Blessed Sacrament Book/Introduction
Introduction
O SACRAMENT most holy!
O Sacrament divine!
All praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine!
Sacred Heart of Jesus,
Thy kingdom come!
These indulgenced ejaculations express admirably the scope and purpose of the present work. We hope and pray that by the grace of God it may serve to glorify the Blessed Sacrament, and to bring souls to the feet of Jesus, the divine lover of souls.
The one idea that runs through this whole work —the one predominating prayer— is the same that is expressed in the grand act by which Pope Leo XIII consecrated mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: "Have mercy on all, most merciful Jesus, and draw all to Thy sacred Heart Be Thou king, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned Thee; grant that they may quickly return to their Father's house, lest they die of wretchedness and hunger. Be Thou king of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one shepherd. Be Thou king also of all those who sit in the ancient superstition of the Gentiles, and refuse not Thou to deliver them out of darkness into the light and kingdom of God. Grant, O Lord, to Thy Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry: Praise to the divine Heart that wrought our salvation; to it be glory and honor forever."
While the Blessed Sacrament Book is adapted to serve as a book of devotions for the faithful in general, it is designed especially as a Vade Mecum for daily attendants at Mass, for frequent communicants, and above all for the members of our various Eucharistic associations while engaged in performing the Holy Hour or the Hour of Adoration.
One day Our Lord said to His followers: "Every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like to a man that is a householder, who brihgeth forth out of his treasure new things and old" (Matt. xiii. 52).
The present work contains many of the old forms of prayer that have become indispensable favorites, it seems, with devout souls, besides numerous new features of devotion which, we trust, will appeal to all whose delight is to visit Jesus in His Prison of Love and to make Him some return of love for abiding with us all days.
"Jesus, highest heaven's completeness,
Name of music to the ear;
To the lips surpassing sweetness,
Wine the fainting heart to cheer,
Jesus, all delight exceeding,
Only hope of heart distrest;
Weeping eyes and spirit mourning
Find in Him a place of rest."
— Annus Sanctus.
Of things both old and new which we thought might be productive of sweet and wholesome fruits of devotion we have to the extent of our opportunity given the measure described by Our Lord —"good measure, and pressed down and shaken together and running over" (Luke vi. 88).
We call particular attention to the numerous devotions for Mass, for Holy Communion, for the Forty Hours, of which the complete liturgy is given; then again to the many Little Offices and Pious Practices and Reflections for visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and above all to the variety of methods for keeping the Hour of Adoration.
The following associations, whose special aim is to cultivate devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, have received due attention with reference to their organization, conditions of membership, pious practices, and spiritual advantages:
1. The Peoples Eucharisiic League.
2. The League of the Sacred Heart — The Apostleship of Prayer.
3. The Tabernacle Society, or, The Association of Perpetual Adoration and of Work for Poor Churches.
4. The Confraternity of: the Blessed Sacrament.
5. The Arch-confraternity of Perpetual Adoration, under the Patronage of St. Benedict, for the Relief of the Suffering Souls in Purgatory.
6. The Archeonfraternity of Prayer and Penance in Honor of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. (Montmartre, Paris, France).
We direct the reader's particular attention to our article on the last-mentioned association, the Archconfraternity of Prayer and Penance. The special and distinctive practice of the members of this pious organization is one that commends itself to all who are devoted to the interests of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. We refer to the Day of Reparation, or Day of Expiation, a day of prayer and penance, observed once a week, or once a fortnight, or at least once a month, in honor of the most sacred Heart of Jesus for the welfare: of the Church, for the-propagation of the Faith, and for the salvation of souls.
Incident to, and in connection with devotion to the sublime mystery of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament Book aims at fostering devotion to the Holy Ghost, to the Passion of Our Lord and His most precious Blood, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Most Holy Sacrament, and to the poor souls in purgatory. Another very distinctive feature of the Blessed Sacrament Book is this:
It aims to cultivate the spirit of the contemplative life, that is, the spirit of prayer and penance and sacrifice, for the interests of our holy mother the Church, for the sanctification and salvation of souls, for the spread of Christ's kingdom among the nations of the world. It is the spirit of the brave and zealous apostle, the cry of whose loving heart was: "Da mihi animas!" "Give me souls!"
ASK what Thou wilt, O dearest Lord,
Nought, nought will I deny,
But only give me countless souls
For Thee, before I die.
