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. The altar is another Calvary, where Jesus immolates Himself each day for love of us.

II. The same love which fastened Him by nails to the cross, binds Him, still for our sakes, to the altar.

III. Let us assist at the eucharistic sacrifice as if present with the Mother of Jesus, the beloved disciple, and Mary Magdalen at the foot of the cross.

CONSIDERATIONS.
Jesus Christ is present in the Holy Eucharist to dwell in our midst, to receive our respectful homage and adoration, to bless us with graces, and to become the food, the very life, of our souls in holy communion; but He has also placed Himself in our hands under the visible appearance of bread and wine to enable us to present Him as a sacrifice to the heavenly Father.

Great is the dignity and immeasurable is the utility of the Mass. It is a sacrifice of Adoration, Propitiation, Thanksgiving, and Impetration.

St. Leonard of Port Maurice in "The Hidden Treasure" expatiates upon the four chief debts, that we discharge towards God, through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in the following manner: "The first obligation, by which we are bound to God, is to honor and adore Him. It is indeed a precept of the natural law itself that every inferior owes homage to his superior, and by so much the higher the superiority, so much the deeper the homage, that should be offered. Whence it results that, as Almighty God possesses a greatness utterly unbounded, there is due to Him an unbounded honor. In holy Mass Almighty God is honored as He deserves, because He is honored by Jesus, Who, placing Himself in character of Victim on the altar, with an act of wonderful submission, adores the Most Holy Trinity, even as it is adorable—in such manner that all other acts of homage, by all other beings, vanish before the face of this self-humiliation of the God-Man, as stars vanish before the sun.

"It is told of a holy soul (Sanct. Jure. p. 3, c. x.) that, enamoured of God, the fire of her love flashed forth in a thousand longings. ‘O my God' she said, ‘my God, would that I had as many hearts, as many tongues as there are leaves on the trees, atoms of the air, and drops in the waters, that I might so love Thee and so honor Thee, as Thou deserves! Oh, had I but in this hand all creatures, I would place them at Thy feet, so that all might melt away in love before Thee; and then, oh! that I might but love Thee more than all of them united—yes, more than all the angels, more than all the saints, more than all paradise!’ One day, when she had done this with the utmost fervor, she heard herself thus answered by Our Lord: ‘Console thyself, my daughter; by one Mass, heard with devotion, thou wilt render to Me all that glory which thou desires and infinitely more.’
"The saints and angels after all are but mere creatures, and their homage is therefore limited and finite; whereas in Mass, Jesus humbles Himself— a humiliation of infinite merit and value; and thus the homage and honor which we, through Him, give to God in Mass, is an homage and honor infinite.

"The second obligation by which we are bound to God is to satisfy His justice for the commission of so many sins. Oh, what a measureless debt is this! One single mortal sin so weighs in the scales of Divine Justice that to satisfy for it all the good works of all the martyrs and of all the saints who have existed, who exist now, or ever shall exist, would not suffice. And yet with the holy sacrifice of the Mass, viewed according to its intrinsic preciousness and value, satisfaction may be completely made for all committed sin; and that you may understand how much you are thus obliged to Jesus, attend to what I now say. Although truly He is the very One offended, yet, not contented with having satisfied Divine Justice for us on Calvary, He hath bestowed, and doth continuously bestow, on us this method of satisfaction in the holy sacrifice of Mass; for, as there is renewed in Mass the offering which Jesus hath already made on the cross to the eternal Father for the sins of the whole world, that same divine blood which was once paid down as the general ransom of the whole human race comes to be specially applied to each of us individually, by being offered in Mass for the sins of him who celebrates, and of all those who assist at so tremendous a sacrifice.

"Not that the sacrifice of Mass by any means cancels our sins immediately, and of itself, as does the Sacrament of Penance: but it cancels them mediately, calling down various aids of interior impulse, of holy aspiration, and of actual grace, all tending towards a worthy repentance of our sins, either at the time of Mass itself or at some other fitting time. Therefore, God alone knows how many souls issue from the filth of sins through the extraordinary aids which come to them by this divine sacrifice. And here reflect that although indeed the man in mortal sin is not aided by the sacrifice as a propitiation, it yet avails as supplication; and therefore all sinners ought to hear many Masses, in order to obtain more easily the grace of conversion.

"To souls that live in grace it gives a wonderful force, tending to maintain them in their happy state, while it immediately cancels (according to the most common view) the guilt of all venial sins, provided, at least, that as a whole they are repented of, according to what St. Augustine clearly says (Sup. Can. Quia passus, de Consecr. dist. 2): ‘ He who devoutly hears holy Mass will receive a great vigor to enable him to resist mortal sin, and there shall be pardoned to him all venial sins which he may have committed up to that hour.’

