All nations, whom thou hast made and sanctified, shall come and worship thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name; for thou art great and dost wondrous things; thou art God alone: and great is thy mercy towards me: thou hast delivered my soul from the nethermost hell; therefore shall every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing. O my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever with cherubims and seraphims, and all the companies of the heavenly host, saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth; holy is our God, holy is the Immortal, holy is the Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to whom be all honour and glory, and dominion and power, ascribed of all spirits, and all men, and all creatures, now and for evermore.

Amen.

I.

Prayers preparatory to the receiving of the blessed Sacrament.

O MOST immaculate and glorious Jesu, behold me, miserable sinner, drawing near to thee with the approaches of humility and earnest desire to be cleansed from my sins, to be united to thee by the nearest and most mysterious union of charity and sacramental participation of thy most holy body and blood: I presume nothing of mine own worthiness, but I am most confident of thy mercies and infinite loving-kindness. I know, O Lord, I am blind, and sick, and dead, and naked, but therefore I come the rather: I am sick, and thou art my physician; thou arisest with healing in thy wings; by thy wounds I come to be cured, and to be healed by thy stripes: I am unclean, but thou art the Fountain of purity: I am blind, and thou art the great Eye of the world, the Sun of righteousness; in thy light I shall see light: I am poor, and thou art rich unto all, the Lord of all the creatures. I, therefore, humbly beg of thy mercy that thou wouldst be pleased to take from me all my sins, to cure my infirmities, to cleanse my filthiness, to lighten my darkness, to clothe my nakedness with the robe of thy righteousness, that I may, with such reverence, and faith, and holy intention, receive thy blessed body and blood in the mysterious sacrament, that it may be unto me life, and pleasantness, and holy

nourishment, and that I may be firmly and indissolubly united to thy mystical body, and may at last see, clearly and without a veil, thy face in glory everlasting, who livest and reignest ever one God, world without end. Amen.

II.

I adore and bless thy glorious Majesty, O blessed Jesu, for this great dignation and vouchsafing to me, that thou art pleased, for all the infinite multiplication of my sins, and innumerable violations of thy holy law, still to give thyself unto me, to convey health, and grace, and life, and hopes of glory, in the most blessed sacrament. I adore thee, O most righteous Redeemer, that thou art pleased, under the visible signs of bread and wine, to convey unto our souls thy holy body and blood, and all the benefits of thy bitter passion. O my God, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof, but let thy Holy Spirit, with his purities, prepare for thee a lodging in my soul. Thou hast knocked often, O blessed Jesu, at the door of my heart, and wouldst willingly have entered: behold, O Lord, my heart is ready to receive thee; cast out of it all worldly desires, all lusts and carnal appetites, and then enter in, and there love to inhabit, that the devil may never return to a place that is so swept and garnished, to fill me full of all iniquity. O thou lover of souls, grant that this holy sacrament may be a light unto mine eyes, a guide to my understanding, a joy to my soul; that by its strength I may subdue and mortify the whole body of sin in me, and that it may produce in me constancy in faith, fulness of wisdom, perfection and accomplishment of all thy righteous commandments, and such a blessed union with thee, that I may never more live unto myself or to the world, but to thee only; and by the refreshments of an holy hope I may be led through the paths of a good life and persevering piety to the communion and possession of thy kingdom, O blessed Jesu, who livest and reignest ever one God, world without end. Amen.

III.

O Lord God, who hast made all things of nought, producing great degrees of essence,out of nothing, make me a new creature, and of a sinful man, make me holy, and just, and