Let others pray about themselves,
Thy grace leads many ways,
Da mihi animas, 'tis thus, Thy spirit in me prays.
A life-long sorrow, if Thou wilt,
And sharp enduring pain;
All, all were light, if souls for Thee,
Might be the precious gain.
Tears will be sweet, for Thou hast wept,
And blood, - if needs must be;
No cost too great to purchase souls,
O dearest Lord, for Thee.
Whatever be the price, O Lord,
This grace to me impart:
Souls from the world and sin set free —
Souls for Thy sacred Heart.
— Voice of the Sacred Heart.
Count not the cost, ye chosen ones,
At which souls must be bought;
Cost what it may, to Jesus' Heart
Those "others" must be brought.
With all we love, and life itself,
Oh! what a joy to part!
To satisfy the burning thirst
Of Jesus' sacred Heart.
The spirit of the Morning Offering of the Apostleship of Prayer is such that when in our daily round of duties — of prayers, works, and sufferings - we conduct ourselves in accordance with it, we not only sanctify ourselves but also become true victims in union with Jesus for all the interests that are most dear to His sacred Heart and for which He pleads unceasingly upon our altars. Our blessed Saviour is ever seeking for souls who are willing to exercise the apostleship of suffering — souls imbued with the spirit of unreserved oblation — such as is expressed in the sublime "Suscipe" of St. Ignatius Loyola:
"Take, O Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my whole will. Thou hast given me all that I am, and all that I possess. I surrender it all to Thee, that Thou mayest dispose of it according to Thy will. Give me only Thy love and Thy grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will have no more to desire."
As we read in that beautiful book, The Lover of Souls:
"Finding souls thus generous to enter into His life of sacrifice, whether on the highways of the world or in the enclosed gardens of religious communities, our divine Saviour imposes a cross upon them and invites them to drink of the chalice of sufferings. Some of them He ordains to suffer for infidels, others for heretics and schismatics, others again for sinners in general, or for souls in purgatory, for the conversion of a certain country, for this or that parish, family, or individual. Finally, Our Lord ordains some to suffer for the sanctification of priests and the multiplication of earnest workmen in His vineyard, which vocation, next to that of the ministry, is the noblest that can be entrusted to souls. Such special victims we know to have been Saints Catherine of Siena, Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, Aloysius Gonzaga, Rose of Lima, Blessed Margaret Mary, and many others who. innocent themselves, suffered for the guilty."
Nowadays the importance of the contemplative life as a means not only to the personal, individual sanctification of those who follow it, but also to the salvation of mankind in general, is perhaps not appreciated, or, rather, not realized, even by many who are of the household of the Faith. Apropos of this subject we read in a good little book, The Contemplative Life, by a Carthusian monk: "That the contemplative life has an apostolic aspect is an idea with which the feverish activity of modern life is unfamiliar. It is more apt to ask what can be the practical use of idle men, shut up alone in contemplation, at a time when there is so much to be done; what can they do in their state of isolation? On hearing that they live lives of prayer and self-sacrifice, the ordinary man is inclined to ask why? and for whom? And the answer is that they do so for the good of souls, that greatly need both prayer and self-sacrifice. Are we not too much in the habit of forgetting that prayer and penance are indispensable to the conversion of sinners, to the progress of the good, and to the perfection of the saints.
"In the Church prayer and penance are the duties that belong to the subsidiary ministry assigned to the Contemplative Orders, and they practise them for the conversion of sinners, for the progress of the good in virtue, and for the perfection of the saints.
"The late Cardinal Vaughan was still Bishop of Salford when he wrote a little pamphlet on the necessity of prayer for the conversion of England; and at the end of his long and intensively active career he seemed to receive still more light, and to understand better that God wanted from him 'more prayer than activity.'
"The world in its feverish activity now understands but half of God's design. It appreciates action, but not contemplation. Men know and perceive and acknowledge the need of action, and they esteem highly whatever acts and agitates, and nothing else. In so doing they are only being consistent with human nature, but they are mistaken. Activity is in<deed necessary, and cannot be too highly esteemed, but it alone is not enough, or rather, if it suffices in the bustle of everyday life it does not suffice for that of a Christian, which is a union of divine and human elements. In our present century, when faith is departing, as soon as a generous soul flees from the world and seeks refuge in the solitude of the cloister, men speak of it as a cowardly act, not in keeping with the age in which we live. They assume that this outwardly inactive existence was a beautiful outgrowth, a luxury produced by faith in the days when faith reigned supreme. But now that we have to defend every foot of our stronghold, and are losing ground day by day, we need active combatants, and have not too many or even enough of them. Under such circumstances, how can we view with approval those souls which are filled with faith and yet quit the field of battle? This is what people say, though they do not know what they are saying. They talk of battle, without seeing what sort of battle it is; and they speak of a battle-field, and do not perceive where the contest rages most fiercely. They accuse the most generous souls of abandoning the fray, when they are really engaging in the hottest part of Hie struggle.
