Thursday of Septu Age Sima Week

Forgiveness is promised ; but atonement must be made. Divine justice must be satisfied, and future generations be taught that sin can never pass unpunished. Eve is the guiltier of the two, and her sentence follows that of the serpent. Destined by God to aid man in peopling the earth with happy and faithful children, formed by this God out of man's own substance ' flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bones/ woman was to be on an Quality with man. But sin has subverted this 6rder, and God's sentence is this : conjugal union, notwithstanding the humiliation of concupiscence now brought upon it, is to be, as before, holy and sacred ; but it is to be inferior in dignity, before both God and man, to the state of virginity, which disdains the ambitions of the flesh.

Secondly, woman shall be mother still, as she would have been in the state of innocence ; but her honour shall be a burden. Moreover, she shall give birth to her children amidst cruel pains, and sometimes even death must be the consequence of her infant's coming into the world. The sin of Eve shall thus be memorialized at every birth, and nature shall violently resist the first claims of him, whom sin has made her unwelcome lord.

Lastly, she who was at first created to enjoy equality of honour with man, is now to forfeit her independence. Man is to be her superior, and she must obey him. For long ages, this obedience will be no better than slavery; and this degradation shall continue till that Virgin comes, whom the world shall have expected for four thousand years, and whose humility shall crush the serpent's head. She shall restore her sex to its rightful position, and give to Christian woman that influence of gentle persuasiveness, which is compatible with the duty imposed upon her by divine justice, and which can never be remitted : the duty of submission.

Dominatorsseculorumom- O Lord I King of all ages!

nium Domine, qui me vo- who didst create me by thy luntate tua procreasti, dolosi love ; I have been injured by draconis invidia quondam the envy of the crafty serpent, afflictum, teque, Salvator, and have provoked thee, my ad iracundiam concitantem, Saviour, to anger : but despise ne despicias, Deus, sed re- me not, O God ! Call me back voca me. to thee.

Heimihi! pro stola splen- Alas! my bright robe has dida, turpitudinis indumen- been changed into this garb of tis obvolutus, lugeo, Salva- shame. I bewail my ruin, O

IN DOMINICA TYROPHAGI.

SEPTUAGESIMA tor, exitium meum, et fide ad te clamo ; ne despicias me bone Deus, sed revoca.

Serpentium feraruinque dominus effectus, quo pacto serpenti animabus exitiali familiariter congressus es, inimico veluti bono consiliario usus? O errorem tuum, miserrima anima mea !

(Canimus te, Maria, Dei gratia plena, lucidum divinse incarnationis tabernaculum; quare me cupiditatibus foede obtenebratum illumina, fons misericordise, spes eorum quos omnis spes dereliquit.)

Saviour, and to thee do I cry with confidence : My good God ! Despise me not, but call me back to thee.

How, my soul, couldst thou, that wast made the lord of serpents and beasts, treat the soul-slaying serpent with familiarity, and use thine enemy as a trusty counsellor ? Bewail, my wretched soul, thy fatal error !

(To thee do we sing, O Mary, full of divine grace I Hail bright tabernacle of the Incarnation 1 0 fount of mercy, hope of them that are in despair, enlighten me that am dishonoured by the dark clouds of my passions.)

FEIDAY OF SEPTUAGESIMA WEEK

The curse, which is henceforth to lie so heavily on every human being, has been expressed in the sentence pronounced against Eve ; the curse, to which the earth itself is to be subjected, is Adam's sentence. ' Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work (that is, on account of what thou hast done)/ 1 Adam had excused his sin. God does not admit his excuse ; yet He mercifully makes allowance for him, seeing that he sinned, not so much to gratify himself, as to please the frail creature that had been formed out of his own substance. He is not the originator of the disobedient act. God, therefore, sentences him to the personal humiliation of labour and toil, and of eat-