Besides, this Sacrament kindles the Divine love. " He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love; stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love." (Sol. Song ii. 4, 5.) S. Gregory Nyssen says, that the Communion is precisely that " banqueting house," where the soul is in such a way inebriated by Divine love; that it becomes forgetful of the earth and all created things, and that this is really to languish with Divine love. Father Olympio says, that nothing so inflames with love towards God as the Holy Communion. " God is love." (i S. John iv. 8.) And He is the fire of love: " God is a consuming fire." (Deut. iv. 24.) The Eternal Word came to kindle this fire of love in the world. " I am come to send fire on the" earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?" (S. Luke xii. 49.) And Oh, what bright flames of sacred love does Jesus kindle in souls, which with such a desire, receive Him in this Sacrament! S. Chrysostom says that " the Eucharist is a coal which inflames us; that, like lions breathing fire, we depart from that Table, being made terrible to the devil.
But some will say, I do not often communicate, for the reason that I seem cold in Divine love; but this, says Gerson, would be the same, as if a person were unwilling to go near the fire because he felt cold. By how much the more we feel cold, by so much the more, we ought to approach frequently the holy sacrament, that we may ever desire to love God. S. Francis of Sales writes, If they ask you "why you communicate so often? " tell them that two classes of persons ought to communicate often; the perfect and the imperfect; the former to preserve their perfection, the latter to attain to perfection." S. Bonaventure said also, " Although thou art cold, yet approach, trusting in the mercy of God; he so much the more needs a physician, as he feels himself to be the more ill." S. Mechtildes adds, " When thou art about to communicate, desire to have all the love that any heart ever had for Jesus Christ, and He will receive it, that thou mayest have the love thou desirest."
Affections and Prayers.
Beloved of souls, my Jesus! there remains no further proof