"Consider Our Lord's words: 'The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His harvest ' (Matt. ix. 37, 38). He tells us that there is an abundant harvest, and that the workers are few. One might fancy that He would go on to bid His apostles hasten to gather in the harvest. As the harvest is abundant and the workers are too few, the natural conclusion at which we should arrive would be: 'Hasten, therefore, and busy yourselves about the harvest.' But God's conclusion is: 'Pray, therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into His harvest.'
"There is much work to be done, and for that reason there is great need of prayer — such is the divine argument. And for what are we to pray? That the Lord may send forth laborers. Our Lord does not tell us to have recourse to prayer in order to find peace in it, to fold our arms quietly and not trouble about the harvest, to secure our personal salvation comfortably, being sheltered from sun and rain. No indeed. He means prayer to be a work of apostolic devotion, the first and foremost of such works inasmuch as it precedes and procures the sending forth of the laborers. Two things are needful, prayer and laborers; prayer comes first and the laborers follow, and they will not come at all if there has been no prayer; and, in the same way, if prayer does not call forth laborers, it has failed in its object.
"Here, then, we have an indication of the union of the two ministries and of their co-operation in the great task of gathering in a harvest of souls. They ought never to be separated, as, when deprived of mutual support, one loses its life and the other its object. If those leading the contemplative life do not pray for men of action, they are in of being mere dreamers with no practical aim. If apostolic activity does not derive its life from contemplation and prayer it quickly degenerates into morbid excitement, and falls into decay, without achieving any result.
"It is remarkable (in the history of the Church) how the earth became fruitful and the atmosphere wholesome wherever the Religious Orders shed their light. The monasteries were like so many suns, rising amidst the mists and foulness of paganism, dispersing the thick vapors and causing a wonderful wealth of Christian virtues to grow even from the mire. Whenever a country was thickly studded with monasteries it became Christian. It would not be difficult to prove, logically and historically, that the number and state of the houses belonging to the Contemplative Orders supply a most exact criterion of the intensity and depth of Christian life in any country. "Mgr. Lefebvre. Bishop of Cochin China, perceived this clearly when, immediately after his consecration, being filled with the light of the Holy Spirit, he formed the resolution to found a convent of Carmelites at Saigon. The Governor, hearing that this was the bishop's first decision, remarked that one should not think of luxuries before having a house to live in, and received the answer, 'What you call a luxury is, in my opinion, the first necessity of our Christian ministry. Ten Religious who pray will help me more than twenty missionaries who preach.'
"Prayer and penance are Hie two wings given to a monk whereby he may quit the earth and soar toward heaven. In both alike he regards God and man. By prayer he gives glory to God, and by penance he does reparation, but prayer and penance have the farther aim of sanctifying and purifying man. These are the reasons why a monk spends his life in prayer and mortification. He dedicates himself to God and mankind, interceding and making reparation for man with God.
"Jesus Christ is always living to make intercession for us with God's sovereign mercy, and He is also always dying on the altar £or us to satisfy God's infinite justice. A monk who passes his life near a tabernacle every day mingles a little drop of the water of his own sacrifice with the wine of our Redeemer's offering, so as to fill up in his flesh those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ for His body, which is the Church.
"Iniquity abounds day by day, and the Religious cuts himself off from the sinful world in order to go with confidence to the throne of grace, that he may obtain mercy and find grace in* seasonable aid, and that where sin abounded grace may yet more abound.
"He offers himself as a victim beside and with Jesus, first as a holocaust, the sacrifice made in honor of God happy to pay his Lord the vows that his lips have uttered; and he is, moreover, a peace-offering, a sacrifice for sin, happy to share the work of the Lamb, who taketh away the sin of the world.
