Twenty-first Visit.

From St. Alphonsus Liguori, Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament (New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1870). Wording reflects its time. Public domain; the text is given word for word as printed.

"Wheresoever the body shall be, thither will the eagles also be gathered together." Luke xvii. 37.

By this body the saints commonly understand the body of Jesus Christ, and by the eagles they understand souls detached from the world, who, like eagles, soar above the things of the earth, and fly up into heaven; after which, in thought and affection, they constantly sigh, and in which they continually dwell.

These eagles find their paradise on earth in Jesus in the holy sacrament; so that their desire to remain with him appears incapable of being ever satiated. "If," says Jerome, "the eagle, as soon as he perceives the smell of a dead body, sets off from a distance in search of his prey, how much more eagerly ought we to run and fly to Jesus in the holy Eucharist, as to the most delicious food of our souls?" Hence, in this valley of tears, the saints, like the thirsty stag, have always sighed after this celestial fountain. Father Balthasar Alvarez, of the society of Jesus, was accustomed, in whatever occupation he was engaged, to cast his eyes frequently to the tabernacle in which he knew the holy Eucharist was preserved. He visited the blessed sacrament very often, and sometimes spent the entire night at the foot of the altar. He used to weep in considering that the palaces of the great are always crowded with courtiers, paying homage to men from whom they expect some miserable recompense, and that the churches in which the Sovereign of the universe dwells with us, as on a throne of love, rich in infinite and eternal treasures, are so much abandoned. And he would frequently extol the great happiness of religious who can, even in their own houses, visit as often as they please, by day or by night, this great Lord in the most holy sacrament.

My most beloved Lord, although thou seest that I am so miserable and so ungrateful, still thou invitest me to draw near to thee. I, therefore, will not be disheartened by my miseries. I come to thee, change me, O my Saviour; banish from me every affection which is not for thee, every desire which is not pleasing to thee, and every thought which does not tend to thee. My Jesus, my love, my treasure, I desire to content and please thee alone. Thou alone dost merit all my love, and thee only do I wish to love with all my heart. O my Lord, detach me from all creatures, and bind me to thyself alone; but bind me, so that I may never more be separated from thee, either here or hereafter.

Ejac. My most sweet Jesus, do not permit me to be ever separated from thee.

The Spiritual Communion.

TWENTY-FIRST VISIT TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

Prayer of William of Paris.

I address my petitions to thee, O Mother of God! whom the whole church styles the Mother of Mercy. Canst thou, whose prayers are always acceptable to God, refuse thy intercession in behalf of sinners? Justly does St. Bernard say, that we may cease to call thee the Mother of Mercy, if any one ever invokes thee in the hour of need, without experiencing thy assistance. Thou wilt not, therefore, exclude me from a share in thy compassion. Thou wilt intercede for me with more earnestness than I can for myself; and thou wilt procure more abundant graces than I could presume to ask. O Mother of Mercy! can that clemency, which never abandoned any one, refuse me its assistance in the danger to which I am exposed of being eternally lost?

Ejac. O Mary! I am thine: save me.

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