Spiritual Communion is the act by which a believer who cannot — or must not — receive the Eucharist under the sacramental species ardently desires to receive it and welcomes Jesus Christ spiritually into his heart, through a movement of faith and charity. It is not a sacrament, nor a ceremony: it is a prayer of desire, which can be made at any moment, anywhere, alone or in a group, before the tabernacle or by the roadside. Saint Alphonsus Liguori sums it up in a word, following Saint Thomas: it is "an ardent desire to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to embrace Him lovingly, as if one had already received Him"[1].
This practice rests on a distinction which the Council of Trent fixed for all time: the Eucharist can be received in three ways — sacramentally only (the case of the sinner who communicates unworthily), spiritually only (one who, unable to communicate, eats this bread "in desire," through a living faith working through charity, and tastes its fruit), or sacramentally and spiritually at once (the well-disposed believer)[2]. Spiritual Communion corresponds to the second way: one receives the effect of the sacrament — union with Christ — without receiving its sensible sign. Saint Thomas had theorized it under the name of manducatio spiritualis: to eat spiritually is to obtain the fruit of the Eucharist "by desire" of the sacrament itself[3].
Far from being a minor devotion, Spiritual Communion has been taught and practised by the greatest masters: Saint Teresa of Avila judged it "of very great profit"[4], Saint Alphonsus composed its most famous formula[5], the Curé of Ars recommended it "at every moment"[6], and John Paul II praised it in his encyclical on the Eucharist[7]. It knew a striking revival during the 2020 pandemic, when millions of Catholics, deprived of Mass, rediscovered it as a bridge to the Christ-Host whom they could no longer receive.
This article sets out the doctrinal foundation, the history, the manner of making and the meaning of Spiritual Communion. It must be distinguished from neighbouring realities, treated elsewhere: it completes without replacing frequent sacramental Communion, it prolongs Eucharistic adoration outside Mass, and it is rooted in faith in the Eucharist, the Real Presence of Christ. For the practical manner of receiving the sacrament, see What is the right way to receive Holy Communion?.
What is Spiritual Communion?
Union with Christ by desire, apart from sacramental reception
To communicate, in the full sense, is to receive the Body and Blood of Christ under the consecrated species and to be united to Him. But the union with Christ which this sacrament produces can also be obtained, to a certain degree, by the desire to receive it, when real reception is impossible. That is Spiritual Communion: not imagining that one communicates, nor "pretending," but positing a real act of faith, love and desire which opens the soul to the grace of the absent sacrament.
The object of this act is not an idea or a symbol: it is the very person of Jesus Christ, truly present in the tabernacle of the nearest church, and present by His grace to every soul that calls upon Him. The believer who makes a Spiritual Communion does not receive the host; but he receives Him whom the host contains, to the measure in which his desire disposes him to it. "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him," says Christ (Jn 6:56)[8]; this mutual "abiding" already begins in the heart that ardently desires the Eucharist.
The three acts that constitute it
Spiritual Communion comes down to three interior movements, corresponding to the three theological virtues:
- an act of faith in the Real Presence: "I believe that You are truly present in the Blessed Sacrament";
- an act of love: "I love You above all things";
- an act of desire: "I desire You in my soul; come at least spiritually into my heart".
These three acts are found word for word in Saint Alphonsus' formula, which merely put Saint Thomas' doctrine into prayer. Everything else — posture, place, length — is incidental.
What Spiritual Communion is not
Three misunderstandings threaten this practice, and must be set aside from the outset.
It is not a sacrament. It does not confer grace ex opere operato, that is, by the sole force of the rite performed[9]; it acts ex opere operantis, according to the fervour of the one who prays. Its fruitfulness therefore depends entirely on the quality of the desire.
It is not a substitute dispensing one from communicating sacramentally when one can. On the contrary: it is wholly ordered to the sacrament, whose hunger it maintains. One who could communicate and abstained on the pretext of "communicating spiritually" would be gravely mistaken about its nature.