"And what are the sufferings that he offers to God with Jesus Christ? In the first place, the separations and the submission imposed by his vows. He breaks the bonds of kindred, and gives up all connection with the world, renouncing its amusements and the enjoyment of wealth and the caprices of independence.
"In the second place, there are works of penance imposed by his rule; enclosure and silence, a hard bed and rising during the night, hair shirts and disciplines, prolonged and sometimes perpetual abstinence, frequent fasts, spiritual, intellectual, or manual labor. Different Orders have different forms of penance varying in proportion according to their, special aims.
"Lastly there are sufferings sent by Providence those which our divine Master is wont to lay upon souls that have resolved to refuse Him nothing. Among these may be reckoned ordinary hardships due to heat or cold, accidents or sickness, disappointments and humiliations. Besides these there are extraordinary trials, interior crosses, spiritual desolation, anguish of heart, and darkness of spirit. A Religious accepts all these crosses in proportion as his vocation lays them upon him. He welcomes them and bears them joyfully, following the example of his Saviour and in union with Him. 'Let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us: looking on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, Who having joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God ' (Heb. xii. 1, 2).
"Alas! how apt we are to forget that our journey in this world: belongs only to time, and our joy in heaven to eternity! How often do the mists of this material existence obscure the brightness of eternity, our hopes based on faith, the promises given by faith, the everlasting realities, and the immortality of life in God! We are so steeped in lower pleasures that we forget what is higher. It is indeed necessary to bring back men's souls to the warm rays of the divine light, to disperse the clouds that envelop them, and to restore to them the thought of eternity and the desire to rise to heaven."
It is worthy of remark that the popular writer of juvenile stories — Father H. S. Spalding, S.J.— in his very interesting and instructive story: "The Sugar-Camp and After," incidentally calls attention to the utility of the contemplative life. Referring to the Trappists of Gethsernand, Kentucky, he writes: " Their- principal duty is to serve God and sing His praises. Morning and evening their labor is interrupted for prayer. At midnight, when you are enjoying sweet repose, the monks arise and sing the praises of the Almighty, Happy, indeed, the people who have such a Religious community in their midst! Only the angels of God know what blessings these prayers — this life of fasting— bring upon a land. For the monks pray not only for themselves but for all the people. Many a sinner struggling with temptation is given the victory because the monks are praying for him; many a heart that is pressed down with the burden of life is made gladsome because the prayers of the monks have won graces for the soul; many an unfaithful child of the Church has been won back to repentance because the prayers of the monks have ascended like incense to heaven and have merited the grace that wins salvation. May their presence amidst the hills of Nelson County be abiding; and for ages to come may the Midnight Office go up like incense to God for the salvation of His people."
In an excellent book of Meditations on the Hidden Life, entitled: 44 The Heart of Jesus of Nazareth," we read: 44 It entered into Hie designs of our blessed Lord that His hidden life should be perpetuated, not only in His own divine Person upon the altar, but also by a portion of the members forming His mystic body — the Church.
"It is well known that the utility of those Religious Orders which are not devoted to active works of charity is a point much contested, even by good, practical Catholics. Any doubt, however, as to their utility ought to be removed from the minds of those who have at any time made the life of Our Lord at Nazareth the subject of meditation. It will be necessary but to keep in mind that the period passed at Nazareth was not simply a time of waiting and delay until the hour had arrived for commencing the actual work of Our Lord's life. The truth is that Our Lord would not have anticipated, by a single instant, the time fixed in the eternal decree for entering on His public ministry, Nevertheless, through the long years in which He was apparently doing nothing towards the end for which He came upon earth, His work was before Him, and He was all the time unceasingly and most effectually engaged upon it. He thus affords us an incontestable proof of the utility of a life passed in prayer and penance. Would He, the incarnate Wisdom, have spent the whole of His life on earth save the three last years in a manner which was not conducive, in an eminent degree,to the glory of God and the interests of mankind? It was in the solitude of Nazareth that the great Apostleship of Prayer commenced. His labors and His every action were regulated by obedience, and this not simply during His childhood and youth, but equally in the maturity of His manhood. Each outward action He performed, each work He wrought, however ordinary in itself, was of infinite value as a prayer, as well as an act of reparation and expiation; yet these were not the principal occupation of His hidden life, nor the most important part of its teaching for ourselves.
