Publisher's Synopsis
Let us consider this excerpt: ""If," writes Cassian, "the sight of our sins tends to keep us away from daily Communion, the confidence of finding in it a remedy for all our evils ought to make us hunger for it, profoundly convinced that, if we are unworthy of the favour, the help is essential for us; otherwise, I do not see who would dare to communicate even once a year. And there are some who keep away, and do themselves great harm. The reason of their mistake is that they only look at the excellence of the Sacraments; then they think they must be holy before they approach them, instead of reflecting that it is the Sacraments which make the soul holy. Thus, in trying to avoid pride, they fall into it, because, when at last they come to Communion, they judge themselves worthy to participate."" This also is important: "It will be of little use to exhort parishioners "frequently and with great zeal" to practise frequent and daily Communion if we do not remove practical difficulties which effectually hinder them, or some of them, from doing what we inculcate. Except Holy Communion be obtainable before Mass, easily and without any deterrent formalities being required, frequent Communion will become, not necessarily, indeed, the privilege of the more virtuous, but certainly of the well- to-do or leisured classes. In any larger congregation, especially in towns and cities, there will generally be a certain number whose duties and occupations would admit of their communicating before Mass, and so carrying out the Pope's wishes, but who would be quite unable to stay until the end of the Holy Sacrifice for even a modest thanksgiving. Then, again, there are really delicate people, who cannot remain fasting for long after rising, and who would otherwise need to have Communion brought to them in their houses. Yet many of these people may be just the ones whose daily surroundings place them in considerable temptation, or who require special grace to sanctify their ill-health, and whose souls, therefore, stand in peculiar need of their" daily Bread."" Pope Saint Pius X's decree affects the office of confessor and spiritual director: "All the chief commentators on the famous Decree are agreed that the confessor has now no longer any right to forbid or to permit Communion in the case of a penitent who fulfils the two conditions contained in Article I. of the Decree. The penitent, though he is exhorted to perform the act of submission of consulting the confessor (for he no longer needs "permission," since he has it already from the Supreme Spiritual Director of all the faithful, the Pope), is not bound under pain of any sin whatever to seek the advice, nor to follow it when received."
