Page:Complete ascetical works of St Alphonsus v6.djvu/282

280 me and I in him. In Holy Communion Jesus unites himself to the soul, and the soul to Jesus; and this is not a union of mere affection, but it is a true and real union. Hence St. Francis de Sales says: "In no other action can the Saviour be considered more tender or more loving than in this, in which he annihilates himself, so to say, and reduces himself to food, in order to penetrate our souls, and to unite himself to the hearts of his faithful." St. John Chrysostom says, that Jesus Christ, through the ardent love which he bore us, desired so to unite himself to us, as to become one and the same thing with us. "He mingled himself with us, that we might be one thing; for this is the property of those who ardently love."

"It was Thy wish, in short," says St. Laurence Justinian, "O God, enamoured of our souls, to make, by means of this sacrament, Thine own heart, by an inseparable union, one and the same heart with ours!" St. Bernardine of Sienna adds, that "the gift of Jesus Christ to us as our food was the last step of his love; since he gives himself to us in order to unite himself wholly to us; in the same way as food becomes united with him who partakes of it." Oh, how delighted is Jesus Christ to be united with our souls! He one day said to his beloved servant,, after Communion, "See, my daughter, the beautiful union that exists between me