Saturday, Fourth Week Op Lent

This Saturday, in the early ages of Christianity, was called Sitientes, from the first word of the Introit of the Mass, in which the Church addresses her catechumens in the words of Isaias, and invites them that thirst after grace, to come and receive it in the holy Sacrament of Baptism. At Rome, the Station was originally in the basilica of Saint Laurence outside the walls ; but it was found inconvenient, on account of its great distance from the city ; and the church of Saint Nicholas in carcere, which is within the walls, was selected for to-day's Station.

Fiat, Domine, quaesumus, Grant us, O Lord, we be- per gratiam tuam, fructuosus seech thee, an increase of nostras devotionis affectus : devotion : for then only will quia tunc nobis proderunt our fasts avail us, when they suscepta jejunia, si tu® sint are well pleasing to thy good- placita pietati. Per Chri- ness. Through Christ our stum Dominum nostrum. Lord. Amen. Amen.

Hsec dicit Dominus : In Thus saith the Lord : In an tempore placito exaudivi te, acceptable time I have heard et in die salutis auxiliatus thee, and in the day of salva- sum tui : et servavi te, et dedi tion I have helped thee ; and te in f cedus populi, ut susci- I have preserved thee, and tares terrain, et possideres given thee to be a covenant of hsereditates dissipatas ; ut the people, that thou mightest

COLLECT

EPISTLE

Lectio Isai® Prophet®.

Cap. xlix.

Lesson from the Prophet Isaias.

Ch. xlix.

LENT diceres his qui vincti sunt : Exite : et his qui in tenebris : Revelamini. Super vias pascentur, et in omnibus planis pascua eorum. Non esurient, neque sitient, et non percutiet eos aestus et sol : quia numerator eorum reget eos, et ad fontes aquarum potabit eos. Et ponam omnes montes meos in viam, et semitse mese exaltabuntur. Ecce isti de longe venient, et ecce illi ab aquilone et mari, et isti de terra australi. Laudate, coeli, et exsulta, terra ; jubilate, montes, laudem : quia consolatus est Dominus populum suum, et pauperum suorum miserebitur. Et dixit Sion: Dereliquit me Dominus, et Dominus oblitus est mei. Numquid oblivisci potest mulier infante m suum, ut non misereatur filio uteri sui ? Et si ilia oblita fuerit, ego tamen non obliviscar tui, dicit Dominus omnipotens. raise up the earth and possess the inheritances that were destroyed; that thou mightest say to them that are bound : Come forth ; and to them that are in darkness : Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in every plain. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the sun strike them : for he that is merciful to them shall be their shepherd, and at the fountains of waters he shall give them drink. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths shall be exalted. Behold these shall come from afar, and behold these from the north and from the sea, and these from the south country. Give praise, 0 ye heavens, and rejoice, 0 earth ; ye mountains, give praise with jubilation ; because the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his poor ones. And Sion said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb ? And if she should forget, yet will I not forget thee, saith the Lord almighty.

How these words of love must have consoled the hearts of our catechumens ! Never did our heavenly Father express His tender mercy towards us in more glowing terms ; and He bade His prophet deliver them to us. He gives the whole earth to His Son, Jesus Christ, our Incarnate Lord, not that He may judge and condemn it, as it deserves, but that He

Googk may save it. This divine Ambassador, having come on the earth, tells all that are galled by fetters, or that sit in the gloomy shadow of death, to come to Him, promising them liberty and light. Their hunger shall be appeased, and their thirst quenched. They shall no longer pant under the scorching rays of the sun, but shall be led by their merciful Shepherd to the cool shades on the banks of the water of life. They came from every nation under heaven : the fountain, the font, shall be the centre where all the human race is to meet. The Gentile world is to be henceforth called Sion, and the Lord loveth the gates of this new Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob. God had not forgotten her during the long ages of her idol worship ; His love is tender as that of the fondest mother ; yea, and though a mother's heart may forget her child, God never will forget His Sion. You, then, who received Baptism at your very entrance into the world, but have, since then, served another master besides Him to whom you swore perpetual allegiance at the font, be of good heart ! If the grace of God has found you submissive, if the holy exercises of Lent and the prayers offered for you by the Church have had their effect, and you are now preparing to make your peace with God, read these words of your heavenly Father, and fear not ! How can you fear ? He has given you to His own Son ; He has told Him to save, heal, and comfort you. Are you in the bonds of sin ? Jesus can break them. Are you in spiritual darkness ? He is the light of the world, and can dispel the thickest gloom. Are you hungry ? He is the Bread of life. Are you thirsty ? He is the fountain of living water. Are you scorched, are you burnt to the very core, by the heat of concupiscence ? Even so, poor sufferers ! you must not lose courage ; there is a cool fountain ready to refresh you, and heal all

