Paperback: After she died, St Theresa of Avila appeared to one of her nuns and said: "There should be no difference, as far as purity and love are concerned, between the blessed in Heaven and the faithful on earth, though we are perfectly happy and you are suffering. What the Divine Essence is to us in Heaven, the Blessed Sacrament should be to you on earth."
"Here, then," says St. Alphonsus, "is our heaven on earth - the Most Blessed Sacrament."
Visits To The Blessed Sacrament And The Blessed Virgin Mary (2012) was conceived and written to help us grow in the knowledge and love of God and in appreciation for what He has done for us by giving us the Blessed Sacrament. For each of the 31 days of the month, St Alphonsus provides for us a "Visit to Our Lord" - which is a brief meditation on and a fervent prayer of love toward Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Each Visit to Our Lord is followed by a "Visit to Our Lady." The latter are short meditations on and prayers of great confidence in her powerful help - even for the most wretched and forsaken on sinners.
At each Visit, the reader is to make an "Act of Spiritual Communion," which will help enflame his heart with greater love of God.
Through this little book, St Alphonsus leads a person to appreciate Our Lord's great love for us in the Blessed Sacrament, to love Him in return, and to consecrate his life to Him.
Visits to the Blessed Sacrament by St Alphonsus Liguori is a perennial favourite among Catholic prayerbooks, as well as one of the most famous and best-loved Catholic books ever published. It is re-edited from the critical Italian edition and newly written into English (c 1952) by The Redemptorist Fathers.
About the Saint/author: St Alphonsus Liguori was born in 1696 to Neapolitan nobility at Marianella, Italy. He became a recognizable lawyer after going through law school at the age of sixteen, but later decided to leave law in favour of giving his salvation more attention. Alphonsus joined the Oratory of St Philip Neri as a seminarian and was ordained in 1726, when he was thirty. The homilies he gave had the special ability of converting those who had fallen away from the faith. He also founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, and authored such works as The Glories of Mary, The True Spouse of Jesus Christ, Attaining Salvation, The Blessed Virgin Mary, Preparation for Death Abridged, What Will Hell Be Like?, The Twelve Steps to Holiness and Salvation, and The Way of the Cross.
After being a bishop for over a decade, St Alphonsus Liguori died on the first of August, 1787. He was canonized by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839, and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1871. His feast is celebrated on 1 August.
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