DeacTdIIIeG mE Dupyiest DU3J b}-I REV DANIEL A.LORD. S.J. Copyright 1944 by Rev. Daniel A. Lord. S.l .• St. Louis. Mo., William J . Hirt en Co., Inc., 25-27 Barclay St., New York City. Printed in U. S. A. NIHIL OBSTAT ARTHUR J . SCANLAN S . T .D. CENSOR L I BRORUM I MPRIMATUR + FRANC I S J . SPELLMAN, O . O . ARCHBISHOP, NEW YORK Life Of course, you love your birthday. That was the day when you began your life on earth. On your first birthday, you were born. You were given a name. Your mother and father were v~ry happy. Your mother held you in her arms and said, "This is my little baby." Your father smiled on you and said, "This IS my child." So every year on your birthday, you receive gifts. But on your first birthday, you received the great gift of life. Your parents gave it to you. But so did God our Father in heaven . For· He made your beautiful soul . Because of your life you could smile and laugh. You could learn to talk, to love your mother and father and your little friends, You cou ld eat, grow, play, and work, So life IS a beautiful gift from your mother and father. But it is also the first gift that our Father In heaven gives to His children. God's Life Because you are alive, you work and play on this earth. You can be happy here and sing and dance. But someday you will die. Death ;s not ugly and frightening . It is the be· ginning of your real life in heaven. When you go to heaven, you will see God. You will be with the saints and the ange ls. You will be wonderfully happy and full of life and lOy. When saints die, we call that day their birthday. They are born into heaven. They see God and are wonderfully happy. Now your mother and father give you your life on earth. But God alone gives you your life in heaven. We call that life the life of grace. That life is already in your soul. It makes your soul strong, beautiful, and able to do the things that God can do. It makes you look like your Father in heaven. It makes you God's child. Death and Sin When life on earth is ended, we cail that death. For a good little girl or boy. the day 0f death IS very happy. For a bad little girl or boy. it is very sad. For if a bad little boy or girl sins, he kills the wonderful life of God in his soul. He can still walk and talk and play. But his beauti- ful soul is dead. Do you remember about Adam and Eve? They were God's children too. They were full of happiness for God had given them His own life. But you remember that they sinned. God had said, "You may eat of all the fruit in Paradise. But don't eat the fruit of that forbidden tree." Foolishly they disobeyed and ate the fruit. So their souls were dead. They were unhappy. But God ,:,anted them to be happy once more. He drove them out of Paradise. But He forgave them their sins. He promised them that one of their children would be our dear Lord. Baptism When a little baby is born , everybody thinks he IS very sweet. They say , " Isn' t that a beautiful baby?" And everybody is happy because a new child has come into the world. We are all the children of Adam and Eve. They are our first pa rents. God meant all Hi s children to have life in thi s world and life in heaven. Bu t Adam and Eve sinned. They threw away their heave nl y life. So we are born without that life . A little baby's body is sweet. But hi s little so ul is not yet alive. So he is carried to church. The water of Baptism is poured over hi s head . The priest says, "I baptize thee in the name of thE; Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The water flows over the baby's head . And God pours His own beautiful life into the soul of the little child. G od says, "This is My child." So his body and hi s so ul are both alive. His body will live on earth. His so ul will live in heaven. Food for Life So eve ry litt le Catholic boyar girl ha s two kinds of life . He has the life of his body. His parents and G od gave him this. He has the life of his so ul . God the Father gave him this. Perhaps he looks like hi s fath er and hi s mother. People say. "He ha s his father's eyes." Or, "She has hair like her mother. " If you could see the soul of d baby after Baptism. you would say. "This little child looks like God." Because you see God has given him His beautiful life. Now tne little baby begins to grow. He eats. He drinks. This food makes him strong. If he does not eat. he cannot play. If he does not eat. he will not grow. So the life of our body needs food. But the life of our soul needs food too. And God gives us food both for our soul and our body. The World Is Full of Food God filled the world with sweet and healthful food. Have you ever walked in an ol'chard? Over your head yo u see the beauiiful apples. reach up and pick the peaches or the A wheat field looks like a sea of gold. It wil l be made into flour. Flour will be made into bread for your dinner. Sometimes you visit a farm . The farmer tell s you, "That cow g ives you milk and cream and butter." You see the sheep. You visit th e pigs. You take the eggs from the nests of the chickens. And you know all these thing s are good to ea t . God f il led the world wi th the things that mother cooks fo r dinner. God filled the world with the things you buy at the grocery store. God taught cooks how to make the se things into delicious meals for H is children. God Feeds His Chosen People Sometimes men and women are hungry. They do not have enough to eat. God is not pleased when His children are hungry. He wishes the good food of the earth to be given to all His boys and girls. Once upon a time the Jews were God's Chosen People. He promised to give them a beautiful land flowing with milk and honey. But · because they sinned. they were lost for a long time in the desert. There they were very hungry. But