PRAYER BEFORE COMMUNION
by St. Peter Julian Eymard
Divine Master, Spouse of my heart, I will follow You everywhere with Mary, my Mother. Having You, do I not possess all riches? To love You and please You — is not that the greatest happiness of life? To share Your sacrifices, Your sufferings, Your death — is not that the most glorious victory of love? O my God, my mind is made up! I make no more conditions or reservations in my love for You. I will follow You in all things, yes, even to Calvary! Speak, pierce, cut, burn! My heart is altar and victim!
From the Catechism:
I. THE EUCHARIST - SOURCE AND SUMMIT OF ECCLESIAL LIFE
1324 The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch."
1325 "The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God's action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit."
1326 Finally, by the Eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all.
1327 In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: "Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking."