A first book for first communicants \( Relict j- +Uqt SacC&d A A£,8^urii*c<^»t'fs *j _ Jl TIrsi Book' 1’ for ErstCommunicants A FIRST BOOK FOR FIRST COMMUNICANTS By a Religious of the Sacred Heart Nihil Obstat : Imprimatur : Arthur J. Scanlan, S.T.D., Censor Librorum. Patrick Cardinal Hayes, Archbishop, Neiv York. New York, August 17, 1935. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED IN THE U. S. A. BY THE PAULIST PRESS, NEW YORK 19, N. Y. Copyright, 1935, by The Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle in the State of New York. New York THE PAULIST PRESS 401 West 59th Street a HH God Made All the Things I See Deackffli&tf LESSON I God made the sun. God made the stars. God made all the things I see. God made me. God made my soul and body. I cannot see God. I cannot see my soul. • v' ' r & But I know God and I know my soul. Jesus, My Best Friend LESSON II God loves me. I must love God. God takes care of me all the time. I must think of Him often and love Him all the time. I must love God more than any one else. If I love God I will obey Him. LESSON III I AM one person. God is three persons. When I bless myself I say: “In * J the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” The three persons are the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. There is only one God. The three persons are all alike and all love me. I will always love them. God the Father made me. God the Son died for me. God the Holy Ghost makes me good. We cannot see God until we go to Heaven. Heaven is the beautiful home God has made for us to live in after we die if we are good. Adam and Eve After Their Sin LESSON IV The first man God ever made was called Adam. His wife, the first woman, was called Eve. They were very good at first and God told them to be always good. They lived in a very beautiful garden and they could have everything except the fruit of one tree. A bad angel told them to take that fruit and thev did. * That was a sin. To sin is to disobey God. LESSON V Adam and Eve had to leave the beautiful garden and they had a very sad life because they had sinned. When we are born we have a stain on our souls made by the sin of Adam and Eve. When we are baptized the stain is washed off. I was baptized when I was a little baby. Now I belong to God because He made me and also because I am His child. Even when I am bad I am still -! y God’s child. LESSON VI God the Son became man. He was first a little baby and was born in Bethlehem. His Father was God and His Mother was the Blessed Virgin Mary. Hewas born in a stable and angels sang in the sky. They told some good men who were watching their sheep on the hill to go to see Him. The shepherds went and found Him with His Mother. His name is Jesus. He knows me and I know Him. He loves me and I love Him. I am always going to try to please Him. I am going to like what He likes and hate what He hates. LESSON VII I LOVE the Mother of Jesus. She is the only one who never had a stain of any kind of sin on her soul. She is my Mother because Jesus gave her to me when He was dying. When I feel like being bad I will call on her to help me. “Holy Mary, Mother of God. pray for Me!’’ LESSON VIII When Our Lord was born three kings came with gifts which they gave Him. I would like to give Him some- thing, too. I will ask Him what He wants me to give Him. He is God and does not need any- thing, but He loves me so much that He likes me to talk to Him and to give Him things I like. He wants me to love Him so I will often tell Him that I do. Jesus in the Carpenter's Shop LESSON IX When Our Lord was a boy He lived in Nazareth with His Mother and Saint Joseph. Saint Joseph was a carpenter and when Our Lord was big enough He helped in the carpenter’s shop. He also helped His Mother and stayed with her until He was thirty years old. LESSON X When Our Lord was a man He went one day with His Mother and some friends to a wedding. Before the feast was over the wine was all gone and Our Lady told Our Lord about it. He said to fill the water pots with water and when they did He changed it into wine. Only God could do that and all who saw it praised Him. LESSON XI Another day when a great many people were with Our Lord and had nothing to eat, He took five loaves of bread and two fishes and told His friends to pass them around. They fed five thousand men, women and children and there were twelve baskets of food left over. This also showed that Our Lord was God, the Son of God made man. LESSON XII God can do all things and Our Lord is God. Feeds the HungryJesus He made the wind stop blowing, He raised the dead to life, He told people what they were think- ing about, He cured the sick by telling them to be well, He made bad people good. God alone could do all these things. Jesus Christ Our Lord is God and Man. Jesus Raises the Dead LESSON XIII OuR LORD had spent three years in teaching and doing good, and now He was going to die to save us. The night before He died He did a wonderful thing. At the end of a supper He had with His twelve best friends who were called His Apostles, He took some bread and changed it into His Body and then took some wine and changed it into His Blood. LESSON XIV When Our Lord did this He said: “This is My Body: this is My Blood.” "This is My Body: this is My Blood" What He held in His hands still looked and tasted like bread but it was His Body, and what was in the cup still looked and tasted like wine but it was His Blood. We know it because He said so, and He is God. At Mass the priest does what Our Lord did at the Last Supper. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass LESSON XV He changes bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Holy Communion is the receiving of the Body and Blood of Our Lord looking like bread and tast- ing and feeling like bread. Our Lord wants to come to me in this way and I want to receive Him. Come, Lord Jesus, and do not delay !