May 1 — Saints Philip and James

his Brother according to the flesh, and the faithful companion of his journeys.

Resplendent with the inflamed light of the Holy Spirit, thou, O James, Brother of our God, wast the zealous minister of the divine goodness. Like unto Aaron or old, thou didst therefore receive from the Lord,— who, in his mercy, admitted thee into the Brotherhood of his Apostles. — a garment more sacred tnan that of the Priesthood of the Law. Beseech him, O glorious Apostle, that he mercifully save our souls 1 frater secundum carnem, vestigia ejus tidelis viator comitatus fueras Jacobe.

Ignita divini Spiritus illuminatione resplendens, frater Dei Jacobe, divine bonitatis zelator visus es. Ideo stolam venerabiliorem vestimento legalis sacerdotii, ut olim Aaron, accepisti a Domino, qui per misericordiam suam te in fraternitatem adoptaverat. Ilium deprecare, ut animas nostras salvare dignetur, gloriose Apostole.

Holy Apostles ! you saw our Risen Jesus in all his glory. He said to you on the evening of that great Sunday: Peace be to you! He appeared to you during the forty days following, that he might make you certain of his Resurrection. Great indeed must have been your joy at seeing, once more, that dear Master, who had admitted you into the number of his chosen Twelve ; and his return made your love of him more than ever fervent. We address ourselves to you as our special patrons during this holy Season, and most earnestly do we beseech you to teach us how to know and love the great mystery of our Lord's Resurrection. May our hearts glow with Paschal joy, and may we never lose the New Life that our Jesus has now given unto us.

Thou, O Philip ! wast all devoted to him, even from the first day of his calling thee. Scarcely hadst thou come to know him as the Messias, than thou announcedst the great tidings to thy friend Nathanael. Jesus treated thee with affectionate familiarity. When about to work the great miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, it was to thee that he

PASCHAL TIME. addressed himself, and said to thee : Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat tl A few days before the Passion of thy Divine Master, some of the Gentiles wished to see this great Prophet, of whom they had heard such wonderful things, and it was to thee they applied. How fervently didst thou not ask him, at the Last Supper, to show thee the Father ! Thy soul longed for the divine Light ; and when the rays of the Holy Ghost had inflamed thy spirit, nothing could daunt thy courage. As a reward of thy labours, Jesus gave thee to share with him the honours of the Cross. O holy Apostle ! intercede for us, that we may imitate thy devotedness to Jesus; and that, when he deigns to send us the Cross, we may reverence and love it.

We also honour thy love of Jesus, O thou that art called the Brother of the Lord, and on whose venerable features was stamped the likeness of this our Redeemer. If, like the rest of the Apostles, thou didst abandon him in his Passion, thy repentance was speedy and earnest, for thou wast the first, after Peter, to whom he appeared after his Resurrection; We affectionately congratulate thee, 0 James, for the honour thus conferred upon thee ; do thou, in return, obtain for us, that we may taste and see how sweet is our Risen Lord. Thy ambition was to give him every possible proof of thy gratitude ; and the last testimony thou didst bear, in the faithless City, to the Divinity of thy dear Master, (when the Jews took thee to the top of the Temple,) opened to thee, by Martyrdom, the way that was to unite thee to him for eternity. Pray for us, O thou generous Apostle, that we, also, may confess his holy Name, with the firmness becoming his disciples; and that we may ever be brave and loyal in proclaiming his rights as King over all creatures.

1 St. John, vi. 5. 2 Ps. xxxiii. 9.

MAY 1. SS. PHILIP AND JAMES.

Oholy Apostles! we beseech you to unite your prayers, and intercede for the Churches of the East, to which you preached the Gospel. Have compassion on Jerusalem, the dupe of schism and heresy, the slave of the Infidel; obtain her purification and her liberty ; and rid her Holy Places of the sacrileges that have so long polluted them. Lead back the Christians of Asia Minor to union with the Fold governed by the one supreme Pastor. And lastly, pray for Rome, the City where your bodies repose, awaiting their glorious Resurrection. In return for the long hospitality she has given you, shield her with your protection ; and permit not, that the City of Peter, — your venerable Head, — should be deprived of its grandest glory ,-^-the presence of the Vicar ot Christ.