The purpose of Holy Communion is the fusing of hearts and souls in Jesus. And we must live this union with Jesus, God and man, twenty-four hours a day.
Some saints have lived this union of hearts in a singular way, for Jesus replaced their own heart with His. This exchange of hearts was granted to St. Catherine of Siena. Her director, Bl. Raymond, recounts: “One day, it seemed to her that her eternal Spouse came to her as usual, opened her left side, took out her heart, and went away, leaving her without a heart. The impression of this vision was such that Catherine told her director that she no longer had a heart in her body... Sometime later, the Lord appeared to her, holding a red and radiant human heart in His sacred hands. Approaching her, the Lord opened her left side once more, inserted the heart He held in His hands, and said to her: ‘My daughter, just as the other day I took your heart, so today I give you mine, which will allow you to live forever.’”
Some saints have received this grace through the Eucharist, permanently carrying Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament within their breast, thus remaining in continuous union with His most holy humanity. St. Anthony Mary Claret relates this to us in his Autobiography: “On August 26, 1861, while praying in the Church of the Rosary in La Granja at seven o'clock in the evening, the Lord granted me the great grace of the preservation of the sacramental species, allowing me to always carry the Most Blessed Sacrament in my breast, day and night.”
Fr. Ángel Peña