Little Talks to Children Preparing for Holy Communion ST. LOUIS, MO., 1913 Published by B. Herder 17 South Broadway FREIBURG (BADEN) Germany LONDON. W. C. 68, Great Russell Str, Little Talks to Children Preparing for Holy Communion ST. LOUIS, MO., 1913 Published by B. Hkrder 17 South Broadway FREIBURG (BADEN) I LONDON. W. C. Germany 68, Great Russell Str. NIHIL OBSTAT Sti. Ludovici, die 27. Oct. 1913. F. G. HOLWECK, Censor Liborum IMPRIMA TUR Sti. Ludovici , die 28. Oct. 1913. Joannes J. Glenn on, A rch iepi scopus Sti. Ludovici. Copyright, 19 13, by Joseph Gummersbach. All rights reserved \ Made in U, S. A. CONTENTS. Page I. God as Creator, eternal and in- visible 5 II. God is almighty ; He is everywhere ; He knows all things 10 III. God is our Father. His goodness towards us 15 IV. The Blessed Trinity 20 V. The Incarnation 24 VI. The Redemption 28 VII. The Blessed Eucharist _ 37 VIII. Preparation for Holy Communion 47 IX. Receiving Holy Communion 72 3 I. GOD AS CREATOR, ETERNAL AND INVISIBLE. Yesterday I asked a little boy, who God is. And he said: "God is our Father." Then I said to him : "But haven't you an earthlv father? Isn't there some one at home whom you call your father? How then is God your father?" And he stopped for a minute and then said : "God is everybody's Father." That was a very good answer for a boy to give, who is only six and a half years old. And it is as good an answer as anybody can give : "God is everybody's Father." He is the "Father of all," as St. Paul says (Eph. 4:6). God is everybody's Father, because He made everybody. How do we know that God made everybody? Because everybody had a beginning, no matter how old he is. And if everybody had a beginning, someone must have given him his beginning, that is, must have made him. And the only one that can give a man a beginning, or make him, is God. If you are six years of age, that means that 5 6 God as Creator, you began to live six years ago. If you are seven years of age, that means that you began to live seven years ago. When we say that a man is twenty, or thirty, or fifty years old, we mean that he began to live twenty, or thirty, or fifty years ago. You began. We all began, that is, we all had a beginning. There was a time when you didn't live, when I didn't live, when no other man, woman or child lived. God gave all of them their be- ginning, their life, because only God could do that. And God made this world that we live in, and the sun, moon and stars, and everything else. How do we know this? We know this, because all thes^e things had a beginning as well as we did. If we look at a house, and think about it, we see that the house had a beginning, that it could not make itself, and that it was made by someone. Now when we look at this earth we live on, and at the sun, moon and stars, and all other things, and when we study them and think about them, we see that they all had a beginning; we see that they must have been made by someone, just as a house must be made by someone ; and the One who made all these things we call God. That was a long, long, Eternal and Invisible. 7 long time ago, my dear children, when God made the earth, the sun, moon and stars, and then the first man and woman. It was so long ago, that you would not understand it, if I tried to tell you. And if I tried to show you just how we know that God made all things, how He gave them their beginning, you wouldn't be able to understand that either, for you are not yet old enough. But it is enough for you to believe me, when I say to you that God made us, and the world we live in, and the sun, moon and stars, and everything else. And when you believe this, you are not believing merely me, but you are believing God Himself, for God Himself has made it all known to us. God Himself had no beginning. He never began to live as we did. God always lived. He always was. God did not make Himself, nor did anybody else make Him. He always was and He always will be. That is why we say that God is eternal; that is, God had no beginning and He will have no end. If God had a beginning, like everything else, then nothing could ever be, because there could not be anything to give a beginning to any- thing. Therefore, our reason tells us, as you 8 God as Creator, will learn when you are older and able to understand it, there must be something which never had a beginning, which always lived, always was ; and that Being, who always was, we call God. He always was and always will be. He made this world and us, and every- thing else. We do not see God, because as the Cate- chism tells you, He is a spirit, the most pure spirit, and, therefore, we cannot see Him with the eyes of our body. If you go into a room which is entirely dark, you do not see any- thing in it. It may be full of things, such as tables, chairs and other furniture, pictures on the walls, and although you have eyes, you cannot see them or anything else in it. Why? Because there is no light in that dark room. Turn on the light, and you can see everything in it. We cannot now see God, because we need some other light besides our reason and the light we have on earth to see God. We shall be able to see God in heaven, after our death, if we are good an<3 pure dur- ing life, for the "pure of heart shall see God." Again, let us consider the air. There is such a thing as air, although we cannot see it with our eyes. We breathe it and cannot live Eternal and Invisible. 9 without it. Although we cannot see it, we can feel it, and also see what it does. We see the trees shaking and bending when the wind blows ; and the wind is only the air in motion. Some of you have probably seen a man handling a flat automobile tire that goes on the wheels ; and he takes a thing, called a pump, and puts it against a tube in the rub- ber tire, and keeps working the pump up and down. After a while the rubber tire swells out, and becomes round, and is able to hold up the automobile. What has the man pumped into it? He pumped air into it. We do not see the air, but we see what it does, and we know that there is really something we call air. So, we don't see God, but we know that there is and must be a God, who has made all things, for, although we do not see Him, we see what He has made. The great apostle, St. Paul, speaking of God, says : 'The in- visible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, His eternal power also, and divinity" (Rom. 1 : 20). II. GOD IS ALMIGHTY; HE IS EVERY- WHERE; HE KNOWS ALL THINGS. Yesterday I told you that God made all things. He made us and the world we live in, and the sun, moon and stars and all other things. I said that all these things had a beginning, and that it is God who gave them their beginning and made them. God, I said also, had no beginning; He is eternal, that is, He always was and always will be. I said that we cannot see God with the eyes of our body, because He is the most pure spirit, just as we cannot see things that are in a room which is perfectly dark, although we have eyes and the room may be full of furniture and other things, because we need light to see them. If we are good and pure during our life, we shall see God in heaven after our death; and how happy it will make us for- ever, for He is so beautiful, more beautiful than we can even think of. I said also that we can know that there is a God, and many things about Him, by studying the world and 10 God Is Almighty; 11 all things that God has made, just as we can know from a beautiful house, from a fine watch that they were made by men, by men that were very smart. God is almighty; that is, He can do all things. Men can do some things, but not as God does them. To make a thing, for in- stance, to make a bench, a man needs ma- terials, tools and time; also to build a house; but God, when He wishes to make something, needs no materials, no tools, no time; all He does is to say: "I will this thing," and all at once the thing is there. That is the way He made the earth, the sun, moon and millions of stars, and light, and made the earth, sun, moon and stars move about the heavens without stopping, hundreds of times faster than the fastest railroad train, and these millions of stars move regularly all the time and never run against one another; and to do all this, He merely said: "I will it so." Man makes some things, but as I said, he needs for this materials, tools and time. But God creates things, that is, He makes them out of nothing, without materials, without tools, and all at once; therefore He is called the Creator of heaven and earth. The most rich, powerful 12 He Knows All Things. and wise man cannot make even one blade of grass, one little plant. But God has covered the whole earth with grass and plants, merely by willing it. By a single word He can, if He so wishes, make at once a thousand times more suns, moons, stars and animals and plants than there are already, and all without any trouble or fatigue. You and I can be only in one place at a time; the same is to be said of all things. When we are here in this place, we cannot be in our house or in another town or country. But God is everywhere, in all places all the time; He is in heaven, on earth, in every star, in every country, in every place at the same time ; He is even in hell, not to suffer there, but to exercise His justice over the devils and the souls of the wicked. He is everywhere keep- ing the things He has made in proper order; He takes care of us so much so that He has numbered the hairs on our head, and not one of them can or does fall without His knowl- edge or permission. Since God is everywhere, we can speak to Him, pray to Him wherever we are. This should remind us that we can never be all alone, for wherever we are, God is there with us ; He sees us, He knows what we are doing, whether we do good, or do evil. God Is Almighty; 13 God knows all things. Although you are still young, you already know many things ; the older you grow, the more you will know. Those who know much more than other people are called learned; and no matter how much the most learned men may know, there are many more things that they do not know. The angels know much more than the most learned men; the Blessed Virgin knows more than all the angels know. But God alone knows all things. He knows not only all tfcat is past, and all that is now, but also all that will be; for Him there is nothing past or future; everything is present to Him. He knows all the men now living, all those that have ever lived or will ever live, and