Manner of Practising This Devotion to Our Lady, when we Go to Holy Communion.

From St. Louis de Montfort, A Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, tr. F. W. Faber (London: Burns and Lambert, 1863). Wording reflects its time. Public domain; the text is given word for word as printed.

1. Before Communion.

1. You must humble yourself most profoundly before God. 2. You must renounce your corrupt interior, and your dispositions, however good your own self-love may make them look. 3. You must renew your consecration by saying, Tuus totus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt,—I am all thine, my dear Mistress, with all I have. 4. 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. You will represent to her that it touches her Son's glory, to be put into a heart so sullied and so inconstant as yours, which would not fail either to lessen His Glory or to destroy it. But if she will come and dwell with you, in order to receive her Son, she can do so by the dominion which she has over all hearts; and her Son will be well received by her, without stains, and without danger of being outraged or destroyed. Deus in medio ejus, non commovebitur. You will tell her confidently, that all you have given her of your good is a little matter to honour her; but that by the Holy Communion you wish to make her the same present as the Eternal Father gave her, and that you will honour her more by that than if you gave her all the goods in the world; and, finally, that Jesus, who loves her alone, still desires to take His pleasure and His repose in her, even in your soul, though it be filthier far and poorer than the stable where He made no difficulty to come, simply because she was there. You will ask her for her heart by these tender words: Accipio te in mea omnia, præbe mihi cor tuum, O Maria!

2. At Communion.

On the point of receiving Jesus Christ, after the Our Father, you say three times, Domine non sum dignus. Say the first one to the Eternal Father, telling Him you are not worthy, because of your evil thoughts and ingratitudes towards so good a Father, to receive His only Son; but that He is to behold Mary, His handmaid,—Ecce ancilla Domini,—who acts for us, and who gives us a singular confidence and hope with His Majesty: Quoniam singulariter in spe constituisti me.

You shall say to the Son, Domine non sum dignus; telling Him that you are not worthy to receive Him, because of your idle and evil words, and your infidelity to His service; but that nevertheless you pray Him to have pity upon you, that you may introduce Him into the house of His Own Mother, and yours, and that you will not let Him go, without His coming to lodge with her. Tenui eum, nec dimittam donec introducam illum in domum matris meæ, et in cubiculum genitricis meæ (Cant. iii. 4). You will pray Him to rise, and come to the place of His repose, and into the ark of His Sanctification: Surge, Domine, in requiem tuam, tu et arca sanctificationis tuæ. Tell Him you put no confidence at all in your own merits, your own strength, and your own preparations, as Esau did; but that you trust only in Mary, your dear Mother, as the little Jacob did in the cares of Rebecca. Tell Him that, sinner and Esau as you are, you dare to approach His Sanctity, supported and adorned, as you are, with the virtues of His holy Mother.

You shall say to the Holy Ghost, Domine non sum dignus; telling Him that you are not worthy to receive this masterpiece of His charity, because of the lukewarmness and iniquity of your actions, and because of your resistances to His inspirations; but that all your confidence is in Mary, His faithful Spouse. You shall say with St. Bernard, Hæc mea maxima fiducia, hæc tota ratio spei meæ. You can pray even Him to come Himself in Mary, His indissoluble Spouse, telling Him that her bosom is as pure, and her heart as burning as ever; and that without His descent into your soul neither Jesus nor Mary will be formed, nor yet worthily lodged.

3. After Holy Communion.

After Holy Communion, while you are inwardly recollected and holding your eyes shut, you will introduce Jesus into the heart of Mary. You will give Him to His Mother, who will receive Him lovingly, will place Him honourably, will adore Him profoundly, will love Him perfectly, will embrace Him closely, and will render to Him, in spirit and in truth, many homages which are unknown to us in our thick darkness. Or else you will keep yourself profoundly humbled in your heart, in the presence of Jesus residing in Mary. Or you will sit like a slave at the gate of the king's palace, where he is speaking with the queen; and while they talk one to the other without need of you, you will go in spirit to heaven and over all the earth, praying all creatures to thank, adore, and love Jesus and Mary in your place: Venite, adoremus, venite. Or else you shall yourself ask of Jesus, in union with Mary, the coming of His kingdom on earth, through His holy Mother; or you shall sue for the Divine wisdom, or for Divine love, or for the pardon of your sins, or for some other grace; but always by Mary and in Mary, saying, while you look aside at yourself, Ne respicias, Domine, peccata mea,—"Lord, look not at my sins;" Sed oculi tui videant æquitates Mariæ,—"But let your eyes look at nothing in me but the virtues and merits of Mary:" and then, remembering your sins, you shall add, Inimicus homo hoc fecit,—"It is I who have committed these sins;" or you shall say, Ab homine iniquo et doloso erue me; or else, Te oportet crescere, me autem minui,—"My Jesus, you must increase in my soul, and I must decrease; Mary, you must increase within me, and I must be still less than I have been." Crescite et multiplicamini,—"O Jesus and Mary, increase in me, and multiply yourselves outside in others also."

There are an infinity of other thoughts which the Holy Ghost furnishes, and will furnish you, if you are thoroughly interior, mortified, and faithful to this grand and sublime devotion which I have been teaching you. But always remember that the more you leave Mary to act in your Communion, the more Jesus will be glorified. The more you leave Mary to act for Jesus, and Jesus to act in Mary, the more profoundly will you humble yourself, and will listen to them in peace and silence, without putting yourself in trouble about seeing, tasting, or feeling; for the just man lives throughout on faith, and particularly in Holy Communion, which is an action of faith. Justus meus ex fide vivit.

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