NQlo~e.j I 7CllNles A. 
T'f~~e..II'I"t CoIM"" ~ 

A-bu o8Qb 

Frequent Communion tor 

Young and Old 
By REV. JAMES A. MALO NEY 

THE PAULIST PRESS 

40 I West 59th Street 

New York 19. N. Y. 





FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR 

YOUNG AND OLD 

By 

REV. JAMES A. MALONEY 

. COPYRIGHT, 1940, BY 

THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE ApOSTLE 

. IN THE STATE ' OF NEW YORK 

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED IN THE U. S. A. 

BY THE PAULIST PRESS, NEW YORK 19, N . Y. 

THE PAULIST PRESS 

40 I West 59th Street 

New York 19, N. Y. 



o 
. .. THIS IS MY BODY: T.HI$ IS MY BLOOD" 



FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR 

YOUNG AND OLD ' 

HIS HOLINESS, POPE PIUS X, in 1905, through a solemn decree of the Sacred Congregation reasserted 
the right and the duty respecting young children of feeding 

upon the Body of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion. The 

bishops to whom the decree was primarily addressed because 

each is sole pastor of his diocesan people, immediately in-

structed the priests to begin at once distributing the Bread 

of Life to their little ones and thus 'conform to the positive 

behest of the Holy Father, who himself expressed again 

'the mind of our Blessed Lord and of His holy Church. The 

decree in question furnished abundant documents showing 

'the teaching and the practice of the Catholic Church from 

apostolic beginnings down through the ages until this pres-

ent day. It leaves us no option in the matter of giving Com-

munion to young children when their little minds, like so 

many budding flowers, begin to open in the light of human 

understanding, which is commonly supposed to be about the 

age of seven years. Nor does the decree leave our own 

maturer minds in doubt upon so capital a question, for it 

unequivocally lays down in the plain and solemn language 

of the Fourth Ecumenical Council of the Lateran, the true 

and only belief of Catholics. 

Formula of the Lateran Council 

"If anyone shall deny that all the faithful of both sexes, 

who have attained the use of reason are obliged to receive 

Communion every year, at least at Easter time, according to 

the precepts of holy Mother Church, let him be anathema." 

This formula and others like it coerce not the Catholic 



4 FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 

into believing, but rather give him cause to rejoice in the 

acquisition of certain truth: one of intellectual freedom's 

proudest faculties is the power of embracing heartily every 

undeniable proposition. 

. The Ancient and Oriental Custom 

Before dwelling at greater length upon this indubitable 

teaching of the Church, it will be wen to state at once and 

briefly the authorized custom in the giving of Communion 

formerly and at present in the Eastern Churches and in the 

West. From the very beginning it has been the practice, as 

it is today in the Orient, to administer the Eucharist immedi-

ately after baptism to 'mere infants. Until the thirteenth 

century this same practice was prescribed and obtained 

throughout the universal Church. About that date, however, 

another custom began to take root and grow and spread 

abroad far and wide, until it was formally and authoritatively' 

approved and prescribed by the Lateran Council for the 

entire Latin Church. That custom has been ratified again 

and again by our highest authority upon earth, notably by 

the great Council of Trent: it is the practice which Pope 

Pius X would have prevail everywhere under the Latin rite, 

and utterly supplant the manifest abuse of denying to a por-

tion of those who have a right to it participation in the 

divine sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Now who precisely 

are those that have not only the right, but a duty likewise, to 

eat at the table of the Lord? At the very least, all those 

who, in the words of the Council, have attained the use of 
reason. 

The Exercise of Reason 

The question consequently is not of seven years, of ten, 

or of fourteen strictly speaking, since the light of reason 

breaks through the individual brain not according to the 

number of years it has taken to develop but in accordance 



FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 5 

with the required development. It not infrequently happens 
that a bright child of six has keener intellectual vision than 

a dull-brained child of eight. Observation has averaged the 

various ages at which children begin to exercise their hitherto 

latent understanding at seven years. In a very general way 

the abuses deplored by the Holy Father originated in the 

view taken of the phrase "use of reason." Two causes for 

the condemned practice of deferring Communion till the 

age of ten or twelve have been specified and reprobated by 

the Pope; the innovato~s ' unreasonably required a better 

drilling in Christian doctrine for the Blessed Eucharist thaI} 

for the Sacrament of Penance. . Their mind upon this matter 

is easily inferred from the fact that they admitted the child 

to confession long before he was entitled in their estimation 

to receive First Communion. Examination in the catechism 

was employed as a test for discrimination among the candi-

dates. Another cause of this comparatively modern inno" 

vation was an error borrowed from the Jansenists which 

manifested itself in the undue insistance upon an exaggerated 

preparation of soul for the becoming reception of Holy Com-

munion . The belief that the Holy Eucharist shQuld be given 

as a reward only, not as a bracing stimulant and needful 

corroboration of human frailty, showed a faith tainted by 

heretical teachers. The Middle Age Angelic Doctor not only 

wrote "Tantum ergo Sacramentum veneremur cernui," but 

likewise "0 salutaris H ostia . .. da robur fer auxilium." . ~f 

extraordinary preparation were essential, how could infants 

incapable of preparation have been permitted to receive? 