all their thoughts, wishes, words and deeds. He knows all the animals, plants, grains of sand, drops of water that ever have been or will ever be in the world. God sees us all the time, and knows not only everything we have ever done and said, are doing and saying now, or ever will do and say, but he sees and knows our most secret thoughts or wishes. When God the Son became man and lived on earth, He would sometimes tell men of the evil thoughts they 14 He Knows All Things. had in their minds. He sees every bad or wicked thought or image that comes into our mind; whether we put it away, drive it out of our mind, or let it stay. Let us always remember that God sees even our most secret thoughts and actions. If you knew that some persons could know all your thoughts, how carefully you would watch over your thoughts, and at once drive away all bad and wicked thoughts. But God knows them all, and will surely reward your good thoughts and punish your evil thoughts. III. GOD IS OUR FATHER ; HIS GOOD- NESS TOWARDS US. Yesterday, my dear children, I explained to you that God is almighty; that He made the earth, sun, moon and stars and all that they contain out of nothing, merely by willing them; also that He is everywhere; in every place; that He sees and knows all things; that He knows not only all that has ever been done and is now done everywhere, but also everything that shall ever happen. We can- not hide ourselves, or our deeds and thoughts from God ; He sees and knows even our most secret thoughts and deeds. All things belong to God, for He created them and they are His ; He is their Lord and Master. We also belong to God, for He has created us. All that we are, everything that we have, comes from God. Our body is the gift of God; our eyes, our sight, our hearing, our tongue, every part of our body has been given us by God. It is He who gave us the power to see, hear, smell, 15 16 God Is Our Father; taste, feel, walk, speak. It is He who has given us a good father and a good mother to love us, to care for us, to provide us with food, drink, good clothes and a comfortable place to live in. When you sit down to eat your meals, you should think that it is God's goodness towards you that enables your parents to provide you with food, and then you ought to recite the prayer all good Chris- tions say before meals ; after making the sign of the cross : "Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are to receive from Thy bounty, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen." And after you have finished your meals, thank God for His goodness, and say: "We give Thee thanks, Almighty God, for all Thy benefits, who livest and reignest forever. Amen." It is for us that God created this beautiful world, to furnish us with so many different kinds of food, such as meat, fish, vegetables and fruits; with different kinds of stuff for our clothing; with wood, clay, stone, etc., to give us homes to live in; and with so many good and beautiful things for our pleasure and enjoyment. God has also made our soul, a spirit, almost His Goodness Towards Us. 17 as grand and as beautiful as the angels them- selves. He gave to our soul understanding, that we may know and learn things; a mem- ory to remember things, a reason to know what is right and what is wrong, and a free will to be able to deserve reward for the good we do, and to deserve punishment if we do wrong or evil. He gave each one of us, when we were born, a guardian angel to be always with us during our whole life, to watch over us, to protect us, to help us to do what is right, and to avoid what is evil or bad. He must love us very much, since He gives each one of us His most beautiful and powerful angels from heaven. On earth there are always guards or watchmen placed to watch over and pro- tect the places where there are treasures, that is, plenty of money, or where are kept very precious things. So you see how much God loves you, since He considers you as a treas- ure of His, deserving of having so great and noble a guardian as one of His own angels. But why did God make us, why did He create us ? Does He need us ? Can't He get along without us ? God is perfectly happy in Himself ; He does not need us, nor anyone else; but He created us because He is good 18 God Is Our Father; and happy, and wishes others besides Himself to share His happiness. That is the reason why He created the angels, why He created all of us, that we might be with Him in heaven and share His happiness there forever. God is so good, and so greatly loves us, that He made Himself our Father; that He wishes us to be His children, and that we might enjoy His endless happiness with Him in heaven. There- fore He wishes us to address Him in our prayers with these words : "Our Father, who art in heaven." Thus you see, dear children, that God did not create you merely to get rich, or to enjoy yourselves on earth during a short life. He created you for heaven, which is millions and millions of times better than this earth ; there- fore He made and calls Himself your Father, and calls you His children. It is a far greater honor to be the child of God than to be the child of the President of the United States or of the Governor of this State. And why? But remember, children, that God wants you to deserve the honor and happiness of being His children and of sharing His happiness in heaven forever. For this you must live as His good children on earth. Good children His Goodness Towards Us. 19 know their father, and honor and respect him ; you must also know God ; how can you know Him ? By learning the Catechism well ! You must honor God by praying to Him, that is, learn and recite your prayers. Good children love their father; you must therefore love God, who is the best of fathers, who loves you so much and has done so much for you. Good children obey their father; you must, then, also obey God, that is, keep His command- ments. In a few words, to be good and worthy children of God and to deserve to be with Him happy forever in heaven, you must know God, you must pray to God, you must love God and you must obey or serve God during your life. Heaven is so beautiful, and the pleasures of heaven are so great, that there is nothing on earth like them. St. Paul tells us that the eye of man has never seen anything like it, the ear of man has never heard such sweet music as that of heaven, nor can the mind of man ever think of pleasures that can be com- pared to those that God has prepared in heaven for those who love and obey Him ! IV. THE BLESSED TRINITY. When we begin, and when we end our prayers, my dear children, we say: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." We mention here three names : the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. These are the names of the three Persons in God. There is but one God ; but in God there are three Persons. A per- son is one who thinks and acts of himself, as he wills. Each one of us here is a person; each angel is also a person. Among men and angels, three persons make three different men, three different angels. But not so with God. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are three distinct Persons, but are all three but one God. Why ? Because, although the Father is true God, the Son is true God, and the Holy Ghost is true God, yet the Son is not a different God from the Father and the Holy Ghost, nor is the Holy Ghost a different God from the Father and the Son; 20 The Blessed Trinity. 21 but they are all three one, and the very same God. How this is we cannot understand; it is too high and too deep for us, and even for the angels themselves. St. Patrick gave a kind of explanation of this greatest of mysteries, when he converted Ireland to the faith. He took a shamrock or clover, which has three leaves, and said : "You see this shamrock; although it has three equal leaves, it is only one shamrock; each leaf is not a different shamrock from the other two leaves, although distinct from each of them, and equal to each, but all three form but one and the same shamrock. In like manner, although the Father is neither the Son, nor the Holy Ghost, and the Son is neither the Father nor the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost is neither the Father nor the Son, yet all three are but one and the same God. The Son and the Holy Ghost are the very same God as the Father. Therefore all the three divine Persons are but one and the same God. Each Person is eternal, almighty, all-wise, etc. ; they are all equal to each other. I will give another explanation of the Blessed Trinity. (Take three perfectly equal tapers.) I take these three tapers, hold them 22 The Blessed Trinity. together in one bunch and light them. You see there is only one flame from the three tapers; so also God, or the Divine nature, is like the flame which is one, although com- posed of the flame of three tapers. We call one God in three Persons the Blessed Trinity, or the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Trinity means three in one, that is, Three Persons in one God. No man, no angel can ever fully understand this mystery, for it is as great as God Him- self, and only God can fully know and under- stand Himself. In heaven it will take us all eternity to study and learn all the grandeur, beauty and perfections of the Blessed Trinity. The great St. Augustine, who lived 1500 years ago, was writing a book on the Blessed Trinity, trying to explain it. He read and studied for a long time. One day he had been thinking over it in his mind, and thought that now he knew all about it, and therefore was hurry- ing home to write it all down. He had been walking along the sea-shore. On his way he be- held a beautiful little boy pouring water from the sea with a shell into a little hole, which he had dug in the sand. The hole was already full of water and every shellful of water he The Blessed Trinity. 