"Our Lord's ceaseless prayer — this was the great work — opus Dei — the work of God to which He entirely consecrated thirty years of His life, the means by which He negotiated the salvation of the world, and converted souk, no less than by the brilliant works He wrought during His three years' ministry, the eloquent words that fell from His sacred lips, or the sufferings of His passion. The virtue of those secret supplications which ascended from His sacred Heart in the silence of Nazareth is being felt throughout the world now, and will continue to be felt until the end of time, and its fruits will remain for eternity. No age, no tribe, no people, no individual soul has been excluded from its embrace, neither has there been any sorrow for which it has not won consolation, nor any temptation which it has not merited grace to overcome. Souls who will not pray for themselves, who stand on the verge of eternal ruin, are snatched from the edge of the precipice by the graces that they owe to the prayer which the Divine Solitary of Nazareth offered up for them, whilst the sweat ran down His face as He toiled, or as He knelt through the silence of the night, praying with *a strong cry and tears, and was heard for His reverence' (Heb. v. 7).
"When souls who are thus called to the contemplative life increase in the love of God, there springs up spontaneously within their breast a desire to promote His interests, and then it is that the memory of Nazareth sheds itself over them as a ray of light, indicating the infallible means by which alone they can attain the end desired.
"Prayer and penance, the daily mortification of a common life, subject to all kinds of restraint and subjection, a life wherein self-will can have no part — such are the arms whereby contemplatives fight the battles of the Lord, battles ignored indeed by the world, but well known to God and to His angels.
"It was, then, a loving design of His Providence by which God provided for the souls, above described, a means by which they could at once follow the tendency He Himself had given them towards solitude passed in His presence, and in labor for the interests of His glory. Happy, then, are those Religious, set apart from all others for the mission of prayer and reparation, to whom has also been given a particular drawing towards meditation on the hidden life of Jesus. It will present to them a mirror wherein they may behold the characteristic features of their own daily life in the perfection to which it was raised in Jesus. They will have but to turn their mental vision to Nazareth in order to correct what is defective in their own reproduction of the life spent in the Holy House. It will be for them a beacon light in seasons of darkness and desolation, a place of rest in the weariness of temptation, and a tranquil haven of peace and consolation in the endurance of every form of suffering."
The Tabernacle Society, in a very practical and commendable way, combines the active with the contemplative life. The saintly Archbishop William Henry Elder, of blessed memory, once addressed the present writer in the following words:
"The reading of the Annual Report of your Society has awakened my wonder and filled me with consolation. It is a wonder indeed, that, in these few short years since its humble beginning, it has so quietly accomplished so much work, and rendered so beautiful services to Our Lord in His lowly churches, of so many places, near at home and far away in Western and Oriental countries. And it is most consoling to see that these are not merely outward and material works, but they proceed from the interior spirit. They are the visible flowers, growing from the roots of a deep devotion to Jesus Christ in the sacrament of His love. This is expressed in the additional name of your Society; ' The Association of Perpetual Adoration.' And it is shown, not in name only, but in action, since you make the monthly ' Hour of Adoration ' one of your necessary duties, and the chief object of your prayers and good works.
" All over the world the Holy Ghost is moving the hearts of the faithful, particularly in our day, to draw more and more near to the source of all the graces that give life to souls: Our Lord in the Tabernacle and in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Tabernacle Society in various places is taking a large part in this movement, in concert with the Priests' Eucharistic League, the Eucharistic Congresses, the Forty Hours' Adoration, and others. It is, then, a most substantial consolation that our diocese of Cincinnati is enriched with two branches of the Tabernacle Society. I hope that this report will bring many more good Catholics to join the society and to have a share in its merits — some, by the work of their hands, some by contributions of money or of serviceable articles or materials, and all by their prayers, particularly before the Tabernacle."
His Eminence Cardinal Svampa once addressed the members of the Tabernacle Society of the Diocese of Forli, after his promotion to the cardinalate and his nomination to the Archbishopric of Bologna.
In that allocution his Eminence demonstrated clearly the twofold object of the association, namely, to combine the prayer of Mary with the work of Martha* for .the greater glory of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. He said:
"The work to which you devote yourselves is truly sublime, but it must be understood and practised in all its completeness. From the day on which I inaugurated this grand association I have told you that its members should unite the fervor of Mary to the activity of Martha, to render honor and glory to the Most Holy Sacrament. The associates have, in fact, a double duty to fulfil, adoration— devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and work — devotedness and almsgiving to provide sacred vestments for poor churches. This twofold exercise is so essential, so inherent to the association, that if either be omitted the work fails to attain its end.