It is not a self-Communion, nor a Communion "one gives to oneself." It is Christ who gives Himself; the believer only welcomes Him by desire. That is why it presupposes the same orientation of heart as sacramental Communion: living faith, charity, repentance for sins.
The doctrinal foundation
"Eating spiritually": the three ways according to the Council of Trent
The dogmatic bedrock of Spiritual Communion is found in the Council of Trent. In its decree on the Eucharist (Session XIII, 11 October 1551), chapter 8, "on the use of this admirable sacrament," the Fathers distinguish three ways of receiving the Eucharist:
"As to the use, our Fathers have rightly and wisely distinguished three ways of receiving this holy sacrament. They have taught that some receive it sacramentally only, as sinners; others spiritually only, namely those who, eating in desire the heavenly bread set before them, experience its fruit and benefit, by a living faith which works through charity; the third, finally, receive it both sacramentally and spiritually, and these are those who examine and prepare themselves beforehand, so as to approach this divine table clothed in the wedding garment." — Council of Trent, Session XIII, ch. 8[10]
This text is decisive. It teaches that there exists a spiritual alone reception of the Eucharist, "in desire" (voto), which is not a pious metaphor but a true participation in the fruit of the sacrament, on condition of being animated by "a living faith which works through charity" (cf. Gal 5:6). Spiritual Communion, as a devotional practice, is nothing other than the voluntary and frequent implementation of this second way.
| Way of receiving | Who? | What he receives | Fruit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sacramentally only | The sinner who communicates unworthily | The sign (the host) without grace | No fruit, even condemnation (1 Cor 11:29)[11] |
| Spiritually only | One who eats "in desire," through faith and charity | The fruit (union with Christ) without the sign | The grace of union, according to fervour |
| Sacramentally and spiritually | The well-disposed believer | The sign and the fruit | The fullness of the sacrament |
Saint Thomas Aquinas: manducatio spiritualis
Three centuries before Trent, Saint Thomas Aquinas had laid down the distinction with his customary precision. In the Summa Theologiae, he asks whether two ways of eating the body of Christ should be distinguished, and answers in the affirmative: there is a sacramental eating (receiving the sacrament) and a spiritual eating (receiving the effect of the sacrament, by which "man is united to Christ through faith and charity")[12].
The capital point is that spiritual eating can exist without sacramental reception, by the mere "desire to receive the sacrament itself" (the votum). Thus, Saint Thomas explains, the just of the Old Covenant were able to communicate with Christ even before the institution of the sacrament, and every believer can be united to Christ by desire before or apart from real Communion[13]. Spiritual Communion is therefore the purest expression of this manducatio spiritualis: a formed, conscious desire, which obtains through charity what circumstance refuses to the body.
The biblical roots: John 6 and hunger for the living bread
The doctrine of union by desire is rooted in the Bread of Life discourse (Jn 6). Christ affirms there both the necessity of eating His flesh — "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you" (Jn 6:53)[14] — and the primacy of faith: "He who believes has eternal life" (Jn 6:47)[15]. The Fathers saw in this tension not a contradiction, but the articulation between the sacrament and the believing desire that welcomes it. The very term "abide" — "He who eats my flesh… abides in me" (Jn 6:56) — describes a stable union which desire maintains between two Communions.
Other texts illuminate the practice: the scene at Emmaus, where the disciples recognise the Risen Christ "in the breaking of the bread" (Lk 24:30-31)[16], and Christ's promise: "If anyone loves me… we will come to him and make our dwelling with him" (Jn 14:23)[17]. Spiritual Communion is precisely this welcome of Christ who "comes to dwell" in the soul that loves and desires Him.
"Believe, and you have eaten": Saint Augustine and the Fathers
Among the Fathers, Saint Augustine gave the most striking formula of spiritual manducation. Commenting on the Bread of Life discourse, he challenges his hearer: why prepare teeth and stomach? It is by faith that one eats Christ.
