Great God! to crucify Thee again, to profane Thy adorable body, to trample under foot Thy precious blood, to renew the treason of Judas and the outrage of the Jews; no, Lord, no,-never let this crime be committed among us. May all the faithful, guided by Thy divine light and supported and conducted by Thy grace, go often to receive Thy precious blood and adorable body; may they have a horror for sacrilege, and may they always come to the heavenly banquet clothed with the nuptial robes. Lord, deign to prepare for thyself Thy dwelling in our hearts, and never permit us to find death in this divine fountain of life. Shower down upon us the abundance of Thy graces, and grant us the will to do good and to shun evil. Inspire us with a profound respect and veneration for the adorable sacrament of Thy body and blood, that we may worthily receive this pledge of eternal life and of a glorious immortality.-AMEN.

SERMON LXXVII.

ON FREQUENT COMMUNION.

“With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you before I suffer.”— ST. LUKE, Xxii: 15.

THE Apostle St. John tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ, having loved His disciples, loved them to the end, that is to say, as St. Chrysostom explains it, that He carried His love even to excess. This is a truth of which you are thoroughly convinced from all that we have hitherto said regarding the institution of the holy Eucharist. It is in this adorable sacrament that the love of Jesus Christ for mankind has been displayed to its fullest extent. It is there that He offers us the most precious treasure: His body and blood, strength, grace and life. Were we seriously to consider the value of the gift which He bestows, with what ardor would we labor to render ourselves worthy of being often admitted to eat this divine pasch with our amiable Saviour! My Brethren, God invites us to

this sacred banquet: may my words, then, have the happy effect of inducing you to respond with eagerness to this tender invitation, and to approach frequently the holy table of the Lord.

The holy Eucharist is not, like Baptism, absolutely necessary for salvation; a person can be saved without receiving holy Communion; but as a precept of the Church, this sacrament is necessary for adults, and the reception of Communion is a divine command, according to these appalling words of our Saviour: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you." We must go to Communion as soon as we come to the use of reason, and are sufficiently instructed in the mysteries of faith; we must receive this sacrament, at least at Easter, every year, under pain of mortal sin, unless there be a lawful cause for deferring its reception; in fine, we must receive holy Communion when we are in danger,-even probable danger of death. Christian mothers, you should adopt the pious practice of receiving holy Communion on the approach of your confinement; this adorable sacrament will fortify and protect you against the dangers and pains of child-birth; it is the surest means of drawing down upon you and the child that the Lord has given you, the favors and blessings of heaven.

It is true, those who go to Communion at Easter satisfy the precept; but do they correspond properly to the spirit and will of Jesus Christ? Is it one Communion in the year that this divine Saviour demands of you, when He says: "With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you?... Take ye and eat," He says, "this is my body; take ye and drink, this is my blood.... Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you." Do you not then insult the goodness of God by keeping a long time away from His holy table? Do you not oppose His designs of mercy, when you respond but rarely and in some manner by compulsion to His tender invitations? Ah! if you loved this God, who is so prodigal of himself toward you, love would lead you frequently to the sacred banquet, where He gives you His flesh, His blood, His soul and His divinity; where He gives himself to you without reserve!

your

But you say, our holy mother, the Church, whom God has appointed to teach and conduct us in the ways of salvation, pre

scribes but one Communion in the year. My Brethren, what do you expect and require of your children? Not only that they should obey your orders, but also that they should respect your advice and follow your counsels. Now, you are children of the Church of Christ, but are you obedient to your mother, when you wish to approach but once a year the holy table of the Lord? You can not be ignorant of the fact, that the Church solicits and entreats you to present yourselves there far oftener. "It is," she tells you in the Council of Trent, "with all her maternal affection that she admonishes, exhorts, and conjures you, by the bowels of the mercy of God, to revere the sacred mysteries with such piety and affection of heart, that you may be in a state to receive often this divine bread, which is above all substance; so that, fortified by this divine food, you may pass from the pilgrimage of this miserable life to your heavenly country." "Yes," says St. Cyprian, "we beg of God to give us daily that divine bread which came down from heaven, in order that we may be able always to remain united to Jesus Christ, to live in Him, to abide in Him, and that we may never have the misfortune of being separated from Him, nor lose His holy grace." It is thus we would act, my Brethren, thus we would obey the voice of God, our Father, and of the Church, our mother, if we had more faith, more piety, more relish for the good things of heaven, and more zeal for our own salvation; nor would we be then reduced to the miserable expedient of covering, by specious pretexts, our criminal indifference for the sacraments.

