Communion And Sacrament

As April, the month dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament, comes to a close, I thought I would post about the beautiful and amazing effects of receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion. These are things we may or may not be aware of. I was reminded of them a few days ago as I was doing some spiritual reading during my holy hour. The book was by Fr. John Hardon, who has written much on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. As I am not permitted to remove books from our adoration chapel, I came home to see if I could find a bit of what I read on the internet, and as Providence would have it, I did. The little bit I read in the chapel actually comes from a conference Fr. Hardon gave titled The Holy Eucharist as Communion and Sacrament. In it he lists and describes the nine effects of the sacrament of Holy Communion as outlined and taught by the Council of Trent.
To learn about these nine effects, and to read the rest of Father's conference, click the link for the title of his conference above. Once there, if you scroll down about a quarter of the way, you will come to the description of the effects.
Our Lord has given us nothing short of His entire self in this sacrament of His love; it is up to us to receive Him with as much love and devotion as we can in order to receive and be filled with all the graces He wishes to bestow on us.
As my late pastor was known to say, "Jesus doesn't get any closer to us than at this moment."

Lord Jesus, you instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion to give us the light we need to see you in everyone whom you place into our lives. You gave us this sacrament to provide us with the strength to do what is humanly impossible, to love those who not only do not love us but positively hate us, oppose us. Lord Jesus, deepen our faith in your Real Presence so that receiving you here on earth we may love as you want us to this side of heaven. So that we may join those who have learned the meaning of love from you in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Amen. Mary, mother of the Holy Eucharist, pray for us.
(Fr. John Hardon, S.J.)