Ability to discriminate between what is' right and what 

is wrong requires some use of the reason and betokens the 

possibility of committing sin. If, then, admission to the 

sacrament of penance presupposes the . use of reason, what 

else does the denial of admission to Communion at the same 

age imply but that the use of reason does not qualify for 

reception of the Eucharist ? And this denial incurs the Coun-



6 FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 

cil's anathema. The abuse based upon it does downright 

injustice to young children, endangers early innocence, and 

thwarts the undoubted desire of Jesus Christ. 

The Purpose of the E'ucharist 

The Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist was instituted 

'by our loving Lord to be the instrument for uniting all men to 

Hi.s own mystical Body. Salvation is utterly impossible for 

.any one not so united. Christ is the head of the invisible 

body, men are the members. He. is the vine, we are the 

branches. Severed from the head the life-giving center, a 

member must necessarily die ; the branch cut off from the 

trunk can evidently receive no sap, it can only wither in 

·death. Our divine Savior, eternally God, but man also from 

the time of His Incarnation, is the only Mediator between 

man and his Maker. By ineffable union the human nature 

·of our plessed Redeemer is linked to the divine. It may . 

reverently be said that on one side Jesus Christ is man, 

while on the other sid~ He is very God. By incorporation 
with the God-man we are thus brought into saving contact 

with the Deity through the intermediation of Him Who died 

ior us on a cross. To become incorporated requires a divine 

operation and the instrument fashioned 'for that purpose at 

His last supper upon earth by a divine Person is no other 

than the Holy Eucharist. By Communion we are intimately 

united to the Head of the mystical body and in that way 

brought into the merciful embrace of the Divinity. There 

is no other door which will open into heaven for us but Jesus 

Christ. Through Him we must pass to, or forever remain 

outcasts from, that beautiful home on high. Said Christ: 

"become like little childrell" first , then "come ye all to Me: 

I am the Way." The objection is invalid which would deny 

this eucharistic instrumentality on the ground that baptized 

infants and some adult lovers of their Lord can see salvation 

without the actual reception of Holy Communion. 



FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 7 

The same objection would tell with equal cogency agaiiIst 

the necessity of sacramental baptism; for some are saved 

who have never been actually washed by the cleansing waters. 

In both cases the virtual stands for the actual reception of 

the sacrament. That little children can be saved without 

their First Communion is no argument, therefore, against 

the approved custom strenuously emphasized by Pills X of 

giving Communion to all those capable of discriminating be-

tween this sacred food received at the holy table of the Lord 

and the ordinary victuals served them in the dining-room at 

home. Our Savior has said: "My Flesh is real food, and 

My Blood is real drink." The flour and water wafer has been 

changed from bread into the living Body of Christ. It still 

looks like common food, for its appearance was not changed. 

It looks like bread in order to show that what we receive is 

food, though not of the common sort but the bread of angels. 

The sacred Body into which the bread is changed being alive 

has blood and soul, and being the Body of Jesus Christ it is 

that ,of a divine Person. The faintest glimmer of budding 

reason will suffice for a child's understanding of the change 

of one thing into another, the differen~e between a dead body 

and one that is alive, and what it is to be God and not a man. 

A lifeless lesson from the bare catechism may not set things 

in the faint light of the child mind, but the priest or any 

other teacher who has learned the simple and natural mode 

of communicating elementary truths will be fairly understood 

after the fashion of a child. He has but to remember his 

former self in order to be at home immediately in the talk 

that conveys the ideas of children to a little child. 

The Requirement for First Communion 

Moreover, the foregoing simple information is by no means 

a requirement or a test for First Communion. Nothing more 

in the way of enlightenment is required than the knowledge 



8 FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 

that Communion is not common but sacred food for the soul. 

It is a young child, indeed, who does not know that God 
above will reward the good in heaven and punish the wicked 

in hell. Besides, every child who has a mother knows some-

thing of love and will understand what a favor it is to be the 

friend and beloved of Jesus, What answer will they make 

who ar~ called to account for unduly keeping apart two such 

pure lovers as Jesus and the child, the Lamb of. God from a 
lamb of His own flock? This human lamb, moreover, is in 

constant danger of being carried off and devoured by a roar- . 

ing lion who is forever roaming around through this wilder-

ness of a world savagely seeking for prey. Would you be 
. so cruel, so manifestly unjust, as to forbid him the protection 

of One in Whose presence the devil trembles while recalling 
to mind the grinding heel that crushed his serpent's head? 