23 poured into it ran back into the sea. St. Augustine had stopped to look at what that beautiful boy was doing. "Sonny," said St. Augustine to him, "what are you doing there ?" The boy replied : "I am going to empty all the water of this big sea, and put it all into this little hole/' "You cannot do that," said St. Augustine; "do you not see that the little hole is already full, and all the water you are pouring into it runs back into the sea?" Then the little boy, who was an angel, stood up and said : "Augustine, it is easier for me to empty this big sea and put all the water it contains into this little hole, than it is for you to grasp with your mind the sublime mystery of the Blessed Trinity; God is a boundless ocean, and your mind is only a tiny little hole compared to that greatest of all mysteries." V. THE INCARNATION. Do you know, my dear children, that the great God, who made all things, the world we live in and all that it contains, who made you and me, and all the men, women and children that have ever lived, that the great God once came Himself and lived on earth for thirty-three years? I told you the other day that we can't see God, just as we can't see the air? Then how did anyone see God when He came into this world? Men saw Him then, because He came on earth as a man. He came "dressed up," we might say, in a human body and a human soul, like ours. It was God the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, who became man by joining to Himself a human body and a human soul, in such a manner, that He is God and man at the same time, and is only one person. His human body and human soul are joined to Him as God even more closely than our body is joined to our soul. The Son of God, that 24 The Incarnation. 23 is, God the Son, who became man, is called Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is true God, was always true God, because He is God the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is true man, because He has a body and a soul like ours; but He was not always man, but only since He took a body and soul like ours, at the moment of His Incarnation, when the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was the purest and holiest of creatures that ever lived or will ever live, became His Mother. Jesus Christ, as man, was born on the first Christmas day, 1,913 years ago, in a small town called Bethle- hem, in the Jewish country. In memory of the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas day, we all keep Christmas as a great feast of joy and happiness, especially for children. It was, indeed, so wonderful a thing that the Son of God should come on earth and be born as a little child. I will explain to you, the next time, why the Son of God became man and lived on earth. The Child Jesus grew up like other children, but so good and so holy ! When He grew up to be thirty years old, He went about the country, preaching and teaching men what they must know and do to save their souls, 26 The Incarnation. that is, to go to heaven. He claimed to be the Son of God with the right to teach men. To prove that He was God, the Son of God, He performed miracles. A miracle is some- thing which no man, but only God can do, or those to whom He gives the special power. For instance, to give sight to a blind man with- out remedies, but only by a word or a sim- ple touch; to give hearing to the deaf; to give back life to a person who is dead. No man can do these things. Now, Jesus Christ went about curing by a single word persons who had been sick for years and given up by the doctors; He gave sight to the blind, hearing and speech to the deaf and dumb, stopped suddenly a terrible storm at sea by saying: "Peace, be still." He fed 5,000 hungry men, with only five loaves of bread ; they all ate as much as they wanted, and after this, the pieces of bread that were left, filled twelve large baskets, equaling over one hundred loaves ! He raised to life a young man during his funeral ; He raised to life a twelve-year-old girl, by taking her corpse by the hand and saying: "Arise, little girl." He raised to life Lazarus, whose body was already four days in the grave and was beginning to get rotten and decom- The Incarnation. 27 posed ! And as you shall hear the next time, He raised Himself to life again the third day after He had died a fearful death on the cross. Jesus Christ wanted men to know that He was God as well as man, and that men are obliged to believe all that He preached and taught, and to do all that He commanded them to do, in order to lead a good life and reach heaven after their death, and to avoid all that He forbids them, all the evil things which would bring them to the endless tor- ments of hell. VI. THE REDEMPTION. I will tell you to-day why the Son of God came on earth and became man. In the be- ginning of the world God created our first parents, Adam and Eve, the first man and the first woman. He gave them a visible body and an invisible soul, an immortal soul. God wished that they and their children and grand- children should live happy on earth for a long time, and then He would take them to heaven where they would share His happiness for- ever. That they might be fit for heaven, He made their souls holy and most beautiful with sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is a gift of God that makes our soul holy, most beautiful, most pleasing to God, a worthy child of God and gives our soul the right to enter heaven after our death. It is like a bright white dress which makes the soul perfectly pure and holy, brighter than the sun, and far more beautiful than anything in this world, so that if we could see a soul which has sanc- 28 The Redemption. 29 tifying grace, it would make us almost die of joy and happiness. God made man for heaven, but He wanted man to deserve it by being obedient to God. He therefore placed Adam and Eve in a most pleasant garden, like a paradise, or a heaven on earth, full of the finest fruit trees. He said to them : "You can eat of the fruits of all the trees here, but not of this one in the middle of the garden ; you shall not eat of the fruits of that tree; if you do, you shall die!" For some time Adam and Eve obeyed God. But one day Eve was near that forbidden tree, and Satan, the head-devil, who had hidden himself in a snake that was near that tree, asked Eve: "Why do you not eat of the fruits of this tree? they taste so good." Eve said : "God forbade us to eat of the fruits of that tree, lest we should die." "Oh ! no," said Satan, "you won't die, but you will become as smart as God, for if you eat of these fruits, you will know the difference between good and evil." Eve, who was very curious, tried it; she ate some of the fruits; they tasted nice, and she gave some to Adam, and, to please her, he ate some also. Now, what happened in the souls of Adam 30 The Redemption. and Eve? Have you ever seen a house that was burnt down by a big fire? It is all in ruins; everything nice about it is destroyed, and what is left is all black and worthless ! So it was in the souls of Adam and Eve after their disobedience. Their souls were like the ruins of a burnt house. Sanctifying grace was gone; all beauty was gone; their souls had become fearfully ugly and disgusting, just like the devil himself ; they were no longer the children of God; they were hateful to Him, and they no longer had any right to heaven, but they were to die and to be cast into hell forever ! And they were also expelled from the garden of paradise, to go out into the world and earn their living by hard labor. The sin of Adam and its consequences have been shared by everyone born upon earth, ex- cept by the Blessed Virgin. We were all born in sin, with our souls hateful to God, and never should we have the chance of going to heaven, which that sin, called original, closed to all mankind, unless the Son of God Him- self had come on earth, become man, and by His sufferings and death done penance for Adam's sin and all the horrible sins men have committed since the beginning of the world, The Redemption. 31 and again opened heaven to mankind, and enabled those who obey God and keep His commandments to go to heaven after their death. Last time you heard how Jesus Christ, the Son of God,, came on earth, was born as a child of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Jesus Christ is true God, because He is God the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity; He is true man, because He was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and has a body and soul like ours. He is called our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord means master, because, as God, He made all things. Jesus means Saviour, because He saved us from sin and hell, made us children of God and opened heaven to us, by dying for us on a cross. The name of Jesus is the holiest of names, and should always be pro- nounced with the greatest respect. What a horrible thing it is, then, for anyone to use the name of Jesus in cursing, or in anger ! If you hear some one doing so, or profaning the name of God, etc., say a little prayer to honor Jesus. God, etc. You see this crucifix! It represents Jesus Christ dying on the cross to save us from sin and hell, to make us children of God and open 32 The Redemption. heaven to us. Jesus Christ was put to death on the cross by wicked men among the Jews. He knew they were going to put Him to death, and He could have prevented them, if He had wished; but He suffered them to arrest and bind Him, to scourge Him unmercifully, to crown Him with thorns, to nail His hands and feet to the cross, to pierce His heart with a spear. For three hours He hung on the cross in terrible pains and died praying for His murderers, and for us and all men, for w T hose sins He died, because He so greatly loved us and all mankind in spite of our wick- edness. The day He died on is called Good Friday, for it was for our good, our benefit that He died. On the third day after, count- ing Friday itself as one day, that is, on Easter Sunday, He raised Himself to life again by His own power, thus proving Himself God. Forty days later Jesus Christ went up to heaven, taking along the souls of all the holy people that had died until then; He opened heaven for them and there He now prepares a place for everyone that believes in Him and keeps His commandments. When we die, our body and soul separate ; our body is laid in the grave, soon rots and The Redemption. 