22 Vol. LX, No. 1 Magnificat to be able to say the same words as the priest”. He also loved Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The Host radiating in the monstrance, the flowers, the candles, the hymns... everything spoke to his soul. Nevertheless, he regretted that there were not even more lights. “It is never beautiful enough for the Good Lord Jesus,” he declared. One day, on the way home from a walk with the child, his teacher noticed that Guy was not frolicking as usual, and was even walking with some difficulty. When they got home, she took off his shoes. His stocking had a hole in it, and his heel was red and swollen. The culprit was a little pebble in the bottom of his shoe. Guy said nothing to her... At bedtime, when his mother came to cuddle the slightly chafed foot, the little boy said confidentially, “Mamma, I hurt it on purpose. I put a pebble in my shoe because today is Friday, the day of the death of Little Jesus, and since I don’t eat meat, I have no mortification to offer Him1, so I invented this one. I didn’t tell Mademoiselle (the teacher), because she wouldn’t understand. She told me she only received Communion at Easter, once a year! Can you believe it? As for me, once I have tasted Little Jesus, I will receive Him much more often!” While Guy was still a student, his father, Count Pierre de Fontgalland, made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he was received in audience by the Holy Pontiff Pius X. Guy never tired of hearing about the Pope, the Vatican and Rome. He dreamed of making that wonderful journey, and his parents had promised him that the four of them would go in 1925 or 1926. “We will have to see the Pope, won’t we?” Guy exclaimed. “Then I will tell him, ‘Holy 1. Guy detested meat. He was forced to eat a little, and each bite was a real penance for him. Pope, I love you because you told children to receive Communion at seven!’ I am so happy to think that I will soon be receiving Little Jesus!” “But, it is His Holiness Benedict XV2 that you will be seeing,” replied his mother, “and it was Pius X who made the decree.” “Oh, that doesn’t matter,” retorted the child. “He’s still the Pope, and I love him.” Even as a child, Guy was already an apostle among his classmates. “Ask your mom to receive Communion, like me, at seven... Insist, say you want Little Jesus; and after all, since the Pope said so, you must, you must!” 2. In fact, Benedict XV would die in 1922. Had Guy gone to Rome in 1925, he would have seen his successor, Pius XI. “Everything is in Communion, everything comes from Communion as from a source of life and strength and incalculable fruitfulness. Daily Communion deposits in us layers of strength, calm, purity, supernatural life; it is our ascent to God from the depths of this valley of tears; it is the supernatural soil where our good works and the love that makes them fruitful germinate more strongly.” Msgr. Gaston de Ségur
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