Is your Church Closed?

As today is Holy Thursday, the day when Christ gave us the Holy Eucharist, it seems particularly sad that so many in the world t have no access to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist. With the Pandemic affecting so many countries, churches in many dioceses are closed. Yet the Catholic Church does give us means to seek graces through an Act of Spiritual Communion.  The Archbishop of Chicago recently released this decree for his Archdiocese

decree the following:

1. That the obligation to receive Holy Communion during the Easter season is removed this year due to the impossibility of attendance by the People of God at celebration of Holy Mass.
2. That each of the faithful initiated into the Most Holy Eucharist is encouraged to offer an Act of Spiritual Communion, in union with the entire People of God in the Archdiocese and throughout the world in this time of stress and difficulty.
3. That all of the faithful, in accord with the Tradition and Teaching of the Church, are urged to offer a perfect Act of Contrition, in complete dependence upon the mercy and love of God, in sorrow for all sins and with a firm resolve to confess all serious sin at the next available time.

Given this Palm Sunday, the 5th day of April, A.D. 2020

We are including a Spiritual Communion below. This prayer is listed within the Pieta book. It also was recently used by the Rector of the National Shrine of Divine Mercy at several of their LIVE Masses.

Spiritual Communion

O Jesus, I turn toward the holy tabernacle where You live hidden for love of me. I love You, O my God. I cannot receive you in Holy Communion. Come, nevertheless, and visit me with Your grace. Come spiritually into my heart. Purify it. Sanctify it. Render it like unto Your own. Amen. 

Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. 
(indulged if repeated 3 times)

St. Jean Marie Vianney spoke of the value of a Spiritual Communion:
“A spiritual communion acts on the soul as blowing does on a cinder-covered fire which was about to go out.  Whenever you feel your love of God growing cold, quickly make a spiritual communion.”

Photo credit: the above picture was taken of several members of the Children's Rosary praying in front of the incorrupt heart of St. Jean Marie Vianney when it visited Connecticut.

Favorite Quotes by John Marie Vianney

"You cannot please both God and the world at the same time, They are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions."

"I tell you that you have less to suffer in following the cross than in serving the world and its pleasures."

“Here is a rule for everyday life:Do not do anything which you cannot offer to God.”

Spiritual Communion

“A spiritual communion acts on the soul as blowing does on a cinder-covered fire which was about to go out.  Whenever you feel your love of God growing cold, quickly make a spiritual communion.”

Blessed Virgin Mary

"Jesus Christ, after having given us all he could give, that is to say, the merit of his toils, his sufferings, and bitter death; after having given us his adorable body and blood to be the food of our souls, willed also to give us the most precious thing he had let, which was his holy Mother,"

"When our hands have touched spices, they give fragrance to all they handle. Let us make our prayers pass through the hands of the Blessed Virgin. She will make them fragrant."

Priests

"If we had faith, we would see God hidden in the priest like a light behind glass, like wine mixed with water."

"The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus. When you see a priest, think of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Blessed Sacrament

"Every Consecrated Host is made to burn Itself up with love in a human heart,"

Of adoring Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament St. John Vianney has written:

"When we speak to Jesus with simplicity and with all our heart, He does like a mother who holds her child's head with her hands and covers it with kisses and caresses."

"The soul hungers for God, and nothing but God can satiate it. Therefore He came to dwell on earth and assumed a Body in order that this Body might become the Food of our souls,"

"I throw myself at the foot of the Tabernacle like a dog at the foot of his Master."

Prayer

"Man is a beggar who needs to ask God for everything."

"You cannot please both God and the world at the same time, They are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions."

"I tell you that you have less to suffer in following the cross than in serving the world and its pleasures."

“Here is a rule for everyday life:Do not do anything which you cannot offer to God.”

The Family

"I turn to you, dear parents, and implore you to imitate the Holy Family of Nazareth."