33 after some years everything of it is gone, ex- cept a handful of dust. But our soul will be judged by God concerning all our thoughts, words and deeds of our whole life ; if we have sanctifying grace in our soul, we shall go to heaven either drectly, or after some time; we shall go directly, if our soul is perfectly pure without the smallest stain of sin, we shall then go straight to heaven to share forever God's own happiness, as a reward for having been good during life. But if our soul has some little stains of sins, our soul will first have to do penance for them in purgatory by undergo- ing some suffering for a time, and after this, our soul will be admitted into heaven as a reward for all the good we did during life. But if our soul is covered with the filth or dirt of mortal sin, our soul will be sent to hell to suffer ter- rible punishments, such as fire, forever and ever ! God is most just ; He rewards after death the good forever and ever in heaven, and punishes after death the wicked forever and ever in hell. If we wish to go to heaven, we must keep from sin during our life. Now what is a sin ? Sin is disobedience of a commandment of God. When we disobey God, we commit a sin. 34 The Redemption. There are two kinds of sin, original sin and actual sin. Original sin is the sin of our first parents, which stained our soul when we were born. Jesus Christ died to save us from sin. Baptism was appointed by Jesus Christ to take away original sin. When we were baptized, our soul was washed and cleansed from orig- inal sin, received sanctifying grace, which made our soul pure, holy, beautiful, pleasing to God, and a child of God with the right to go to heaven. The other kind of sin is actual sin, that is the sin we commit ourselves. If the sin we commit is big or great, our sin is mor- tal, or deadly; if it is only a trifle, our sin is venial, or light. Mortal sin is called mortal, or deadly, or grievous, because he who com- mits it loses sanctifying grace, and the sin he commits makes his soul horribly filthy and disgusting and hateful to God, and robs it of the title of child of God and of all right to heaven; and it also makes the soul deserving of hell, so that if he who has committed mor- tal sin, dies before repenting of it and re- ceiving forgiveness, he will be condemned to suffer the torments and fire of hell forever, and never have the hope of forgiveness or of ever going to heaven! For instance, those The Redemption. 35 children who greatly disrespect, curse or strike their parents in anger, who steal a large sum of money, who greatly injure or kill their neighbor, who wilfully think of, say or do im- pure things, who miss Mass on Sundays or eat meat on a Friday through their own fault, all commit mortal sin each time; and deserve to be condemned to hell, if they die without repenting of their sin, without obtaining par- don for their sin. The usual way to get our sins, especially our mortal sins, forgiven, is to make a good sincere confession to a priest, with true sorrow for them, and the priest will, in the name of Jesus and by the power given him by Jesus Christ, forgive you your sins, and thus free you from the punishments of hell, and will restore to your soul sanctifying grace, her wonderful purity and beauty, and the right to be a child of God and go to heaven after death. In this manner, the sufferings and death of Jesus on the cross will save you from sin and hell. Venial sin is committed, for instance, by children w r ho sometimes neglect their prayers, or say them without attention, who are a lit- tle disobedient, a little angry, who tell some little lie. You can obtain forgiveness of those 36 The Redemption. sins by confessing them to a priest, or by mak- ing an act of contrition, or saying some prayers. If when you die, your soul is still stained with some unforgiven venial sins, your soul will have to do penance for them in purgatory before God will admit you into heaven. Try, dear children, to avoid the smallest sin, for it displeases God; and you should not commit the smallest venial sin even to escape death, for venial sin is a greater evil than death. If you are careless in avoiding venial sin, you run the risk of committing mortal sin and losing your soul. If, how- ever, you carefully avoid all venial sins, you will be able very easily to keep out of mortal sin altogether. N. B. — The following should be repeated, in whole or in part, as often as may be neces- sary to impress the truths indelibly in the minds of the children. VII. THE BLESSED EUCHARIST. Do you know why your body needs food? Could you live without eating? No, for you would soon die. You need food every day and several times a day, in order to live, to grow larger and stronger. What becomes of the food you eat? It goes into your stomach, and the stomach changes it into your flesh and blood, into all parts of your body. But let us not forget, dear children, that our soul also needs food. But our soul is a spirit, and the food of the soul cannot be ma- terial like the food of our body. Our soul is created for heaven, and therefore needs heavenly food. Our divine Saviour Jesus Christ has pre- pared a heavenly food, a heavenly Bread for our soul, which will preserve the spiritual life of our soul, or sanctifying grace, increase the strength of our soul, and make our soul grow in holiness and become worthy of greater reward in heaven. Do you know which is this heavenly food? It is Jesus Christ, our divine Saviour Himself! 37 38 The Blessed Eucharist. He said one day: "I am the living Bread come down from heaven; he that will eat of this Bread, shall live forever. The Bread which I will give you is My flesh (body) for the life of the world, for My flesh (body) is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. If you do not eat the flesh (body) of the Son of man (that is, of Jesus Himself) and drink His blood, you shall not have (heavenly) life in you. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood, (dwells in Me, and I dwell in him." On that day Jesus promised that He would give, for the souls of men, a heavenly Bread, which would make men fit to live holily on earth, and, after this life, to live forever hap- py in heaven. He said: "My flesh (body) is truly that heavenly Bread; and he who wishes to go and live forever happy in heaven, will have to eat My flesh (body) as a heaven- ly Bread ; if he does not, he shall not live for- ever in heaven." Of course, dear children, Jesus Christ did not mean that His body would be cut up into pieces and eaten like meat for the body. He meant that He would give it to us to be eaten as the heavenly Bread of our souls. One year later Jesus kept His promise. The Blessed Eucharist. 39 It was on the evening of the day before He was crucified and died for the salvation of all men. At the supper that evening, which is called the Last Supper, Jesus took bread, which at that time was made very thin, like crackers ; He raised His eyes towards heaven, blessed it and gave it to His apostles, saying: 'Take ye and eat, for this IS My body, which is given for you!' Now, dear children, what did Jesus Christ give to eat to His apostles? Was it bread ? No, because He said to them : 'This IS My body." If it had been bread, as it seemed to be, Jesus Christ could not and would not have said : 'This IS My body." He is God ; He knows all things ; He is Truth itself ; He could not make a mistake ; He could not tell a lie. Therefore, what He said was perfectly true, for, as He said, He gave His apostles His true body to eat; the same body, which He gave on the following day to die on the cross for the salvation of mankind, for He said of it: "Which is given for you." Although it looked like bread, tasted like bread, and appeared to be only bread, yet it was not bread at all, but truly the very body of Jesus Himself. But how could this be? Our divine 40 The Blessed Eucharist. Saviour is almighty; if our stomach can change our bodily food into our own body, who will dare to say: "Jesus, who is al- mighty, who has created the world out of nothing by a mere word, cannot, by His word, change a piece of bread into His own body !" No man in his senses would dare to say such an untruth. What Jesus Christ gave to His apostles to eat, He did not call bread, but He called it: "My body;" He called it, then, His own body, the same body which He gave up the next day to die on the cross for our salvation. Jesus next took the chalice (cup) contain- ing wine, and after blessing it, gave it to His apostles, saying: "Take ye and drink this, for it IS My blood, which shall be shed for the forgiveness of men's sins" What He gave to His apostles to drink was not wine, but His very blood, the same blood that He shed the next day on the cross for the forgive- ness of the sins of men. But this was not yet all that Jesus did at the Last Supper. He also ordained His apostles priests, and gave them the power to do the very same thing which He had done (was doing), that is, to change bread into His body The Blessed Eucharist. 41 and wine into His blood, and give to others His body to eat and His blood to drink, as He had done to them, and to ordain other priests to do the same, as He ordained them priests. (Before going up to heaven, Jesus gave His apostles, the power to preach the Gospel, to work miracles as He had done, such as cur- ing the sick, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, raising the dead to life. And, in fact, the apostles went all over the world and did as Jesus Christ had done and had told and empowered them to do. They preached the Gospel, performed miracles, changed bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, gave holy Communion to all who joined the Church, and also ordained priests, etc., as Jesus had ordained them, with the power of continuing their work among man- kind.) All priests receive, when they are ordained, the power to change bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. They do this when they say Mass. About the middle of the Mass, when everybody in church kneels down and everything is silent in it, and the altar-boy goes up and kneels right behind the priest for the Consecration and Elevation, it is 42 The Blessed Eucharist. then that the priest acts in the name of Jesus Christ Himself and consecrates, that is, changes first the bread into the body of Jesus Christ, saying as Jesus did: 'This is My (Christ's) body." He then kneels down and adores the body of Jesus, which, he is hold- ing in his hands, and next raises it up, that all may see it and adore it; during that time the altar-boy rings the bell three times. After this the priest consecrates (changes) the wine in the chalice into the blood of Jesus Christ, saying as Jesus did: 'This is My (Christ's) blood, which shall be shed for the forgive- ness of men's sins." Then he kneels down and adores the blood of Jesus, and next raises the chalice, so that all may see it and adore the blood of Jesus Christ in it; and during this time the altar-boy again rings the bell three times. Some time after this, those who are going to holy Communion, go to the com- munion-rail; and the priest, after giving holy Communion to himself, gives each of them a small, thin, round, white particle, placing it on their tongues, whilst he says : "May the body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy soul unto life everlasting. Amen." What is it that the priest places on the The Blessed Eucharist. 