instituted at his last Supper the adorable Sacrament of his Body and Blood, he commanded his Apostles, and in their persons all creatures, to call to mind his Passion and Death as often as they communicated. Such a command ought not to have been necessary: — gratitude for the benefit of redemption — love for the God who died for us — compassion for his excessive sufferings — contrition for the share we had in occasioning them, are all motives which should make the sufferings of Christ a subject familiar to our thoughts, and impress on the mind and heart of every Christian a lively image of Jesus crucified. But our divine Redeemer well knew the frailty and ingratitude of man; he knew, that the greater number would seldom, if ever, call to mind his sufferings, and therefore he left them not only a precious and striking memorial of his Passion in the Holy Eucharist, but also a command to think on him, on his infinite love and suffering, in receiving his adorable body. Do this in remembrance of me. (Luke xxii. 19.) Endeavour now to comply most fervently with this command of your divine Redeemer. Place yourself in spirit at the foot of the cross, and consider how much it cost your Redeemer to purchase for you the happiness of communicating. Far from being admitted to the honour and advantage of sacramental union with God, you would have been condemned to eternal separation from him, if Jesus had not died to save you. Your approaching happiness is then the purchase of your Redeemer’s sufferings — the adorable body you are going to receive as your spiritual food, is the same which was exposed to insult, contempt, and misery, during three-and-thirty years; scourged at a pillar, crowned with thorns, and at length ignominiously nailed to the cross. Ah ! if those excessive torments
