and devotion; but fear, lest then—alas! perhaps too late!—you may repent of having robbed yourself of so many graces, which you might have obtained through the frequent worthy reception of Holy Communion.
Go to communion, then, often, dear Christian, as often as your Father-Confessor will permit you to do so. At least, never omit to receive it on the principal feast days.
Live, nevertheless, in such a way that you might go to communion daily; for, as St. Augustine teaches us, such is the desire of the Holy Catholic Church.
PREPARATION FOR COMMUNION.
To go to the table of our Lord, it is necessary: 1st, To be in a state of grace. Woe to him who would venture to approach the most holy table of the Lord with a conscience stained with mortal sin. Such a bad Christian would be guilty, like the traitor Judas, of sacrilege; for of such an unfortunate one it is written: “And after the morsel (the Holy Communion), Satan entered into him.”
Therefore St. Paul, in words of earnest warning, says to us : “But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice; for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.” (1 Cor. xi. 28.)
By this is meant that he who receives communion unworthily, commits the greatest outrage against the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and, like the Jews who killed Jesus Christ, becomes also guilty of his murder.
2. One must live with his neighbours in peace and Christian unity. Communion means union, and is so called because it is the image of the perfect union