Would you hold back that little spouse of Our Savior till 
spiritually starved into the commission of mortal sin and dis-

robed of her snow-white innocence before her wedding day? 

Would you not rather introduce at an early age the children 

of your flock to One Who is the Way in the only true sense ; 

lead them into the tru.e light of Him Who is Truth itself; 
and direct their innocent steps afield to the rich pastures and 

living manna provided for them by their dearest Shepherd 

Who is Himself the Life? 

He is "the living bread that came down from heaven," not 

really like that manna of old which kept men alive for a time, 

but could not confer immortality: the youngest child that 

eats this heavenly bread will never die for "he shall live for-

ever." "Suffer the little children to come unto Me and forbid 

them not" is as authoritatively interpreted by the Pope a 
divine injunction to give Communion to little ones as well . 

The Holy Eucharist is the sacrament which unites us to 

Christ: love means union, and Jesus loved the children. The 
white purity of their innocent souls has a charm for the in-

nocent Lamb of God, Who loves them with more than ma-



FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 9 

ternal tenderness, and longs for the holy hour when they 

shall sit down at the same table with the senior members of 

the household. With His own sacred hands our blessed 

Savior will break for their eating the Bread of Life. He will 

feed His flock like a shepherd, giving special care to the 

lambs of the flock, occasionally taking them up by turn into 

His arms to foster, fondle and caress them. Is there a heart 

so wanting in responsive tenderness as not to be touched by 

such divine embracements? Who will have the irrational 

hardihood to repulse those children, who come flocking round 

the mild and attractive Person of Jesus Christ? Do you not 

dread the indignant reprimand of their gentle Lord, lovingly 

occupied in laying a l]and here and there upon each young 

head, embracing them one by one and blessing them all to-

gether? He loved to have the white-souled little ones come 

trooping· trustfully to His presence and gloried in beholding 

Himself the heavenly' magnet attracting their young hearts. 

Who Shall Decide? 

To resume and enforce in sober statement the compelling 

statutory commands of Pope Pius X and the Church, no one 

is allowed in practice or belief to deny that every Catholic, 

whatever be his age, who has the use of reason is not merely 

allowed but strictly obliged to receive Communion . Who 

shall decide for young children unable to form a decision 

for themselves? The natural father of the C;hild js bound in 

conscience to watch that little one's mind unfold as the body 

develops and at the first efflorescence of reason to take steps 

to have that youthful candidate for Holy Communion con-

ducted to the holy table of the Lord, to be intimately and 

mysteriously united to Him and fed upon the spiritual Food 

of His sacred Body and most 'precious Blood. As confession 

always precedes First Communion, the confessor has an op-

po~tunity of obeying the injunction given to him and forming 



10 FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 

the final decision regarding the fact of the child's capability 

to discern the Body of the Lord which he proposes to receive. 

Beyond the necessary condition of sanctifying grace, the con-

fessor has nothing to pass upon but that question of fact, 

namely, whether or not: this candidate for First Communion 

has come to the use of reason. Granting the use of reason, 

the child's right and duty to communicate are undeniable 

and the confessor is not at liberty to deny him Holy Com-

munion. In ministering to the spiritual needs of a parish, 

discipline is a prime necessity and the pastor must be its head 

master. Will not this decree occasion a clash between the 

disciplinary chief and the confessor, by assigning to the latter 

a duty which has hitherto been perfoqned by the pastor? 

Not necessarily nor even likely, for the reasonable rector, in 

conformity with the decree, will look for children about the 

age of seven to receive First Communion, leaving the confes-

sor to decide 'in each individual ,case 'regarding the child's 

mental capacity. When the candidate informs his pastor that 

his confessor did not judge him fit the matter will be settled, 

and no rational pastor will interfere with the execution of 

th~ law. Some method will probably be adopted to insure 

order and instead of a disorderly First Communion of one 

now, and again another, general First Communion will take 

place at stated times, say at the same intervals as for the 

periodic confession of children, thus guaranteeing th€ edi. 

fying memory of a great day in the history of every Catholic 

life. To i~part richness and robust vigor to that life, fre-
quent and even daily Communion is strongly recommended. 