" If the hand is generous in offering gifts in money or kind, and the heart does not nourish the flame of devotion to Our Lord Jesus Christ in the sacrament of His love by means of adoration, we shall have, it is true, splendid exhibitions which will attract the admiration of men, but Jesus will not be fully satisfied; and He might with reason apply to the associates who would act thus the well-known words — with a slight alteration of the text — ' Populus hie manibus Me honored, cor autem eorum huge est a Me. ' (' These people honor Me with their hands, but their heart is far from Me.') If, on the other hand, acts of faith, adoration, and worship of the Blessed Sacrament are multiplied, and the hand refuses to come to the relief of the poverty of Jesus Christ in so great a number of poor and destitute churches, these miserly souls might apply to themselves this reproach, 'I was naked, and you clothed Me not.'
"Thus it is necessary that interior devotion and external magnificence should harmonize, in order to fulfil the duties proper to the association. This indeed is so natural that it is only necessary to have a good heart to make it seem impossible to do otherwise. At the sight of Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament, so rich in love for us, so poor in splendor for Himself, the heart spontaneously expands with reciprocal love, and the hand is opened to offer generous gifts. Therefore, beloved daughters, be piously solicitous to fulfil faithfully both the duties proper to the association. Above all, be very faithful in making every month your hour of adoration; do not fail to come to the reunions and to take part in the services that the association celebrates during the course of the year in honor of the ever blessed sacrament, and in acquitting yourselves of these duties animate your faith in the Holy Eucharist; occupy yourselves in holy thoughts and pious affections of adoration, reparation, thanksgiving, and prayer; rival in fervor, as much as possible, the angels who surround the Holy Tabernacle, and be well assured that the perfume of your piety will ascend even to the throne of the Lamb immolated for us, Who from His sacred Heart and pierced hands will shower down graces and blessings upon you and your families.
"In the second place, take pleasure in bringing your tribute of money or material and in working for the service of the Church and the altar, deeming it an honor to contribute to the splendor of Catholic worship which is entirely centered in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.
"This is what you have already done in providing the beautiful objects we admire in this exhibition, and it is what you will continue to do each year. No one ever impoverished himself by being generous to Jesus Christ On the contrary He will render to you a hundredfold in this life for your gifts and sacrifices, until He rewards you in the life everlasting."
We dedicate the Blessed Sacrament Book to our associates of the Tabernacle Society and to the members of all kindred Eucharistic confraternities. May they find in it some balm of Gilead — coram Sanctissimo. They have heard and heeded the plaintive cry of the Good Shepherd: " Behold, I stand at the gate and knock. If any man shall hear My voice and open to Me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me" (Apoc. iii. 20). They have verified the words of the royal singer:
"O taste and see that the
Lord is sweet:
"Blessed is the man that
hopeth in Him" —
(Ps. xxxiii. 9.)
May they be imbued more and more with the spirit of Christ, Who offered Himself a holocaust for the salvation of mankind and Who in anticipation of His sacrifice exclaimed:
"I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled? And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized: and how am I straitened until it be accomplished?" (Luke xii. 49, 50).
May they emulate the self-sacrificing zeal of that great apostle, who wrote to the colossians from his prison in Rome: "I, Paul, . . . now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for His body — which is the Church" (Col. i. 1, 24) May their watchword be "Omnia pro Te, Cor Jesu!" and again, "Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come!"
May Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament deign to take this work under the mantle of her protection, in order that our feeble effort may serve to magnify the hidden God of our altars.
"Behold the bread of angels, sent
For pilgrims in their banishment,
The bread for God's true children meant."
"Come then, Good Shepherd, bread divine,
Still show to us Thy mercy sign;
Oh, feed us still — still keep us Thine:
So may we see Thy glories shine
In fields of immortality."
"O Thou, the wisest, mightiest, best,
Our present food, our future rest,
Come, make us each Thy chosen guest,
Coheirs of Thine, and comrades blest,
With saints whose dwelling is with Thee."
— Annus Sanctus.
As we began, so we conclude this Introduction with an indulgenced ejaculation which we commend for daily use to all fervent adorers of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus: May the Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament be praised, adored, and loved, with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even to the end of time!
Corpus Christi, 1913.
Notre Dame Convent,
East Walnut Hills,
Cincinnati, O.