reason it is called bread, because, just as common bread sustains the life of the body, so this heavenly bread preserves the life of the soul, which life is the grace of God. Therefore, according to the Council of Trent, “ it is the most powerful remedy to free us from our daily faults, and to preserve us from mortal sin.” — Trid. sess. xiii. c. 2.
First of all, the Holy Communion infuses into our hearts the love of God Jesus Christ has expressly declared that he came into the world for no other cause than to kindle in our hearts the fire of his divine love. “ I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will 1, but that it be kindled?” ( Luke xii. 49.) What is there now on the earth that can better inflame the heart of man with divine love, than the holy Sacrament of the Altar, where the divine Redeemer gives us himself entire? Therefore the holy Council of Trent teaches us that our Saviour in this Sacrament “ has poured out all the treasures of his love for us.” — Sess. xiii. c. 2.
Men should desire nothing more, or more ardently, than to receive Jesus Christ as often as possible in the Holy Communion.
How dear to the Church is the practice of frequenting the sacraments! How earnestly do the saints exhort us to go to confession and communion, not only when we are bound to do so, as the Church commands, but often besides. “ Let not,” says the Catechism of the Council of Trent, “let not the faithful imagine that it is enough to receive the body of the Lord once a year only — they should approach oftener; but whether monthly, weekly, or daily, cannot be decided by any universal rule.” And St. Alphonsus teaches that when the soul is a long time without this divine food, she scarcely has
