Challoner’s Reflection on The Imitation of Christ¹
BOOK FOUR: AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
CHAPTER XVI.: We Should Show Our Needs to Christ and Ask His Grace

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It is not by forcing ourselves to raise our minds to sublime thoughts, that we shall gather the fruit of the holy communion; but by adoring, full of love, Jesus Christ in us, by opening to him our hearts with great confidence and with great simplicity, as a man is wont to speak to his friend (Exodus. 33:11). We have wants; it is necessary to make them known to Him We are covered with wounds; we must show them to Him, in order that he may wash them with his divine blood. We are weak; it is necessary to beseech Him to strengthen us. We are naked, hungry and thirsty; we must say to Him: Have pity on this poor beggar. From him flow all graces; listen to his words: I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me although he be dead, shall live; and every one that liveth, and believeth in me, shall not die for ever (John 11:25, 26).

PRAYER.

To obtain the fruit of a good Communion. Give, O Jesus, to all who approach Thee in the holy communion, a constant courage to conquer themselves, an exact fidelity in corresponding with thy graces, a restraint upon their tongue, a recollection of mind, and the plenitude of thy love in their hearts. For thy honour and glory, O divine Saviour, subject us to thy dominion, and immolate us to thy greatness. Suffer not our hearts, which are the conquest of thy grace, ever more to be separated from Thee. Be Thou the ruler of our passions and the God of our souls; and grant that when we communicate, and after we communicate, we may establish within us the reign of thy sovereignty by our submission, the reign of thy bounty by our confidence, and the reign of thy grace by our fidelity. Amen.