The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-02-15

that the Sacred Body must be treated
with marked formal reverence and
external ceremony. Then also, with
the more minute study of the Sacra-
ment of Penance, came the closer scru-
tiny of sin, it's degrees and it's effects
on the soul, and the consideration how
far a man was justified in receiving
daily, even when free from mortal
guilt. 1t was permitted by
God that the general effect of this
kind of reflection should be a great
diminution in the frequency of Com
munion
It may be doubted whether without
a miracle, the great doctrines of sin
and of the Sacrament of Penance,
which received such attention from
the Councils and the doctors of the
early Middle Ages, could ever have
found their way into the popular mind
and heart, if the child-like and beauti-
full familiarity of primitive ages had
continued in the rough, barbarous and
disturbed populations of Europe that
was gradually feeling it's way to order
and civilization. Moreover, another
great Christian process was taking
place at the same time, or little later
This was the expansion of the litur-
gical devotion to the Blessed Sacra-
ment; in other words, the exaltation
of the Mass. The splendour of the
external worship of Jesus in the
Blessed Eucharist took such proper
tions in the centuries before the Re
formation as no earthly king or court
could rival. But this very grandeur
of alteration, except with the few and
chosen souls, inclined men and women
to fear and awe, and had the effect
of making them worship at a distance
instead of eagerly pressing around the
Table of the Lord. The time came,
however, when frequent Communion
returned to the Church.
The Danger of Jansenism.
More than once (says the Bishop
we have referred to the history Of
Jansenism. The essential
spirit of Jansenism was disobedience
to the living Church, rigorism which
repealed the soul it's Heavenly Father
and a fatal strictness which kept
Christians from the use of the Sacra-
ment of Penance and the Holy Euchar-
ist Jansenism was devised
by the enemy of mankind chiefly for
the purpose of preventing Holy Com
munion. It's peculiarly dangerous
characteristic was that it used the
Christian sense of awe and reverence
to keep Christians from using what
Christ meant them to use. Now, rev.
erence for Our Lord in the Sacrament
of His Real Presence is an essential
feature of the Church's life and of the
attitude of every Catholic. This is
so true that, as we have seen long
periods of the Church's history are
marked by its growth and develop
ment. But after the Council of Trent
to say no more-reverence was
safe. Then came the malignant jan
senist, in the midst of the splendor of
the Eucharistic liturgy, with every
demonstration of outward devotion,
with honeyed words of piety, each Of
which concealed a poisoned dart, and
built up barriers to the sanctuary, bar
riers round the Holy Table, to keep off
the flock whose very life depended
upon the food that lies thereon. The
evil effects Of this bad teaching have
lasted, in England, almost to our
own times. Some of us yet living can
remember how many good and pious
souls approached Holy Communion
with a formality, a timidity and a
scrupulosity that must have interfered
seriously, and did interfere, with the
union of their souls with their Heaven
ly Father.
The authoritative teaching of the
Church on the subject of frequent and
daily Communion, as formulated by
Pope Plus x, is contained under two
heads. First, the soul must be free
from mortal sin, and, secondly, there
must be the right intention-that Is,
the motive of communicating must be,
not mere routine, or vanity, or human
respect, but to please God, to become
more closely united to Him, and to
use the divine remedy of this Holy
Sacrament against our weakness and
our defects. Anyone who comes SO
prepared must not be debarred from
communicating But as ones own
Judgment is apt to be BIASED in
ones own favor, we are strongly ad-
vised to consult director or con-
lessor, from time to time, both in
order to be sure that we understand
the Church's instruction, and to avoid
mistakes and self-deception with re-
gard to our own interior dispositions
There are two important considera-
tons which should be constantly kept
before the minds of the flock. The
first concerns that sense of reverence.
1t is natural to Catholic to feel that
no reverence can be too great for the
Divine Redeemer. Can it be compati-
BILE with reverence, we ask ourselves,
that men and women should hurry in
from the streets, with hearts and
minds full of business or wordliness,
just as they are from their shops,
offices, factories, and mines, and dare
to receive into their mouths their
Lord, Creator, and Judge? If daily
reception involves irreverence-that
is, an absence of certain observances
which men commonly associate with
u, s11 0& So