"What a joy for a Christian who has faith, which, rising from the holy Table, he goes with his heart in the sky! ... Ah, happy house where these Christians live! ... what you need to have respect for them during the day. To have, at home, a second tabernacle where the good Lord has truly lived in body and soul!...
Maybe, I say again, if this happiness is so great , so why the Church gives us the commandment to tell us every year?
This commandment is not for the good Christians, for Christians there is only faint-hearted and indifferent to the safety of their poor soul. At the beginning of Church, the greatest punishment that could be imposed on Christians was to deprive them of this happiness, and every time had the joy of assisting at Mass, they had the joy of communicating. My God, Christians can remain
three, four, five and six months, without giving this heavenly nourishment to their poor souls? Let it die of starvation! ... My God, what a mess and what blindness! ... Having so many remedies to cure and thus suitable for a food store in health! . . .
The Church, seeing how the Christians have lost sight of the salvation of their poor souls, hoping that the fear of sin should open their eyes, gave them a commandment which obliged them to communicate three times year, Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. But later, seeing that the Christians became increasingly insensitive to their misfortune, the Church has done more to force them not to come closer to their God, but once a year. O my God, what a misfortune that blindness and what a Christian is obliged to by law to seek his happiness!
Curé D'Ars (St. John Vianney)
Maybe, I say again, if this happiness is so great , so why the Church gives us the commandment to tell us every year?
This commandment is not for the good Christians, for Christians there is only faint-hearted and indifferent to the safety of their poor soul. At the beginning of Church, the greatest punishment that could be imposed on Christians was to deprive them of this happiness, and every time had the joy of assisting at Mass, they had the joy of communicating. My God, Christians can remain
three, four, five and six months, without giving this heavenly nourishment to their poor souls? Let it die of starvation! ... My God, what a mess and what blindness! ... Having so many remedies to cure and thus suitable for a food store in health! . . .
The Church, seeing how the Christians have lost sight of the salvation of their poor souls, hoping that the fear of sin should open their eyes, gave them a commandment which obliged them to communicate three times year, Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. But later, seeing that the Christians became increasingly insensitive to their misfortune, the Church has done more to force them not to come closer to their God, but once a year. O my God, what a misfortune that blindness and what a Christian is obliged to by law to seek his happiness!
Curé D'Ars (St. John Vianney)
