with so great a horror of sin, that I may dread nothing so much as becoming thy enemy by any mortal offence, and that I may tremble at the very idea 6f profaning thy most sacred body and blood.
Second point.— Consider, secondly, that, next to the misfortune of unworthily communicating, there can be few states more dangerous, than that of persons who approach the adorable Eucharist with wilful tepidity, negligence, and indevotion. For this there are three solid reasons, which you should seriously consider. First, such Communicants are deprived by their own faults of almost all the graces annexed to the Holy Eucharist, and thus run an evident risk of drawing little if any profit from Communion. — Secondly, they contract a fatal habit of approaching the sacrament of infinite love in a careless and lukewarm manner, and are thereby in imminent danger of soon committing sacrilege. — Thirdly, nothing is more common than illusion on this important matter; for many, whose tepid and negligent dispositions appear to themselves nothing worse than venial sin, are really guilty, in the eyes of God, of that criminal indolence and sloth which is a grievous offence. In the same manner as sacrilegious Communions proceed from a want of sufficient horror of mortal sin: so are fruitless, tepid Communions, caused by the little care which Christians take to avoid venial sin. Instead of looking on a deliberate, though slight offence of God, as a real evil, and a great misfortune, they commit faults without number or remorse. Though they do not abandon at once the holy habit of approaching regularly the sacrament of our altars, yet they appear as careless about the correction of their faults, as if they never were to communicate; they discharge their spiritual duties carelessly and