"Why do you prepare your teeth and stomach? Believe, and you have eaten." — Saint Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of Saint John, Tractate XXV, 12[18]
Augustine obviously does not deny the reality of the sacrament — he affirms it elsewhere with force; he stresses that to eat Christ is to believe in Him: "Believe, and you have eaten." This patristic intuition is the seed of all later theology of Spiritual Communion: living faith, which adheres to Christ and desires Him, already makes one taste the fruit which the sacrament will give in fullness.
History of the practice
An ancient reality, a more recent name
The reality of Communion by desire is as old as faith in the Eucharist: once it was believed that faith and love unite to Christ, the essential was held. But the expression "Spiritual Communion" and the organised practice of an act of Spiritual Communion developed later, as Eucharistic devotion became more precise. The Middle Ages, which saw the birth of the elevation, Corpus Christi, exposition and Eucharistic adoration, is also the age in which scholastic theology, with Saint Thomas, formalised the manducatio spiritualis.
One historical factor reinforced the importance of the practice: for centuries, for fear of communicating unworthily, the faithful communicated rarely — often only once a year. Spiritual Communion then offered the means of being united to Christ between two widely spaced sacramental Communions. The Imitation of Christ (15th century), whose Book IV is entirely devoted to the Eucharist, already recalls it: one who cannot communicate really "can also communicate spiritually every day, at every hour, with great fruit"[19]. When Saint Pius X reopened frequent Communion to all at the beginning of the 20th century, Spiritual Communion did not lose its meaning: it remained the prayer of the in-between, of continuous desire.
Saint Teresa of Avila and the golden age of devotion
It is in the modern era, and particularly with the Carmelite school, that Spiritual Communion becomes an explicit theme of the interior life. Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), in her Way of Perfection, recommends it plainly to her nuns:
"When you do not communicate, daughters, and you hear Mass, you can communicate spiritually: it is of very great profit. Afterwards recollect yourselves within yourselves as after Communion, for the love of this Lord is deeply imprinted on the soul in this way." — Saint Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection, ch. 35[20]
Teresa makes it a school of intimacy: Spiritual Communion prepares and prolongs real Communion, and little by little imprints "the love of this Lord" on the heart. It is this passage which John Paul II would quote four centuries later to ground his praise of the practice[21].
Saint Francis de Sales and devotion for all
A few decades later, Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622) integrates Spiritual Communion into the devotion of the laity. In his famous manual of Christian life, the Introduction to the Devout Life (1609), he recommends it to every soul prevented from communicating really:
"But when you cannot have this blessing of communicating really at holy Mass, communicate at least in heart and spirit, uniting yourself by an ardent desire to this life-giving flesh of the Saviour." — Saint Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, ch. 21[22]
The practice thus leaves the cloisters to become the good of all the faithful: a simple means, within reach of merchant and nun alike, of maintaining union with Christ through the days.
Saint Alphonsus Liguori and the classic formula
In the 18th century, Saint Alphonsus Mary Liguori (1696-1787), Doctor of the Church, gave Spiritual Communion its popular diffusion. In his Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary (1745) — one of the most widely read books of piety in Catholic history — he recommends making it frequently, and supplies the formula that has become universal:
"My Jesus, I believe that You are truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. As if You had already come, I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You; never permit me to be separated from You." — Saint Alphonsus Liguori, formula of the act of Spiritual Communion[23]
This prayer perfectly condenses the three acts (faith, love, desire) and adds a plea for perseverance. Alphonsus, quoting Saint Thomas, defines the practice as "an ardent desire to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to embrace Him lovingly, as if one had already received Him"[24]. Its diffusion was such that this formula is today the most recited in the Catholic world, translated into every language.
