The celebrated Father Leonard, a great missionary in Italy, would weep whenever he had to preach a retreat for children preparing for their First Holy Communion.
“But, Father, what is the matter with you?” people would ask him.
“Ah! Do you not know,” he would reply, “that several Calvaries are being prepared for the day of First Communion, where Jesus Christ will be crucified anew? There is no crime more common among boys than this. Do you not know that many conceal their sins in confession; others make bad confessions; others have no sorrow for their sins; and still others do not understand the greatness of the act they are about to perform? If one has even the slightest love for God, it is impossible not to weep and feel horror at such an outrage.”
Deeply moved by these words, a devout school principal ordered prayers to be said every day throughout the month of March, so that none of the pupils would commit such a dreadful sin. Nine days before Communion, they were to make a novena to Saint Joseph, so that all might prepare well for their First Holy Communion and no Judas might be found among them.
On one occasion, on the last day of the novena, the eve of First Communion, a very distressed boy came early in the morning to seek out his confessor. Before beginning his confession, he said to him:
“Father, I could not sleep last night. It seemed to me that I saw Saint Joseph, who, in anger, said to me: ‘Wretched boy, the children ask me that there be no Judas among them, and you wish to be one, for you have concealed your sins of impurity’...”
“That is why I am here: to make reparation for all my sacrilegious confessions and to tell you everything that is on my conscience.”
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