Page:The Catholic prayer book.djvu/179

Rh and brotherly love of all the faithful in Christ. Jesus Christ teaches us that we must not bring our sacriﬁces to the altar, if we remember that our neighbour has anything against us; with how much greater reason are we bound not to approach the table of the Lord, if we ourselves cherish in our heart a hatred against our neighbour! We must ﬁrst be reconciled with our enemy.

3. On the evening before communion, you ought to prepare for it by devout prayer, and by reading some pious book, and withdraw, in reverence for the Holy Sacrament, from all noisy and distracting amusements.

4. The body of Christ must be received fasting, that is, We must neither eat nor drink anything after midnight. But those who are dangerously sick, and receive this most holy Sacrament as a viaticum, are dispensed from this.

5. Every one should approach the table of the Lord with devotion, decently and modestly dressed, and without any vain ornaments or display of fashion.  

First Point.—Consider seriously, that the adorable Eucharist is called by the Church, a source of death to the wicked, because this bread of life, though the source and fountain of life itself, can as little strengthen those who are spiritually dead in mortal sin, as food could strengthen a dead body. Such