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. "This do for the commemoration of Me."
"As often as you shall eat this bread and drink the chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, until He come " (1 Cor. xi. 26).

II. These words of the Holy Spirit remind us that the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar is a "Memorial " of the love and of the passion of our divine Savior.

III. Foster a great devotion to Our Savior’s Passion and remember that the same love which caused Him to suffer so much in Gethsemani and on Golgotha still subjects Him to many painful injuries and irreverence in the tabernacle, for which thy love should make reparation.

CONSIDERATIONS.
The Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar has been appropriately called the last effort of the boundless love of Our Savior for man. Consider the Holy Eucharist in this visit as a memorial. Every tabernacle is surmounted by a cross, because the Blessed Sacrament is a memorial of Our Lord’s passion and death. "As often as ye shall eat this bread and drink this chalice, ye shall show the death of the Lord, until He come."

Why? First, because it was given as a parting gift on the eve of the Passion, and, second, because it contains Our Lord and perpetuates Him as the Victim of the cross. The author of "The Lover of Souls " beautifully discourses on these two points in the following words:—"Let us recall the touching episode of the Last Supper. Jesus and His apostles are seated at the table for the celebration of the Paschal solemnity. It is the last meal they are to take together, for He is about to leave them. They have lived in His company for almost three years. He has been the kindest of masters and truest of friends, and now He is to part from them. Their hearts are filled with sorrow.

Our Lord is sorrowful too. He knows how they will miss Him. He knows their weakness. You shall all be scandalized in Me,’ He says to them. Every farewell makes a pathetic scene. He is going to "The Memorial" to meet death; to-morrow evening at the same hour He will be in His grave, and they will have shamefully forsaken Him; their head and chief will have even thrice denied Him. Jesus foresees all this, yet He will not cast them off. 'Having loved His own, He loved them unto the end.’ Even in those last hours of His life, when His soul is sorrowful unto death, He will give them a token of His undying love. He will give them a pledge of affection which shall compel them to remember Him. A death-bed gift is always a precious gift, more especially if it be a souvenir to which the heart of the dying one clings, and around which entwine all the tenderest memories of the dear departed one.

What gift will He bestow in that last hour? The Father had. so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.

What will the Son bequeath to us—He Who is not only God, but also man, Whose kind human heart with all its human love is shrinking from the impending separation, and bleeding to leave those He loves, alone, like poor sheep, scattered without a shepherd? 'My delight is to be with the sons of men!' '0 Lord,' we may exclaim, abide with us.’ The greatest gift Thou couldst bestow would be Thy lasting presence in our midst! Alas I that cannot be, since Thou art to die and to return to Thy Father.

But lo! The loving pledge we hear: ‘I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.’ "

"Yes, love makes all things possible; His presence among us is indeed the gift He is about to confer upon His children. He is to die and yet to remain living amid these scenes, until the end of time. Listen to His words: ‘I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven, . . . whosoever eateth Me, the same shall live by Me. . . . Take ye and eat, this is My body. Drink ye all of this, for this is My blood.’ And then He adds: ‘ This do ye for the commemoration of Me’—this do, as you have seen me do. You also take bread and wine and consecrate them into My flesh and My blood, and do this in memory of Me. And, ‘as often as ye shall eat this bread and drink this chalice, ye shall show the death of the Lord, till He come.’

"0 Lord, is it possible? Is this indeed Thy dying gift? Ah! yes, we, too, shall be Thy guests. Blessed be Thy holy name. Thou hast fed us, as Thou didst feed Thy apostles and disciples, and Thou art still as truly, really, and substantially present here on the altar as Thou wert that blessed night with Thy chosen ones in Jerusalem’s ‘upper room.’

"The Blessed Eucharist is a ‘Memorial,’ because it is the parting gift of Our Lord to the apostles and to us. But it is also a ‘Memorial,’ because it contains Our Lord as the Victim of the cross and perpetuates Him, as it were, in that state. How does it do this?

"First, that Divine Victim of the Cross was silent. It had been prophesied of Him: ‘ He shall be dumb as a lamb before His shearers, and He shall not open His mouth? He was reviled, but He did not revile; He suffered, but He threatened not; He was curst and blasphemed, but He cursed not His guilty blasphemers. And when He was dead, His ears did not hear the wails of His Mother and’ of the women, His eyes did not see the tears of the dear ones around Him; a corpse feels not, hears not, speaks not.

"Such is the state of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. He speaks not. Day and night there reigns perpetual silence in and about His tabernacle. He never breaks the stillness around His altar throne. In many a church and chapel He remains a whole day, sometimes a whole week, without receiving the homage of a single heart, but He utters no complaint.

"In some churches—let us blush to acknowledge it— He is neglected, His tabernacle is enveloped in dust, yet no murmur falls from His sacred lips. He sees His children frivolous and irreverent even during the celebration of the divine mysteries, still He does not rebuke them. He beholds some before His very face polluting their souls with mortal sin, but not a word of indignation escapes Him. The unworthy communicant approaches, opens his sacrilegious lips, receives Him and bands Him over to the demons of sin in his Judas-like soul: but Jesus is silent, except, perhaps, for a whisper of reproach breathed to that conscience stained with the infamous crime committed against his patient, long-suffering Lord.

