Daily Reading for October 17 • The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
There are some who think frequent Communion apt to produce too great familiarity, and consequently abate of the reverence with which we should approach the dreadful Mysteries: ’tis true, familiarity amongst men, creates many times contempt; because the more we are acquainted with one another, the more we discover our infirmities and defects, and that lessens our esteem. But ’tis quite otherwise with God, whom the more we know and contemplate, the more we love, and the more we love the more we admire and revere; because he is all perfection; and therefore those who are much given to converse with God, by prayer, close meditation, and frequent Communion, do usually far exceed in holiness and virtue those who only contemplate his attributes at distance, and approach him but seldom. . . . .
As love then is better than fear, nay as love is the noblest passion, and highest felicity which the soul is capable of in this, or the life to come; so doubtless, if love carry us to this Lover of Souls, we cannot come too often to this Holy Table.
From A Devotionarie Book of John Evelyn of Wotton, 1620-1706 (John Murray, 1936).