Truly no people have their God so near as we chosen ones, who have been admitted to His special familiarity. Day and night Jesus dwells with us under the same roof; we are daily present when during the holy Mass heaven opens and He descends upon the altar; we appear before His tabernacle several times a week. He enters our heart in holy communion . . .
Yet, is not this familiar intercourse an incentive to irreverence toward God? Is my attitude when I kneel before the tabernacle always a worthy and edifying one? How are my preparation and thanksgiving when I receive holy communion? . . . How do I converse with God, how speak of God? . . . [I]f I must reproach myself in all these points, the cause is this, that Thy holy fear does not penetrate me, daily intercourse makes me forget that Thou art the God of majesty and holiness, who is honored by familiarity, but dishonored by irreverence . . .
Holy angels, obtain for us that holy fear which does not exclude familiarity, but increases love.
-- Rev. Henry C. Semple, SJ,
Meditations for Monthly Retreats