The Sacramental life 

By a sacrament we are born again to a new life, by a 

sacrament we are brought to full spiritual stature, by a sacra-

ment the wounds of the soul, though they be mortal, are 

healed; so likewise we are fed and our spiritual life is sus-



FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD II 

tained by a sacrament, which is called the Holy Eucharist, 

and contains the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our 

Lord Jesus Christ. This life of the soul is maintained and 

fostered by eating "that Bread which came down from 

heaven," much in the same way as our natural life is sup-
ported by eating our ordinary meals; for the natural has 

been made after the pattern of the supernatural. We were 

born first by natural generation in order to be born again 

'uy water and the Holy Ghost: Were there no heaven, there 

would be no earth. Time is because of eternity. The bodily 

life is for the sake of the life eternal. This participation of 

the divine life, means that God lives in us and we in Him, 

and that as the Son has by nature the same life as the Father 

in its infinite fullness so we share it by grace. This new life, 

as well as the old, requires food for its maintenance. Being 

better acquainted with the needs of the common life of na-

ture, we are accustomed to use the light of this knowledge 

in our understanding of the supernatural. And as we know 

that lack of food for a protracted period results in death, 

so we say by analogy that to deprive the soul of its heavenly 

sustenance for an undue time causes spiritual starvation or 

cessation of the new life. The analogy goes further; for as 

we debilitate, without destroying, our qodily life by stinting 

the supply of nourishment, so we can weaken apd cause par-
tial paralysis of the soul by unduly prolonging the interval 

between our Communions. 

Furthermore, . proper frequency and regularity of meal'i 

will keep t~e body up to its work and in a condition of vigor-
ous health; in a somewhat similar way frequent Communion 

tones up the soul, gives it strength and suppleness, renders it 

solid and steady as the impregnable rock. The quality also 

of our daily victuals has much to do with our bodily well-

being ; but the excellence of the Divine Food is unquestion-

able. Excellent food is best adapted for assimilation; the 
Food prepared for us by Christ is assimilated in such a way 



12 FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 

that we are transformed into Him. Food that is well as-

similated is profitably eaten at frequent intervals, for in such 

case "good digestion waits on appetite and health on both ." 
A healthy condition of body is dependent also upon medi-

cine, particularly in a,cute passages of life. Ordinary food 

is medicinal as well as nourishing, and so is spiritual refec-

tion through Holy Communion. It expels the noxious hu-

mors of a libidinous body, all,ays the unruly fervor of the . 

passions, soothes the chafing of an irascible temper, brings 
down the dangerous inflammation of a haughty mind, ac-

celerates the action of a sluggish heart, and reduces that 

excessive temperature of a disordered soul which is unques-

tionably fatal if not timely checked. 

An Invigorating Power 

The Council of Trent, cited by the Pope in this decree, 

calls Communion "an antidote." Its medicinal action se-

cures uS against the poison of mortal sin. By corroborating 

the soul's stamina it bestows the power of resisting the 
assaults of innumerable baccili and dislodging the fatal germ. 

In the same way it guarantees the soul against smaller faults ; 

as the well-toned body is analogously preserved from the 

common slight colds and similar small ailments. No won-

der, then, that it is the wish of the Church and the expressed 

desire of the celebrated Ecumenical Synod of Trent "that 

at every Mass the faithful who are present should com~ 
municate." Pope Pius X in another decree published by his 

command in 1905, declared that in composing the Lord's 

Prayt!r Christ meant us to ask the Father to give us this 

celestial , Bread daily; in other words, our blessed Savior 

wished us to be daily communicants. By means of the 

Eucharistic Sacrament we are united to God; in union there 
is strength, particularly where the union is with One Who 

is omnipotent. The frailty of our tainted nature should of 



FREQUENT COMMUNioN FOR YOUNG AND OLD 13 

itself suggest association with the strong. Many, on the 

contrary, make their own weakness the cause of keeping 

them away from the holy table; they do not count them-

selves entitled to frequent Communion, till they have become 

better Christians. This is like abstaining from your victuals 

because .you have not yet the strength which comes 

from frequent, regular, and fortifying food. The Pope in-
sists upon it that Communion is not reserved for the pious 

devotee. To take up again the analogy between nature ann 

grace, between what is fitting for the man and what is suit-

able for the Christian, I observe that as those who are ill 

should visit the doctor and take his medicine, so also the 

Catholic who feels his own weakness and has experienced 

frequent fits of spiritual ennui and is fearful of being unable 

to persevere in well-doing, is the one man above all others 

who has need of frequently feeding upon the Body of Jesus 

Christ and, if it were possible, of going daily to Communion. 