God did not let them stay hungry. He dropped down from heaven a delicious food called Manna . . This Manna was heavenly bread. It tasted very good. It made the people strong and brave. When they ate it, they did not need any other food. Some day the Chosen People knew that God would give them another Bread from heaven. The Savior would give this to them . He did. This was the Holy Eucharist. Our Dear Lord We all know and love our dear Lord Jesus Christ. He was the Son of God. He was our elder Brother. He saved us from sin . All His life He spent doing good for everyone. He taught us that God is our F-ather. When people were sick, He cured them. But most of all, He freed men and women from sin. He drove the devils out of souls into swine. He was the new Adam . Adam threw away the life of God in his own soul. Our dear Lord brought back the life of God for all of us. He wanted to give us a new Manna . This was the new Bread from heaven. He wanted to feed the life of our souls so that we would be strong, brave, and full of grace. So He promised to give Himself to us. He said He would become "our Bread for the life of the world." Water and Wine Our dear Lord was God. So He had the power to do wonderful things. Once on a time, He made the world out of noth- ing. He made everything that was in the world. Then one day, He changed water into wine. Jesus and His mother, Mary, were invited to a wedding party. Everyone was very happy because the bride was sweet and the bridegroom was young and strong. They all ate together. They drank the good wine. sad. She saw there was not enough wine for her friend s. But what could she do, for she was very poor? Mary, our Blessed Mother, noticed this too. She asked her dear Son to take care of things. So our dear Lord did something very wonderful. He found tall jars near the wall filled with water. He blessed these jars. The servants drew out the water. Only now they found it was delicious wine. Our dear Lord had turned the water into wine. The Loaves Once five thousand people were listening to our dear Lord. He talked so beautifully that they forgot they were hungry. But our Lord remembered. He wanted to give them food. 'There is no food," said the Apostles. "There are only these five loaves and few fishes." How could fiv e thousand people have enough to eat with so little food? But our dear Lord had power over everything In the world. He made the wheat. Out of this, men make the flour. From that wheat , He taught men to make the loaves of bread. So H e took the loaves and blessed them . Then a wonderful thing happe ned. The five loaves grew a nd grew and grew. The Apostles gave them to the five thousand people. They a ll ha d e nough to eat and were very ha ppy. There were even twelve baskets of bread left over. Our Lord had fed all these people with a few tiny loaves. So, yo u see , H e p roved what wonderful things He could do with bread and wine. Christ's Power So we see our dear Lord had power over bread and wine. He changed water into wine. He made five loaves feed five thousand people. But He wanted to feed our souls as well as our bodies. For He . wanted the life of our souls to be strong and to grow stronger. So one night He gathered His Apostles for the Last Supper. He told them how much He loved them. He told them that He was going to die. But He promised that He would stay with them forever. He loved them so much that He wanted to be close to them. So He took bread in His hands and said, "This is My Body." He gave this to His disciples to eat. Then He took the cup of wine in Hi s hand s and said. "Th is is My Blood." He gave this t o His disciples to drink. Then He made H is A postles priests. He said. "Keep on d oing this in memory of Me." Thi s was th e first Mass. Th is was the first H o ly Communio n. T he Last Supper Let us pretend that we are present at the Last Supper. To the Jews this Supper was very sacred. Eac h family ate it together every year. It recalled how God had saved H is people from fhe cruel Eg yptians. As the J ews a te the Supper. they remembered how much G od loved th em. So we see o ur dear Lord sit down at the table with His Apostles. First He washes their feet to show them how much He loves them. Then He eats the lamb which is the main food of the Supper. Saint John had said. "Behold the Lamb of God!" For our dear Lord was really the Lamb of God. A fter the Apostles ate the lamb, our dear Lord gave them His own Body and Blood to eat and drink. He united Himself with them as their food. So He became the Food of all our souls. He gave us His strength, courage, purity, and di. vine life. Wouldn't you like to have been at the Last Supper? But you are at the Last Supper every .time you go to Mass. Mass For the Last Supper was the first Mass. Every priest does just what our dear Lord did. First our dear Lord said prayers and sang some hymns. Then He offered to His Father the bread and wine. Next He said, "This is My Body and this is My Blood." Last of all, He gave His Apostles Holy Com- munlon. This is just what the priest does at Mass. First he says the prayers at the beginning of Mass. Often there are hymns and songs. Then He offers to God the bread and wine. We call this the Offertory. Then over the bread and wine he says, "This is My Body. This is My Blood ." This is the Consecration. Last of ai!, the priest gives Holy Communion. So, you see, the Last Supper and the Mass are the sa me. At the Last Supper our dear Lord made H is Apostles priests. Priests have said Mass ever since. Holy Communion When we love someone very much we like to be with him or her. W e like to hold our mother's hand. We like to kiss our baby brother or sister. We like to talk to our friends. Sometimes we hear mother say to our