ACTS OF ADORATION +

0 most adorable Jesus, dwelling in the tabernacle! prostrate before the throne of Thy veiled majesty, I, Thy unworthy servant, beseech Thee to receive my profound adoration. I firmly believe that Thou art really present in the Holy Eucharist, as powerful, as amiable, and as adorable as Thou art in heaven.

With the angels of heaven I adore Thee. Thou hast mercifully hidden the splendor of Thy majesty, lest it should deter us from approaching Thy sanctuary; I believe that Thou dwellest on our altars not only to receive our adoration, but to listen to our petitions, to remedy our evils, to be the strength and nourishment of our souls, our powerful Helper, our Refuge, and our Sacrifice.

I hope in that boundless mercy which detains Thee a Prisoner of love in the tabernacle. I love that infinite goodness which induced Thee to institute this Holy Sacrament of the Altar, in which Thou dost communicate Thyself so liberally and so wonderfully to Thy creatures.

I thank Thee for so convincing a proof of Thy love and ardently wish that I could worthily acknowledge all the blessings I have ever received from this fountain of grace and mercy.

I sincerely regret that this precious pledge of Thy love is received by many Christians with so much coldness and indifference. I wish to make amends for my own ingratitude and for all those sinful acts of my life, by which 1 have wounded Thy loving sacred heart.

I adore Thee, 0 my God, present in the Holy Eucharist, as my Creator, my Preserver, and my Redeemer. I recognize Thee as my only Master; I offer Thee all that I have, all that I am, all that depends on me; I offer Thee my mind to think of Thee, my will to serve Thee, my body to labor and to suffer for Thy love.

I am Thine; I give myself to Thee; I consecrate myself to Thee; I abandon myself to Thee; I wish to live and to die for love of Thee.

Amen

ACTS OF THANKSGIVING +

We adore Thee, Christ, and we bless Thee.
Because by Thy holy cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

I adore Thee, eternal Father, and I give Thee thanks for the infinite love with which Thou didst deign to send Thy only-begotten Son to redeem me. and to become the food of my soul.

I offer Thee all the acts of adoration and thanksgiving that are offered to Thee by the angels and saints in heaven, and by the just on earth.

I praise, love, and thank Thee with all the praise, love, and thanksgiving that are offered to Thee by Thine own Son in the Blessed Sacrament; and I beg Thee to grant that He may be known, loved, honored, praised, and worthily received by all, in this Most Divine Sacrament.

I adore Thee, eternal Son, and I thank Thee for the infinite love which caused Thee to become man for me, to be born in a stable, to live in poverty, to suffer hunger, thirst, heat, cold, fatigue, hardships, contempt, persecutions, the scourging, the crowing with thorns, and a cruel death upon the hard wood of the cross.

I thank Thee, with the Church militant and triumphant, for the infinite love with which Thou didst institute the Most Blessed Sacrament to be the food of my soul. I adore Thee in all the consecrated hosts throughout the whole world, and I return thanks for those who know Thee not, and who do not thank Thee.

Would that I were able to give my life to make Thee known, loved, and honored by all in this sacrament of love, and to prevent the irreverence and sacrileges that are committed against Thee!

I love Thee, divine Jesus and I desire to receive Thee with all the purity, love, and affection of Thy blessed Mother, and with the love and affection of Thy own most pure heart. Grant, 0 most amiable Spouse of my soul! in coming to me in this Most Holy Sacrament, that I may receive all the graces and blessings which Thou dost come to bestow on us, and let me rather die than receive Thee unworthily.

I adore Thee, eternal Holy Ghost, and I give Thee thanks for the infinite love with which Thou didst work the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation, and for the infinite love with which Thou didst form the sacred body of Our Lord Jesus Christ out of the most pure blood of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to become in this sacrament the food of my soul. I beg Thee to enlighten my mind, and to purify my heart and the hearts of all men, that all may know the benefit of Thy love, and receive worthily this Most Blessed Sacrament.
Amen

ACTS OF REPARATION +

Most adorable Saviour, by the most wonderful prodigy of Thy love for us, Thou dost shut Thyself up in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, in order to be the perpetual Sacrifice of the New Law, the innocent Victim of our sins, the celestial Food of our souls, our kind Physician, our good Master, our powerful Mediator, and our loving Father.

But, alas! with what ingratitude on our part Thine infinite kindness is repaid. Prostrate before Thine altar, where Thou art as really present as in the highest heavens, we come to make reparation for all the injuries and for all the ingratitude inflicted on Thy loving heart in this sacrament.

0 divine Jesus, grant us to make a fitting reparation for all blasphemies, for all profanations, and all sacrileges ever committed; for the want of devotion and neglect of preparation for holy communion, for the little fruit we have drawn from it.