The Curé of Ars: "at every moment"
Saint John Mary Vianney (1786-1859), the Curé of Ars, made it one of the axes of his Eucharistic preaching. For him, Spiritual Communion is the secret of inflamed souls, who are not content with the single daily Communion permitted:
"If we are deprived of sacramental Communion, let us replace it, as far as we can, with Spiritual Communion, which we can make at every moment." — Saint John Mary Vianney, Catechism on Communion[25]
He gives a celebrated image of it: Communion "acts on the soul like a bellows blast on a fire that is beginning to go out but still has many embers: one blows, and the hearth rekindles"[26]. And he spells out the logic of continuous desire: "We can receive the good God only once a day; a soul inflamed with love makes up for this by the desire to receive Him at every moment"[27]. Spiritual Communion is thus the instrument of permanent union with Christ, beyond the material limit of one Communion a day.
The modern magisterium: from Pius XII to John Paul II
The contemporary magisterium has gathered this heritage. As early as 1947, Pius XII, in his encyclical on the liturgy Mediator Dei, wishes Christians "— especially when they cannot easily receive Holy Communion — to receive it at least by desire"[28]: Communion of desire is thus presented as the normal complement of Eucharistic life, not as a mere expedient.
The decisive step comes from John Paul II. In his encyclical on the Eucharist Ecclesia de Eucharistia (17 April 2003), he invites us to "cultivate in the heart a constant desire for the sacrament of the Eucharist," adding:
"This is what gave rise to the practice of 'Spiritual Communion,' happily established in the Church for centuries and recommended by the saints, masters of the spiritual life." — Saint John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, § 34[29]
In support, the encyclical quotes precisely Saint Teresa of Avila's passage on the "very great profit" of Spiritual Communion[30]. The magisterium thus confirms that this practice is neither a marginal private devotion nor a stopgap, but a proven path, spanning the centuries and guaranteed by the great spiritual masters.
How to make a Spiritual Communion?
The three acts: believe, love, desire
Making a Spiritual Communion requires neither book, nor particular place, nor imposed formula. It suffices to posit the three acts: believe in the Real Presence of Christ; love Him above all things; desire Him and welcome Him spiritually. One can do it in one's own words, or with Saint Alphonsus' formula, or more briefly still: "My Jesus, come into my heart." The essential is not length, but the truth of the desire.
When and how often?
Tradition encourages making it often, and in particular:
- during Mass, at the moment of Communion, when one does not communicate sacramentally (for example at a second Mass on the same day, or for want of being in a state to communicate);
- in the course of adoration or a visit to the Blessed Sacrament;
- through the day, at every moment of desire: on waking, before a church, in trial, before a difficult act.
The Curé of Ars and Saint Alphonsus encourage multiplying these acts: the soul that can receive Christ only once a day can desire Him "at every moment"[31]. Spiritual Communion then becomes a breathing of the soul, a continuous thread of union linking sacramental Communions to one another.
The dispositions of the heart
Because it acts according to fervour, Spiritual Communion calls for true dispositions: faith in the Real Presence, love of God, repentance for sins. Ideally, one makes it in a state of grace; but one who knows himself at fault can first make an act of contrition and desire reconciliation — the desire for the sacrament of penance then accompanying the desire for the Eucharist. As with sacramental Communion, it is charity that measures the fruit: the purer and more burning the desire, the deeper the union.
Who is Spiritual Communion for?
Spiritual Communion is offered to all, but it is particularly precious for those whom circumstances or their situation keep away from sacramental Communion.
Those prevented by circumstances. The sick, the elderly, prisoners, sailors, inhabitants of regions without a priest, all those whom distance, sickness or persecution deprive of Mass: for them, Spiritual Communion is the daily bridge to the Christ-Host. For the dying to whom the sacrament is brought — the viaticum — it prepares and accompanies the final Communion.
Those who cannot receive sacramentally. For believers who, by reason of their situation, cannot approach sacramental Communion — for example, in certain cases, persons divorced and remarried, or those who know themselves in a state of grave sin without yet having been able to confess — Spiritual Communion keeps the bond with Christ alive and nourishes the desire for full Communion, of which it is the spur towards conversion. It dispenses from none of the conditions of sacramental reception: on the contrary, it makes one desire them.
