If you want to be perfect

Thoughts of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina on Holy Mass
Taken from the book “Padre Pio. A Thought for Every Day of the Year”, Shalom, code 8142

1. Every Holy Mass heard attentively and devoutly produces marvelous effects in our soul, abundant spiritual and material graces that we ourselves do not know.
2. What hurts me most is the thought of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament: even after receiving him in the Sacrament, my hunger and thirst for him keep increasing.
3. Every hour of the day was, for Padre Pio, a preparation for or thanksgiving for the Eucharist: «Father, what is your Mass?»
   «Union with the Passion of Jesus. My responsibility is unique in the world», he says through his tears.
4. In Holy Mass, everything that Jesus suffered in his Passion, inadequately, I too suffer insofar as this is possible for a human creature. And this, despite all my lack of merit and solely through his goodness.
5. Do not be afraid to approach the altar to feast on the flesh of the immaculate Lamb, for nothing will warm your spirit better than his sun, and nothing will sweeten it better than his balm.
6. The world could exist even without the sun, but it cannot exist without Holy Mass.
7. Before receiving Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I feel such hunger and thirst that I nearly die of longing. And precisely because I cannot help but unite myself with him, at times, even with a fever, I am compelled to go and feed on his flesh.
8. During Communion, Jesus kisses me all over and delights in his creature. Communion is a union, like two candles that melt together and can no longer be distinguished.
9. Once I have received Jesus, I almost forget that I am in the world; my mind and heart desire nothing else.
10. After Mass, I stayed with Jesus to give thanks. Oh, how sweet was the conversation held with Heaven! The heart of Jesus and mine became one. Mine had disappeared, like a drop of water lost in the sea. Jesus was its Heaven, its king.
11. The best and only way to remain faithful to God is to draw near every day to receive Jesus at the table of the angels.