aeternus

“FROM the moment you were old enough to understand
what is meant by the adorable Eucharist, you
should look forward with a holy impatience to you:
first Communion, and never pass a day without humbly
and fervently begging the Almighty to prepare
you for that happiness. Each time that you see your
elder companions communicate, you should make a
spiritual communion, by an act of Faith in the adorable
Eucharist, an act of hope, of love, and ardent desire
to communicate yourself; looking on those who
enjoy such a happiness as objects of that holy envy
which is very allowable and innocent, since the angels
themselves would envy a Christian the felicity and
if these were your dispositions with regard to the
holy Communion, so long as your extreme youth,
ignorance of the Christian Doctrine, or any other
cause, deferred your first Communion, you need not
be told to rejoice from your heart, now that you have
been chosen to prepare for that most solemn duty;
you will naturally feel delighted at the prospect of
soon enjoying the happiness you so much desired
Your first care should be to make your most humble
and grateful thanksgivings to God.

There is reason to hope that
it is He who has selected you for his
temple, since that choice was not made without consulting
his Divine Majesty, and imploring the light
of his Holy Spirit by prayer. But that sentiment
which should predominate over all others on this occasion,
is a holy fear of the awful duty for which
you are now going to prepare, and a deep sense of
its great responsibility. This disposition is of the
utmost importance, so much so, that the first Communion
is always deferred until children are old
enough to discern the body of the Lord; that is, as
your Catechism says, until they are of an age to
understand what the blessed Eucharist is; how they
snould prepare to receive it worthily; the terrible
misfortune of an unworthy Communion, and the risk
those run who prepare negligently for an action of
such importance, that thereby they may learn to tremble
at their own weakness, to trust unreservedly in
God’s grace, and at the same time to leave noth
ing in their own power undone for rendering themselves
less unworthy of the happiness of communicating.
You have now attained that age, and you do not, it
is hoped, resemble many children, who are more delighted
at the thoughts of making their first Communion, than
impressed with the necessity of sparing
no exertion to make it well. But as so much depends
on this sentiment a holy fear, which should honour of
receiving the Almighty, if it were possible for them
to desire any thing they do not possess.

You should most earnestly beg of God to enlighten your
understanding, and penetrate your heart, that yoy
may know and feel what you are about, and never be
so thoughtless as to prepare lightly for a Sacrament,
which no created being could dare to receive, had
not the command proceeded from God himself. Endeavour
likewise to conceive a just notion of this
great work, by reflecting seriously that your first
Communion is without comparison the most important
action you will ever have to perform. This is
the action on which perhaps your eternal salvation
or misery depends, because nothing more directly
lea^ds a soul to heaven or to hell, than the good or
bad use of this Sacrament; now, that is often decided
by the first Communion. Those who are so happy
as to make it worthily, begin well, and receive in the
first visit of their Saviour abundant graces and
special assistance for persevering in his holy service;
whereas those who are so truly unfortunate as to
profane the precious body and blood of Jesus Christ
the very first time they receive it…

How many perhaps of the blessed in heaven owe
their happiness to the care, the fervour, and purity
of heart with which they approached, for the first
time, the holy communion!”

– From The Ursuline Manual: Or A Collection of Prayers, Spiritual Exercises