the Lord? In whom else can I hope if not in Him, whom I love above all things, and by whom I hope to be taken up to heaven? Oh, what a beautiful thing it is, my dear brethren, to have always a good conscience! Happy indeed are they who can, thus prepared, await death calmly every hour and moment. “Let my soul die the death of the just.”[1] O my Lord and my God! that I may die with the just I will try by Thy grace to live with them also. Then may death come when, how, and where he wills, even in this very moment. Amen.
Another introduction to the same sermon for the fourth Sunday in Advent.
Text.
Parate viam Domini; rectas facite semitas ejus.—Luke iii. 4.
“Prepare ye the way of the Lord: make straight His paths.”
Introduction.
It is remarkable, my dear brethren, that the Catholic Church has selected for the four Sundays of Advent those passages of the Gospels which relate to the coming of the Lord, or to preparing the way for His coming, as is the case with the last three Sundays of this holy season. What is the reason of that? To exhort us to prepare our hearts spiritually for the coming of the new-born Saviour, and what is still more important, to keep our souls in readiness when our Judge shall come to call us out of this world. It is infallibly certain, etc. Continues as above.
EIGHTH SERMON.
ON THE TIMELY RECEPTION OF THE HOLY VIATICUM.
Subject.
First; never is the reception of Jesus Christ in the holy Communion more useful and necessary than in sickness, and never has Christ Himself a greater desire to visit us therein; what great condescension and goodness on Our Lord’s part! Second; yet there are men who must be almost compelled and forced to take this step and to receive their Lord with becoming respect; what folly and madness on the part of us mortals!—Preached on the second Sunday after Pentecost.
- ↑ Moriatur anima mea morte justorum.—Num. xxiii. 10.