The Invitation of Christ 

You can legitimately fancy our blessed Savior preaching 

from the tabernacle and saying: "Come ye all to Me"; for 

" I came not to call the righteous, but sinners; they that are 

well do not need a physician, but they that are ill." In the 

decree on Frequent and Daily Communion we find these 
words: "The primary purpose of the Blessed Sacrament is 

not that the honor and reverence due to Our Lord may be 

safeguarded or that Holy Communion may serve as a re-

ward of virtue." In all His labors, wonder-workings, and 

speeches Christ's main object was the eternal welfare of the 

world; so when He cried out with gentle tenderness and 

touching pity for mankind: . "Oh, come to Me all ye who 

labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest," the 

prime meaning was this profound one: You who are most 

miserable, receiving here the hard buffets of fortune and no 



14 FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 

hope of an eternal reward hereafter; you who are crushed 

to earth by the heavy burden of all the ills which men are 

heir to; you who are poor wanderers in this thorny vale of 

tears, "like sheep without a shepherd when the snow shuts 

out the sky"; you who labor hard, receiving but a wretched, 

temporary, evanescent reward for your labors and are withal 
borne down by the inward weight of your own sins---oh, 

come to Me, and I will give your wandering minds the steady 

light of divine faith to guide them, your despairing souls the 

cheering prospect of better times in the world to come, and 

your chilled hearts the fire ofl true love which will make all 

things come easy to you: I will give you the repose of a good 
conscience here and the delightful rest of paradise when your 

work is finished. "The labor we delight in physics pain ;'" 

Christ bestows that love which lightens labor: He is our 

Physician. To Him we go by Communion, and He comes 

home with us, abides in the house of our soul, watches over 
us in our daily avocations, steadies our steps again when we 

stumble, and is ever by our side, cheering us by pointing to 

the great reward, and showing the tried affection of a true 

Friend: "Greater love/no man hath." 

Effects of Holy Communion 

Union with Christ entails a new instalment of that grace 

which makes the soul pleasing to the eye of God and gives 

increased stability to every good habit of mind and heart. 

The frequent Communicant has' a keener vision of the world 

invisible, a more abiding trust and ineradicable hope in God, 

and a deeper love of Jesus which is proof against every 

temptation to betray the Master. Daily Communion is apt 

to intensify that salutary fear of the Lord, which is <J. gift 

of the Holy Ghost; it is meant to make us look more loviqgly 

toward God as our Father and through love to keep His law; 

it will have the effect of stiffening anew our resolve to put 
nothing before the observance of that law; it greatly quickens 



FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR 'YOUNG AND OLD 15 

that spiritual instinct by which we readily discern the divine 

will in our regard; it keeps us more on the alert to guard 

against the wiles of ' the enemy; it reanimates our taste for 

spiritual things so that we may inwardly rejoice in God's 

service and be jealous of His honor on all occasions. . To 

receive daily is to go to school every day to the best Master 

and have our minds disciplined to drink in the spirit of 

Christ's Gospel and acquire a lucid view of its contents. 

Our actions rise out of our thoughts, and practice op-

posed to the wisdom of Christ can be traced to that wisdom 

of this world which is foolishness with God. It is of para-

mount importance to fill the mind with religious truth well-

digested and thoroughly assimilated, till it saturates the soul 

and is' woven into the texture of the brain. -This can be 

done only by conforming one's own life to that of Jesus 

Christ. He is truth, and in Him we shall see light. In Christ 

there is no darkness, and association with Him will free us 

more and more from that blindness of mind caused by the 

exhalations reeking up from an unpurified heart. Those 

who receive their Lord often will gradually and progressively 

acquire His spirit and so be a~le to penetrate to the marrow 

of the good tidings and realize the Gospel by a profound 

synthetic factor of mind and heart. That discipline of the 

mind and mental furnishing which run counter to the Chris-

tian doctrine is worse than worthless. Christ is the Light of 

the world, and every intellectual torch not kindled thereat 

gives but a lurid flame and blinding smoke. If the child of 

seven sees First Communion only by the faint light of' dawn-

ing reason, frequent Communion afterwards, by union of 

his soul to the living Luminary, will awaken and develop 

that noble gift of understanding with which he was endowed 

in baptism. And what is more, his little mind will be in-

. formed in such fashion as to enlist the feelings of his whole 

spirit and cause him to grow up ' into the completeness ~f a 
logically consistent Christian man. 



16 FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD . 

Viewing All Things in Christ · 

Be he young or old the thorough-going Catholic .who 

keeps constantly communicating with Christ in the Eucha-

rist will view all things in Him, follow the radiating line of 

every human happening to the one Center of all, and steady 

his own mind by contemplating created things in the majestic 

unity of the Creator. To do this is true wisdom, nor is 
there any other philosophy worthy of the name. The Eucha-

ristic Christ will impart that meek and lowly spirit which 

characterized his own blessed Mother and to which He has 

attached the promise of a Kingdom. He will speak whis-

pered words of comfort to the sorrow-laden, fill with satisfy-

ing sweetness the upright heart of him who would have 

justice prevail though the skies should fall down upon our 

heads, mould the spirit of man to mercy toward his fellows 

and thus insure the divine mercy for himself, create a pure 

heart within the human breast and purge the inward eye, 

enaq,ling it to behold the invisible God; fortify the soul to 

suffer for truth's sake and temper the entire man to con-

siderate forbearance and love of peace. If Communion in-

tensifies the sevenfold gift ac~ompanying sanctifying grace 
and that gift entails the fruits of the Holy Ghost, the oftener 

we sit down to the Eucharistic banquet the greater should 

be our charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, 

long-suffering, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. 