All believers, as a prolongation of Eucharistic life. Even those who communicate every day gain by making Spiritual Communions: they maintain hunger for the sacrament, make thanksgiving fruitful, and extend to the whole day the grace received at the altar. For those living where the sacraments are rare, see How to live the Divine Will without available sacraments.
Spiritual Communion during the 2020 pandemic
The year 2020 gave this ancient practice a burning topicality. With the lockdowns linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, churches closed, public Masses were suspended in many countries, and millions of Catholics found themselves, for the first time in their lives, deprived of sacramental Communion for weeks. Bishops the world over then invited the faithful, following Mass on television or online, to make an act of Spiritual Communion.
Pope Francis himself, celebrating each morning in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta before remotely connected faithful, invited to this Communion of desire and recited an act of Spiritual Communion[32]. Saint Alphonsus' formula was taken up and spread everywhere. This rediscovery recalled a truth which earlier centuries knew well: the grace of the Eucharist is never wholly out of reach for one who truly desires it, even when the altar becomes inaccessible.
Spiritual Communion and life in the Divine Will
Spiritual Communion meets the heart of the spirituality of the Divine Will. Continually desiring Christ, welcoming Him at every instant through faith and love, is learning to abide ceaselessly united to Him — no longer only at the moments of sacramental Communion, but in the very fabric of the day. The Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947), bedridden for decades and feeding practically on nothing but the daily Eucharist, offers a figure of this uninterrupted union: her hidden life was a permanent Communion, in which the soul remains fixed in God as the host remains upon the altar[33]. Spiritual Communion, made "at every moment," is precisely the daily apprenticeship of this permanence: giving oneself ceaselessly to Him who gives Himself ceaselessly.
Objections and limits
"Does Spiritual Communion dispense from communicating in reality?"
No, and this is a decisive point. Spiritual Communion is wholly ordered to sacramental Communion: it maintains the desire for it; it does not take its place. Sacramental Communion remains superior, for it gives us Christ in person under the species, ex opere operato, independently of our fervour; Spiritual Communion gives us only what our desire can welcome. One who could communicate and abstained, saying "I communicate spiritually," would invert the order of things. The rule is clear: when one can communicate worthily, one communicates; when one cannot, one makes a Spiritual Communion.
"Is it not a sentimental illusion?"
The objection supposes that nothing really happens, for want of a sensible sign. But Catholic faith teaches the contrary: union with Christ through faith and charity is real, even without the sacrament, as Trent proclaims ("the fruit and benefit" are "experienced")[34]. Spiritual Communion is not an emotion one procures for oneself: it is an act of theological virtue which obtains an objective effect of grace, proportioned to desire. Far from being a sentimental retreat, it is a school of real love: Saint Teresa notes that it "imprints" God's love on the soul[35].
"Is it a path of spiritual laziness?"
On the contrary: rightly understood, Spiritual Communion sharpens hunger for the sacrament rather than putting it to sleep. One who truly practises it desires all the more ardently to communicate really and to adore. The danger is not in the practice, but in its misuse: reducing it to a mechanical formula, or using it to dispense oneself from the effort of Mass, confession and conversion. Made in the truth of desire, it is one of the simplest and most powerful means of the interior life.
Further reading
- The Eucharist — the sacrament of the Real Presence, source and summit of Christian life, foundation of all Communion.
- How to grow in frequent Communion — sacramental Communion received often and fruitfully, which Spiritual Communion completes without replacing.
- Eucharistic adoration — the worship given to Christ present outside Mass, prolonged by Spiritual Communion.
- What is the right way to receive Holy Communion? — the dispositions of body and soul for communicating worthily.
- Viaticum — Communion brought to the dying, accompanied by the Communion of desire.
- How to live the Divine Will without available sacraments — living united to God when the sacraments are lacking.
