SECOND POINT.
LET us consider with serious attention the advantages of holy communion, and also the dispositions requisite to receive it often. The first consideration will urge us to have frequent recourse to this Life-giving Bread; the second will make us careful not to approach unworthily: the first will show us the inestimable blessings which are attached to frequent communion; the second, the dispositions with which we should approach, that we may not profane this adorable sacrament, or be deprived of any of the graces annexed to the worthy reception of it A faithful soul that communicates frequently, becomes more and more detached from the world, and more intimately united to God; her faith becomes more lively, her hope more firm and more constant, her charity more ardent and more heroic. As she receives, in this adorable sacrament, the author and source of every grace, she is replenished with all the graces necessary to attain the perfection of her state. Whereas, with* out this divine nourishment, she would languish and at length die. Every devout soul will acknowledge that she feels herself much weaker when she has been a long time without this heavenly food; for, as the body feels its weakness when it has not taken the material food which is its nourishment and support, so is the soul much weaker when it has been some time without this divine food — its true nourishment and support. When We approach to the holy altar often and with fervor, we are strengthened against all the temptations to which we may be exposed. For, although the body and blood of our Divine Saviour ceases to be really present in our heart after the Sacramental species are consumed, he, however, still re-main8 there in a special manner by his grace; and tho virtue of this sacrament — the most powerful and the most efficacious of all the sacraments — produces
