In order to make some return to that boundless love, of which Jesus Christ has given us a testimony in the institution of the blessed Sacrament of the altar, let us unite ourselves to him by holy and frequent communion. Let us often pay him our homage under the sacramental veils. Let us, at least, never omit a Thursday without acquitting ourselves of this consoling duty. {166} Let us sometimes present ourselves in the most profound sentiments of adoration, before him, as did the Shepherds and the Eastern Kings or Magi. Let us, at other times, go to hear and receive his instructions, in imitation of his apostles and disciples. Let us approach him, like Magdalen, to contemplate his admirable perfections, and weep bitterly over our sins. Let us again present ourselves before him, after the example of the sick man in the gospel, to be healed from our spiritual infirmities; or, like the poor, to disclose to him our wants, and demand those comforts and graces which our doubts, or the tribulations and crosses incidental to human life, may require. But on all or every one of these occasions, be careful to present thyself before him with that profound degree of modesty, recollection, respect, fear, love, gratitude and confidence, which a lively faith of his real presence in this most blessed sacrament seldom fails to produce. A Prayer Before The Blessed Sacrament. Sweet Jesus! O amiable Saviour! who, by an effect of thy infinite goodness and love, hast vouchsafed to remain really present amongst us in the adorable Sacrament of the altar; I acknowledge thee for my Sovereign Lord and God; I adore thee with the most profound sentiments of humility; I give thee thanks, from the bottom of my heart, for the numberless instances of thy love and tenderness towards me, a most wretched and miserable sinner, who, for my manifold offences, have rather deserved to be cast into the infernal abyss, and there punished according to the rigour of thy severest justice. Penetrated with grief at the sight of my ingratitude, I come, O God of Majesty! to crave pardon for all the profanations, sacrileges, and impieties which ever have been committed, or may be committed against thee, in this adorable sacrament. {167} And O that I could sufficiently express the grief which I now feel, for having so often appeared before thee with irreverence, and so often approached thee with so little fervour and devotion.