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. In the words of St. Chrysostom, Christ is " the Victim, which gives solace to the dead"

II. After the death of the Son of God upon, the cross, His soul descended into that mysterious land where the souls of the just who died before the coming of the Messiah were awaiting their deliverance—"To them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death light is risen " (Is. ix. 2).

Daily and hourly Jesus renews the offering of Himself on our altars, that we may live to eternity and that the Holy Souls may be liberated from the prison of Purgatory. St. Augustine says: "There is no doubt that the dead receive help through the prayers of the Church and through the holy sacrifice" 

III. Let us not forget the Holy Souls in Purgatory! Let us frequently receive holy communion and assist at the holy sacrifice of the Mass for their benefit.

CONSIDERATIONS.
"As we contemplate the empty tabernacle on Good Friday, our hearts are sad; we feel as if, in addition to the sorrowful anniversary which we are keeping of the crucifixion and death of our Savior, we had lost the Blessed Sacrament. We know that this is not really the case, but the words of St. Mary Magdalen—‘ They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher and we know not where they have laid Him’—keep coming to our lips, and our thoughts turn to that Limbo, where Jesus descended to the joy of the Fathers so eagerly and anxiously awaiting their deliverance, and thence to the sorrowful yet blessed regions where souls are daily and hourly waiting for their release and thirsting for the Masses and communions which shall wash away their stains in the precious blood and enable them to enter into the joy of their Lord.

"How anxiously must they watch for the hour during which Masses are said, sure at least of the ‘Memento of the Dead,’ which will bring refreshment in their pains! St. John Chrysostom dwells frequently in his works upon the close connection which there is between the sacrifice of the Mass and the souls in purgatory, and says that it was not in vain that the apostles enjoined the ‘Memento of the Dead' in the celebration of the sacred mysteries. 

"They knew the great benefit and utility the souls would derive thence. Indeed when all the people are joined together in prayer, and all the assemblage of the priests lift up their hands towards heaven, whilst the adorable sacrifice is being offered on the altar, how can we fail to appease God on behalf of the souls, all praying thus together for them?

"St. Chrysostom would likewise reprove the tears of those who wept over their dead, bidding them instead of weeping have recourse to the Most Holy Eucharist and offer prayers and sacrifices for them instead of useless tears.

"The tender heart of Jesus, imprisoned day after day within the narrow limits of His tabernacle, cannot fail to have compassion upon the souls of His children captive in Purgatory. Suffering was ever a direct road to His tenderness, and by the plenitude and riches of the means which He has given us for alleviating those especial sufferings (the principal being the application of His own body and blood), we can form some idea of the depth of that compassion which He feels for the afflicted souls and of the joy with which He blesses our efforts in their deliverance.

"We often feel that we do nothing for the Lord Whom we love so much—that all our love seems to consist in protestations, that our lives are miserably poor in good works, our progress in virtue almost imperceptible. Here then is a way of dong something for Jesus which we know will give Him pleasure—namely, helping to redeem the suffering souls and by our suffrages swelling the ranks of the glorified in heaven. Alas! how often we forget them, these souls, absorbed as we are in the present, in ourselves, our miseries, and our wants! How often we make aimless prayers, which, if applied to them, would bring an ocean of soothing to their pains! and communion without any special intention, which, if offered for them, might be the final suffrage wanting to complete their term of banishment.

"Masses are heard, visits are made to the Blessed Sacrament, where we omit altogether to mention them. The holy souls, once in heaven, are not likely to forget those who opened their prison gates; they, on the contrary, render us a thousandfold for our poor prayers, obtaining us help and graces which we should have never dreamed of asking, pushing us, almost in spite of ourselves, along the road to heaven, and, finally, shortening for us, in our turn, our sojourn in that dreary prison whence we helped to release them.

"Prayer is heard everywhere, and everywhere we should pray, either by thought, word, or action, yet nowhere is prayer so powerful with God as in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. That kind of prayer-inspiring atmosphere surrounds the tabernacle is no effort of imagination or delusion of our senses. Even those who are not within the pale of the Church have felt it, and instances are known (Father Hermann, for one) where involuntarily and unintentionally such persons have dropped on their knees on passing before the Blessed Sacrament, or at the moment of consecration, without being able to account for the sensation which compelled them to do so.

"St. Jane de Chantal once fancying that she could pray with more recollection in the quiet of her own chamber than in the church, was told by her director to put away such a thought as being a temptation, as assistance at holy Mass and public prayers before the Blessed Sacrament were of far greater profit (even when accompanied by constant warfare against distractions and dryness of spirit) than the most fervent private devotions. We may gather from this how greatly we may profit the holy souls by assisting at Mass, visiting the Blessed Sacrament on their behalf, saying the Rosary publicly, offering the prayers of the Church in communion with the faithful, in preference to practicing private acts of piety for their sakes to the neglect of the fuller channels to which we might have recourse.

"Saints have told us, moreover, that it has been revealed to them that the purgatory of some souls who were especially devout to the Blessed Sacrament during life, consists in dwelling near the tabernacles of our churches—a peaceful and consoling purgatory on the one hand, but on the other a purgatory which must enormously increase the pain of loss.

"Let us make a resolution of beseeching the holy angels henceforth to help us in our love of the Blessed Sacrament. By the eagerness which they showed in serving St. Dominic on account of his making his nocturnal prayer before the tabernacle and by the zeal which they have displayed on innumerable occasions in procuring holy Viaticum for the dying, we may be assured of their power as well as of their desire to assist us. Let us implore them to give us greater devotion, greater purity of mind and heart and the grace (one of those graces which it is their special province to bestow) of light to know the secret faults, those hidden imperfections, which, coiling themselves round the folds of our hearts, unseen by men, undetected by even our director and scarcely acknowledged by ourselves, act as slow poison upon our best motives and holiest intentions.