43 tongue of each ? That small, thin, round, white particle is called the Sacred Host, and is real- ly and indeed the true body of Jesus Christ. The word host means victim, for Jesus died on the cross as Victim for the sins of men, and He renews this offering of Himself, as the Victim for our sins, in each of the Masses that are said, for He wished His priests to "do this," He said, "in remembrance of Me," so that holy Mass is a remembrance and a re- newal of the death of Jesus on the cross for the salvation of mankind. The Sacred Host has all the appearance of bread: its taste, form, color, etc., is the taste, form, color, etc., of bread. But it is not bread, but it is actually the true body of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But His body is not a lifeless, dead body, but a living body, and therefore, His blood and His soul are in it, for without either of them a body would not be a living body. Therefore the little Host is ac- tually Jesus Christ as man with His body, blood and soul. But Jesus is not a mere man, but He is also God, being God the Son. He is both God and man, but only one Person; His body cannot be separated from His di- vinity ; so that where His body is, there also is 44 The Blessed Eucharist. His divinity. Therefore, the little Host is Jesus Christ both as man and as God. It is the same Jesus Christ who is true God from all eternity; who was born a poor Infant in the stable of Bethlehem, preached the Gospel, performed miracles, was arrested, scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified and died on the cross, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, is adored there by all the angels and saints, and will come again on earth at the last day, with power and majesty, to judge all men, to reward the good forever in heaven and to punish the wicked forever in hell. Holy Communion is the receiving, or eat- ing, of the body of Jesus Christ under the appearances of bread. As our food becomes one with us, so when we receive the body of Jesus Christ in holy Communion, our soul is united to Jesus Christ, becomes, in some man- ner, one with Him. Why does Jesus give us His body in holy Communion? Because He loves us. His love for us is so great that it caused Him to come from Heaven upon the earth and become man, and suffer and die a cruel and shameful death to save us from sin and hell, and to enable us to go to heaven and be forever happy. "Greater love no man The Blessed Eucharist. 45 hath," says Jesus, "than to lay down his life (die) for his f rends." But Jesus Christ died for us, although we were His enemies on ac- count of our sins ; He died for us, taking upon Himself the punishment we deserved for our sins. But His love for us is so great, that it was not enough for Him to die for us, but it induces Him to give us Himself as the food of our souls, in order to make us godlike, and fit to share forever His own happiness in heaven. His love for us can go no further, Although He is almighty, He cannot give us a greater gift than Himself, than His own body and blood ! He is infinitely greater than the whole universe. He gives us His own body and blood as a pledge of the everlasting happiness which He has prepared for us in heaven. He loves us so much that He de- sires that His body and blood should be the daily food of our soul, that we should daily receive Him in holy Communion, so that we may become always more and more holy, and more fit to enjoy greater happiness in heaven. "Taste, and see how sweet the Lord is" (Ps. 33, 9). In our churches some Hosts are always kept in the tabernacle, that part of the altar in the 46 The Blessed Eucharist. center, which has a little door. Therefore, our divine Saviour, Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man in one Person, is really and truly present in the tabernacle in each Sacred Host. That's why we bend our right knee to the ground when we come into the church, and again before going out. We do that to adore our Lord and God, who is truly present in the tabernacle. That's also why we must al- ways be respectful and reverent in church, be- cause our Lord Himself is there. That's why the church doors are always open during the day, so that everybody may come in to honor our Lord and pray to Him at any time. He keeps what we may call "open house," to re- ceive our visits whenever we wish to come. That's why, too, every Catholic boy and man, properly instructed, always lift up their hats when they pass a church, in order to show their faith and their respect for Jesus in the tabernacle, wherein He resides. And that's why there is always the light in the sanctuary lamp burning night and day, to indicate the real presence in the tabernacle of Jesus, who, when visibly present on earth, said of Him- self : "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). VIII. PREPARATION FOR HOLY COMMUNION. If some great person, such as the Bishop or the President, were coming soon to your home to pay you a visit, my dear children, you would feel happy merely to think on it, and would at once set to work to put everything in order, that you might be able to give him a proper reception. The house would have to be well cleaned, and yourselves be well washed and combed, and have on you your best clothes. Would you not? You would surely not wish to have your house all dirty and in disorder, your clothes dirty and torn, your hands and face all soiled ? But when you go to holy Com- munion, Jesus Christ Himself, your God and your Redeemer, comes not only to pay you a visit, but to dwell in your soul, in your heart and to load you with His favors. How should you receive Him? In the first place, your soul, in which He comes to dwell, must be clean, as clean and as spotless as possible. What is it that soils, de- 47 48 Preparation for files your soul? Sin, sin alone, but most es- pecially mortal sin. If there is no mortal sin in your soul, Jesus Christ, the Bread from heaven, will come into your soul to make it live, to make it most wonderfully beautiful, most pure, holy and strong, and fit to go to heaven. But if there is a mortal sin, which you know, in your soul, when you receive that heavenly Bread, it will be worse than poison for your soul, for you will then eat your own judgment, that is, your own condemnation to hell ! There was once a boy who had committed several mortal sins, and went to holy Communion with- out confessing them to the priest, without sor- row for them. He had scarcely received the Sacred Host and gone back to his place in church, when he fell down in a faint. They took him out of the church to a near house ; the priest came in to see him ; but the boy was dy- ing, crying out: "I committed some mortal sins, and without going to confession I re- ceived holy Communion, and the devil has hold of me and is taking me to hell." Saying this, he died, and his dead body was awful to behold ! A young girl had also committed some mortal sins, and did not tell them to the priest in con- fession, for she was ashamed ; she went thus to Holy Communion. 49 holy Communion with her soul defiled by those mortal sins. A few days after she took so sick that not only the doctor, but the priest also was sent for to prepare her for death. When she saw the priest, she cried out: "I am damned, for I received holy Communion unworthily, because I made a bad confession by concealing some mortal sin through shame ; and now the devil is taking my soul to hell l" And thus she died. How different was little Imelda, who was so good, so pure, like an angel. Oh, how she longed to go to holy Communion; but every- body said she was too young, and even the priest and the Sisters would not let her go to holy Communion. One day when the priest was giving holy Communion to the Sisters, Imelda longed so much to receive also holy Communion ; and so she prayed Jesus so fer- vently and so earnestly for holy Communion, that Jesus granted her wish. And how was this done ? The Host the priest was then holding in his hand escaped from it, and flew towards the ceiling and continued then to fly in the air until it came and stayed in the air just a little above Imelda's head. The priest understood from this, that Jesus Himself wished that 50 Preparation for Imelda should have her wish fulfilled and re- ceive holy Communion. So he went to her and took the Host above her head, and laid it on her tongue. Oh, how happy did Imelda feel ! Her heart was full of joy at receiving her Jesus, whom she loved so much, for whom she so ardently longed, that she died of joy and happiness; her soul left her body and went straight to heaven to be always with Jesus and near Jesus ! Now, my dear children, before making your first holy Communion, you should go to confes- sion, in order to have a clean and pure soul, a pure heart to receive Jesus Christ. What is confession? It is to go to the priest and tell him the sins you have committed, that he may forgive them. The priest has received the power from Jesus Christ to forgive sins in His name, to those who are worthy of forgiveness, and to refuse to forgive those who are unde- serving of forgiveness. That he may know whether you are worthy of having your sins forgiven, you must tell or confess them to him, and let him know that you are really sorry for them and resolved not to commit them any more, that is, to do better in the future. You know already that we commit a sin Holy Communion. 