The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-06-27
EASTER DUTY AND FREQUENT
COMMUNION.

A few weeks ago many earnest
Christians thronged about the confess
SIGNALS in our churches to make their
Easter duty. They told their sins with
sorrow and firm resolutions for the
future and they left the confessional
with the whispered blessing of the
priest echoing in their ears and Gods
blessing filling their whole beings.
Peace and light-hearted joy were max
ing sweetest music in their souls and
they felt that now God loved them
and that neVeraagain wouldatheys offend
Him by sin. They received Holy Com
munion with reverent piety knowing
well that this food of the soul would
strengthen them in the practice of
virtue Some of these men if asked,
would tell you that they intend to
receive Holy Communion again at the
end of three or four months; others
intend to go next Christmas; others,
next Easter. They think that this is
often enough to receive the sacra-
ments and that to go every month or
every week or every day is neither
necessary nor desirable. Are they
right?
Many of these men and women still
feel something of the peace with
which they received their Easter Com
munion. They are still determined to
keep the good resolutions Of their
Easter confession Their wills are
still loyal to the wishes of the Church.
They are still ready to do what the
Church directs. What then does the
Church say to them about the fire.
quency of Communion?
Pope Plus X gave the direct answer
to this question only last month. He
asked the Apostleship of Prayer in
League with the Sacred Heart to pray
during the month of May for the
spread of daily Communion. Nine
years ago, in December 1905, the
Sacred Congregation of the Council
declared that frequent and daily Com
munion should be open to all the
faithful of whatever rank or condition
of life. But, many an honest Catholic
will answer, surely this is something
new. Who ever before heard tell of
the lay people going to holy Com
munion every day? Let us answer
this question by a short and simple
statement of the truth.
Three hundred and fifty years ago,
about the middle of the sixteenth
century, the Council of Trent made the
following declaration:
1.-THE holy synod would desire that
at every Mass the faithful who are
present should communicate, not only
spiritually, by way of internal affec-
ton, but sacramentally, by the actual
reception of the Eucharist" (Sess.
XIII, Cap. VI)
This clearly shows that the desires
of the present Pope for the spread of
daily Communion and the decree of
1905 by the Sacred Congregation of
the Council are not new teaching in
the Church. 1t is at least three and a
half centuries old. But perhaps it was
new at the time of the Council of
Trent. Perhaps it was war measure
introduced by Trent to combat the
spread of Lutheranism, which was just
then, in its first vigor, tearing asunder
the ties of Christian unity. But if we
go back three hundred years before
the Council of Trent we find the
greatest of theologians, the most
scholarly of the saints and the most
sanity of scholars, st. Thomas OF
Aouin who saws of the Holy Eucharist:
"This sacrament is food for our souls,
and being such we should do well to
receive it every day, just as every day
we partake of the food that apper-
tains to our bodies. For this reason
it is, the Lord Himself expressly tells
us to seek for our daily bread"
The idea of daily Communion then
| is at least six hundred years old in
the Church. But we might go back
more than twice six hundred years and