Consecration Aids: 17: Preparing For Jesus with Mary at Holy Communion!
The original title of this article was: Preparing for the King!
Fr. Christopher Lee, SMM
B eing an American, I suppose, I naturally like independence. I would never begrudge myself of this … were it not for the fact that, at one time in my life, independence was nothing less than pride for me. I refer to my independent attitude in receiving Holy Communion. By the way, did you know that a fellow can be receiving Holy Communion every day and still be a pretty proud cuss – in this sense that he can think himself almost worthy of this great Sacrament?
Well, sorry to say, I can speak from personal experience. You see, I was the type who is shocked – I might say incensed – at the thought that Mary, the Mother of God, should “interfere” in my heart-to-heart colloquies with my God, in Holy Communion. And when it was first pointed out to me that I must apply True Devotion to Mary even in Holy Communion, I was almost frantic.
“No one will come between me and my God, in Holy Communion!” I exclaimed. “No one, not even Mary, the Mother of God. And besides, Our Lord gives Himself to me, not to her!”
Such was the belligerent stand I took when the subject was first broached to me. Needless to say, I have long since reversed my stand on this subject; yet, every time I hear a soul re-echo the same sentiments, it seems I experience a feeling of great sympathy for them. If you are of this type, dear readers, kindly read on and see how foolish, how un- Christ-like an attitude this is.
Notice, first of all, that I said: “No one will interfere, no one will come between me and my God.” Now for Mary to “interfere” between me and my God, that supposes that she is an obstacle! What a colossal blunder! To think that the one who has given us Christ the first time, at Bethlehem, should now be an obstacle to His coming into our hearts in Holy Communion! As though the Christ of Bethlehem and the Christ of Holy Communion were not one and the same Christ, now and forever, the Son of Mary!
Note also the insistence of self : “Our Lord gives Himself to ME, not to . . .” In reality, am I really worthy to receive such a Lord in my heart? Does not the Church make me say … the Domine non sum dignus, Lord I am not worthy, before Holy Communion?
If I am unworthy, isn’t there some one who is worthy, or at least, who is less unworthy than I, to receive the Savior of the world? And, come to think of it, doesn’t the Church say of Mary that she “merited” to bear the Savior of the world? Quia quem meruisti portare , “because the One Whom thou hast merited to bear!”
Besides, what right have I to think that Our Lord gives Himself to ME ONLY and not to His Mother also, in Holy Communion? Isn’t Christ in Holy Communion as much the Son of Mary as He was at Bethlehem, at Nazareth, on Calvary? Has His love for her diminished in any way, or His union with her ceased for one moment?
Isn’t it St. Louis de Montfort who says somewhere that “you would separate the light from the sun more easily than you would separate Jesus from Mary?” Why then all this fuss about leaving Mary out of our Holy Communions as though she were an “intruder” and an “obstacle?”
Author: Fr. Christopher Lee, SMM
This is the seventeenth in a series of articles covering Consecration Aids.
… de Montfort would have me tell Mary that I am making not only a present of myself to her, but that I am also going to give her the greatest gift God can give, His own divine Son. Yes, I am going to give Jesus back to Mary! with the same unselfishness with which she gave me Christ at Bethlehem, I will give Him back to her in Holy Communion.
Did you ever stop to think that the very fact that you go to Holy Communion is a grace in itself, and that grace comes to you through Mary? Is she an obstacle there? Did you ever realize that even the grace of the Sacraments (including Holy Communion) comes to you through Mary, in the sense that she disposes your soul to receive them, as the noted Father Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., points out in his beautiful book The Mother of the Savior and Our interior Life? ( p. 252).
It was then that I began to realize that what I really needed was a little more humility! (And who of us doesn’t? ) It was then that I came upon St. Louis de Montfort’s method of receiving Holy Communion in union with Mary.
First, he tells us, “You must I humble yourself profoundly before God. You must renounce your corrupt interior and your dispositions, however good your self-love may make them look.” What a two-fisted blow to my benighted pride! All this while I had deep down in my heart supposed that my own dispositions were good enough! . . . that I didn’t need the help of anyone or, to put it my way: the “interference” of anyone!
Humility and self-renunciation are but the first steps. Comes the positive angle: “ You must renew your consecration by saying: ’I am all thine, my dear Mistress, with all that I have.’ ”
Yes, this is where my consecration will bear its richest fruits. I will renew my gift of self to Mary that she may truly ”take over” in my preparation for Holy Communion; that she may sweep the house of my soul clean for His coming; that she may decorate the dwelling with her own dispositions, intentions, virtues and graces.
More, I will implore her to lend me her Immaculate Heart. In the words of St. Louis de Montfort : “You must implore that good Mother to lend you her heart, that you may receive her Son there with the same dispositions as her own.”
What a perfect preparation for Holy Communion! What a way to greet the King, namely, to invite the Queen to prepare the way for Him!
Finally – and this, to my mind, is the peak of self-lessness and delicacy – de Montfort would have me tell Mary that I am making not only a present of myself to her, but that I am also going to give her the greatest gift God can give, His own divine Son. Yes, I am going to give Jesus back to Mary! with the same unselfishness with which she gave me Christ at Bethlehem, I will give Him back to her in Holy Communion.
What a gift to give to Mary! Not merely a poor sinner like myself, but the Son of God, her own Son!
Imagine the love that Mary will pour into a soul thus preparing itself to receive its God! Imagine the graces that will be consequent upon each preparation!
Isn’t it wonderful what a little humility can do?