"Nor should this surprise; for if, as St. Gregory narrates (Dial. 1. 4, c. 57), the Masses which a poor woman caused to be celebrated every Monday for the soul of her husband, who had been enslaved by barbarians and was thought by her to be dead, caused the chains to be loosened from his feet, and the manacles from his arms, so that ever while these Masses were being celebrated he remained free and unchained, as he himself declared on his return; how much more must not we believe such a sacrifice to be most efficacious for the loosening of spiritual bonds, such as venial sins, bonds which, hold the soul, as it were, imprisoned, leaving it no power to work with that freedom and fervor with which it would work were it not for these impediments? 0 blessed Mass, setting at liberty the sons of God, and satisfying all the penalties due to so many offences!

"You will, perhaps, say to me, It suffices, then, to hear one single Mass to strike off the heaviest debts due to God through many committed sins, because, Mass being of infinite value, we can therewith pay to God an infinite satisfaction. Not so fast, by your leave; because, though indeed Mass is of infinite value, you must know, nevertheless, that Almighty God accepts it in a manner limited and finite, and in degrees conformable to the greater or less perfection in the dispositions of him who celebrates or who assists at. the sacrifice. 'Whose faith is known to You and whose devotion is known to You.’ says Holy Church, in the Canon of Mass, suggesting by this method of speech that which the great teachers expressly lay down (De Lug. dist. 9, n. 103); namely, that the greater or less satisfaction applied in our behalf by the sacrifice becomes determined by the higher or lower dispositions of the celebrant, or of the assistants, as just now mentioned.

"Now, then, consider the spiritual bewilderment of those who go in search of the quickest and least devoutly conducted Masses, and, what is worse, assist at them with little or no devotion. And while I earnestly exhort you to attend many Masses, I yet admonish you to have far more regard to devotion in hearing than to the number heard; because, if you shall have more devotion in one single Mass than another man in fifty, you will give more honor to God in that single Mass, and you will extract from it greater fruit, in the way called ex opere operato (be the very fact of the action being performed), than that other with all his fifty.

"It is true, indeed, as a grave author asserts, that through one single Mass, attended with singularly perfect devotion, it might possibly happen that the justice of God would remain satisfied for all the transgressions of some great sinner. And this is quite in harmony with what the holy Council of Trent teaches; namely, that by the offering of this holy sacrifice God grants the gift of penitence, and then by means of true penitence pardons sins the most grave and enormous. ‘For by this offering, granting the grace and gift of repentance, He pardons even great crimes and sins.’ (Sess. xxii. cap. 2).

"Yet notwithstanding all this, since neither the internal dispositions with which you attend Mass are manifest to yourself, nor the amount of satisfaction which corresponds thereto, you should make sure to the best of your power by attending many Masses, and by attending with all the devotion possible. Blessed are you if you maintain a great confidence in the loving mercy of God, which shines so wonderfully forth in this divine sacrifice; and with lively faith and devout recollection attend as many Masses as you can; for I declare that, doing this with perseverance, you may attain to the sweet hope of reaching heaven without any intervening share in purgatory. To Mass, then, dearest friends, and never allow yourselves to utter the thought, ‘A Mass more or less is of little consequence.’

"The third obligation is that of gratitude for the immense benefits which our most loving God hath bestowed upon us. Put in one heap all the gifts, all the graces you have received from God,— so many gifts of nature and of grace, body, soul, senses, and faculties, and health, and life itself; yes, the very life, too, of His Son Jesus, and His death suffered for us, which in themselves immeasurably swell the great debt which we owe to God,—and how shall we ever be able sufficiently to thank Him?

"The way most fully to thank our good God is taught us by holy David, who, led by divine inspiration to speak with mysterious reference to this divine sacrifice, indicates that nothing can sufficiently render the thanks which are due to God, excepting holy Mass. ‘What return shall I offer to the Lord for all the benefits which He hath bestowed upon me?’ And answering himself, he says, ‘I will uplift on high the chalice of the Lord;’ that is, I will offer a sacrifice most grateful to Him, and with this alone I shall satisfy the debt of so many and such signal benefits. Add to this that the sacrifice was instituted by Our Redeemer principally in recognition of the beneficence of God and as thanks to Him; and therefore it bears as its most special and worthy name the ‘Eucharist' which signifies an ‘Offering of Thanks.’