51 whenever we break or disobey any one of God's ten commandments. He who sins, who dis- obeys God, offends and displeases God. If he disobeys God only in little things, for instance, tells a little lie, gets a little angry, looks a lit- tle around at prayer in church, the sin is only light or venial; it makes a little stain in the soul but does not do great harm to the soul. But he who disobeys God in some important point, for instance, he who curses in anger, who wilfully and through his own fault, misses Mass on a Sunday, eats meat on a Friday, makes a bad confession, does great injury to his neighbor by striking him, stealing, etc., who thinks of, says, or does impure things, shows great disrespect to his parents; such a one commits mortal sin, and mortal sin robs his soul of sanctifying grace, makes his soul a child of the devil, most horrible and displeas- ing to God, and fit only for burning forever in hell after death ! What sins must we tell the priest when we go to confession? We must confess all our mortal sins and their number. Why? Because we cannot go to heaven, so long as they are not forgiven. And no mat- ter how sorry we may be for them, we can be sure that God has forgiven them only after 52 Preparation for the priest has forgiven them in our confession. Are we bound to confess our venial sins ? No, because they do not cause us to lose God's grace and friendship, and will not cause our soul to go to hell after our death ; we can ob- tain their forgiveness by great sorrow for them, great love of God, by some penances in this life, or by staying in the flames of purgatory for a time, before being admitted into heaven. Nevertheless, it is a very good and useful thing to tell them in confession, because then they are more easily forgiven. Moreover, espe- cially for you little children, who are good and have probably never committed a mortal sin, it is well for you to confess your principal venial sins. Which is the first thing we have to do when we go to confession? As we must tell our sins in confession, the first thing is, find them out. This is done by examining our con- science. Can you tell me what that means? There is in us a voice which sometimes speaks to us ; for instance : when we are tempted or intend to disobey our parents, to tell a lie, to steal, to do something bad or impure, there is something which tells us : "You must not do that; it is wrong; it is a sin," etc. And after Holy Communion. 53 we have done something wrong, that same voice tells us : "You did wrong ; you should not have done that ; if you were to die thus, you would be cast into hell forever," etc. That voice is the voice of our conscience, warning us, when we are tempted or about to do some- thing wrong, to commit a sin, warning us not to do it ; or reproaching us after our sin for hav- ing committed it. Sometimes that voice is so strong and reproaches the sinner so persist- ently that the criminal has no rest after his crime, such as a murder, that he can have no peace, no rest, until he goes and confesses his crime to the police, and gives himself up to be arrested and tried. To find out what sins you have committed, you must examine your conscience, that is, ask your conscience which are the sins with which it reproaches you. But examining our con- science is like sweeping a room. He who sweeps a room, collects all the dust together and then throws it out somewhere. But to sweep a room, he must have light to see where the dust is, and to collect it well together ; he therefore opens the blinds, the curtains, to let the light in; and begins to sweep at one end and continues in a regular manner in the whole 54 Preparation for room and thus gets all the dust together in one pile ; and lastly he sweeps or puts it into a dust- pan and carries it out. Now he who wants to go to confession has to examine his con- science; but before he begins this, he needs light to see all the sins in his conscience, for he could not otherwise see them clearly. How will he get light in his conscience? By pray- ing to the Holy Ghost. Let him say an Our Father for this purpose, and add : "O Holy Ghost, Father of light, enlighten me, that I may find out all my sins and then confess them well to the priest." Then he should say a Hail Mary to the Blessed Virgin, that she may help him, adding: "O Mary, my dear Mother, help me to find out my sins, and to make a good confession." Then he ought to say to his guardian angel : "O my dear angel guardian, thou hast been the witness of all the sins I have committed, help me to remember them and to confess them well." The next thing is to examine our conscience on the commandments of God and of the Church. The first commandment requires us to honor God by saying our prayers with at- tention and devotion. If you miss your daily prayers very much, say, for weeks at a time, Holy Communion. 55 you should take note of it ; also if you say them hurriedly and carelessly, looking around; you should tell it in confession : * 4 1 did not say any prayers at all for many days, or many weeks ; I said them carelessly," etc. Then those chil- dren who go to Protestant church service or Protestant Sunday school, commit sins which they must confess. The chief sins against the second commandment are cursing with God's name, and swearing falsely, that is calling on God to witness to a lie. Ask your conscience, whether you did either of these things and how many times. Then the chief sins against the third commandment of God and the command- ments of the Church are : to stay away from Mass through one's own fault on Sundays and Holydays ; to eat meat through one's own fault on Fridays and other forbidden days. If you have done either of these things, you must also find out and confess how many times. The fourth commandment commands us to respect, love and obey our parents. You must examine how many times you showed them dis- respect, disobeyed them, perhaps cursed them, hated them. If any of these sins were serious, you must also find out and confess to the priest how many times you committed them. The 56 Preparation for fifth commandment forbids us to do injury to our body and health, and to the body and health of others ; it forbids drunkenness, eating so much as to endanger our health, endanger- ing or trying to take our life, striking, hurting, killing or trying to kill our neighbor, or hat- ing him, wishing him harm or death. These matters should be told in confession. The sixth commandment forbids words, looks and deeds against purity; bad reading, bad shows. The ninth commandment forbids all desires and all wilful thought of impurity. If you have done anything by yourself or with others you must find it out and tell in confes- sion also the number of times ; also the num- ber of times you took wilful pleasure in bad thoughts or desires ! Never hide any of these sins in confession, for it would make your con- fession a most horrible sin ; none of your sins would be forgiven ; your Communion would be a horrible sin (sacrilege), and you would have to make your confession all over, and tell these sins besides, otherwise you would forever be a child of the devil ! The seventh commandment forbids stealing, destroying and injuring our parents' or our neighbor's property. If the amount of the Holy Communion. 57 theft or of the injury is small, is only a trifle, it is only a venial sin ; but if it reaches a con- siderable amount, upwards of five dollars, it would be a mortal sin, and besides confessing it, you would have to restore the thing or its value to the owner. He who neglects to pay his debts, or who finds a lost thing and knows the owner and does not give it to him, also sins against the seventh commandment. He who attempts to steal or desires to do so, or to injure his neighbor's property, sins against the tenth commandment The eighth commandment forbids the telling of lies, detraction, that is, unnecessarily mak- ing known the secret faults or sins of our neighbor, and slander, telling lies about our neighbor. The lies children tell are usually only venial sins ; but if our detraction and slan- der and our lies produce great harm, or injure the good name of others, they are mortal sins and must be confessed with the number of times they were committed; and if by these sins we caused great injury to our neighbor, we should be obliged to repair the injury in the way the confessor would order us. Bear in mind that you should not tell even the smallest He to save all men, for no one has the right to offend God. 58 Preparation for As to those who have already been to con- fession, and their conscience tells them that their confession or confessions were bad, either because they wilfully concealed mortal, or great sins, or were not at all sorry for their sins, or were not resolved to do better when they went to confession, they will have to con- fess that they made bad confessions once or times, and to make that confession, or those confessions, over again. After finding out all your sins and the num- ber of times, as near as you can, you have com- mitted each mortal sin, you should be very sorry for your sins, and make an act of contri- tion. Sometimes, my dear children, a man takes an automobile and races it around a track. He does not race with another machine, but runs it around alone, as fast as he can, to see whether he can make it go faster than any other machine ever went. That's what is called "racing against time." Now that's the way some children say their prayers, and especially the Act of Contrition. They say it just as fast as they can, as if they were trying to say it faster than anybody else ever did, and they don't seem to think at all on what they are saying. They race against time. Now, that Holy Communion. 59 isn't right, and I am afraid that the Act of Con- trition sa'id by some is worthless, is of no ac- count before God. We should bear in mind that the Act of Con- trition is an act of sorrow, of regret for our sins, for we then say : "O my God ! I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell ; but most of all because they offend Thee, O my God, who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly re- solve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen." Now, remember, when you say the Act of Contrition, my dear children, you are speak- ing to God. You are telling Him that you sin- cerely wish you had not sinned; and, remem- ber, we cannot deceive God, because He sees our heart, and He knows, therefore, whether you mean it when you say you are sorry. To say it is one thing, and to mean it is another. "I am heartily sorry" means that we are sorry from way down in our heart, and not merely from upon our lips. It means that we truly wish we had never sinned ! "Offended" means sinned against. He who 60 Preparation for thinks, says or does what God forbids, "of- fends" God, sins against Him. "I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee," means there- fore : "I truly wish I had never sinned against Thee, O my God!" Then we add: "I detest all my sins." That means : "I hate all my sins without exception. I hate them more than anything else because they displease God, who is better than all things." Then we men- tion one of the reasons why we wish we had not sinned : "Because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell." "I dread" means "I fear greatly." That's being sorry from fear, from the fear of God's punishments, just as a boy would be sorry for disobeying from the fear of being punished by his father. We fear losing heaven by our sins, where God is in all His dazzling glory and beauty, and where the angels and saints share God's unspeakable hap- piness ; we fear also being cast into hell, that place of awful darkness and sufferings which never end. And that would happen, if we should die as God's enemies in mortal sin. Therefore we say: "Because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell." This kind of fear is called a supernatural fear. It is super- natural, that is, above natural fear, because it Holy Communion. 