The Seed of Immortality 

These graces, gifts, and blessings primarily affect the 

spiritual part; but noble as it is by origin and by nature, 

the soul does not constitute the man. The body is part of 

his substance, and though lapsing into inorganic earth when 

forsaken by the immortal spirit, will one day be reorganized, 

reunited, and share the supe,rior partner's immortality. "It 

is sown in corruption; it will rise in incom,lption. It is 

sown a mortal body: it will rise a spiritual body." In ex-



FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 17 

pressing this consoling truth revealed to u~ from heaven 
through St. Paul, the inspired apostle employs a figure of 

speech, comparing the body's burial in the earth to the agri-

cultural operation of sowing. Now the seed of immortality, 

which according to divine promise. will germinate at the final 

consummation, is sown in the living body by Holy Com-

munion'. Christ has said: "He who eats My Flesh and drinks 

My Blood ... I will raise him up at the last day." Speak-

ing . to Martha, inconsolable for the loss of her brother 

Lazarus, who was dead and buried four days, the weeping 

Jesus Who loved Lazarus, said to the sister: "Your brother 
shall rise again." Martha said to Him: "I know that he shall 

rise again on the last day." This is gospel; now listen to the 

faith of the patriarch Job commemorated in the Old Testa-

ment: "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that on the 

last day I shall rise again from earth: and in my flesh I 

shall see God my Savior. I shall see Him my very self and 

not as if I were another person: and I shall look upon Him 

w.ith these same eyes of mine." 

. The Catholic teaching about the body's resurrection from 

the grave on the last day, ,founded upon divine revelation and 

implied in the quoted words of Jesus Christ, is this, that our 

bodies shall rise again from the tomb by virtue of the Blessed 

Eucharist. There is no doubt, therefore, as to the resurrection 

and its efficient cause. The thought that, though our dear ones 

have descended into the horrid stillness of the grave where we 

ourselves shall one day join them, we nevertheless may see 
them face to face with the very same eyes and clothed in the 

selfsame bodies we saw upon earth, should be an inducement 

to frequently, and even daily, eat the Body and drink the 

Blood of Jesus Christ, and thus multiply and accumulate our 

hopes of seeing God our Savior with glorified eyes of flesh in 

heaven, and of there sitting down with our friends once and 

forever to the everlasting banquet prepared from all eternity 

for the true and faithful iovers of Christ the Lord. 



18 FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 

PONTIFICAL DECREE 

Decree on Receiving Daily the Most, Holy Eucharist 

The Council of Trent, having in view the unspeakable 

treasures of grace which are offered to the Faithful who re-

ceiv;e the Most Holy Eucha.rist, makes the following declara-

tion: "The holy Synod would desire that at every Mass the 

Faithful who are present should communicate , not only 

spiritually, by way of internal affection, but sacramentally 

by the actual reception of the Eucharist" (Sess. 22, cap. 6). 

These words declare plainly enough the wish of the Church 

that all Christians should be daily nourished by this heavenly 

banquet, and should derive therefrom abundant fruit for their 

sanctification. 

This wish of the Council is in entire agreement with that 

desire wherewith Christ Our Lord was inflamed when He 

instituted this divine Sacrament. . For He Himself more 

than once, and in no ambiguous terms, pointed out the neces-

sity of eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood, especially 

in these words: "This is the bread that cometh down from 

, heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead: he 

that. eateth this bread shall live forever" (John vi. 59). 

Now, from this comparison of the food of angels with bread 

and with the manna, it was easily to be understood by His 

disciples that, as the body is daily nourished with bread, and 

as the Hebrews were daily nourished with manna in the 

desert, so the Christian soul might daily partake of this 

Heavenly Bread and be refreshed thereby. Moreover, 

whereas, in the Lord's Prayer, we are bidden to ask for "our 

daily bread," the holy Fathers of the Church all but unan-

imously teach that by these words must be understood, not 

so much that material bread Which is the support of the 

body, as the Eucharistic Bread which ought to be our daily 

food. 

