2/65.3 The effects of Communion on the soul: how it sustains, restores, delights.

Communion sustains the life of the soul in a way similar to that in which food sustains the body. The reception of the Blessed Eucharist keeps Catholics in God’s grace, since the soul recovers its energies from the continual wear and tear it suffers through the wounds of original sin and of personal sins. It maintains the life of God in the soul, freeing it from lukewarmness; and it helps us to avoid mortal sin and struggle effectively against venial sins.

The Blessed Eucharist increases supernatural life also: it makes it grow and develop. And while it fills the soul spiritually, it gives it an increasing desire for eternal goods: Those who eat me will still be hungry, those who drink me will still be thirsty.[1850] Material food first of all turns itself into the person who eats it, and as a consequence, restores his losses and increases his vital energies. Spiritual food, on the other hand, turns the person who eats it into Itself, and thus the proper effect of this sacrament is the conversion of man into Christ, so that he may no longer live for himself, but that Christ may live in him. And as a consequence it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual losses caused by sins and defects and of increasing the power of the virtues.[1851]

Finally, the grace we receive in each Communion delights the person who receives with good dispositions. Nothing can be compared to the joy of the Holy Eucharist, to the friendship and nearness of Jesus, present within us. Jesus Christ, during his life on earth, never passed by anywhere without pouring out his abundant blessings, from which we can deduce how great and precious must be the gifts which those who have the happiness of receiving Him in Holy Communion must share; or rather, that all the happiness we can have in this life consists in receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion.[1852]

Communion is the remedy for our daily needs,[1853] medicine of immortality, antidote against death, and food by which to live forever in Jesus Christ.[1854] It grants to the soul the peace and joy of Christ which is truly a foretaste of eternal happiness.[1855]

Among all the practices of piety there is none whose sanctifying effectiveness can be compared to the worthy reception of this sacrament. In it, not only do we receive grace, but the Source and Fountainhead from which all grace flows. All the sacraments are ordained towards the Blessed Eucharist: it is the pivotal sacrament.[1856]

Hidden under the accidents of bread, Jesus wants us to come and receive him frequently. The banquet, he tells us, is ready.[1857] Many indeed are those who are absent, and Jesus waits for us to tell all those others that he is also waiting for them in the Tabernacle.

We must ask Our Lady to help us go to Communion every day with better dispositions.