The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-01-28
.pRAyERs BEFORE coMMuNloN."

nHtSt"SS
"PRAYERS BEFORE coMMuNloN."
After the Agnus Del Lamb of Cod,
and the prayer for peace explained III
our last instruction, the priest recltes
two more prayers as a proXlmate prep
aration for Holy Communion. But
the work is great, since dwelling is
prepared not for man, but for God.
Il Par. xxx, L.
With his eyes fixed on the Sacred
Host lying before him on the altar.
the priest says: 20 Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of the living God, Who, by the
will of the Father and the co-opera-
ton OF the Holy Ghost, hast by Thy
death given life to the world; deliver
me by this Thy most Sacred Body
and Blood from all my iniquities and
from all evils; and make me always
adhere to Thy commandments and
suffer me never to be separated from
Thee Who with the same God and
Father and the Holy Ghost Invest and
reignest God world without end.
Amen.'
Simon Peters Reply.
One day our Blessed Lord asked His
disciples, But whom do you say that.
/ ann" Simon Peter answered and
said, "Thou art Christ, the Son of the
Living God" So we'll pleased was
Christ with this profession OF faith
that He called Peter blessed and
promised him the primacy in His
Church. Peter saw only the human
ity of Christ and confessed His di-
yinity. Unlike Peter, the priest at the
altar sees not even the humanity OF
Christ, for both humanity and divini-
w are yelled under the sacramento
species. Nevertheless, with unwaver-
ing faith, facing the Sacred Host, the
priest. like Peter, proclaims Christ
son of the living God" The priest
next substantiates this profession of
faith by citing the wondrous, the di-
vine fact that by His death, Christ
has given life to the world, through
the merits of His cross raising men
from the death of sin to the life OF
grace. This Christ did by the will of
the Father, for God SO loved the
world as to give His only begotten
Son, that whatsoever believeth in Him
may not perish, but may have life
everlasting" This Christ did also by
the cooperation of the Holy Ghost"
for, as ST. Paul writes, by the Holy
Ghost he offered Himself unspotted
lInto God. to cleanse our conscience
from dead works, to serve the living
God. (Hebrews, tx, 14) What an act
of faith on the part of the priest in
presence of an apparently lifeless
host How pleasing this must be to
Christ! What sweet aroma it must
diffuse sfns the heart of the priest, soon
10 be the dwelling place of God!
Antidote to Sin.
Impressed by his own profession
CT faith, the priest once more begs
the Lord to deliver him from all his
iniuuities, or sins, and from all evils,
in order that he may Worthily receive
HOLY Communion, obtain the plenti-
tude of it's graces and thereby receive
strength always to adhere to the COM
mandments of Christ and never to be
separated from Him, neither by sin in
this life, nor punishment in the next.
The priest asks this by the most
Sacred Body and Blood of Christ
mystically inundated on the altar, Of,
tered to God as victim OF propitla-
ton, and which he is soon to take as
an antidote to sin and the food of inn
mortality.
The last prayer is as follows: LET
not the partaking of Thy body, o Lord
.TestG Christ, which /, though unwof-
thy, presume to receive, turn to my
Judgment and condemnation; but by
1hy mercy be profitable to the pro.
lection and health both of body and
soul, and be to me salvation: VINO
with God the Father, in the unity OF
the Holy Ghost, Invest and reignest
God world without end Amen"
Declare Unworthiness.
Knowing that he, the poor, the
servant, the lowly, is about to receive
his lord, the priest feels and declares
himself to be unworthy. Nay more
though, in accordance with the ad
monition of the apostle, he has proved
himself ard is not conscious OF any
grievous sin, nevertheless, fearing les
he deceive himself as to the state Of
his soul, he begs the Master that the
receiving of His body turn not to his
Judgment and condemnation, in &C
cordance with the words of st. Paul
therefore, whosoever shall eat thi:
Bread or drink the Chalice OF the
Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the
Body and of the Blood of the Lord,
and "Eateth and drinketh judgmen
TO himself" q Cor. XII, ~, 29.) The
rriest, therefore, asks God to aver
s,ch. calamity from him, at the same
time begs that by the merciful good
ness of God the communion he i
about to receive may be profitable t
4he protection and health both of mine
and body in accordance with thu
wn-ds of the catechism of the Coun
oil Of Trent: "This is the efficacy o
Holy Communion that it keeps us pur
and intact from crime, shields u
.eainst the assaults of temptation, /
as If were a heavenly medicine Whicl
secures the soul against the easy ar
nroacb of vfrulent and deadly infed
tion. 1t also represses the licentiou
desires of the flesh and keeps then
in due subsection to the spirit In pre-
portion as it indames the soul wit
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