Eighteenth Day — Use of the Sacraments
1. The sacraments are the channels of divine grace; through them the merits of Christ abundantly flow into our souls. We must therefore take care to approach them worthily; for otherwise his merits will not avail us, nor will our salvation of course be possible.
2. The abuse of the sacraments is an evil of the first magnitude. They were instituted as the means of life; but, when perverted, lead to eternal death. There is no medium; they must be either our food or our poison. How dreadful then must it be to reflect, that after so many confessions we should be so little improved, that after repeated communions we should still follow the same sinful course!
3. The unworthy communicant receives his own condemnation, and becomes, as it were, incorporated with his own ruin. What answer can he give when called to account for his baseness? How shall he hope to escape, when arraigned for such daring profanations?
Examine yourself carefully upon the use you have made of the sacraments, and receive them for the future, as if death were immediately approaching.
“Let a man prove himself.”
1 Corinthians.
“There are bad Christians, who are called by the name of faithful, and who are not such; by whom the sacraments of Christ are dishonoured and profaned.”
St. Augustine.