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OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
189

heart for your Lord, Who is continually demanding this of you; and then turn to Him and invite Him with earnestness to come with His Grace to heal you and deliver you from your enemies, to the end that He Alone may possess your heart. Or else, calling to mind your last Sacramental Communion, say with enkindled heart, "When, my Lord, shall I again receive Thee?—when? when?"

But if you desire to prepare yourself, and spiritually communicate in a more orderly manner; on the previous evening address all mortifications, acts of virtue, and every other good work to this end, that you may spiritually receive your Lord.

And in the early morning, consider what great happiness and benefit the soul gains by worthily receiving the most holy Sacrament of the Altar (for in it lost virtue is regained, the soul is brought back to its first beauty and receives the fruits and merits of the Passion of the Son of God); and consider how pleasing it is to God, that we receive it and possess these blessings, so that you may inflame your heart with a great desire to receive it to give Him pleasure.

When this desire is enkindled within you, turning to Him, say: "Inasmuch as it is not granted to me, Lord, to-day to receive Thee