"Let us make to ourselves intercessors also of the souls in purgatory, remembering them whenever we are worshipping before the Blessed Sacrament, in order that we may contribute to the glory of Our Lord, both by their presence at His heavenly court and by the increase of fervor and devotion in ourselves which their gratitude will impetrate on our behalf. Let us choose the 'sweet and tender Magdalen' (as St. Catharine of Siena calls the greatest of penitents) for one of our special patrons in our preparations for communion, now and at the hour of our death, imitating her fidelity and love, her pious haste in seeking her Lord in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and in the little tabernacle of St. Maximin, bringing with us to our communions the sweet spices of her contrition, humility, abhorrence of sin, her absence of human respect her complete donation of herself to the Jesus Who calls each of us from the recesses of the tabernacle as distinctly as He drew her to His feet in the house of Simon or from the heights of her solitary cavern amidst the mountains of Provence until we are prepared to follow ‘Jesus Risen’ in ‘a life of a new kind, a glorious life, a life in which we avoid all that which has hitherto been an occasion and a cause of sin and death to us ... a righteous life which renews the soul and leads her to life eternal ’ (St. Thomas).

"A life which derives all its nourishment, all its joy, and all its strength from the Blessed Sacrament, which is the plenary effusion of the riches of the love of Jesus Christ, ‘ e." —Mrs. Abel Ram, in " Emmanuel."

0 my King, my Master, and my Savior, the desires of my soul call to Thee; my eyes bathed with tears of repentance dare not gaze at this altar which is the throne of Thy love, and of Thy glory.

0 Majesty of my God! I sink down into the depths of my misery, and nevertheless I feel that I love Thee, 0 my Redeemer! I know that Thou possessest every good, and that Thou wishest me to share it. Resist not the ardor of my desires. Thou Whom I ever seek in the darkness and trials of this life. Cast upon Thy penitent children a look of forgiveness, and unite me one day with them, in Thy heart which is life, happiness, and heaven. Amen.

"Blessed and praised at every moment be the most holy and adorable Sacrament." 

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 thine elder Brother, and the First-born among many brethren; regard thyself as the very least of His brethren, or rather as one utterly unworthy even of such a name, since thou art so unlike Him in thy words and deeds and thoughts (Rom. viii. 29). 

II. Love Him with thy whole power; that with all thy might thou mayest follow faithfully the counsel and example of thine elder Brother.

III. Ask Him for the gift of "Understanding" that thou may be able to explain the hidden meanings of the Scripture and by the contemplation of heavenly things may detach thy thoughts and affections from all the vanities of this miserable world.

EUCHARISTIC GEMS.
St. Augustine. 430AD.
In the ninth book of his "Confessions," St. Augustine, describing the happy death of his mother, St. Monica, writes: "‘Lay this body anywhere,’ she said; ‘ let not the care of that disquiet you: this only I request,—that you would remember me at the Lord's altar, wherever you be’ (chap. xxvii.). ... I closed her eyes; and there flowed withal a mighty sorrow into my heart, which was overflowing into tears; mine eyes at the same time, by the violent command of my mind, drank up their fountain wholly dry. But when she breathed her last the boy Adeodatus burst out into a loud lament; then, cheeked by us all, held his peace. . . . For we thought it not fitting to solemnize that funeral with tearful lament and groanings; for thereby do they for the most part express grief for the departed as though unhappy or altogether dead; whereas she was neither unhappy in her death, nor altogether dead (chap. xxix.).

"And behold, the corpse was carried to the burial. We went and returned without tears. For neither in those prayers which we poured forth unto Thee, when the sacrifice of our ransom was offered for her, when now the corpse was by the grave’s side, as the manner there is, previous to its being laid therein, did I weep even during these prayers (chap, xxxii.). . . . By little and little I recovered my former thoughts of Thy handmaid— her holy conversation towards Thee, her holy tenderness and observance towards us, whereof I was suddenly deprived—and I was minded to weep in Thy sight, for her and for myself, in her behalf and in my own, and I gave way to the tears which I before restrained, to overflow as much as they desired, reposing my heart upon them; and it found rest in them; for it was in Thy ears, not in those of man, who would have scornfully interpreted my weeping (chap, xxxiii.). . . .

"Accept, 0 Lord, the free-will offerings of my mouth. For she, the day of her dissolution now at hand, took no thought to have her body sumptuously wound up, or embalmed with spices; nor desired she a choice monument, or to be buried in her own land. These things she enjoined us not; but desired only to have her name commemorated at Thy altar, which she had served without intermission of one day; whence she knew that holy sacrifice to be dispensed, by which the handwriting that was against us is blotted out (Col. ii. 14); through which the enemy was triumphed over, who, summing up our offences, and seeking what to lay to our charge, ‘found nothing in Him' (John xiv. 30) in Whom we conquer" chap, xxxvi.).

Verbum Supernum, Prodiens.
The heavenly Word proceeding forth,
Yet leaving not the Father’s side,
Accomplishing His work on earth,
Had reached at length life’s eventide.

By false disciple to he given
To foemen for His life athirst,
Himself the very Bread of Heaven
He gave to His disciples first.

He gave Himself in either kind,
His precious flesh, His precious blood;
For love’s own fulness thus designed
Of the whole man to be the food.

By birth their fellow laborer He ;
Their meat when sitting at the board;
He died their Ransomer to be;
He ever reigns their great Reward.

0 saving Victim, opening wide
The gate of Heaven to man below
Our foes press on from every side,
Thine aid supply, Thy strength bestow.

To God Almighty, One in Three,
Be everlasting glory given ;
Who life will give eternally
To us whose only home is Heaven.
                         —St. Thomas Aquinas