Pardon, 0 Lord, pardon for so many Christians who know Thee not, and who offend. Thee; for so many heretics who insult Thee; for so many impious men and apostates who persecute Thee. By the fervor of our love, we would wish to make amends to Thee for all their contempt, and for all their sacrileges.

How happy should we be, 0 Jesus, could we but make reparation to Thy glory, by our respect, by our zeal, aye, even, by the shedding of our blood. At least, most adorable Saviour, grant us the grace to love Thee in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, with the most tender, the most generous, the most perfect, the most constant love.

Virgin most holy, by thy holy and immaculate heart, make, us enter into the adorable heart of thy divine Son, Jesus Christ.

0 sweet St. Joseph! obtain for me the gift of prayer and of perpetual union with Jesus and Mary.

Amen.

ACTS OF PETITION +

0 my God, how shall I contain my astonishment when I meditate on what Thou hast done for me in this sacrament. Thou, my Redeemer, Christ Jesus, art content to descend from heaven, to place Thyself within the consecrated Host, and to dwell within the tabernacle day and night, solely to exercise Thy love towards me, and to communicate to me the abundance of Thy graces.

Oh, what bounty, what mercy! There appears to me, that in the Divine Sacrament, wherein dwells the Author and Giver of all good, I behold the King of glory, Who, with gentle courtesy, calls me, and invites me, and expects me, that I may go to receive His graces, and be consoled.

Courage, then, my soul; come, let us beg for blessings, and not be weary, but be confident that we shall receive them. “Let us go, therefore, with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in seasonable aid” (Heb. ii. 10).

If I look into my own heart, to discover its needs, that they may be supplied, I find that I am in want of all; for all fails me, and I have no sound virtue, for vice alone predominates in me. My wants are without end, and Thou, my God, discerns them far more clearly than I can do.

I am blind, and without light, and this is the first grace I implore from Thee: “Lord, that I may see” (Luke xviii. 41). Illuminate me, 0 true Eternal Light, Who didst come into the world to enlighten every man; make me to see and to know my vileness, my poverty, my extreme misery, that knowing myself, I may learn humility. Want of humility is the great cause of my evil; I esteem myself too highly, and aspire to be highly esteemed by others; and hence I fall, and fall at every little occasion, without ever amending my faults. All my sins are the effects, the punishment of my pride.

Oh, if I were but humble of heart, as I am under obligation to be! 0 my Jesus, Thou Who hast so abased Thyself in the Blessed Sacrament, almost to nothing, and dwells there, hiding within the sacred Host all Thy glorious gifts, I ask of Thee a true and holy humility, for without this I have neither capacity nor disposition to receive any of Thy graces, and this alone can fit me for them. I know not even what humility is, but I well know that I greatly need it. I ask it of Thee by that stupendous humility which brings Thee to dwell within the Blessed Sacrament. 0 God of all greatness, and of all humility, humble my pride, and give me a humble and contrite heart.

With the grace of humility I also ask of Thee ever to increase in me the graces of faith, hope, and charity. These virtues are of necessity for my salvation, and yet how negligently does my heart make acts of them! How often do I allow a long time to pass without making so much as one act of faith, of hope, or of charity!

0 my Lord Jesus Christ! Who, in the Blessed Sacrament, hast deigned to leave us a mystery of faith, a pledge of hope, a bond of love, give me grace to acquire the good habit of frequently practicing these virtues during my life, that they may avail me in the hour of my death. Make me worthy to live and die in Thy faith, with the firm hope of living and dying in Thy love.

Give me, 0 Lord Jesus! an increase of faith, hope, and charity. But, besides all this, 0 my God! I beseech Thee to give me grace to live in holy charity with all my neighbors. Thou hast commanded me to love them, but I am neglectful in observing this law; some among them I love from inclination, some from interest, and scarcely any purely for Thy love. I love him who treats me kindly, but I do not love him who offends me. Sometimes I intend to love all men, but I have too much reason to fear that in truth I do not love them with that Christian charity which is my duty.

But Thou, in the institution of the Blessed Sacrament, Thou hast left me a model, an example of charity; grant that by Thy grace I may holily imitate Thee. I resolve now to love all men sincerely and cordially for Thy sake, and particularly those who in any way have offended or injured me. All that I most desire for myself, I pray Thee to bestow on them, and to unite this my petition with Thine own prayer upon the cross, when Thou didst intercede for Thy enemies.

Grant, dear Lord, that I may ever live in charity with all, that I may so live as never by any act of mine to break the bond of charity; that I may ever love my neighbor as Thou dost love me. Above all, I humbly beg of Thee the grace to live, in all and through all, resigned to Thy all-holy will.