Notes and References
Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, following Saint Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Communion is "an ardent desire to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to embrace Him lovingly, as if one had already received Him" ("un ardente desiderio di ricevere Gesù sacramentato e un amoroso abbraccio, come se già si fosse ricevuto").
1 24Council of Trent, Session XIII (11 October 1551), Decree on the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, ch. 8 ("On the use of this admirable sacrament"). Latin text: "Quoad usum autem recte et sapienter Patres nostri tres rationes hoc sanctum Sacramentum accipiendi distinxerunt. Quosdam enim docuerunt sacramentaliter tantum id sumere, ut peccatores ; alios tantum spiritualiter, illos nimirum, qui voto propositum illum coelestem panem edentes, fide viva, quae per dilectionem operatur, fructum eius et utilitatem sentiunt ; tertios porro sacramentaliter simul et spiritualiter [sumere] ; ii autem sunt, qui ita se prius probant et instruunt, ut vestem nuptialem induti ad divinam hanc mensam accedant." In H. Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum (Symbols and definitions of the Catholic faith), no. 1648 (formerly 881). The distinction of the three ways is the direct dogmatic foundation of Spiritual Communion.
2 10 34Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIa pars, q. 80, a. 1: one distinguishes sacramental eating (receiving the sacrament) from spiritual eating, "by which one receives the effect of this sacrament, by which man is spiritually united to Christ through faith and charity" (spiritualis, per quem aliquis percipit effectum huius sacramenti, quo homo Christo spiritualiter coniungitur per fidem et caritatem).
3 12Saint Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection (Camino de perfección), ch. 35 (Valladolid edition, 2nd redaction). Spanish text: "Y cuando no comulgareis, hijas, y oyereis misa, podéis comulgar espiritualmente, que es de grandísimo provecho, y hacer lo mismo de recogeros después en vos, que es mucho lo que se imprime el amor así de este Señor." The chapter numbering varies according to redactions and editions: ch. 35 in the Valladolid edition (modern reference); John Paul II quotes it as ch. 37 (Œuvres complètes, Paris, 1948, p. 766) in Ecclesia de Eucharistia, § 34, note 70.
4 20 35Saint Alphonsus Mary Liguori, Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary (Visite al SS. Sacramento e a Maria santissima, 1745), "Atto per la Comunione spirituale." Original Italian text (§ 303): "Gesù mio, credo che voi state nel SS. Sacramento. V'amo sopra ogni cosa e vi desidero nell'anima mia. Giacché ora non posso ricevervi sacramentalmente, venite almeno spiritualmente al cuore mio. Come già venuto io v'abbraccio, e tutto mi unisco a voi. Non permettete ch'io m'abbia mai a separare da voi." The most widespread modern version specifies "credo che sei realmente presente" ("I believe that You are truly present") — faithful to the sense, the adverb realmente not appearing in the 1745 original. It is this received form which is quoted in the body of the article.
5 23Saint John Mary Vianney, Curé of Ars, Catechism on Communion: "If we are deprived of sacramental Communion, let us replace it, as far as we can, with Spiritual Communion, which we can make at every moment." Collected in the Esprit du curé d'Ars (sermons and catechisms of Saint John Mary Vianney, Abbé Alfred Monnin).
6 25Saint John Paul II, encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (17 April 2003), § 34: "It is good to cultivate in the heart a constant desire for the sacrament of the Eucharist. This is what gave rise to the practice of 'Spiritual Communion,' happily established in the Church for centuries and recommended by the saints, masters of the spiritual life."
7 29Gospel according to Saint John, 6:56 (Bread of Life discourse, in the synagogue at Capernaum): "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."
8On the distinction ex opere operato / ex opere operantis, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1128: the sacraments act "by the very fact that the action is performed" (ex opere operato), whereas devotions and sacramentals depend on the dispositions of the one who receives them. Spiritual Communion, not being a sacrament, acts according to fervour (ex opere operantis).
