HOLY THURSDAY (CONDUCT TO HOLY SPEND LENT of Rnd Father AVRILLON)
PRACTICE
Enter today in spirit into the Cenacle; the Mystery that happens there deserves all your reflections,
Everything is great, everything is mysterious, and everything is interesting for you, as well as for the apostles. Listen with sovereign respect to the words of consecration pronounced by Jesus Christ, unite yourself with these first communicants of the Church, and commune spiritually with them. Long for the same happiness often; this is the way to make yourself worthy of it. Unite yourself above all to this divine consecrator; purify your heart of everything that could harm such a holy union, and thus prepare yourself for the Easter Communion.
MEDITATION
The Lord Jesus, on the very night that he was to be betrayed, took bread, and having given thanks, broke it, and said to his disciples: Take and Eat; for this is My Body, which will be delivered for you. (1. Cor., 11.)
1st POINT : All the steps that Jesus Christ took from his Incarnation until his Glorious Ascension, were only to approach man, to unite with him, and to thus mark his Love for him. But, in the institution of the Adorable Eucharist, he unites himself with us in an ineffable way; it is incarnated, so to speak, in each of us in particular; he comes down to us, and he lifts us up to himself; he abides in us, and we abide in him.
The night preceding His Passion, the Savior took the bread that was on the table, raised His Eyes to Heaven, to mark that the gift He was going to give to men was a Heavenly Gift; that he would make them Heavenly men, and that he would lead them to Heaven, if they received him worthily. He gave thanks to his Father: the sacrifice he offered him was a Eucharistic Sacrifice, that is to say, of Thanksgiving. He blessed the bread, and broke it, and gave it to all, saying, Take and Eat, for this is my Body . He thus carried himself into their mouths, and was placed in their stomachs, and near their hearts, to serve as food for them, to sanctify their souls, and to consummate this Divine Union.
Jesus took the chalice again after supper, saying This chalice is the New Covenant of my Blood; do this in memory of Me.
2nd POINT : The words that Jesus Christ spoke on the bread and on the wine put in their place his Flesh, his Blood, his Heart, his Spirit, his Soul, his Life and his Divinity; in a word, a God and a perfect man . This is what we receive in Communion; this is what forms the Eucharistic Union in us, and a miraculous extension of the Hypostatic Union . The Adorable Flesh of Jesus Christ, which is Purity itself,unites with ours through Communion ;it becomes his food and his support, and she communicates to him her incomparable purity. His precious and divine blood unites with ours; he animates it, purifies it; and, through this noble union, we acquire a Glorious consanguinity with Jesus Christ.
The Heart of Jesus Christ unites with our heart; he touches it, softens its hardness, extirpates its foreign fires, to set it ablaze with his divine ardor. His spirit insinuates itself into ours, to enlighten it in the knowledge of God and of itself, to heal it of its errors, and to show it the roads which lead to Heaven. The Soul of Jesus Christ comes into ours, to direct it in all its operations. Finally, the Divinity of Jesus Christ unites with all that we are, in an ineffable way, to elevate us to a Higher Order, and to communicate to us the Glorious Quality of children of God, by making us participate in his Divine Nature.
FEELINGS
O infinite goodness of my Savior, to be willing to lower his Greatness to my nothingness to unite with me! You are going to leave us, O my Divine Redeemer! You were going to shed all your Blood and lose your life for our love ; and your ingenious and all-powerful Love reproduces itself in place of bread and wine, to give us its Body and Blood . Come then, O my adorable Jesus, make me worthy to contract and renew often with you through communion a union so intimate and so strong, that it transforms me into you and serves as preparation for the eternal union that I I hope to contract with you in Heaven.
SENTENCES
We are all one bread and one body, because we all partake of the same bread (1. Cor. 10).
O Sacrament of Piety, O sign of unity, O bond of charity, he who wants to live finds life here: let him approach, let him believe, let him be incorporated, to be vivified; may he unite with the Body of Jesus Christ, and may he live from God to God (Div. Aug. tract. 7. in Joan. c. 6).
REFLECTIONS
Jesus commends his soul to his father
Jesus, a moment before expiring on the Cross, uttered a loud cry, saying: Father, I commend my soul into your hands ; as if he had wanted to say I place my soul and that of all the men for whom I die in your hands.
You cry out loud, O my Jesus, to make yourself heard by all men who are on earth, and to make them understand that you are going to reconcile them to your heavenly father, give them the life of Grace, open to them the Heaven by your Blood and thus free them from the triple captivity of sin, Death and Hell. But, O my God, as you entrust your Spirit into the Hands of the Heavenly Father, think also of mine; unite it inseparably with Yours to present it to God. I give it to you myself, it is much better in your hands than in mine. Enlighten him with your Lights, sanctify him with your Graces, and receive him at the hour of death, so that he may know you and contemplate you in blissful eternity.
PRAYER
Divine Savior, who, by a Pious Excess of your Love, today put your Adorable Body in the place of bread, to serve us as food, and thus unite us to you, substance to substance, and through Union the most Intimate, the Strongest and the most Glorious that ever was, we return you very humble Thanksgivings. But, O God of Love, cement this very Holy Union, so that it is indissoluble. Make us worthy to contract it often, and to receive you with all the innocence, all the faith and all the love of which we are capable, to merit uniting our Hearts with yours in Eternity.