Help Aleteia continue its mission by making a tax-deductible donation. In this way, Aleteia's future will be yours as well.
*Your donation is tax deductible!
Among many the many virtues that can be strengthened through frequent reception of Holy Communion, love stands out as a primary virtue that is deeply nourished by the Eucharist.
Sacrament of love
The Catechism of the Catholic Churchexplains how Holy Communion is a way to foster greater charity in our soul:
As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life; and this living charity wipes away venial sins. By giving himself to us Christ revives our love and enables us to break our disordered attachments to creatures and root ourselves in him.
CCC 1394
St. Fulgentius of Ruspe further comments on this reality, as quoted by the Catechism:
Since Christ died for us out of love, when we celebrate the memorial of his death at the moment of sacrifice we ask that love may be granted to us by the coming of the Holy Spirit. We humbly pray that in the strength of this love by which Christ willed to die for us, we, by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, may be able to consider the world as crucified for us, and to be ourselves as crucified to the world…. Having received the gift of love, let us die to sin and live for God.
Holy Communion unites us to Jesus, who suffered and died on the cross out of love for us.
It is fitting that when we are brought into communion with Him, we would share in that love and that Jesus would inflame within us a deeper love.
The only limitation to how much our love can grow is the amount our heart is open to God.
If we receive Holy Communion with a closed heart, or in a state of mortal sin, love will not be fostered within us.
In order to be able to receive the full effect of Holy Communion, we need to reconcile ourselves with God in the sacrament of confession.
Once we are reconciled, we then need to open wide the doors of our heart and let love flow freely, as we receive Love itself.
And today we celebrate...