61 refers to God; it is a fear of God's punish- ments. A boy (or girl) who is afraid of be- ing punished by his teacher, or by his father for misbehaving, a thief who would be sorry for stealing, because the judge sent him to jail for it; such persons have only a natural fear. If you want God to forgive your sins, you must have supernatural sorrow for them, that is, be sorry for them because they offend God, who punishes those who offend, sin against, Him, or because God is so good, etc. Su- pernatural sorrow for sin is sorrow for sin- ning against God, either because He is just in punishing sin, or because He deserves all our love on account of His great goodness. A man who would be sorry for getting drunk, because he was put into jail on account of it, a child who would be sorry for his sins of dis- obedience because he got punishment for it either at home or in school, would have only natural sorrow ; but natural sorrow will never do for confession, for obtaining God's forgive- ness for our sins. The sorrow we need for confession, for obtaining God's forgiveness for our sins, is a supernatural sorrow. The best kind of supernatural sorrow is the sorrow that comes from love, from a loving 62 Preparation for heart. Therefore, after telling God we are sorry for our sins on account of the punish- ments He inflicts on sin, "the loss of heaven and the pains of hell," we add : "But most of all, because they ofTend Thee, my God, who art all-good and deserving of all my love." That's being sorry from love of God, and it is a much better and purer sorrow than that caused by the fear of God's punishments, just as it's bet- ter a boy should be sorry from love for his fath- er, than from the fear of his father. And there is no one so good and so lovable and so beautiful and perfect as God. And we should be greatly ashamed of ourselves for displeasing and offending God by our sins, even if He would never punish us for them. God de- serves that we should love Him with all our heart both for what He is and for what He has done for us. Why do we love our earthly fath- er? Because he is our father and loves us and has done so much for us ; and that's why we should be sorry for disobeying him. And why should we love God? Because He is our Creator and our heavenly Father, and has done so much for us. He therefore deserves all our love and obedience ; but when we commit sin, we refuse to God the love and obedience we Holy Communion. 63 owe Him. Therefore, we should wish from our heart that we had never sinned, because by our sins we refused our most loving Creator and Father the love and obedience He de- serves from us. Besides God has shown us such a wonderful love. God, the Father, gave us His own di- vine Son and sent Him on earth to become man and suffer and die on the cross, to redeem us from sin and hell, and open heaven to us. And His divine Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, true and almighty God, came on earth, became man, was born in a stable and lived over thirty years in poverty and un- known; then after fearful sufferings He died as a criminal on the cross, in order to save us from sin and hell, and open heaven to us. "Greater love than this no man hath; than that He lay down his life for His friends." And Jesus, the Son of God, laid down His life to save us, who have so greatly displeased and of- fended Him, to keep us from being cast into hell for our sins, and to enable us to go to heaven and share His own happiness ! Look at the crucifix, and see what your sins have cost Jesus Christ! His head is crowned with ter- rible thorns, His body is all covered with fright- 64 Preparation for ful wounds, His hands and feet are nailed to the cross. His side and His heart are opened by a lance ! He is dead for you, that you may not go to hell, as you deserve for your sins, but may have them forgiven, and be able to go to enjoy endless happiness in heaven ! See then how much He loved you, and how much His love for you cost Him ! And yet besides all this, He wishes to feed your soul with His own flesh and blood, that you may become good and holy, that He may dwell in your heart and fit you to be forever with Him in His glory and happiness in heaven ! Could He love you more than He has done? Therefore you can never be sorry enough for your sins, which have crucified Him and caused His death ! This love of Jesus for us demands that we love Him in return and never more commit sin and ofifend Him, who has loved us so much. Therefore, we finish the Act of Contrition by saying: "I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen/' "Firmly resolve" means : "I am determined/' "I firmly make up my mind." But we cannot do this by our- selves. We need the help of God, the help of His grace. When we are saying our Act of Holy Communion. 65 Contrition, we are trying to walk on the road that leads to heaven; but we can't walk on it alone; we need the help of God, just as babies can't walk alone, but need the help of their mothers, or of other persons. And so we say to God : "With the help of Thy grace." We need God's grace, or help, to make our Act of Contrition right, and we must ask God to give us His help. We should, when we think of our sins, say to God : "O my God, who art so good, and against whom I have sinned, help me to be truly sorry for my sins." And God will then surely help us to be truly sorry for our sins. Then we say: "To confess my sins," be- cause no matter how true and perfect our sor- row may have been, we must confess all our grievous sins to the priest, for God has made him the judge of our sins. And we finish the Act of Contrition by saying : "To do penance, and to amend my life. Amen." We do pen- ance for our sins when we despise and hate them from our heart ; also when we deny our- selves some pleasure, such as not eating some sweetmeats, not going out to play or to see something, or saying the prayers the priest tells us to say when we go to confession, or 66 Preparation for some extra prayers to obtain God's pardon of our sins. "To amend my life" means that we intend to change our life, to make it better by committing sin no more; for instance, by be- ing more obedient, telling no more lies, by keeping away from bad boys or bad girls, by being more pure, by being more obedient to our parents, by never more missing Mass on Sundays through our own fault, etc. Finally, dear children, be sure always to say the Act of Contrition from your inmost heart after examining your conscience and finding out your sins, and before you enter the con- fessional to tell your sins to the priest. When your turn comes to enter the confessional, you go in, and kneel down on the little kneeling bench ; and when the priest is ready to hear you, you say to him : "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned." If that confession is your first confession, you tell the priest : "This is my first confession." If you have been to con- fession before, you tell the priest : "I went to confession a month (or ) ago." Then you begin to tell your sins ; if they are mortal or big sins, you also tell the number of times a girl that stayed away wilfully from Mass on you committed them. For instance, a boy or Holy Communion. 67 Sundays, should say: "I missed Mass (or, stayed away from Mass) through my own fault times." If a boy or a girl has thought wilfully of or spoken about indecent or impure things, they should say: "I took pleasure in thinking wilfully of impure things — times ; I spoke of impure things — times." If the priest asks you questions, you must listen attentively and answer truthfully. If you feel afraid or ashamed, or do not know how to confess some sin, tell the priest : "I have com- mitted another sin, which I feel afraid, or ashamed, or I do not know how, to confess; please, Father, help me to tell it." And the priest will do all he can to help you to confess it right. You must never keep back a mortal sin in confession, or lessen the number of times you committed it, for that would be a most horrible sin, and would make your confession bad ; it would be better not to go to confession at all than to make a bad confession, for a bad confession puts you in the power of the devil, and changes the confession, which should free your soul from sin and heal it, to a real deadly poison for your soul ! After you have told all your sins as you should, and answered the priest's questions, 68 Preparation for the priest may find it necessary to give you some advice, or to explain certain duties to you. Listen attentively to him, as you would to Jesus Christ Himself, and be will- ing to do all he requires of you. At the end, he will give you a penance, that is, he will tell you to say certain prayers once or oftener. Pay great attention to this, so that you may not afterwards forget saying those prayers. Then he will tell you to say the Act of Contrition. Say it slowly, earnestly and devoutly. Whilst you are saying it silently, the priest gives you absolution ; that is, he forgives you all the sins you confessed in the name of God, of Jesus Christ. In case you later on remember that you forgot to confess some mortal sin. you must confess it in your next confession by saying to the priest: "At my last confes- sion I forgot to confess this sin." Then tell the sin and the number of times you com- mitted it. After the priest's absolution you will leave the confessional, grateful to God for forgiving you your sins through His priest, and renew your resolution to sin no more and lead a better life. Then you should perform the penance the priest gave Holy Communion. 