Chapter 24: Of the Lord's Supper, in which, after partaking of the Paschal Lamb, Christ Jesus instituted the Sacrament of His Own Body and Blood

I BLESS You, and give thanks to You, O Lord Jesus Christ, Bread of Life, and Fountain of the Water of Salvation, for the most Holy Feast of Your Last Supper with Your disciples, which with great desire You had long time desired to celebrate. At that Feast, You, O Lord, King of Heaven and of Earth, did sup at the same table, and from the same dish, as Your poor and humble disciples, and in the presence of the traitor Judas; and, during that supper You did pour forth sweet words of holy exhortation, and did strive by gentle warning, to turn back from his wicked purpose Judas himself.

I praise and glorify You for the measureless abundance of Your wondrous love, in that, after eating of the Paschal lamb, that so You might fulfil the old Law, You did for the first time celebrate the Sacrament of Your own most precious Body and Blood, as a memorial of Your Passion, and of Your everlasting love for us. At that first Eucharist, You did Yourself, with yearnings of intense devotion, deliver with Your own ever-blessed Hands, the self-same Sacraments which we now receive to Your disciples, to be eaten by them; and did also at the same time make known the form of Its Consecration to be used by them, and by the Priests to be afterwards ordained by them; giving to them, and to their successors, full power to celebrate Mass, so long as the world shall last.

O matchless and wondrous outpouring of love! O the supreme generosity of the bounty of God, — the Giver coming into the Gift; the Gift being wholly the same with the Giver! O worthy and ever to be observed memorial, in which the faithful soul calls to mind that its own death has been put to death, and that in its Beloved, Whom it has received, it has found Life everlasting! O wonder of all wonders the most stupendous, O joy of all joys the greatest, to have God verily present with us, though hidden beneath the wondrous Sacrament; God, Whom the Holy Angels in Heaven adore, as infinitely above themselves, showing Himself to us under a form which all may look upon.

O my sweet Jesus, grant to me, I pray You, for the worthy reception of this most Holy Sacrament, a heart contrite for my sins; a conscience made pure in confession; a mind lifted up in prayer; firm faith, strong hope, and fervent charity; devotion constraining to tears; reverence tempered by love; joy rejoicing in fear and inward thanksgiving; and that profound self-abasement, which can only come from the depths of a heart that knows its own vileness, and appeals for mercy, to the supreme height of Your Divine Majesty.