baby brother, "I'd like to eat you." She says this because she loves him very much. Now God Joves us more than anyone could. H e is our Father. Jesus Ch ris t is our Brother. H e gave us our life. He gave us our food. He gave us His own life so that we can live for- ever in heaven. But most of all, He wants to give us H imse lf. He wants His life to be in our souls. He wants His strength and courage and purity to be ours. That is why our dear Lord changes bread and wine into His Body and Bl ood. For then we can take Him into our hearts. Then He can be very close to us. Thus His life becomes our life. We cal l this Holy Communion. M r Confession OF course. no one would want t o receive Our Lord in Holy Communion if his sou l was not pure and clean. So before our First Communion, we go to Con· fession. Our dear Lord said to His Disciples. "Whose sins you shall forgive. they are forgiven." The priests are those who carryon the work of the Disciples. So we examine our conscience carefully. We ask God to let us know if we have committed any sin. We tell God we are sorry. If our sins are very big, we do not want to go to Hell. If they are small, we do not want to go to Purgatory. In any case, we do not want to hurt our dear Lord by sin. He has been so good to us. Then we tell our sins to the priest. After con· fession, we say the penance he has given us. Often in our life, we shall go to Confession. This is our lovely preparation for Holy Communion. Before Holy Communion Before we go to Holy Communion, we must get our souls ready. Jesus is coming to visit us. He is going to live in our souls. If there is any big sin in our soul, we must go to confession. If there are small sins, we tell our dear Lord we are sorry. We do not eat anything before we go to Holy Communion. We call this our Communion fast. It starts at midnight before our Communion day. When we go to church, we say to ourselves, "To· day I am going to receive our dear Lord in Holy Communion." So we kneel quietly in our pew. We say, "Oh my God, I am sorry for my SinS. Ma ke me pure enough to receive You." We say, "Dear Lord, I believe this is Your Body and Your Blood . You said this was so. I believe what You said." We say, "Oh dear Lord, come and visit me . want you very much." The n we pay very close attention to Mass. When it is t ime for Holy Communion, we fold hands and go up to the Communion rail. We receive our dear Lord with joy. Thanksgiving A Iter Holy Communion After Holy Communion our dear Lord is In our hearts. That is not bread which we hove received. It looks and tastes like bread. But Christ said , "This is My Body." So very quietly we go back and kneel in our pews. We say, "Dear Lord, I believe You are in my heart." We say, "Dear Lord, thank You very much for all You have given to me. But I thank You especially for giving me Yourself." Then we ask our dear Lord to bless and take care of us. We ask Him to take care of our par<)nts, our fr'iends, our country, and the whole world. We ask Him to forgive sinners and to protect pe ople who are in danger. W e offer Him the day ahead. We say, "Dear Lord, be with me all day today . Help me in school. Protect me whe n I play. "Be with me and my companions everywhere." Then we ask our dear Lord to take care of our whole lives. We say, "Help me to be good. Bring me safe ly to heaven. I want to see You and be with You for- ever." The Day of My Communion Our dear Lord wants to stay with us. He comes to us in Holy Communion. He will stay with us as long as we let Him. Only big sins drive Him out of our soul. How happy you will be if our dear Lord stays with you always! Then you need never be afraid. Jesus is in your he art. You will never be weak. Jesus will give you His strength to help you. When the devil tempts you , you can laugh. "Jesus, " you say, "the devil IS Your enemy. Do not let him hurt me." J esus wi ll help you to become like Him . Your mother will say, "How good my little son is! Ho~ sweet my little daughter is!" Tha t is because you are becoming very like our dear Lord . So go to Holy Communion often and ask Jesus to stay with you all your life. Then when you die , J esus will be with you. He will take you safely to heaven. You will be happy with Him forever. All Day Long J esus stays in the tabernacle after Mass is over. The tabernacle is the little house on the altar. He comes out of that house for Benediction. He is very happy when He sees you kneeling at Be nediction. The priest takes Him from that little house to visit the sick. A ll day long our Lord waits for His little brothers and sisters to visit Him. "Come and see Me," He says very quietly. The boys and girls who love Him drop in to church to make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament . They kneel before the altar and they sm ile up at our dear Lord. They say to Him, "Keep us good. Help us to control our tempers. Don't let us ever sin." At night when we are asleep, Jesus is watchi ng in the tabernacl e . When the enemies threaten a city, Jesus is there to protect it. So when a boy passes the church, he lifts his cap. When a girl passes the church, she bows and says, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord. " And good boys and girls stop in to see our Lord as often as they can . 757626-001 757626-002 757626-003 757626-004 757626-005 757626-006 757626-007 757626-008 757626-009 757626-010 757626-011 757626-012 757626-013 757626-014 757626-015 757626-016 757626-017 757626-018 757626-019 757626-020 757626-021 757626-022 757626-023 757626-024 757626-025 757626-026 757626-027 757626-028 757626-029 757626-030 757626-031 757626-032 757626-033 757626-034 757626-035 757626-036 757626-037 757626-038 757626-039 757626-040 757626-041 757626-042 757626-043 757626-044