I accept whatever Thy divine providence shall appoint in my life and in my death; may Thy will in all things alone be done, not mine, 0 Lord! I desire all that Thou wills, and because Thou wills it; and in all circumstances I unite my will with Thine. Therefore, 0 my dear Redeemer, to Thine I now and forever unite my will to that adorable will which in the garden Thou didst, in perfect submission, offer to Thy eternal Father; and I beseech Thee ever so to retain my will in unison with Thine, that nothing shall again disjoin them.

Thou Thyself hast taught me to say, in the Pater Noster, "Thy will be done’ and daily I repeat it, but too often I say the words only with my lips; now at least my heart pronounces them for all time, and in all possible occurrences—“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Today, and in all the days of my life, may Thy most holy will be done in me, for me, by me. Teach me to know what pleases Thee, and give me grace to follow it. Grant me, 0 Lord, to discern, to will, to do, that which pleases Thee, as it pleases Thee, and because it pleases Thee.
Amen.

PRELUDE
I. Jesus m the tabernacle, as in the crib, welcomes with an equal love the lowly and the great, the rich and the poor. All may approach Him to pay their homage.

II. When we draw near to Him, let us be lowly, as the shepherds were, by humility and simplicity.

III. Be we ever so poor we may "come to adore Him," and join in the angels’ song: " Glory to God in the highest."

CONSIDERATIONS.
Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is the Model of the religious soul and of the perfect life. He teaches us poverty, obedience, chastity, and these include meekness, humility, charity, self-denial, and all other virtues. 
In this visit let us consider the virtue of poverty, as exemplified in Our Savior, together with humility and self-denial. 

When Jesus Christ was born there came into existence an incomprehensible alliance between His holy humanity and poverty, in virtue of which He chose the latter as His inseparable companion through life. Our Lord had no lands, nor gold, nor silver; He never used valuable furniture; He lived by alms. He had no powerful friends or relations to defend Him against the persecution of His enemies; He exposed Himself to all their fury and yet was never weary of doing good. He was entirely stripped of Himself—and this is the most sublime degree of perfection. In becoming man. He laid aside every appearance of His perfections and assumed our weakness. He submitted to be acted on by the elements, by creatures, by demons, and, in a manner, depriving Himself of strength to resist them. 

Consider the poverty of Jesus on the cross. There, separated from every person and from everything, dying while deserted by His Father, He becomes to us the Model of perfect deprivation of all things. 

Consider His poverty in the tabernacle. It is voluntary poverty, chosen out of love. He deprives Himself of everything, even to the appearance of existence, and does not so much as retain His liberty of action. He allows Himself to be taken by the priest to the homes of the poor as well as the rich, to be exposed upon the altar, or enclosed in the tabernacle; to be given to the worthy or the unworthy communicant. He gives up all that He has in giving us Himself— His open heart, His pierced hands can no longer keep back any graces. 

But in order to receive them, your heart must be empty of creatures— free from any voluntary attachment to sin and imperfection. "The perfect soul," says St. Jerome, "has nothing but Jesus Christ; if it has anything beside, it is not yet perfect." Enter deeply into these thoughts; nourish your soul with them, knowing that the Heart of Jesus is an inexhaustible fountain of grace. Seek also to relieve the poverty of Jesus somewhat in the tabernacle. Let us, like Mary and Joseph, remain near Him, and minister to His wants, as they did in the cave of Bethlehem and in the house of Nazareth. Too often carelessness and slovenliness in His service take the place of Mary and Joseph's ministrations. Too frequently withered leaves, soiled and dilapidated artificial flowers are deemed a sufficient offering for the Creator, Who has clothed the earth with all her beauty.

Let us take an example of the lowly animals with which Jesus took up His first visible dwelling on earth, and as they are the types of patient, willing labor, so let us imitate them in making it our happiness and pride to work for the Babe of Bethlehem, by helping to raise fitting tabernacles for His dwelling-place, by doing what we can to have the churches kept clean and attractive and the altars duly provided with vestments, ornaments, and, especially, fine linen—the new swaddling clothes of the Eucharistic Babe—by laboring in behalf of poor sanctuaries with our own hands and by seeking to draw other souls to the practice of greater devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. 

0 Jesus! teach me to become poor in spirit as Thou art poor, humble as Thou art humble, and by Thy utter abandonment of Thyself to the wishes of Thy creatures, teach me to give myself up unreservedly to the directions of Thy divine will. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Thine!

Our Lady of the Most Holy Sacrament, Mother and model of adorers, pray for us, who have recourse to thee.

