Devotion to the sacramentals: we learn spiritual communion from the saints
Spiritual Communion is the reserve of life and Eucharistic love always at hand for the lovers of Jesus Ostia. Through Spiritual Communion, in fact, the desires of love of the soul that wants to unite with Jesus his Beloved Bridegroom are satisfied. Spiritual communion is a union of love between the soul and Jesus Ostia. All spiritual union, but real more real than the same union between the soul and the body, "because the soul lives more where it loves than where it lives", says St. John of the Cross.
It is evident that spiritual communion presupposes faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Tabernacles; it involves the desire for Sacramental Communion; it demands thanksgiving for the gift received from Jesus. All this is expressed with simplicity and brevity in the formula of S. Alfonso de 'Liguori: "My Jesus, I believe you are in the SS. Sacrament. I love you above all things. I desire you in my soul. Since I cannot receive you sacramentally now, at least spiritually come to my heart ... (pause). As already came, I embrace you and I join you all. Do not allow me to ever separate you from you. "
Spiritual Communion produces the same effects as Sacramental Communion according to the dispositions with which one makes, the greater or lesser charge of affection with which Jesus is desired, the more or less intense love with which one receives Jesus and entertains himself with him. .
The exclusive privilege of spiritual communion is to be able to be made as many times as you want (even hundreds of times a day), when you want (even in the middle of the night), where you want (even in a desert or on ... a plane in flight) .
It is convenient to make spiritual communion especially when you attend Holy Mass and you cannot make sacramental communion. When the Priest communicates himself, the soul also communicates herself by calling Jesus in her heart. In this way, every Mass heard is complete: offering, immolation, communion.
How precious the spiritual communion was said by Jesus himself to St. Catherine of Siena in a vision. The Saint feared that spiritual communion had no value compared to sacramental communion. Jesus in vision appeared to her with two chalices in his hand, and said to her: “In this golden chalice I place your sacramental Communions; in this silver chalice I put your spiritual Communions. These two glasses are very welcome to me. "
And to St. Margaret Maria Alacoque, very assiduous in sending her desires of flame to call Jesus to the Tabernacle, once Jesus said: “The desire of a soul to receive me is so dear to me, that I rush it into it every time who calls me with his wishes ".
How much spiritual communion was loved by the Saints does not take much to guess. Spiritual Communion at least partially satisfies that ardent anxiety of always being "one" with those who love each other. Jesus himself said: "Stay in Me and I will stay in you" (John 15, 4). And spiritual communion helps to remain united to Jesus, although far from his home. There is no other way to appease the yearnings of love that consume the hearts of the Saints. "As a deer yearns for the waterways, so my soul yearns for You, O God" (Psalm 41, 2): it is the loving groan of the Saints. "O my beloved Spouse - exclaims St. Catherine of Genoa - I desire so much the joy of being with you that, it seems to me, if I had died I would rise to receive you in Communion". And the B. Agate of the Cross felt so keen the desire to live always united with Jesus the Eucharist, who said: "If the confessor had not taught me to make spiritual communion, I could not have lived".
For S. Maria Francesca of the Five Wounds, equally, spiritual Communion was the only relief from the acute pain that she felt in being closed in the house, far from her Love, especially when she was not allowed to make sacramental Communion. Then he went up to the terrace of the house and looking at the Church he sighed in tears: "Blessed are those who today received you in the Sacrament, Jesus. Fortunate are the walls of the Church which guard my Jesus. Blessed are the Priests who are always close to the most lovable Jesus" . And only spiritual communion could placate her a little.
Here is one of the advice that P. Pio of Pietrelcina gave to his spiritual daughter: “During the day, when you are not allowed to do anything else, call Jesus, even in the midst of all your occupations, with a resigned groan of the soul , and he will always come and remain united with the soul through his grace and his holy love. Fly with the spirit before the Tabernacle, when you cannot go there with your body, and there you release your ardent longings and embrace the Beloved of souls better than if you were given to receive it sacramentally ".
We also take advantage of this great gift. Especially in moments of trial or abandonment, what can be more precious than the union with Jesus Ostia through Spiritual Communion? This holy exercise can fill our days with love as if by magic, it can make us live with Jesus in an embrace of love that depends only on us renewing often until we almost never interrupt it.
St. Angela Merici had the love passion of Spiritual Communion. Not only did he do it often and encourage him to do it, but he came to leave it as an "inheritance" to his daughters to practice it perpetually.
Didn't the life of St. Francis de Sales have to be a whole chain of spiritual Communions? It was his purpose to make a spiritual communion at least every quarter of an hour. The same purpose had been made by B. Massimiliano M. Kolbe from a young age. And the Servant of God Andrea Beltrami has left us a short page of his intimate diary which is a small program of life lived in uninterrupted spiritual communion with the Eucharistic Jesus. Here are his words: “Wherever I find myself, I will often think of Jesus in Sacrament. I will fix my thoughts on the Holy Tabernacle even when I woke up at night, worshiping him from where I am, calling Jesus in Sacrament, offering him the action I am doing. I will establish a telegraphic thread from the study to the Church, another from the bedroom, a third from the refectory; and I will send more dispatches of love to Jesus in Sacrament as often as possible. " What a continuous stream of divine love on those loved ones ... telegraph wires!
Of these and similar holy industries the Saints have been very careful to use themselves to give vent to the fullness of their hearts that they never satiate themselves with loving. “The more I love you, the less I love you - exclaimed Saint Francesca Saverio Cabrini - because the more I would love you. I can't take it anymore ... dilate, dilate my heart ... ".
When St. Roch of Montpellier spent five years in prison because he was considered a dangerous wanderer, he was always in the prison with his eyes fixed on the window, praying. The jailer asked him, "What are you looking at?" The Saint replied: "I look at the bell tower of the Parish." It was the call of a Church, of a Tabernacle, of Eucharistic Jesus his indivisible love.
St. Curé of Ars also said to the faithful: "At the sight of a bell tower you can say: there is Jesus, because there a priest celebrated Mass". And B. Luigi Guanella, when he accompanied pilgrimages to the Shrines by train, always recommended that pilgrims turn their thoughts and hearts to Jesus whenever they saw a bell tower from the train window. "Every bell tower - he said - reminds us of a Church, in which it is a Tabernacle, Mass is celebrated, Jesus is".
We also learn from the Saints. They want to communicate to us some flame of the fire of love that consumed their hearts. But let's also get to work, making many spiritual Communions, especially in the most demanding moments of the day. Then also in us the fire of love will soon take place, because what St. Leonard of Porto Maurizio assures us is very consoling: “If you practice the holy exercise of spiritual Communion several times a day, I give you a month to see your heart all changed ”. Just a month: understood?