69 you, that is, say the prayers he told you to say on that day. Then you may go home. The priest has to keep secret and never to speak about the sins you confess. He should be willing to suffer beating, imprisonment and death itself, rather than betray you and your sins in the least. No priest ever be- trayed the secret of confession; some have suffered blows, imprisonment and death, to keep that secret. The priest to whom you confess your sins, cannot even speak to you outside of confession about the sins you confessed, without your permission. So you are perfectly safe with him. As for your- self, you should never speak with others about your confession, about what the priest said to you, or asked you, because all this should remain private with you, and does not regard others. Especially you should never joke about such things. In case you overhear another's confession, or what the priest says to him, you are bound to keep about it as perfect silence as the priest, and it would be very sinful for you to mention these things to others. You are bound to go to confession, under pain of mortal sin, at least once a year; also 70 Preparation for to go to confession every time you wish to receive holy Communion and your soul is stained with mortal sin ; also when you are to be confirmed. As the Church, by the teaching of the Pope, who is the Vicar of Christ on earth, recommends even you little children to go to holy Communion daily, you ought then to go to confession, even if you have no mortal sin to confess, once a week or once in a fortnight, because you should try to have your soul as pure as pos- sible, when you are to receive Jesus Christ in holy Communion. As it is well to keep your face always clean, so it is of far great- er importance to have your soul always free from the spots and stains of sin, when you are to receive the God of purity and holiness in holy Communion. There is another preparation for holy Communion, the preparation of our body by fasting from food and drink. We must be fasting from midnight when we receive holy Communion. This means that we must not have taken or swallowed, even accidentally, the least bit of food or the least drop of water or of any other liquid, since the pre- vious midnight ; if we had, we should not Holy Communion. 71 receive holy Communion on that day; and if we would receive it thus knowingly, it would be a very grievous sin, which would make us deserving of hell, and we should have to confess it when we go to confes- sion ! Of course, when you receive holy Com- munion, you should wear neat and clean clothes and shoes. IX. RECEIVING HOLY COMMUNION. To-morrow, my dear children, you will, for the first time, "taste and see how sweet the Lord is" (Ps. 33:9). You will experi- ence how much Jesus Christ loves you. He will then bestow upon you the greatest of His gifts. Although He is almighty, He cannot give you a greater, a better gift than Himself. He will give you Himself, His very body, together with His blood, His soul and His divinity as the food of your souls. He will unite Himself most closely with your soul, as closely as the food you eat is united with your body. To-morrow He will give Himself all to you, so that you may become one with Him, that you may become holy and fit to be forever in heaven with Him and share His happiness. To-morrow when the priest lays on your tongue that little white Host, he will give you infinitely more than if he gave you the whole world with all its treasures and pleasures, than if he made you the monarch or ruler of all 72 Receiving Holy Communion. 73 mankind; for he will then give you the Lord of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ the Son of God, who became man to save us all. That little Host has all the appearance and taste of bread ; it is not bread, but the true body of Jesus Christ, united inseparably to His blood, soul and divinity. How greatly you should long for it and desire it ! If X — would promise to give you a splendid suit of clothes, a costly gold watch and $100,000, you would feel happy, would you not? You would long for the day on which he would give you so magnificent a present, would you not? And the very thought of it would make you feel happy. How much more should you not long for to-morrow, when you are to receive God Himself, who will give Himself all to you, so that, after your holy Communion, you can truly say : "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, my Redeemer, has given Him- self all to me ! He is all mine ! He dwells in my heart, in my soul ; He loves me so much as to be the food of my soul !" Should not this very thought make you happy, and make you long for the happy and blessed moment when Jesus will thus give Himself to you and dwell in you ? 74 Receiving Holy Communion. You should awaken your faith by asking yourself: "Who is it that will come to-mor- row and give Himself all to me ? It is the Son of God, who is eternal, almighty ; who has made the whole world out of nothing by His mere word ; who is so full of love for me, for all men, that for our sake He became man, was born in a stable, lived in poverty, died a most cruel and shameful death on the cross ! I am going to receive Him to-morrow in holy Commun- ion, whom the angels and saints in heaven adore and serve, who is my God, who is to be my Judge, who will be, if I am good, my endless reward and happiness in heaven. And who am I? I am a poor, miserable, sinful child, who perhaps by my sins have already many times deserved to be burning In hell; I am a poor sinner, so weak, so unworthy and unable to do the least good without God's help. O Lord, I am sorry from my inmost heart for having so often and so greatly offended Thee. I am not worthy to receive Thee; but, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner, who is sorry for having offended Thee, and forgive me all my sins that I may receive Thee in a heart free from sin!" Why does Jesus give Himself to you in Receiving Holy Communion. 75 holy Communion ? Because He loves you ; He loves little children, especially those who try to be good and pure, who are sorry for their sins and resolved to be good in future and to sin no more. Jesus is full of love, and now all He wants of you is that you should love hence- forth with your whole heart, Him who has died for you, who feeds your soul with His very body, and gives you thereby the pledge of eternal life and happiness with Him in heaven. Such, dear children, should be your chief thoughts and sentiments as a preparation for to-morrow's great feast. Express your faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in holy Com- munion ; express your sorrow for having in the past so greatly offended God, and let your heart be filled with love for and gratitude towards Him who loves you so much. You have all made a good confession, and your con- science, your heart is pure. Be sure not to forget yourselves to-morrow, for after this coming midnight you must not take the least food or drink until after your holy Commun- ion. Rise in time and let your thoughts be of the happiness in store for you at holy Mass of receiving holy Communion for the first 76 Receiving Holy Communion. time. Awaken your faith in this great mys- tery, express your sorrow for your sins and your love for Jesus, who so greatly loves you ! Take your prayer-book with you to church and there read slowly the prayers before Com- munion. After the priest's Communion go slowly with eyes cast down and hands joined before your breast, and kneel at the communion-rail. The priest will turn around, holding in his hand and showing you a small Host, saying: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world !" Then he says three times, — and you should say it in your heart with him : "Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof (that is: enter my heart), but say only the word, and my soul shall be healed." When the priest is com- ing near you, hold the communion-cloth under your chin, lift up your head, open your mouth, pull out your tongue as far as your under-lip, and lower your eyes. The priest will lay the Sacred Host on your tongue, saying: "May the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy soul unto life everlasting. Amen." As soon as he has laid the Host on your tongue, draw your tongue back into your mouth, close Receiving Holy Communion. 77 your mouth, bow your head and return to your place with reverence. In the meantime say to Jesus, who is now yours: "Welcome Jesus, my God, my Saviour, into my heart. I thank Thee, I love Thee, I give myself all to Thee, as Thou givest Thyself all to me." Whilst saying this in your heart, swallow the Sacred Host as soon as you can. Be care- ful not to chew it ; and if it would stick to the roof of your mouth, do not touch it with your fingers, but loosen it gently with your tongue. Be sure to swallow it, for if you were to keep it so long in your mouth, that it would melt, you would not have made your Communion, because you would not have received it as food. Be careful also not to spit out until twenty or thirty minutes after holy Commun- ion, lest you should spit out a tiny piece of the Host. After you are in your place, for some mo- ments do not use a prayer-book, but speak to Jesus who is within you in your own words, telling Him how grateful you are to Him, how much you love Him and will love Him in future. Your thanksgiving should last, at the very least, a whole quarter of an hour. Be- fore finishing your thanksgiving, give your 78 Receiving Holy Communion. heart to Jesus; ask His forgiveness for your past sins, promise Him to sin no more and to serve Him more faithfully; then ask Him to give you His love, to fill your heart with it, to teach you how to pray well, and to grant you perseverance in His grace until death. Then pray for your parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, the priest, your benefactors, your teachers, for all who are dear to you, for the dying, for the conversion of sinners, for the souls in purgatory. Ask the Blessed Virgin to be a Mother to you and keep you pure. In- voke your guardian angel, your holy patron, etc. During the day recall, from time to time, the great happiness you had of receiving Jesus Christ that morning. It is the wish of the Church, of our Holy Father the Pope, of Jesus Christ Himself, that holy Communion should be the daily heavenly Bread of your soul. Jesus promises "life ever- lasting" to those who "eat this heavenly Bread." He that eateth (mark the present tense which expresses a frequent or daily habit, or custom) this Bread, shall live forever" (John 6:52).