Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin MaryVisit 6

To the Blessed Sacrament.
My Lord Jesus Christ, etc., page 123.

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ —Jesus Christ says, that where a person esteems his treasure to be, there also he keeps his affections. Therefore the saints, who neither esteem nor love any other treasure than Jesus Christ, centre their hearts and all their love in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

My most amiable Jesus, hidden under the sacramental veils, who for the love which Thou bearest me remainest night and day imprisoned in this tabernacle, draw, I beseech Thee, my whole heart to Thee, that I may think of none but Thee, that I may love and seek and hope for Thee alone. Do this by the merits of Thy Passion, through which I seek and hope for it.

Ah, my sacramental Lord and divine Lover, how amiable and tender are the inventions of Thy love to gain the love of souls!) O Eternal Word, Thou, in becoming man, wast not satisfied with dying for us; Thou hast also given us this sacrament as a companion, as food, and as a pledge of heaven. Thou reducest Thyself so as to appear amongst us, at one time as an infant in a stable, at another as a poor man in a workshop, then as a criminal on a gibbet, and now as bread on an altar. Tell me, couldst Thou invent other means to win our love?

O infinite goodness, when shall I really begin to correspond with such refinements of love? Lord, I will only live to love Thee alone. And of what use is life to me, if I do not spend it wholly in loving and pleasing Thee, my beloved Redeemer, who hast poured out Thy whole life for me? And what have I to love, if it is not Thee, who art all beauty, all condescension, all goodness, all loving, all worthy of love? May my soul live only to love Thee; may the sole remembrance of Thy love dissolve my soul with love; may the very names of crib, and cross, and sacrament inflame it with the desire to do great things for Thee, O my Jesus, who hast indeed done and suffered great things for me!

Ejaculatory Prayer. Grant, my Lord, that before I die I may do something for Thee!

Spiritual Communion, page 124,
Visit to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

As a fair olive-tree in the plain.’ I am, says Mary, the beautiful olive-tree from which the oil of mercy always flows. And I stand in the plain, that all may see me, and that all may have recourse to me. “Remember (let us say in the words of the prayer of St. Bernard), O most compassionate Mary, that it has never been heard of in any age, that any one having recourse to thy protection was abandoned by thee.” ? Most merciful Queen, such a thing was never heard of, that any one having recourse to thy aid was abandoned: I will not be the first unfortunate creature who, having recourse to thee, was abandoned. .

Ejaculatory Prayer. O Mary, grant me the grace always to have recourse to thee!

[From the Naples Edition.]
Prayer of St. Bernard.

O Mary! thou art the only woman on whom the Saviour of the world has poured the treasures of his grace without measure; hence we are taught to honor thy chaste Womb as the temple of God, wherein he was pleased to begin the great work of our redemption, the reconciliation of God with man. Thou, O mother of God, art that spiritual garden, whose fruit is never gathered by the hands of sinners, Thou art that hallowed soil where God has planted all the flowers which adorn his church, and amongst the rest, the holy virtues of humility, purity, and charity, which are greater ornaments to the souls of men than violets, lilies, and roses are to the earth. Thou art the paradise of God, whence flows the stream of living water to moisten the earth. Oh, what benefits were bestowed on the world through thee, when thou wast selected to be the fortunate channel of so many graces!

Ejaculatory Prayer. Hail! our life, our sweetness, and our hope.'
The usual prayer, page 125.