1 St. John iii. 17. 2 Ps. lxxxvi. 2.

LENT your wounds ; not indeed the first font, which ga\e you the life you have lost ; but the second Baptism, the divine Sacrament of Penance, which can restore you to grace and purity !

Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Joannem.

Cap. viii. In illo tempore: Locutus est Jesus turbis Judaeorum, dicens : Ego sum lux mundi : qui sequitur me, non ambulat in tenebris, sed habebit lumen vitae. Dixerunt ergo ei pharisaei: Tu de teipso testimonium perhibes: testimonium tuum non est verum. Respondit Jesus, et dixit eis : Et si ego testimonium perhibeo de meipso, verum est testimonium meum : quia scio unde veni, et quo vado : vos autem nescitis unde venio, aut quo vado. Vos secundum carnem judicatis: ego non judico quemquam : et si judico ego, judicium meum verum est : quia solus non sum, sed ego, et qui misit me, Pater. Et in lege vestra scriptum est, quia duorum hominum testimonium verum est. Ego sum qui testimonium perhibeo de meipso : et testimonium perhibet de me, qui misit me, Pater. Dicebant ergo ei: Ubi est Pater tuus ? Respondit Jesus : Neque me soitis, neque Patrem meum : si me sciretis, f orsitan et Patrem meum sciretis. Haec verba locutus est Jesus in gazophylacio, docens in

Sequel of the holy Gospel according to John.

Ch. viii. At that time : Jesus spoke to the multitude of the Jews, saying : I am the light of the world ; he that f olloweth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The pharisees therefore said to him : Thou givest testimony of thyself ; thy testimony is not true. Jesus answered and said to them : Although I give testimony of myself, my testimony is true : for I know whence I came and whither I go, but you know not whence I come, or whither I go. You judge according to the flesh, I judge not any man. And if I do judge, my judgment is true ; because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. And in your law it is written, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one, that give testimony of myself ; and the Father that sent me, giveth testimony of me. They said therefore to him: Where is thy Father ? Jesus answered : Neither me do you know, nor my Father ; if you did know me, perhaps you would know my Father also. These words Jesus spoke in the treasury,

SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT templo : et nemo apprehendit teaching in the temple : and eum, quia necdum venerat no man laid hands on him, hora ejus. because his hour was not yet come.

What a contrast between the tender mercy of God, who invites all men to receive His Son as their Redeemer, and the obduracy of heart wherewith the Jews receive the heavenly Ambassador ! Jesus has proclaimed Himself to be the Son of God, and, in proof of His divine origin, has, for three long years, wrought the most astounding miracles. Many of the Jews have believed in Him, because they argued that God could never have authorized falsity by miracles ; and they therefore accepted the doctrine of Jesus as coming from heaven. The pharisees hate the light, and love darkness ; their pride will not yield even to the evidence of facts. At one time they denied the genuineness of Jesus' miracles ; at another, they pretended to explain them by the agency of the devil. Then, too, they put questions to Him of such a captious nature, that, in what way soever Jesus answered, they might accuse Him of blasphemy, or contempt for the Law. To-day, they have the audacity to make this objection to Jesus' being the Messias : that He gives testimony in His own favour ! Our blessed Lord, who knows the malice of their hearts, deigns to refute their impious sarcasm ; but He avoids giving them an explicit answer. It is evident that the light is passing from Jerusalem, and is to bless other lands. How terrible is this punishment of a soul that abuses the truth, and rejects it by an instinctive hatred ! Her crime is that sin against the Holy Ghost, which shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. Happy he that loves the truth, though it condemns his evil passions, and troubles his conscience ! Such an one proves that he reveres the wisdom of God ; and if it do not altogether rule 1 St. Matt. xii. 32.