"He Himself also gave us the example when, in the Last Supper, before the act of consecration in that first Mass, He raised His eyes to heaven, and gave thanks to His heavenly Father: ‘Raising His eyes to heaven, giving You thanks, He broke...' divine thanksgiving, disclosing the chief end for which was instituted this tremendous sacrifice, and which invites us to conform ourselves to the example of our Head, so that in every Mass at which we assist we may know how to avail ourselves of so great a treasure, and offer it in gratitude to our Supreme Benefactor! "And all the more, since the beloved Virgin, and the angels, and the saints, rejoice to witness this our tribute of thanks to so great a King.

"But the immense benefit of the holy sacrifice of Mass does not end here. It is in our power by means of it to pay the fourth debt due to God, which is to supplicate Him, and to entreat new graces of Him. Try to realize to yourself how great are your miseries both of body and of soul, and the need, therefore, in which you are of having recourse to God, in order that at every moment He may assist and succor you, for assuredly He alone is the end and the beginning of all your good, whether temporal or eternal. On the other hand, what courage, what heart have you for asking new benefits, seeing the utter ingratitude with which you have failed to respond to so many favors already bestowed on you,—nay, seeing you have even turned, into offences against Him the very graces He gave you?

"But still take courage, take heart. If you do not deserve new benefits, your good Jesus has deserved them for you. He has desired for this end to be for you in Mass a pacifying Victim, a supplicatory sacrifice, for obtaining from the Father everything of which you have need. Yes, yes, in holy Mass our dear beloved Jesus, as the chief and supreme Priest, recommends our cause to the Father, prays for us, and makes Himself our Advocate. If we knew on some occasion that the great and blessed Virgin was uniting herself with us in prayer to the eternal Father to obtain for us the graces we desired, what confidence should not we conceive of being heard?

"What hope, then, what confidence should we not have, knowing that in Mass Jesus Himself prays for us, offers His most precious blood to the eternal Father for us, and make Himself our Advocate! 0 blessed Mass! 0 mine of all our good!

"St. Jerome distinctly declares: ‘Without doubt the Lord giants all the favors which are asked of Him in Mass, provided they be those fitting for us; and, which is a matter of greater wonder, ofttimes He grants that also which is not demanded of Him, if we, on our part, put no obstacle in the way’ (Cap Cum. Mart. de Celeb. Miss.). Whence it may be said that Mass is the sun of the human race, scattering its splendors over good and wicked; nor is there a soul so vile on earth who, hearing holy Mass, doth not carry away from it some great good, often without asking, often without even thinking of it.

"This is the lesson conveyed by the famous legend told by St. Antoninus of two youths, both libertines, who went one day into the forest, one of them having heard Mass, the other not. Soon, it is said, there arose a furious tempest, and they heard, amid thunder and lightning, a voice which cried ‘Slay!’ and instantly came a flash which reduced to ashes the one who had not heard Mass. The other, all terrified, was seeking escape, when he heard anew the same voice, which repeated ‘ Slay! ’ The poor youth expected instant death when lo! he heard another voice, which answered, ‘I cannot, I cannot; today he heard, Holy Mass; his Mass will not let me strike.’ Oh, how many times hath God freed you from death, or at least from many most grievous perils, through the Mass which you have attended!

"St. Gregory assures us of this in the fourth of his dialogues: ‘It is most true that he who attends holy Mass shall be freed from many evils and from many dangers, both foreseen and unforeseen.’ ‘He shall,’ as St. Augustine sums it up, ‘be freed from sudden death, which is the most terrible stroke launched by Divine Justice against sinners ’ (Sup. Can. Quia passus, de Consecr. dist. 2). ‘Behold a wonderful preservative,’ says the saint, ‘ against sudden death: attend holy Mass every day, and attend it with all possible devotion’

"St. Bernard sums it up thus, that more is to be gained in one single Mass (here we must understand him of its intrinsic value) than by distributing your means to the poor, or going on pilgrimages through all the most famous sanctuaries of the world. 0 unbounded riches of holy Mass!

"Grasp well this truth: it is possible for you to gain more favor with God by attending or celebrating one single Mass, considered in itself and in its intrinsic worth, than by opening the treasury of your wealth and distributing the whole to the poor, or by going as pilgrim over the whole world and visiting with utmost devotion the sanctuaries of Rome, of Compostella, of Loretto, Jerusalem, and the rest. And this most reasonably follows from the position laid down by the angelic St. Thomas, when he says that in Mass are contained all the fruits, all the graces, yea, all those immense treasures which the Son of God poured out so abundantly upon the Church, His spouse, in the bloody sacrifice of the cross."

