and for us, is at the same time the God who answers us. Sole Mediator between His Father and us, He combines in His own Person all celestial grace. But He only receives it in its fulness in order to transmit it to us in exceeding abundance. When the mountain has received rain from heaven it gives out from its sides the river which waters the plain. The tabernacle is this mountain, the rain of grace comes down to it, and from it flows the river which purifies our souls.
Also, sweet experience proves the efficacy of the prayers which the Eucharist inspires, and which are united with It. Since the day when the Saviour of the world concealed Himself in the tabernacle, who may count the lovely virtues, the pious wishes, the noble self-devotion, the beginning of which has been a prayer in the presence of the Eucharist ? Do you wish, O Christian soul, that I should take you with me up to the source of holiness ? No one is holy unless he fulfils the divine law; no one fulfils the law without the help of grace; no one receives grace without prayer; and no one prays better than at the feet of the tabernacle.
