And How to Confess and Receive Communion Well
My Christian, learn well by heart these mysteries of your holy faith, and the things necessary to confess and receive communion well. And after learning them well, recount them in your home and teach them to others. In this way you will give great pleasure to Jesus Christ; and with little effort you share in and gain all the good that others afterward do because of you.
To save yourself it is not enough to be a Christian through the baptism you have received; but you must know the mysteries of the faith, observe the law of God and the precepts of the Church, and receive the holy sacraments well.
1. You must believe that there is one God and that God is omnipotent: that is, He has created heaven, earth, the angels, men, you, all things. God is immense: that is, He exists in heaven, on earth, and in every place. God is just: He punishes those who do evil and rewards those who do good: He sends to hell those who die in mortal sin, and gives paradise to those who die in His grace.
You must believe in the Most Holy Trinity: that is, that this being of God—infinite, eternal, omnipotent, immense, just—is found in three divine persons, who are called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons and one God. You must believe that the Son of God, that is the second person of the Most Holy Trinity, became man in the most pure womb of the Virgin Mary through the work of the Holy Spirit, was born as a baby in a stable, and died on the cross to save our souls, and is called Jesus Christ, true God and true man. After dying, on the third day He rose again, then ascended to heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. On the day of the universal judgment He will come to judge the whole world. He will send to hell, in soul and body, those who died in mortal sin, and bring to paradise, in soul and body, those who died in His grace. You must believe that Jesus Christ instituted the holy sacraments, through which He forgives our sins and sanctifies our souls: applying to us His merits and the efficacy of His precious blood.
And all these things of faith you must believe firmly, not because the priest teaches them to you, but because Jesus Christ taught them to the Church, and then the holy Church teaches them to us. And this holy Church is the Pope who teaches all the faithful: or the sacred pastors with the Pope their head.
2. You must hope for the pardon of your sins, the grace of God, a good death and the glory of paradise. And this hope is founded on the promises of God in the blood of Jesus Christ, and in the infinite divine mercy. But take note: to save yourself it is not enough only to hope; you must at the same time live as a Christian, and hope in your God.
3. You must love your God, your father, your creator, your redeemer, Jesus Christ, above all things, and your neighbor as yourself. And you must love God because He is worthy of being loved: and your neighbor (that is, all people of the world), because God wants you to love him: whether friend or enemy, acquaintance or stranger; he must be loved for the love of God and at God’s command. The precepts of God’s law are ten: but they are reduced to these two. Love God above all things: that is, esteem the honor of God, the law of God, the will of God, more than riches, relatives, honors, your very life. And your neighbor as yourself: that is: That evil which you do not want for yourself, do not do to others; that good which you want for yourself, desire and do for others. Treat others as you wish to be treated by them and by God. If you do this, you will be saved.
Remember, and say: I believe the things of God because the holy Church has taught them to me. I hope for every good because God has promised it to me. I love God, because God is worthy of being loved.
4. Moreover you must confess yourself well: because if you die in mortal sin, you go to hell. And the Church commands you to confess at least once a year, from the time you come to the use of reason, that is, from seven years of age. To confess you must know that confession is one of the seven sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ: through which, with the absolution of the confessor, Jesus Christ applying His precious blood to souls, forgives all sins to those who confess well. And to confess well:
You must think of all the sins of thoughts, words, deeds, and omissions that you have committed since the last confession well made by you.
Before confessing you must repent with all your heart of all the sins committed: the sin must grieve you above all things, more than any evil: either because you have merited hell, or because you have lost paradise: or better, because you have offended your God, supreme good, infinite goodness, worthy of being loved.
You must promise God not to commit mortal sin anymore, and rather to die than offend Him: and you must flee the occasions that often make you fall into sin.
You must tell all the sins you remember to the confessor; of thoughts, words and deeds, and how many times you have committed those mortal sins: and if you leave out even one voluntarily, through malice, shame or embarrassment, the confession is not good, God does not forgive you any sin, you commit a sacrilege, and you are more cursed and more an enemy of God than you were before confessing. Oh how many poor souls, through fear and shame fail to tell the confessor their ugly sins, commit sacrileges, and are damned!
You must do the penance that the confessor gives you, as soon as you can: and do it well.
5. You must also receive communion, from about the time you reach ten years of age. And to receive communion well, you must know:
That communion is one of the seven sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ.
That Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is found in soul, body, and divinity in the consecrated host and in every particle of it.
That when you receive communion you must be in God’s grace, removing mortal sin from the soul with a good confession.
You must be completely fasting and you cannot even swallow a bit of paper, from midnight until you receive communion.
If you are in mortal sin and, knowing it, you receive communion without first confessing well; or you receive communion after having eaten; or you receive communion more than once in one morning (except if the second time were for viaticum); you receive Jesus Christ, but you do not receive the grace of Jesus Christ, nor satisfy the paschal precept, and you commit a horrible sacrilege. May God guard you from it!
In receiving communion, you must not touch with your fingers the consecrated host if it sticks to the palate: but you will make it go down with saliva, or with a sip of water: and after communion do not spit for about a quarter of an hour.
Before communion you must think of Jesus Christ and make devout acts; and after communion remain at least a third of an hour to thank and pray to Jesus Christ.