spring from the prospect of having to perform se soon the most solemn and awful of all duties, you should most earnestly beg of God to enlighten your understanding, and penetrate your heart, that you 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 leads 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, make at once rapid strides in guilt-they become old in sin, while they are yet children; their hearts are hardened; their after life is too often depraved; their end unfortunate, and their eternity miserable:-all which may be traced to the crime of an unworthy first Communion. 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! how many of the damned in hell would now be reigning with God, if in their early youth they had not drawn down the divine vengeance on themselves by an unworthy communion! These considerations should animate you to enter with all the fervour, good-will, and steadiness you are capable of, or the six weeks' preparation you are required to make for this most important duty. Thas

fine will appear short indeed, when you reflect ou the great work you have to prepare for, viz. nothing less than the reception of the Almighty himself, the same God for whose coming the world was four thousand years sighing, and whom the blessed Virgin, though exempt from the smallest stain, prepared to receive in her sacred womb by years of retirement and prayer. You cannot therefore be too careful in banishing from your mind every other concern beside your Communion, which is now for you the one thing necessary. Recollect that you are provided, by God's particular providence, with every possible means for acquiring the essential dispositions for a worthy Communion. If you were situated like many other children, who are as deserving as you, and yet are deprived of the advantages you enjoy, you would be obliged in conscience to seek after instruction-to study your religion and your obligations, and to spare no pains for acquiring a sufficient knowledge of the Christian Doctrine, before you could presume to make your first Communion. Left to yourself, how much difficulty would you perhaps find in learning all you are bound to know! How great a risk would you run in approaching the holy Communion, ignorant of half the happiness, or half the obligations of those who receive that adorable Sacrament! But God, who specially loves you, has spared you all that difficulty, and put it almost out of your power to profane the Sacrament through ignorance;-you have not to seek for instruction; God has sought after you, to bestow on you that favour, and not only that, but the blessing likewise of good advice, good example, and spiritual assistance of every kind; consequently any defect of dispositions would be much more criminal and more ungrateful in you, than in those who make their first Communion without half, or perhaps any of the advantages you enjoy. In a word, it will be solely and entirely your own fault, if you do not make your first Communion with the

two essential dispositions required for that solema duty.-Those dispositions are,

First, To be fully instructed in your religion; and Secondly, To be in the state of grace.

You cannot fail to acquire both these dispositions if you go through in the proper spirit the preparation appointed for first Communion. That prepara» tion, which consists in the daily instructions on the Christian Doctrine, given to those who are preparing for first Communion-in the general confession they are required to make the three visits daily to the blessed sacrament appointed for them-and lastly the spiritual retreat, will be useful to each individual only inasmuch as she endeavours to enter into the spirit of those regulations; because all the exertions of others for your good, will be unavailing without your own efforts. Your duty, then, during the time set apart for the preparation for your first Communion, is,

First, to attend to the instructions you receive with the reverence and respect which are due to the word of God-as also with application and fear, considering the account you will have to render of so great a grace, and with a serious desire of profiting of all you hear, and reducing it to practice.

Secondly, you must carefully watch over your conduct, not only to avoid the least wilful transgression, but likewise to correct any faults which may nave been pointed out to you as obstacles to God's grace. Redouble your attention to prayer; be extremely diligent, gentle, and docile; and do not fail

give that general edification which is so justly expected from those who are preparing for their first Communion.

Thirdly, when you are making your general confession, endeavour to give your whole mind and heart to that great work, and go through it with that application, seriousness, contrition, and sincerity which would mark this important action were it to be your last; thereby you wil! morally insure the

third disposition for a good Communion, and repair any defects which may have been in your past confessions; those made in early youth being often unhappily defective in some essential point, such as want of sufficient examination, sincere contrition, firm resolution of amendment, or full`and entire acusation.

Lastly, when you enter into the retreat which is appointed for the three days immediately preceding the festival on which you are to communicate, you should renew all your joy at the near approach of the happiest day of your life, and consider that a vast deal depends on spending those last three days with great fervour. The six preceding weeks were devoted, five of them to a course of instructions that you may acquire the first disposition for a good communion, viz. a competent knowledge of the Christian doctrineand the sixth week was employed in making a general confession to insure your communicating with the second and most essential disposition for doing so worthily, viz. purity of heart. But it is intended that during the time of your retreat you should prepare for receiving absolution in perfect dispositions of contrition, and firm purpose of amendment, as likewise to excite those sentiments of lively faith, firm hope, sincere love, profound humility, and ardent desire to communicate, which are the ornaments with which Jesus Christ will expect to find your heart adorned. For this purpose you should, during your retreat, aim at what is called the spirit of retreat; that is, endeavour to keep your thoughts and your heart fixed on the great work you are about, and which should interest you more, the nearer it approaches. Take particular care not to frustrate the end proposed in separating you from your companions, by indulging in dissipation or talkativeness, even with the few who are in retreat with you, and preparing for the same solemn act. When permitted to converse together, you should usually speak of God,

of the happiness you expect, and thereby mutually animate each other. Do not forget, that it is verv easy to be dissipated and distracted with a few companions, or even with one; consequently, that the essential of retreat is to keep your heart united to God, and likewise that it will be almost impossible, at your age, to gain any thing like interior recollection, if you do not keep a guard over yourself exteriorly, and carefully observe the rules of silence, laid down for the few days of your retreat.

If you observe these recommendations during your preparation for your first communion, you will do all in your power towards disposing yourself for the first entrance of your Creator into your bosom, and render it truly the happiest and most salutary event of your life. But as your doing so depends particularly on the special grace of God, who alone can make you desire what is good, and strengthen you to accomplish it, your general practice, from the moment you are chosen for communion, should be to implore the divine assistance to make it worthily. This you can do, by constantly raising your heart to God in the course of the day, and by acquitting yourself with great devotion of the three visits to the Blessed Sacrament appointed for each day. At the

1st. Recite the Hymn of the Holy Ghost, and the Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity. At the

2d, Say the Litany of Jesus, the following Prayer, and a Hail, holy Queen, for the conversion of sinners. At the

3d visit, say the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, a Pater and Ave for the souls in purgatory, and the short Act of Consecration to the sacred Heart of Jesus.

A Prayer to be said while preparing for first Communion.

O Divine Jesus! who during thy mortal life didst receive children with the tenderness of a father and