Love of Jesus Christ.
“If any man love not Our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.” — 1 Cor. 16:22.
TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY.
A very great crime in Christians, a crime which brings upon them frightful chastisements, is to receive unworthily Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in the sacrament of His love. The profaners of this adorable sacrament will drink during eternity the chalice of divine vengeance. — St. John Damascene.
A person at the point of death, who had the unhappiness of having made sacrilegious Communions, thought he saw the demon approaching him, and heard these words: “Because you have made unworthy Communions you will receive today Communion from my hands.” The unfortunate cried aloud, in his despair: “The vengeance of God is upon me, the vengeance of God is upon me!” He died pronouncing these words. Let us not forget what the deacon formerly said before giving Communion: “Holy things are for the holy. Let him who is not holy, that is, free from sin and well prepared, take care how he approach the holy table, to receive the Holy of holies.”
Prayer.
O my god, have I not reason to fear lest I may have made unworthy Communions, as I so often fall again into my sins so soon after receiving Thy adorable body? I would that I could efface all sacrileges with tears of blood. Have pity on us according to Thy great mercy.