531 part iv: meditations for weekly retreats the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, approved by the Lord Himself: “Bad and good the feast are sharing, of what divers dooms preparing, endless death, or endless life.”269 Just as this food wonderfully benefited the other disciples at the Last Supper, it did no good at all to the most miserable Judas; thus, it should be believed that now too it is salutary to many people, and on the other hand, it does harm to many others. The reason is that they approach God’s sacred banquet without the wedding garment (cf. Mt 22:11-13), that is, without a right intention and a pure conscience. As for you, therefore, approach it with the greatest docility of soul, with purity, devotion, love, and longing. Then it will bring to you refreshment and everlasting salvation. Amen. MEDITATION XIX AFTER ANY HOLY COMMUNION 1. Consider what great thanks you are going to give to the omnipotent Divine Majesty for [f.173r] this spiritual nourishment. For if the holy angels and all the purest spirits of Heaven honor the immortal God by continuous praises and venerate Him by unceasing service, because they enjoy His constant presence, then with what heavenly praises are you going to burst forth today? What kind of gratitude are you going to show to the best and most gracious Father? He not only refreshed you by His presence, personally visiting your soul, but also enlivened it with the sweetest and most beneficial food of His Body and roused it up to new strength. If you immerse yourself in the Holy Scriptures, you will find that each time the Jews received some remarkable benefit from God, they praised Him with songs, with melodious cymbals, 269 This quote is from the Sequence Lauda Sion, which St. Thomas Aquinas composed for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi: LM, p. 979 (Stanza 17). Cf. MIR, p. 398. Cf. A. Piolanti, ECat, vol. VII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, Città del Vaticano 1951, p. 956 (s.v. Lauda Sion).
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