Moreover. the desire of Jesus Christ and of the Church 



FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 19 

that all the Faithful should daily approach the Sacred Ban-

quet is directed chiefly to this end, that the Faithful, being 

united to God by means of the Sacrament, may thence de-

rive strength to resist their sensual passions, to cleanse them-

selves from the stains of daily faults, and to avoid those 

graver sins to which human frailty is liable; so that its pri-

mary purpose is not that the honor and reverence due to Our 

Lord may be safeguarded, or that the Sacrament may serve 

as a reward of virtue bestowed on the recipients (St. Au-

gustine, Serm. 57 in Matth, de Orat. Dom., n. 7). Hence 

the holy Council of Trent calls the Eucharist "the antidote 

whereby we are delivered from daily faults, and preserved 

from deadly sins." (Sess. 13 , cap. 2.) -

This desire on the part of God ' was so well und~rstood 

by the first Christians, that they daily flocked to the Holy 

Table as to a source of life and strength. 

"They were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles, 

and in the communication of the breaking of bread" (Acts 

ii. 42). And that this practice was to continue into later 

ages, not without great fruit of holiness and perfection, the 

holy Fathers and ecclesiastical writers bear witness. 

But when in later times piety grew cold, and more es-

pecially under the influence of the plague of ]ansenism, dis-

putes began to arise concerning the dispositions with which 

it was proper to receive Communion frequently or daily, and 

writers vied with one another in imposing more and more 

stringent conditions as necessary to be fulfilled. The result 

of such disputes was that very few were considered worthy 

to communicate daily, and to derive from this most healing 

Sacrament Its more abundant fruits; the rest being content 

to partake of It once a year, or once a month, or at the ut-

most weekly. Nay, to such a pitch was rigorism carried, that 

whole classes of persons were excluded from a frequent ap-

proach to the Holy Table; for instance, those engaged in 

trade, .or even those living in the state of matrimony. 



20 FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 

Others, however, went to the opposite extreme. Under 

the persllasion that daily Communion was a divine precept, 

and in order that no day might pass without the reception 

of the Sacrament, besides other practices contrary to the 

approyed usage of the Church, they held that the Holy 

Eucharist ought to be received, and in fact administered It, 
even on Good Friday. 

Under these circumstances the Holy See did not fail in 

its duty of vigilance. For, by a Decree of this Sacred Con-

gFegation, which begins with the words Cum ad aures, is-

sued on February 12 , 1679, with the approbation .of Inno-

cent VI, it condemned these errors, and put a stop 

to such abuses; at the same time declaring that all the Faith-

ful of whatsoever class, merchants or tradesmen or married 

persQns not excepted, might be admitted to frequent Com-

munion, according to the devotion of each one and the judg-

ment of his confessor. And on the 7th December, 1690, by 

a Decree of Pope Alexander VIII, Sanctissimus Dominus, the 

proposition of Baius, postulating a perfectly pure love of 

God, without any admixture of defect, as requisite on the 

part of those who wished to approach the Holy Table, was 

condemned. 

Yet the. poison of Jansenism, which, under the pretext of 

showing due honor and reverence to the Holy Eucharist, had 

infected the minds even of good men, did not entirely disap-

pear. The controversy as to the dispositions requ'5ite for thr 

lawful and laudable frequentation of the Sacrament sur-

vived the declarations of the Holy See; so much so, indeed, 

that certain theologians of good repute judged that daily 

Communion should be allowed to the Faithful only in rare 

cases, and under many conditions. 

On the other hand, there were not wanting men of learn-

ing and piety who more readily granted permission for this 

practice, so salutary and so pleasing to God. In accordance 

with the teachings of the Fathers, they maintained that there . 



FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 21 

was no precept · of the Church which prescribed more per-

fect dispositions in the case of daily than of weekly or 

monthly Communion, while the good effects of daily Com-

munion would, they alleged, be far more abundant than 

those of Communion received weekly or monthly. 

In our own day the controversy has been carried on with 

increased warmth, and not without bitterness so that the 

minds of confessors and the consciences of the Faithful 

have been disturbed, to. the no small detriment of Christian 

piety and devotion. Accordingly, certain distinguished men, 

themselves pastors of souls, have urgently besought His 

Holiness, Pope Pius X, to deign to settle, by his supreme 

authority, the questions concerning the dispositions requisite 

for daily Communion; so that this usage, so salutary and so 

pleasing to God, might not only suffer no decrease among the 

Faithful, but might rather be promoted and everywhere 

propagated: a thing most desirable in these days, when re-
ligion and the Catholic Faith are attacked on all sides, and 

the true love of God and genuine piety are so lacking in many 

quarters. And His Holiness, being most earnestly desirous, 

out of his abundant solicitude and zeal, that the Faithful 

should be invited to partake of the Sacred Banquet as often 

as possible, and even daily, and should profit to the utmost 

by Its fruits, committed the aforesaid question to this Sa-

cred Congregation, to be looked into and decided OIice for 

all (de finiendum) . 

