examination of the heart 322 Therefore, let Jesus be the object of your contemplation, your love, your joy, your refreshment, your life, and your heaven. Embrace Jesus, that He may embrace you; love Jesus, that He may love you; do not abandon Jesus, that He may not abandon you. Nothing in the whole world and in Heaven is more excellent than Jesus; therefore, may you love nothing more than Him. Give yourself entirely to Jesus and Jesus will be entirely yours. After Holy Communion 1. “After eight days had passed” (Lk 2:21). Consider that the Lord wanted to be circumcised for the sake of fulfilling the law. Hence draw this conclusion: with what eagerness He would want you to fulfill His precepts, laws, and constitutions, since He wanted to undergo the pains shared by other little Jewish children, although He had no share in their guilt at all. You, the wretched one, for the slightest reason you transgress against the divine or religious decrees. And sometimes, moved even by quite an insignificant reason, you sin against very important laws. Do you thus value and imitate the example given by Jesus Christ [f.97r] of observing the laws, the example which He showed you clearly in His circumcision? Come now, at least promise, in thanksgiving for today’s Communion, that from now on you will observe all divine and human laws precisely. 2. “the name given by the angel” (Lk 2:21). If the name of the Lord is to be highly esteemed because it was given and announced from Heaven, how highly should you esteem this sacred Communion, to which you go, called by the inspiration of God Himself and prompted by His decree? Indeed, you would not treat it lightly should some prince personally invite you to a banquet. And yet, something not unlike this happened to you here. The Prince of Heaven Himself drew you to his banquet table: He Himself brought you to it. What will you do, therefore, to give Him thanks and not slight this Most Holy Sacrament? Bear in
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