Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/245

 cellar of wine; lie set in order charity in me" (ii. 4.) St. Gregory says, that the communion is this cellar of wine, in which the soul is so inebriated with divine love, that she forgets and loses sight of all earthly things. 7. Some will say: ” I do not communicate often; because I am cold in divine love." In answer to them Gerson asks, Will you then, because you feel cold, remove from the fire? When you are tepid you should more frequently approach this sacrament. St. Bonaventure says: ” Trusting in the mercy of God, though you feel tepid, approach: let him who thinks himself unworthy reflect, that the more infirm he feels himself the more he requires a physician" (de Prof. Rel., cap. lxxviii). And, in ” The Devout Life," chapter xx., St. Francis de Sales writes: ” Two sorts of persons ought to communicate often: the perfect, to preserve perfection; and the imperfect, to arrive at perfection." It cannot be doubted, that he who wishes to communicate should prepare himself with great diligence, that he may communicate well. Let us pass to the second point. Second Point. On the preparation we ought to make in order to derive great fruit from the holy communion. 8. Two things are necessary in order to draw great fruit from communion preparation for, and thanksgiving after communion. As to the preparation, it is certain that the saints derived great profit from their communions, only because they were careful to prepare themselves well for receiving the holy eucharist. It is easy then to understand why so many souls remain subject to the same imperfections, after all their communions. Cardinal Bona says, that the defect is not in the food, but in the want of preparation for it. ” Defectus non in bibo est, sed in edentis dispositione." For frequent communion two principal dispositions are necessary. The first is detachment from creatures, and disengagement of the heart from everything that is not God. The more the heart is occupied with earthly concerns, the less room there is in it for divine love. Hence, to give full possession of the whole heart to God, it is necessary to purify it from worldly attachments. This is the preparation which Jesus himself