St. Joseph, pray for us, that like thee, we may die in the arms of Jesus and Mary.


PRAYER TO THE HOLY GHOST
0 Holy Ghost, Thou Teacher and Sanctifier, Who givest light and strength to my soul, bless me that I may be more faithful to Jesus, my Savior and my God, Who is hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, and that I may love Him more and more. In the light of the tabernacle I ask of Thee, 0 Holy Spirit, to fill my heart with pure desire for Jesus, the Living Bread. Give me grace to adore Him with the zeal and humble ven­eration of the holy angels; grant that His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that His will be done in my soul. Help me to thank Him for all His gifts, and, most of all, for Himself. By this Holy Sacrament He strengthens souls on earth, gives rest to souls in purgatory, and gladdens souls in heaven. He is the hidden manna, promised by Himself to all who overcome them­selves and love Him. May I taste the sweetness of Jesus! Set up more and more Thy kingdom in my soul, that I may keep my body under and bring it to subjection, lest I should be a castaway from Jesus and from Thee.

SPIRTUAL COMMUNION
0 Jesus, my Savior, Who art truly present in the Blessed Sacrament for the nourishment of our souls! since I cannot now receive Thee sacramentally, I humbly and earnestly beseech Thee to re­fresh me spiritually. I love Thee above all things and I desire to possess Thee within my soul. Come into my mind to illumine it with the light of heaven; come into my heart to enkindle therein the fire of Thy love. Unite me so intimately with Thee, that it may be no more I that live, but Thou that livest and reigneth in me forever.



FRUIT OF THE VISIT.
I. Behold Christ seated in thy heart, breaking His bread for thee, who art perishing of hunger; regard thyself as a poor outcast, asking for the precious and life-giving crumbs.

II. Love Him with changeless love as the holy confessors loved Him; that so, being holy in thy life, thou mayest continue in wisdom, as the sun, and not, in thy foolishness, be changed as the moon (Ecclus. xxvii. 12).

III. Ask Him for the true spirit of " Poverty;" that, renouncing all things, thou mayest run more swiftly along the way of perfection, which leadeth straight to the heavenly kingdom.

Aspiration.
"Thou didst feed Thy people with the Food of Angels, and gave them bread from Heaven, prepared without labor, having in it all that is delicious, and the sweetness of every taste " (Wisd. xvi. 20),

EUCHARISTIC GEMS.
Receive Him without fear, yet without pride: without fear, because the God Who comes to thee is meek and humble; without pride, because thou hast not deserved to touch Him so familiarly. Open thy lips to eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and to drink His blood; for thus He Himself invites thee to the banquet.—Pere Lacobdaire.

Heart of Jesus, Hear! 
Make me, Jesus, wholly Thine ; 
Take this wayward heart of mine; 
Guide me through this world so drear— 
Heart of Jesus, hear!

When I draw my parting breath, 
When my eyes shall close in death, 
Then, sweet Jesus, be Thou near— 
Heart of Jesus, hear!

St. Felix of Cantalice, Brother " Deo Gratias."  1587AD. 
This amiable saint was a lay-brother of the strict Order of the Capuchins. It was his office to collect alms for his brethren, in which work he was engaged every day for forty years. But in spite of this occupation, carried on humbly through the streets of Rome, he attained to an eminent degree of sanctity, which was acknowledged even in his lifetime by persons of all ranks. 

It was to the exercise of two super eminent graces that his great virtue and influence with others may be ascribed—-viz., a humble, unintermitting devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and an overflowing spirit of thankfulness, which procured for; him the title of Brother "Deo Gratias." He was in the habit of rising at night when the Fathers slept, and, taking his place before the Blessed Sacrament, he watched and proyed until dawn, when he rang the Angelus; he then served the first Mass, which was said at that hour, and, with tears of pious devotion, received holy communion. After this he made his thanksgiving until it was time for him to go forth on his daily task.

When abroad, his only greeting was "Deo gratias;" and his delight it was to collect the little children, and to hear them at his bidding praise God repeatedly in the same sweet words, so that seeing him afar off, they would run to meet him, crying out, "Deo gratias, Brother Felix—Deo gratias!" He then with tears in his eyes would reply, " Deo gratias! Bless you, dear children! Deo gratias! "

St. Felix lived until he was above seventy years old. When about to receive the Viaticum, he exclaimed with a loud' voice: "0 Sacrum Convivium," etc.; and shortly after receiving it he turned to the brethren around his bed, begging them to say with him and for him: "Deo Gratias." As they did so, he peacefully closed his eyes as one about to sleep; and so did he indeed sleep in Jesus on May 18, 1587.