Our Church has a treasury of prayers and blessings.  Books are filled with them.  For the most part, they are composed by ordinary people and have been found meaningful by us, especially as we face certain times in life.  The Church over the years collects these prayers into this treasury.

Such is the case of the prayer at the heart of the Act of Spiritual Communion.  We have posted it on our website, and it has appeared in numerous communications.  So, here it is again!  The most common form of the prayer goes like this:
 
This prayer has been talked about and used frequently by many saints, including St. Thomas Aquinas, St. John Vianney, and St. John Paul II.  In this time, when so many are separated from physically receiving communion, this is a well-established practice available to all in the Church.

St. Teresa of Jesus (St. Teresa of Avila) wrote: "When you do not receive communion and you do not attend Mass, you can make a spiritual communion, which is a most beneficial practice; by it the love of God will be greatly impressed on you" [The Way of Perfection, Ch. 35].

I urge you to take advantage of this tradition in this time of separation and difficulty.  You are in my prayers every day.  Let us pray for each other, for those who are sick, and all those adversely effected by the measures taken to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.