"It is night; all is peaceful in the church; the little lamp alone sends a few trembling rays of light into the dark aisles. Suddenly the gates of the church are forced asunder by lawless, ungodly men. The tabernacle door is ruthlessly opened, the ciborium seized, and He is made a mockery of, He is cast upon the floor, He may be trampled upon amid diabolical laughter, and then He is left alone to be wept over in anguish by His angels, His priests, and His people: but He is silent, for He is none other than the Christ Who died on Calvary, the ancient Victim of the cross.

"Again, as man, Jesus was, until His Passion, the most attractive and the most beautiful of the children of men. But behold Him on the cross, behold Him dead in the arms of His weeping Mother. All His beauty has departed, the light has vanished from His sacred brow. Was ever a body bruised and rent as His? His face is disfigured with welts and blots of clotted blood, ashy, pale, and haggard beyond description because of the terrible agony He has endured. His whole body is disfigured by cruel blows, by piteous falls, by lash and scourge, by hunger and thirst, and by the sharp wind blowing that day over the mount of sacrifice.

"The words of the Prophet Isaias have found their fulfilment: ‘There is no beauty or comeliness in Him, and we have seen Him, and there was no sightliness in Him that we should desire Him: He was despised and the most abject of men? Poor, outraged Jesus!

"Now glance at the Blessed Eucharist and behold Him there. Where is His beauty? Where Hie strength? Where His awful majesty? Where the splendor of His glory? He is so concealed that He does not show the form of a human being. At the foot of the cross, in the arms of Mary, we do not see His divinity, we see at least His body,— mangled, horribly disfigured, it is true,—still it is His body. But here He cannot be seen at all. We perceive a little white veil,—nothing more. Faith alone has power to penetrate the folds of that veil

"0 silent Dweller of the tabernacle! Thou art indeed a hidden God; Thou art here more than ever the Victim of the cross! When we look at the sacred Host, let us recall that pathetic word of Our Lord: ‘Remember Me!’ Let us reflect that the Blessed Sacrament is a Memorial of the greatest sorrow men ever witnessed, a Memorial of the greatest pain a creature on earth ever endured, a Memorial of the tenderest, most faithful, most unselfish, most heroic love the world shall ever know—the last gift of a heart, that fears to be forgotten. Oh, yes! Lord, we will remember Thee! May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, and my hand wither and rot away, if I should ever forget Thee.’ "

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, as thy Lord, Who hath bought thee with a great price; and regard thyself as His runaway slave, ever desiring to return to new fervor (1 Cor. vi. 20).

II. Love Him with thy whole soul, so that thou may be one of those who say: "None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself; for, whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord" (Rom. xiv. 7, 8).

III. Ask Him for the spirit of the "Fear of the Lord; "that thou mayest fly from the very smallest sin, and with chaste love mayest fear Him and only Him.

Aspiration.
0 Lord, put my feet into Thy fetters; put my neck into Thy chains (Ecclas. vi. 25).

EUCHARISTIC GEMS.
Petitions to Jesus Crucified.
Ah! my crucified Jesus, look on me with the same love with which Thou didst look on me when dying on the cross for me; look on me, and have pity on me; give me a general pardon for all the displeasure I have given Thee; give me holy perseverance; give me Thy holy love; give me a perfect conformity to Thy will; give me paradise, that I may love Thee there forever.

I deserve nothing; but Thy wounds encourage me to hope for every good from Thee. Ah! Jesus of my soul, by that love which made Thee die for me, give me Thy love. Take away from me all affection to creatures, give me resignation in tribulation, and make Thyself the object of all my affections, that from this day forward I may love none other but Thee.

0 my beloved Redeemer, what gratitude do I not owe Thee! Into Thy pierced hands I commend my poor soul. Make me well understand the excess of that love which made God die for me: would that I could die for Thee! But what would the death of a wicked slave weigh against the death of his Lord and God? Would that I could, at least, love Thee with my whole heart; but without Thy help, 0 my Jesus, I can do nothing. Oh, help me! and, through the merits of Thy death, make me die to all earthly affections, that so I may love Thee only, Who dost deserve all my love.

I love Thee, 0 Infinite Goodness. I love Thee, my chief Good. 0 Mary, my Mother, intercede for me. Amen.

"‘Having loved His own, who were in the world, He loved them unto the end.’ That is to say, the love He showed His disciples in instituting the Holy Sacrament on the evening before His death surpassed the love He had shown them in keeping them near Him during His life."—Lallemant.

0 the Mystery!
0 the Mystery, passing wonder, when reclining at the board,
" Eat "—Thou saidst to Thy disciples—that true bread with quickening stored;
Drink in faith the healing chalice from a dying God out poured.

Then the glorious upper chamber a celestial tent was made.
When the bloodless rite was offered, and the soul’s true service paid,
And the table of the feasters as an altar stood displayed.

Christ is now our mighty Pascha, eaten for our mystic bread,
As a lamb led out to slaughter, and for this world offered;
Take we of His body broken, drink we of the blood He shed.
Christ to all the world gives banquet, on that most celestial meat;
Him—albeit with lips all earthly, yet with humble hearts we greet,
Him the sacrificial Pascba, Priest and Victim all complete
St. Andrew of Crete.