9First Letter to the Corinthians, 11:27-29: "Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily […] eats and drinks his own condemnation." Saint Paul grounds the necessity of being in a state of grace to communicate worthily — hence Trent's "sacramental reception only" of sinners.
11Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIa, q. 80, a. 1, ad 3 and a. 2: spiritual eating can exist by desire alone (votum) to receive the sacrament, before or apart from sacramental reception; thus the just of the Old Law were able to communicate with Christ by desire before the institution of the Eucharist. Cf. also q. 73, a. 3 (the Eucharist as res tantum: the unity of the Mystical Body, accessible by desire).
13Gospel according to Saint John, 6:53: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you." An affirmation of the necessity of the Eucharist, which tradition reads in connection with the votum (desire) for those prevented from it.
14Gospel according to Saint John, 6:47: "Truly, truly, I say to you: he who believes has eternal life." The tension between Jn 6:47 (faith) and Jn 6:53 (eating the flesh) grounds the patristic articulation between the sacrament and believing desire.
15Gospel according to Saint Luke, 24:30-31: the disciples at Emmaus recognise the risen Christ "in the breaking of the bread." A traditional figure of recognising Christ in the Eucharist.
16Gospel according to Saint John, 14:23: "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him; we will come to him and make our dwelling with him." A classic text on indwelling, applied to welcoming Christ by desire.
17Saint Augustine, In Iohannis Evangelium tractatus (Tractates on the Gospel of Saint John), Tractate XXV, 12 (commentary on Jn 6, circa 414-417): "Ut quid paras dentes et ventrem ? Crede, et manducasti" ("Why do you prepare your teeth and stomach? Believe, and you have eaten"). Text in Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina (CCL) 36; Patrologia Latina (PL) 35.
18Imitation of Christ, Book IV ("On the sacrament of the altar"), ch. 10 ("That one must not readily withdraw from Holy Communion"): one who is prevented from communicating sacramentally "can also communicate spiritually every day, at every hour, with great fruit." See also ch. 14 of the same book on the ardent desire to communicate.
19Saint John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, § 34, note 70, quoting Saint Teresa of Jesus, Way of Perfection, ch. 35, on the "very great profit" of Spiritual Communion.
21 30Saint Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life (1609), Part II, ch. 21 ("How one must communicate"): "But when you cannot have this blessing of communicating really at holy Mass, communicate at least in heart and spirit, uniting yourself by an ardent desire to this life-giving flesh of the Saviour."
22Saint John Mary Vianney, Catechism on Communion: "Communion acts on the soul like a bellows blast on a fire that is beginning to go out but still has many embers: one blows, and the hearth rekindles."
26Saint John Mary Vianney, Catechism on Communion: "We can receive the good God only once a day; a soul inflamed with love makes up for this by the desire to receive Him at every moment." The saint also says: "After receiving the sacraments, when we feel the love of God growing cool in us, quick, Spiritual Communion!" (the form "growing cold," often quoted, is a paraphrase). The limit of one Communion a day corresponds to the discipline still in force: a second Communion on the same day is possible only in the course of a Mass in which one participates (Code of Canon Law, 1983, can. 917).
27 31Pius XII, encyclical Mediator Dei (20 November 1947), § 117: the Church wishes Christians, "especially when they cannot easily receive Holy Communion, to receive it at least by desire" (Latin text: "saltem voto et desiderio").
28Pope Francis, Mass in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, during the lockdown linked to the Covid-19 pandemic (spring 2020): invitation to make an act of Spiritual Communion for the faithful unable to communicate sacramentally. The practice was then recommended by many episcopal conferences; Saint Alphonsus Liguori's formula was widely spread.
32Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947), Servant of God, "the little daughter of the Divine Will," bedridden for decades and feeding practically on nothing but the daily Eucharist. Biographical data: Maria Rosaria Del Genio, The Sun of My Will — Luisa Piccarreta, Libreria Editrice Vaticana; Centro Studi Piccarreta (Corato).
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