The Mass is also a very powerful means of obtaining relief for the souls in Purgatory. St. Jerome says that by every Mass, not only one, but several souls are delivered from purgatory and he is of opinion that the soul, for which the priest says Mass suffers no pain at all while the holy sacrifice lasts. The Fathers of the Council of Trent declare that by the sacrifice of the Mass the souls in Purgatory are most efficaciously relieved.

During the life of St. Bernard, one of his monks who was taken sick and died, shortly after appeared to his brother monks to thank them for his deliverance from purgatory. "Which of our many prayers," he was asked, "did most to release you from your pain?" "Come with me," he said, and leading them to the chapel where Mass was being offered up he exclaimed: "This, above all else, was my greatest help; it was through this august sacrifice that Our Lord has shown mercy to me."

So great is the power and virtue of this sacrifice to help the suffering souls that one Mass has in itself more efficacy than all the other good works which have been done since the creation of the world.

Blessed Bertrand of Garriga, we are told, was accustomed to celebrate Mass every day for the conversion of sinners; and being asked by one Father Benedict, a prudent man, why he so rarely said Mass for the dead and so frequently for sinners, he replied: " We are certain of the salvation of the faithful departed, whereas we on earth remain tossed about in many perils." Then Father Benedict said: "If there were two beggars, one with all his limbs sound, the other a cripple, which would you compassionate most? " "The one certainly who can do least for himself" replied Father Bertrand. "Then," said Father Benedict, "such certainly are the dead, who have neither mouth to confess nor hands to work, but who need our help; whereas living sinners have mouths and hands wherewith to take care of themselves." Still Bernard was not convinced; but the following night a terrible vision of a departed soul appeared to him, and with a bundle of wood pressed and weighed upon him in a wonderful way, waking him up more than ten times and vexing and troubling him exceedingly. Next morning he called Benedict to him and related the vision of the night; and then, going to the altar, religiously and with many tears, he said Mass for the faithful departed; and thenceforth the offering of the holy sacrifice for the dead became one of his favorite devotions.

If then, Christian readers, we desire to offer to the Divine Omnipotence a worship fitting His majesty; if we wish to return thanks to Him for the many and inestimable favors heaped on us; if we wish to make atonement for our manifold offences and to gain for ourselves and for others the graces and blessings needed for body and soul; if we wish to help the souls of our dear ones who still linger in the pains of Purgatory, we shall find the suitable means of doing this in the great sacrifice of the Mass. There Christ is both priest and victim representing in person, and offering up His death and passion to His Father, first, for the adoration, praise, honor, and glory of the Divine Majesty; secondly, in thanksgiving for all His benefits; thirdly, for obtaining pardon for our sins; and, fourthly, for obtaining grace and salvation for us, by the merits of that same death and passion. It is then, a remembrance of the passion of Christ, a solemn adoration of the Divine Majesty, a most acceptable thanksgiving to God, a powerful means of obtaining forgiveness of our sins, and a most effectual way to obtain of God all that we want, coming to Him, as we here do, with Christ and through Christ.

0 Jesus! bless me, that these most important considerations on the dignity and utility of the Mass may produce good fruit in my soul.

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 suffering Savior and reminding thee of the bitter passion and death that He endured for thy sins; regard thyself as a debtor, falling down before Him, and saying to Him entreatingly: "Have patience with me, and I will pay Thee all " (Matt, xviii. 26).

II. Love Jesus, thy crucified Love with thy whole heart; so that, with a great desire and a strong resolution, thou may wish for nothing contrary to Him; may think nothing equal to Him, much less prefer anything to Him; and may love nothing, which does not, actually or virtually, tend to Him.

III. Ask Him for the spirit of Self-Immolation so that by dying daily to ourselves, to our sins, to our bad habits and evil inclinations, we may imitate Him as our divine Model and follow Him faithfully in the Blessed Sacrament as well as on Calvary.

EUCHARISTIC GEMS.
"During holy Mass the angels assist the priest, all the orders of celestial spirits raise their, voices, and the vicinity of the altar is occupied by choirs of angels, who do homage to Him, Who is being immolated."—St. John Chrysostom.

Ave Verum Corpus Natum.
Hail to Thee, true Body sprung
From the Virgin Mary’s womb;
The same that on the cross was hung
And bore for man the bitter doom.
Hear us, Merciful and Mild,
Jesus, Mary’s gracious Child!

From Whose side for sinners riven
Water flowed and mingled blood;
May'st Thou, dearest Lord, be given
In death's hour to be my food.
Hear us, Merciful and Mild,
Jesus, Mary’s gracious Child!