The most holy Eucharist is the greatest of all the Sacraments, in which not only grace most abundantly, but the very Author of grace Himself, is contained. Now, that a Christian man may live well, as regards this Sacrament, and in due time die well, two things are necessary. The first, that he sometimes take this most holy food, the Lord saying: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, you shall not have life in you." The second, that he eat so excellent a food worthily, the Apostle saying in his Epistle to the Corinthians: "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord" (1 Cor. 11). But the question is, how often it is expedient to take this food; and again, what sufficient preparation must be made to approach this heavenly banquet worthily, or at least not unworthily. On the former question we find that there have been many and diverse customs in the Catholic Church. In the Church of the earliest times, the faithful most frequently received the Body of the Lord. For this reason St. Cyprian, in his discourse On the Lord's Prayer — which is the sixth in order — explains those words "Give us this day our daily bread" of the holy Eucharist; and he teaches that the Eucharist is to be received daily, unless one be hindered by a lawful impediment. Afterwards, however, as charity grew cold, not a few deferred the sacred communion for whole years. Hence Pope Innocent III issued a decree (cap. "Omnis," On Penance and Remission): that at least once a year, at the Easter season, all the faithful, both men and women, should be bound to receive the holy Eucharist. The more common opinion of the Doctors, however, seems to be that it is very pious and praiseworthy for those who are not priests not to hesitate to approach the most holy Eucharist on every Sunday, and on the still more solemn feasts. Well known among writers is that saying, as though uttered by St. Augustine: "To receive the Eucharist daily I neither praise nor blame; yet I advise and exhort all to communicate on every Lord's day." Although the book On Ecclesiastical Dogmas, from which this saying is drawn, may not seem to be by St. Augustine, yet it is the work of an ancient author, and is not contrary to the doctrine of St. Augustine (Ep. 118), who in his letter to Januarius teaches most plainly that neither those err who think one ought to communicate daily, nor those who judge that one should communicate not daily, but more rarely. Certainly he who teaches this would in no way reprove those who chose a middle course, so as to approach this Sacrament at least on each Lord's Day. That the same opinion was held by St. Jerome can be gathered from his commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, where, expounding the fourth chapter, he speaks thus: "Just as it is lawful for us either to fast always or to pray always, and to keep the Lord's Day in continual rejoicing, having received the Body of the Lord, so it is not lawful for the Jews to sacrifice the lamb, etc." The same opinion was held by St. Thomas in the third part of the Summa Theologiae, question 80, article 10, at the end.
As regards the other point, namely the preparation for receiving so great a Sacrament, so that it may be received unto salvation and not unto judgment and condemnation: first of all it is required that the soul be living with the life of grace, not dead with the death of mortal sin. For this reason it is called food, and is given under the form of bread, because food is not for the dead but for the living. He that eateth this bread, says the Lord in John, shall live for ever; and in the same place: My flesh is meat indeed. (John 6; Council of Trent, sess. 13, can. 11.) But the Tridentine Synod added that it is not enough, for a fitting preparation to receive this heavenly food duly, that one who is defiled by mortal sin be content with contrition alone; he must also strive to expiate his sins through the Sacrament of Penance, provided he can have access to a confessor. Then, because this Sacrament is not only bread but also a medicine, and the best and most wholesome medicine against all the diseases of the vices, it is required in the second place that the sick man desire good health, and wish to be cured of all the diseases of the vices, and especially of the principal ones, which are lust, avarice, and pride. That the Eucharist is a medicine, St. Ambrose teaches in book 5 On the Sacraments, chapter 4: "He who has a wound," he says, "requires medicine: the wound is ours, because we are under sin; the medicine is the heavenly and venerable Sacrament;" and St. Bonaventure in book 2 On the Progress of Religious chapter 78: "Let him who counts himself unworthy," he says, "reflect that the more he perceives himself to be sick, the more he needs and is bound to seek out a physician;" and St. Bernard, in his sermon on the Lord's Supper, admonishes his brethren to ascribe to the most holy Sacrament the benefit they feel when they experience in themselves a lessening of evil propensities and of the other maladies of the soul.
Finally, the most holy Sacrament is not only the food of wayfarers and the medicine of the sick, but also a most skillful and most loving physician; and therefore it is to be received with great exultation and reverence, and the house of the soul is to be adorned with every kind of virtue, especially faith, hope, charity, devotion, and piety, and with the fruits of good works, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. For these are the adornments required by the sweet guest of our soul, who has no need of our goods. Add, too, that this physician who visits us is also a King and God, whose purity is infinite, and who requires a most pure dwelling. Hear St. John Chrysostom in his sixtieth sermon to the people of Antioch: "How much purer," he says, "must he be who partakes of such a sacrifice? Is he not brighter than the sun's ray who is filled with spiritual fire?"
Now let whoever desires to live well and to die well enter into the chamber of his soul, and with the door shut, alone with his own heart, before God who searches the reins and the hearts, let him attentively consider how often and with what preparation he approaches the Sacrament of the Lord's Body. And if indeed he finds that by the grace of God he communicates frequently and profitably, and is well nourished thereby, and is gradually cured of the diseases of the vices, and daily advances more and more in virtues and good works, let him rejoice with trembling, and continue to serve the Lord in fear, not so much servile as chaste and filial. But if he be one of those who, content with a yearly communion, think no more of the most wholesome Sacrament, and, forgetting to eat the life-giving bread — the fatter and more bloated they grow in body, the more their souls are weakened and withered — let him understand that he acts most foolishly and is far from the kingdom of God. For yearly communion was decreed by the sacred universal Council, not that it should be made only once a year, but that it should be made at least once a year, unless they wish to be cast out of the Church and delivered over to Satan. And so these men, for the most part, receive their Lord in the Sacrament not with filial love but with servile fear, and soon after return to the husks of the swine, to the delights of the world, to temporal gains, to the pursuit of fleeting honors, so that at death they may hear, together with the rich glutton: Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime. (Luke 16.) But if anyone be found, who frequently handles the mysteries of the most holy Sacrament, either on every Lord's Day or even daily, if perhaps he exercises the priesthood; and yet neither guards himself from mortal sins, nor seriously exercises himself in good works, nor has truly gone out of the world, but, like others who are of the world, gapes greedily after pecuniary gain, delights in the allurements of the flesh, and sighs after degrees of honor and dignity: such a one assuredly eats the flesh of the Lord unto his own judgment, and the more often he unworthily handles the most holy mysteries, the more he imitates Judas the traitor, of whom the Lord says: It were better for him if that man had not been born. (Matt. 26.) But no one must despair of his salvation while he lives. Therefore let him who, in the chamber of his heart, reflects upon his years and his works, and knows that hitherto he has run outside the way of salvation, know that there is still time to return to his senses, provided he is willing to do penance in earnest,
It will be well to add, at the end of this chapter, what St. Bonaventure writes in the life of the holy Father Francis concerning the admirable piety and love of this most holy man toward the most holy Eucharist, so that from his ardor our lukewarmness or coldness may grow warm: "He burned," he says, "toward the Sacrament of the Lord's Body with the fervor of his whole inmost being, marveling with the greatest wonder at that most loving condescension and most condescending love. He communicated often, and so devoutly that he made others devout; and, inebriated in spirit, he was for the most part rapt into an ecstasy of mind." (Life of St. Francis, ch. 9.) So writes he. From this example are very far removed not only many lay communicants, but also very many priests who celebrate, performing so sacred a rite with such incredible haste that they themselves seem not to know what they are doing, nor do they allow others to consider so great a thing a little more attentively.