You are urged to approach frequently to the holy Communion, and what is your reply? Would to God, you say, it were possible for us to receive often the body of our Saviour! But we are too much occupied with the affairs of life; we have no time to spare. Do you know what St. Augustine calls these great affairs? He styles them great and laborious trifles. Nevertheless, my Brethren, God does not wish that you should neglect them; but ought you not to esteem your salvation and sanctification far beyond all things else? And what more powerful means to work out your salvation than frequent Communion? Is it not to it you should have recourse, to nourish and fortify your souls and render them steadfast and unshaken in the love and service of God? Frequent Communion will make the practice of virtue easy for you,-it will help

you to fulfill your duties; it will aid you to live well, and a good and virtuous life will prepare you for a good and holy Communion. Then you will have no need of a great deal of time or of great and extraordinary efforts on your part to prepare yourselves, and approach the Lord's table in holy dispositions. Had the primitive Christians no occupation? They were to be met with everywhere; in the counting-house, and in the work-shop,-in fields and in cities, -at the bar and in the army. Like you, they had duties to fulfill as fathers and mothers, and they failed not to discharge the obligations of their respective professions; yet they found time and means to hear Mass every day, and to communicate very often. What they have done you could also do if you loved God,-your soul and your salvation.

But you say, it is not so much our occupations as fear that keeps us from approaching frequently the holy table. Well, of what are you afraid?—Is it not a dreadful crime to receive unworthily? Without doubt, it is a most horrible crime: but weigh well this expression of St. Bonaventure: "To approach the holy table unworthily, is a crime that makes one shudder with horror; but not to receive Communion, through sheer negligence, is a damnable sin." But is there not a medium between these two extremes, which is that of putting one's self in a state to receive worthily? Yes, there is a medium, and it is not hard to find it. Shun every mortal sin and wean your hearts from all attachments to venial faults; acknowledging your weakness and the need you have of the assistance of grace, beg it from Jesus and His holy Mother; place yourself under the guidance of a wise director, and I assure you, that you will never make unworthy Communions.

You like well enough to go often to receive the body and blood of our Lord, but then the world will say that you wish to pass yourself off for a saint. This is another specious pretext, and a very common one. It is true, my Brethren, there are a great many people in the world who delight in criticising, blaming and railing at the actions of their neighbors. Ought we to fear them? No. If you receive Communion frequently, who are they that find fault with you? Not the true Christians,-not sincerely virtuous persons; these on the contrary praise and esteem you. Who are they who ridicule you? Men without piety and without the fear of God,

men who make it the whole business of their lives to censure the conduct of others,-men who know not what it is to love God. Should their miserable talk keep you away from holy Communion, and prevent you from enriching your souls with a treasure so precious? If you wish to please this world, you can not please Jesus Christ, who condemns the world, abandoned as it is to sin. Let not the conversations of fools prevent you from being wise; and for a miserable, "what will people say of me," do not deprive your soul of the heavenly nourishment which it needs so much; do not expose it to the danger of losing God's grace, and with it life everlasting.

Who has ever loved more than he who gives his life for the object of his love? Thou, Lord Jesus, for Thou wast not content with giving Thy life, with shedding Thy blood to reconcile us with Thy heavenly Father, but Thou didst love us even to excess, even to give us Thy flesh for our food and Thy blood for our drink. We know how great is the precious gift which Thou offerest to us, O divine Saviour! We know that, in the adorable Eucharist, we receive the bread of life,-the pledge of immortality! We would often sit at Thy celestial banquet, but the enemies of our salvation, the world by its censures, the devil by his perfidious suggestions, concupiscence by its temptations, continually oppose our good will. Deign Lord, deign to infuse into our souls sufficient strength and energy to overcome all these obstacles. Yes, divine Jesus, Thy grace will support us, for Thy holy Mother will obtain it for us; we will come often to eat the bread of angels, and to drink the chalice of Thy blood, that Thou mayest abide in us and we may abide in Thee, now and forever.-AMEN.