REFLECTIONS AND PRAYERS FOR HOLY COMMUNION. HOLY MASS. Preparation. ON entering the church, ask yourself, as Blessed Berchmans was accustomed to do: Where am I going? I am going to present myself before the Eternal Father, to offer Him the sacrifice of His Divine Son. Then, knowing that you are in the presence of God, kneel with deepest respect before the holy altar. Renew your general intention to honour God; add to it expressly the offering of your Communion in union with the objects of the Sacrifice. Propose to yourself a special intention, which you may plainly express, so as not to content yourself with vague prayers which are apt to be made without sufficient fervour. Prayers to unite ourselves to the ends of the Sacrifice during the Mass of Communion. I. FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE MASS UNTIL Almighty and Eternal God, grant me grace to sanctify my thoughts and feelings, that so I may worthily offer Thee this august Sacrifice, with the priest. B I unite myself to the intentions of Jesus Christ, and of the Church, to render to Thy Divine Majesty the homage which is Thy due. I am nothing; all that I have, all that I am, I receive from Thy liberal hand. I cannot of myself offer to Thee what I ought; but vouchsafe to accept favourably the profound humiliation of Thy Divine Son upon the Altar; that which He does in Thy presence, I do in union with Him. I humble myself profoundly before Thy infinite greatness, and I unite myself to all the sentiments of Jesus. I offer to Thee all the adoration which ascends from His Heart continually, to make amends for the coldness with which I discharge this great duty. I offer to Thee all the adorations of the Blessed Virgin, of the Angels, of the Saints in heaven, of the just on earth; like them I rejoice in the homage which is rendered to Thee in the Sacrifice of the Altar. I adore Thee, O my God, who art the Sovereign Master of the Universe, I acknowledge my dependence upon Thy sovereignty. I praise Thee with all the court of heaven, and I desire that Thou shouldst be praised, adored, and loved on earth, as Thou art praised, adored, and loved in heaven. II. FROM THE GOSPEL TO THE ELEVATION. Act of Thanksgiving. Thanks be rendered to Thee, O my God, for all the benefits which Thou hast bestowed upon me in my creation, preservation, and redemption, and for those which Thou dost hereafter design to bestow upon me until my death, and through eternity. Thanks be rendered unto Thee for causing me to be born in the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Faith, and for opening to me in Thy Heart, by the sacraments, and especially in the Holy Eucharist, a fountain of life eternal. I thank Thee for those special graces which |