130 



THE MEANS OF GRACE 



valids or on those who have been legitimately dispensed 

 by the Pope. Invalids may receive Communion once or 

 twice a week even if they are obliged to take some liquid 

 food. 21 



III. Frequent Communion. — By frequent 

 Communion (communio frequens) is understood 

 the reception of the Holy Eucharist daily or at 

 least several times a week. 



i. There can be no doubt that frequent Com- 

 munion agrees perfectly with the teaching and 

 practice of the Church. St. Augustine says 

 that, unless a man's sins are so great as to merit 

 excommuniation, he should not deprive himself of 

 the daily medicine of the Body of Christ. 22 The 

 Council of Trent "admonishes, exhorts, begs, 

 and beseeches . . . that all and each of those 

 who bear the Christian name . . . would believe 

 and venerate these sacred mysteries of [Christ's] 

 Body and Blood with such constancy and firm- 



21 Codex Iuris Canonici, can. 

 858, § 2. 



22 St. Augustine, Epist., 54 (al. 

 118), n. 4: "Peccata, si tanta non 

 sunt, ut excommunicandus quisque 

 iudicetur, non se debet a quotidiana 

 tnedicina Dominici corporis separare. 

 . . . Faciat autem unusquisque, quod 

 secundum fidem suam pie credit esse 

 faciendum. . . . Nam et Me hono- 

 rando non audet quotidie sumere, et 

 ille honorando non audet ullo die 

 praetermittere. Contemptum solum 

 non vult cibus iste, sicut nee manna 

 fastidium." (Migne, Patr. Lat., 

 XXXIII, 201 sq.) — Idem, Serm., 



227 (al. 83 De Diversis) : "Debetis 

 [infantes] scire, quid accepistis, quid 

 accepturx estts, quid quot die acci- 

 pere debeatis." (P. L., XXXVIII, 

 1 099) . — Pseudo-Augustine, A ppend. 

 Serm., 84 (al. 28 De Verbis Do- 

 mini), n. 3: "Accipe quotidxe, quod 

 quotidie tibi prosit; sic vive, ut quo- 

 tidie merearis accipcre. Qui non 

 mcretur quotidie accipere, non mere- 

 tur post annum accipere." (P. h., 

 XXXIX, 1908 sq.).— The latter 

 passage appears verbatim also in 

 Pseudo-Ambrose, De Sacram., 1. V, 

 n. 25 (P. L., XVI, 452). 



