souls, far from participating in the divine treasures contained in the Holy Eucharist, defile themselves with the guilt of the most horrible of all sacrileges; they insult the Almighty himself — attack and profane the adorable humanity of Jesus Christ — they trample on the blood of the new covenant — and to crown all their misfortunes, they, as the Apostle says, eat awl drink their own damnation. Ponder well the import of those awful words: consider, that like the Jews, who consented that the blood of Jesus should fall on them to their destruction, unworthy communicants ratify themselves the sentence of their condemnation — a sentence which they, as it were, write on their own hearts — a sentence, which begins to be in some measure executed, even in this life, for the justice of God often abandons the profaners of his adorable body to such obduracy and insensibility, that they at length sink into a species of spiritual lethargy: after having braved the greatest of all dangers, they seem to fear no other, and they thoughtlessly run on from sin to sin, until at length the time for repentance and mercy is over. Trace these dreadful evils to their source, and you will find them all to originate in mortal sin, that sovereign evil, without which there would be no evil; — that great and only obstacle to the designs of Jesus in the institution of the adorable Eucharist — that fatal source of the sacrileges which have ever been committed against the most holy of all mysteries. Endeavour to conceive a lively horror of mortal sin — a sincere conviction that it is the greatest of all evils, the most dreadful of all misfortunes. If your heart be deeply impressed with these sentiments, they will prove your greatest security against incurring the guilt of sacrilege. Divine Jesus! penetrate my heart