merciful; that I may receive thy precious body devoutly, reverently, with meekness, contrition, and great affection, with spiritual comfort and gladness at thy mystical presence. Feed my soul with bread from heaven, fill me with charity, conform me to thy will in all things, save me from all dangers bodily and ghostly: assist and guide me in all doubts and fears, prepare and strengthen me against all surreptions and sudden incursions of temptations, cleanse me from all stains of sin, and suffer nothing to abide in me but thyself only, who art the life of souls, the food of the elect, and the joy of angels. Give me such a gust and an holy relish in this divine nutriment, that nothing may ever hereafter please me but what savours of thee and thy miraculous sweetness. Teach me to loath all the pleasures and beauties of this life; and let my soul be so inebriated with the pleasures of thy table, that I may be comprehended and swallowed up with thy love and sweetness: let me think on nothing but thee, covet nothing but thee, enjoy nothing but thee, nothing in comparison with thee, and neither do nor profess any thing but what leads to thee, and is in order to the performance of thy will and the fruition of thy glories. Transfix my soul, O blessed Jesu, with so great love of thee, so great devotion in receiving the holy sacrament, that I may be transformed to the fellowship of thy sufferings, and admitted to a participation of all the benefits of thy passion, and to a communion of thy graces and thy glories. I desire to be with thee: dissolve all the chains of my sin, and then come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Let my soul feed on thee greedily, for thou art the Spring of light and life, the Fountain of wisdom and health, a torrent of divine pleasure and tranquillity, the Author of peace and comfort. Enter into me, sweet Jesu; take thou possession of my soul, and be thou Lord over me and all my faculties, and preserve me with great mercy and tenderness, that no doubting or infidelity, no impenitence or remanent affection to a sin, no impurity or irreverence, may make me unworthy and incapable of thy glorious approach. Let not my sins crucify the Lord of life again; let it not be said concerning me, The hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table:' that this holy communion may not be unto me an occasion of death, but a blessed peace-offering for my sins, and a gate of life and glory. Grant this, Ŏ

blessed God, for his sake, who is both Sacrifice and Priest, the Master of the feast and the Feast itself, even Jesus Christ, to whom with thee, O Father, and thy Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

A Prayer after the receiving the consecrated Bread.

I GIVE thanks unto thee, almighty and eternal God, that thou hast not rejected me from thy holy table, but hast refreshed my soul with the salutary refection of the body of thy Son Jesus Christ. Lord, if I had lived innocently, and had kept all thy commandments, I could have had no proportion of merit to so transcendent a mercy; but since I have lived in all manner of sin, and multiplied provocations against thy Divine Majesty, thy mercy is so glorious and infinite, that I am amazed at the consideration of its immensity. Go on, O my dear God, to finish so blessed a redemption; and now that thou hast begun to celebrate a marriage and holy union between thyself and my soul, let me never throw off the wedding garment, or stain it with pollution of deadly sin, nor seek after other lovers; but let me for ever and ever be united unto thee, being transformed into thy will in this life, and to the likeness of thy glories in the life to come, who livest and reignest, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

After receiving the Cup.

O just and dear God, who, out of the unmeasurable abysses of wisdom and mercy, hast redeemed us, and offered life and grace, and salvation to us, by the real exhibition of thy Son, Jesus Christ, in the sacrifice of his death upon the altar of the cross, and by commemoration of his bitter agonies in the holy sacrament; grant that that great and venerable sacrifice, which we now commemorate sacramentally, may procure of thee for thy whole church mercy and great assistance in all trials, deliverance from all heresies, schisms, sacrilege, and persecutions; to all sick people health and salvation, redemption for captives, competency of living to the indigent and necessitous, comfort to the

afflicted, relief to the oppressed, repentance to all sinners, softness of spirit and a tender conscience to the obstinate, conversion to the Jews, Turks, and remedy to all that are in any trouble or adversity. And grant to us, O Lord, that this blessed sacrament and sacrifice of commemoration, in virtue of that dreadful and proper sacrifice upon the cross, may obtain for me, and for us all who have communicated this day, pardon and peace; and that we may derive from thee, by this ministry, grace to expel all our sins, to mortify all our lusts, to exterminate all concupiscence, to crucify all inordinacy and irregularity, to produce in us humility, and chastity, and obedience, and meekness of spirit, and charity, and may become our defence and armour against the violence and invasions of all our ghostly enemies and temporal disadvantages: and give us this grace and favour, that we may not die in the guilt and commission of a sin without repentance, nor without receiving the blessed sacrament; but that we may so live and die, that we may at last rest in thy bosom, and be embraced with the comprehensions of thy eternal charity, who livest and reignest, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

All blessing, and praise, and honour, be unto thee, O blessed Redeemer; and to thee we, the banished and miserable sons of Adam, do call for mercy and defence, and to thee we sigh and cry in this valley of tears. O dearest Advocate, turn those thy merciful eyes towards us, and show us thy glorious face in thy kingdom, where no tears or sighing, or fears or sadness, can approach. Amen. Sweetest Jesu. Amen.

PRAYERS PREPARATORY TO DEATH.

I.

A Prayer for a blessed Ending, to be said in Time of Health or Sickness.

O BLESSED Jesu, Fountain of eternal mercy, the Life of the soul, and glorious Conqueror over death and sin, I humbly beseech thee to give me grace so to spend this transitory