Day 26: The Miracle of the Eucharist (Imitation of Christ. Bk. 4. Ch. 1-3)

• 
  You are the Holy of Holies and I am sinful trash.
• How shall I bring You into my house when I have so often offended Your most kindly countenance? 
• How can I, a wretch and the poorest of men bring You into my house when I barely know how to spend a ½ hour in devotion (devout prayer)?

A devout encouragement to Holy Communion: Mt 11:28. Jn 6:51. Mt 26:26; 1 Cor 11:24. Jn 6:56. Jn 6:63.

Ch. 1: The great reverence with which Christ is to be received. Such pious words, full of sweetness and delight, inspire me. But my own evil deeds haunt me, and an impure (sullied) conscience prevents me from receiving such great mysteries. The sweetness of your words urges me on, but the abundance of my vices (wrongdoings) weighs me down. How shall I bring You into my house when I have so often offended Your most kindly countenance? How can I, a wretch and the poorest of men bring You into my house when I barely know how to spend a ½ hour in devotion (devout prayer)? Just once, I wish I could make it to a worthy ½ hour. I spend so little time preparing to receive communion. I am rarely totally recollected, and most rarely purified of all distractions. In Your presence there should be no indecent thoughts coming up, nor any creature take over. Why do I not yearn more ardently for your venerable presence? In this Sacrament, spiritual grace is bestowed, lost virtue is repaired in the soul, and beauty, deformed by sin, returns again. [I am broken, prone to sin and prone to wander, yet you still bid me come (Mt 11:28). How can I be so numb to God's presence?]

Ch. 2: God's great goodness and charity are revealed to man in the Sacrament. I approach as a sick person to my Savior, as a slave to my Master, as a creature to my Creator, as one desolate to my kind Counselor. How does a sinner dare to come into Your presence?  I confess my baseness (worthlessness). I acknowledge your goodness. You are the Holy of Holies and I am sinful trash (the worst of sinners). [I am not worthy, God is. I am needy, God is completely self-sufficient and needs nothing, yet God comes to me. We satisfy our needs, wants, have comfort, am full, we neglect and don't desire God. But God who is always full wants me.]

Ch. 3: The benefits of frequent Communion. Everything I can or should ever want is in You. I so often fall into sin. I wear out and fall so quickly. The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth (Gen 8:21). [I am weak and I leak. God fills me with blessings, and I forget so quickly and leak them all over the place.]