TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF MONSEIGNEUR DE LA BOUILLERIE,Archbishop of Perga, Coadjutor of Bordeaux.
I have reminded you of those beautiful words which Jesus Christ addressed to His Father when He instituted the Holy Supper: " I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one."
These words, O Christian soul, do not permit us any longer to doubt that the communion is a divine prayer.
Jesus Christ is in His Father the Word, and as the divine expression of uncreated intelligence, and here He deigns to be in us the Word, the divine expression of our own feelings. Jesus Christ is in His Father, united to Him by the sacred bonds of an eternal love, and here He fills our hearts with the spirit of His love. So in all our communions, it is the Word which speaks in us, it is the Holy Spirit which loves in us.
Can one conceive a more lovely prayer than that produced in our souls by the Word, and the love of the Holy Spirit ?
And it is for this cause, O Christian soul, that after receiving the communion you should, first of all, listen to the Celestial voices which are singing within you, and warm your heart by the divine fire which consumes you.
But the signal privilege of every reasonable being is, that the divine work operating in him does not destroy his own work. While the Word and the Holy Spirit pray together within you, you also pray with Them! There ensues then between the Three Divine Persons and you intimate and touching relations which raise you above yourself, which inspire you with heavenly feelings. O Christian soul, it is to you that I appeal; have you ever prayed better than at the moment when the Heart of the Saviour leaned tenderly on your heart, at the moment when the Spirit of God animated your own spirit ?
I would willingly call Holy Mass and Holy Communion the morning prayer of the faithful soul; and I would that its evening prayer should be the visit to the most Blessed Sacrament.
When the labours of the day are nearly finished, when your tired spirit needs rest, you will hear from the tabernacle the invitation given to Martha and Mary: "The Master is there and calleth for thee."Direct then your steps to the church, kneel down at the Feet of Jesus Christ and pray. This Eucharistic evening prayer will have great charms for your piety.
It will be the evening! It will be the hour for recollection, for solitude, and for silence !
It will be the evening! the hour when the Spouse of the Canticles said to her Beloved : " My Beloved to me and I to Him till the day break, and the shadows retire."
The hour when the Disciples at Emmaus pressed their Divine Master to remain with them: "Stay with us, because it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent."
The hour, finally, when you will say yourself: "Here am I, O my God. When the night comes my soul desires Thee, and to Thee do I watch at break of day."
It will be the hour of recollection: the sounds of the world will have ceased! — It will be the hour of solitude. Around the tabernacle, only the angels and you !—It will be the hour of silence, but of a silence more eloquent than all the words of men. For it is then that the God of the tabernacle will confide to you His most divine lessons. And when you leave the church, having received them, and meditated upon them, you will add with the same disciples whom Jesus Christ visited at eventide : " Did not my heart burn within me when the Eucharist spoke to me?"
I have reminded you of those beautiful words which Jesus Christ addressed to His Father when He instituted the Holy Supper: " I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one."
These words, O Christian soul, do not permit us any longer to doubt that the communion is a divine prayer.
Jesus Christ is in His Father the Word, and as the divine expression of uncreated intelligence, and here He deigns to be in us the Word, the divine expression of our own feelings. Jesus Christ is in His Father, united to Him by the sacred bonds of an eternal love, and here He fills our hearts with the spirit of His love. So in all our communions, it is the Word which speaks in us, it is the Holy Spirit which loves in us.
Can one conceive a more lovely prayer than that produced in our souls by the Word, and the love of the Holy Spirit ?
And it is for this cause, O Christian soul, that after receiving the communion you should, first of all, listen to the Celestial voices which are singing within you, and warm your heart by the divine fire which consumes you.
But the signal privilege of every reasonable being is, that the divine work operating in him does not destroy his own work. While the Word and the Holy Spirit pray together within you, you also pray with Them! There ensues then between the Three Divine Persons and you intimate and touching relations which raise you above yourself, which inspire you with heavenly feelings. O Christian soul, it is to you that I appeal; have you ever prayed better than at the moment when the Heart of the Saviour leaned tenderly on your heart, at the moment when the Spirit of God animated your own spirit ?
I would willingly call Holy Mass and Holy Communion the morning prayer of the faithful soul; and I would that its evening prayer should be the visit to the most Blessed Sacrament.
When the labours of the day are nearly finished, when your tired spirit needs rest, you will hear from the tabernacle the invitation given to Martha and Mary: "The Master is there and calleth for thee."Direct then your steps to the church, kneel down at the Feet of Jesus Christ and pray. This Eucharistic evening prayer will have great charms for your piety.
It will be the evening! It will be the hour for recollection, for solitude, and for silence !
It will be the evening! the hour when the Spouse of the Canticles said to her Beloved : " My Beloved to me and I to Him till the day break, and the shadows retire."
The hour when the Disciples at Emmaus pressed their Divine Master to remain with them: "Stay with us, because it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent."
The hour, finally, when you will say yourself: "Here am I, O my God. When the night comes my soul desires Thee, and to Thee do I watch at break of day."
It will be the hour of recollection: the sounds of the world will have ceased! — It will be the hour of solitude. Around the tabernacle, only the angels and you !—It will be the hour of silence, but of a silence more eloquent than all the words of men. For it is then that the God of the tabernacle will confide to you His most divine lessons. And when you leave the church, having received them, and meditated upon them, you will add with the same disciples whom Jesus Christ visited at eventide : " Did not my heart burn within me when the Eucharist spoke to me?"