Accordingly, the Sacred Congregation of the Council, in 

a Plenary Session held on December 16, 1905, submitted the 

whole matter to a very careful scrutiny; and, after sedulously 

examining the reasons adduced on either side, determined 

and declared as follows: 

1. Frequent and daily Communion, as a thing most 

earnestly desired by Christ Our Lord, and by the Catholic 

Church, should be open to all the Faithful, of whatever rank 

and condition of life; so that no one who is in the state of 



22 FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 

grace, and who approaches the Holy Table with a. right and 
devout intention, can lawfully be hindered thet:efrom. 

2. A right intention consists in this: that he who ap-

proaches the Holy Table should do so, not out of routine, 

ot vainglory, or human respect, but for the purpose of 

pleasing God, or being more closely united with Him by 

charity, and of seeking this divine remedy for. his weaknesses 

and defects. 

3. Although it is more expedient that those who com-

municate frequently or daily should be free from venial sins, 

especially from such as are fully deliberate, and from allY 
affection thereto, nevertheless it is sufficient that they be free 

from mortal sin, with the purpose of never sinnin£>; mortally 

in future; and, if they have this sincere purpose, it is im-

possible but that daily communicants should gradually eman-

cipate themselves from even venial sins, and from all affection 

thereto. 

4. But whereas the Sacraments . of the New Law, though 

they take effect ex opere operato, nevertheless produce a 

greater effect in proportion as the dispositions of the recip-

ient are better; therefore, care is to be taken that Holy 

Communion be preceded by serious preparation, and fol-

lowed by a suitable thanksgiving according to each one's 

strength, circumstances, and duties. 

5. - That the practice of frequent and daily Communion 

may be carried out with greater prudence and more abun-

dant merit, the confessor's advice should be asked. Con-

fessors, however, are to be careful not to dissuade anyone 

(ne quem quam avertant) from frequent and daily Com-

munion, provided that he is in a state of grace and approaches 

with a right intention. 

6. But since it is plain that, by the frequent or daily 

reception of the Holy Eucharist, union with Christ is fos-

tered, the spiritual life more abundantly sustained, the soul 

more richly endowed with virtues, and an even surer pledge 



FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 23 

of everlasting happiness bestowed on the recipient, therefore 

parish priests, confessors, and preachers-in accordance with 

the approved teaching of the Roman Catechism (Part ii, cap. 

4, n. 63)-are frequently, and with great zeal, to exhort the 

faithful to this devout and salutary practice. 

7. Frequent and daily Communion is to h~ promoted 
especially in Religious Orders and Congregations of all kinds; . 

with regard to which, however, the Decree Quemadm-odum, 

issued on December 17, 1890, by the Sacred Congregation 

of Bishops and Regulars is to remain in force . . It is also to 

be promoted especially in ecclesiastical seminaries, where 

students are preparing for the service of the altar; as also 

in all Christian establishments, of whatever ' kind, for the 

training of youth. 

8. In the case of religious institutes, whether of solemn 

or simple vows, in whose rules, or constitutions, or calendars, 

Communion is assigned to certain fixed days, such regulations 

are to be regarded as directive, and not preceptm'.. In such 

cases the appointed number of Communions should be re-

garded as a minimum, and not as setting a limit to the devo-

tion of the religious. Therefore, freedom of access to the 

Eucharistic Table, whether more frequently or daily, must 

always be allowed them, according to the principles above 

laid down in this Decree. And in order that all religious of 

both sexes may clearly understand the provisions of this 

Decree, the Superior of each house is to see that it is read in 

community in the vernacular, every year within the octave 

of the Feast of Corpus Christi. 

9. Finally, after the publication of this Decree, all eccle-

siastical writers are to cease from contentious controversies 

concerning the dispositions requisite for frequent and daily 

Communion. 

All this having been reported to His Holiness, Pope Pius 

X, by the undersigned Secretary of the Sacred Congregation, 

in an audience held on December 17, 1905, His Holiness 



24 FREQUENT COMMUNION FOR YOUNG AND OLD 

ratified and confirmed the present Decree . and ordered it to 

be published, anything to the contrary notwithstanding. He 

further ordered that it should be sent to all local ordinaries 

and regular prelates, to be communicated by them to their 

respective seminaries, parishes, religious institutes and 

priests; and that in their reports concerning the state of their 

respective dioceses or institutes, they should inform the Holy 

See concerning the execution of the matters therein de-

termioed. 

Given at Rome, the 20th day of December, 1905. 

+ VINCENT, 

CAJETAN DE LAI, 

Secretary. 

Card. Bishop of Praenestina, Prefed . 





Demands a Reading ! 

I Believe! 
By Rev. Wilfred G. Hurley, C.S.P. 

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book like this must undoubtedly be a boon to convert-class 

instructors-and for all those who have anything to do with 
ill-instructed Catholics."-The Messen1{er of the Sacred Heart. 

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Published by 

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401 West 59th Street New York 19, N. Y. 

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