LENT his conduct it does not abandon him. But happier far he that yields himself wholly to the truth, and, as a humble disciple, follows Jesus. He walketh not in darkness ; he shall have the light of life. Let us, then, lose no time, but take at once that happy path marked out for us by Him who is our light and our life. Keeping close to His footsteps, we went up the rugged hiU of Quarantana, and there we witnessed His rigid fast ; but now that the time of His Passion is at hand, He invites us to follow Him up another mount, that of Calvary, there to contemplate His sufferings and death. Let us not hesitate ; we shall be repaid : we shall have the light of life.

Humiliate capita vestra Bow down your heads to

Deo. God.

Deus, qui sperantibus in te 0 God, who choosest rather misereri potius eligis quam to show mercy, than to be irasci : da nobis digne flere angry with those that hope in mala quae fecimus, ut tuse thee, grant we may worthily consolationis gratiam invenire lament the evil we have com- mereamur. Per Christum mitted, that so we may find

Dominum nostrum. Amen. the favour of thy consolation.

Through Christ our Lord.

Let us end these first four weeks of Lent with a hymn to our blessed Lady, the Mother of mercy. Saturday is always sacred to her. The hymn we give is taken from the ancient Roman-French missals.

Amen.

SEQUENCE

Ave Maria, Gratia plena.

Dominus tecum,

Hail Mary, full of grace ! The Lord is with thee, O gentle Virgin !

Virgo serena.

Benedicta tu

Blessed art thou among women, for thou didst bring forth peace to men and glory to the angels.

In mulieribus,

Et angelis gloriam.

SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OP LENT

Et benedictus Fructus ventris tui, Qui cohaeredes Ut essemus sui, Nos fecit per gratiam.

Per hoc autem Ave, Mundo tarn suave, Contra carnis jura Genuisti prolem, Novum stella solem, Nova genitura.

Tu parvi et magni, Leonis et Agni, Salvatoris Christi Templum exstitisti ; Sed virgo intaota.

Tu Solis et Roris, Panis et Pastoris, Virginum Regina, Rosa sine spina, Genitrix es facta.

Tu civitas Regis justitiae, Tu mater es misericordise, De lacu faecis et miserise Theophilum reformans gratise.

Te collaudat ccelestis curia Tu Mater es Regis et filia, Per te reis donatur venia, Per te justis confertur gratia.

Ergo maris stella, Verbi Dei cella, Et solis aurora,

Paradisi porta, Per quam lux est orta, Natum tuum ora,

Ut nos solvat a peccatis, Et in regno claritatis, Quo lux lucet sedula, Collocet per saecula.

Amen.

And blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus, who, by his grace, made us to be his coheirs.

By this Ave, which sounded so sweetly to the world, thou didst conceive, and not by nature's laws. Thou wast the new star that wast to bring forth a new Sun.

Thou, though ever the purest of virgins, wast the temple of our Saviour Jesus Christ (who united in his person the little and the great), of Jesus, the Lion and the Lamb.

0 Queen of virgins ! O rose without thorns ! Thou wast made Mother of him who is our Sun, our Dew, our Bread, and our Shepherd.

Thou art the city of the just King ; thou art the Mother of mercy, bringing grace to Theophilus, by drawing him out of the den of filth and misery.

The heavenly court praises thee, for thou art both Mother and Daughter of its King. By thee, the guilty obtain pardon ; by thy prayers, the just receive grace.

Therefore, 0 star of the sea, O tabernacle of the Word, 0 aurora of the divine Sun,

0 gate of heaven, by whom Light arose to the world ! pray for us to thy Son,

That he loose us from sin, and introduce us into the kingdom of brightness, where perpetual light shines for ever. Amen.