Page:TheYoungMansGuide.djvu/394

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enable them to come off victorious in the war against the enemy of their salvation.

It matters not how grievous may be the sins into which a young man has fallen, or how violent and persistent may be the temptations by which he is assailed, if only he goes to confession regularly - with a humble and contrite heart - hell will not secure its coveted prey. Frequent confession and communion are the best means to preserve chastity.

Many holy confessors, like St. Philip Neri and St. Alphonsus Liguori, often enjoined upon such deeply fallen or cruelly tempted young men nothing more for a penance than that they should after their first sin of relapse, again present themselves in the confessional.

If young people really did this with seriousness and perseverance their condition would speedily show a marked improvement.

3. The richest and most inexhaustible storehouse of divine grace is the most holy Sacrament of the Altar. That necessarily follows from the essence of this sacrament. For who is present there, who gives Himself Co you in holy communion? It is He, who once reposed as a little child in the manger of Bethlehem, who passed through all the stages of adolescence, who, when He had attained to man's estate, showed a very special love for the young, who called children to His side, embraced, and blessed them; who so mercifully healed the epileptic young man, the servant of the centurion at Capharnaum, the daughter of the Samaritan woman; who raised to life the widow's son at Nairn, and the twelve-year-old daughter of Jairus.

Certainly you know Him. who now as the