TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF MONSEIGNEUR DE LA BOUILLERIE, Archbishop of Perga, Coadjutor of Bordeaux.
VI.
THE EUCHARIST AND THE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES. - THE EUCHARIST AND THE CHRISTIAN
"How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts."— Ps. lxxxiii. 2.
WHAT is there more beautiful in the world than the . Christian virtues ?
If we happen to meet a soul which has the happiness of practising them, we experience an indescribable feeling of contentment. As an apparition from heaven, it shows us the Christian religion in its purest truth, with its most exquisite charms.
We acknowledge that Jesus Christ alone could so enrich the human soul; and in each of these virtues of which He is the Master and the Model, we adore His infinite goodness.
But did the word and example of the Saviour suffice to raise the soul to this height, where the most elevated Christian virtues are familiar and sweet to it ? Ah ! if we ask it how this wonder has been worked, it will not fail to answer: "I loved the Eucharist, and all good things came to me together with it."
Between the Eucharist and the Christian virtues there is, then, a secret link ?
Yes, certainly; and in this conversation I would show you, O Christian soul, what it is.
I will try to tell you first what the virtues are relatively to the soul and relatively to the Eucharist. I will show you afterwards what in its turn the Eucharist is with respect to the Christian virtues.
