Corpus Christ!

the necessary accompaniment of holooausts and peaceofferings ; they prefigure the august Memorial which is to keep up and perfect the divine Sacrifice of the Gross, by an unbloody application of it. There is, in these early days, a sacrifice which goes under the name of a memorial ; it is an offering by itself, consisting of fine flour, and unleavened loaves and wafers. 1 Then, there are the proposition loaves ; they are kept within the veil, as the most holy of the sacrifices, as being a perpetual memorial of sacrifice and covenant ; 2 and, what a mysterious, yet unmistakable, figure is all this of the future euoharistio Presence, kept up in the Church under the sacred species, even when the celebration of the mysteries is over ?

As there is but one altar in Jacob, which, by its oneness, points towards Him who, at a f uture time, is to be both viotim and altar ; so, there is but one place, the tabernacle and its surroundings, and, later on, the temple and holy city, where it is lawful to celebrate those sacred banquets of communion, which, according to universal custom, close the sacrifice in which they are offered. The last time that Moses had his people assembled around him, in the plains of the Jordan, he thus spoke to them : Beware lest thou offer thy holocaust in every place that thou shalt see. In the place which the Lord your God shall choose, that his name may be therein, thither shall ye bring your holocausts, and victims, and tithes, and the first- fruits of your hands. There shall ye feast before the Lord your Ood, ye and your sons and your daughters, your men' servants and maid-servants, and the Levite that dwelleth in your cities ; and thou shalt rejoice, and be refreshed, before the Lord thy Ood, in all things, whereunto thou shalt put thy hand?

The material prosperity promised to the Jewish people, as a reward of his faithfully observing the

1 Leyit. ii. 2, 9. 8 Ibid. xxiv. 7-9. * Deut. xii, 7, U-13« numerous figurative prescriptions of the law 6f Siftai't was itself but a figure of the spiritual blessings whieh were to transform the soul, and prepare it for the coming of Divine Wisdom in the flesh. But, Israel is slow to raise himself above material things. He easily falls a prey to all the soandals he witnesses among the Gentiles. Severe punishments teaeh him that he is not safe, except in his keeping the law given to him ; he keeps it, that is, he keeps the letter of the ritual pre* cepts with scrupulous exactitude, but sees nothing of their chief meaning, which is the Eedeemer to come., and the spiritual dispositions which those outward observances were intended to prompt. God is continually warning him by the Prophets, and seeking to reclaim him to the spirit of his divine institutions. Thus, in the Psalms, he remonstrates with him, but, with such paternal affection, that one oan scarcely suspect a oomplaint, though there is a most bitter one : Sear 9 0 my people ! and I will speak : 0 Israel ! and I wUl testify unto thee, I am God, thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices ; and thy burnt-offerings are always in my sight. I will not take calves out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy flocks ; for all the beasts of the wood are mine, the cattle on the hills, and the oxen. I know all the fowls of the air, and with me is the beauty of the field. If I should be hungry, 1 would not tell -thee; for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof Shall I eat the flesh of bullocks ? or shall I drink the blood of goats ? Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High ! . . . The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me ; and there is the way by which I will show him the salvation of God, — show him, that is, my Christ, who is the Saviour signified by all these sacrifices ! 1 Later on, however, to this people, stiff-necked as it is, and unoircumoised in heart and ears, 2 which has gone deeper and deeper into 1 Ps. xHx. 7-14, 23* • Acts, yii. 6U

CORPUS CHRI8TI. outward formalism, and knows no other virtue or perfection, God speaks in strong language, expressing his disgust for sacrifices, which they have robbed of the only worth they possessed in his sight, that is, their prophetic sense. To what purpose do ye offer me the multitude of your victims, says he by the Prophet Isaias, J am full ; i" desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of failings, and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck- goals. When ye came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that ye should walk, (defiling), my courts ? Offer sacrifice no more in vain : your incense is an abomination unto me/ 1 But these warnings are not heeded ; pride increases in the carnal Jew, in proportion to his narrow heart and views. He dreams of a Messias who is to be an earthly conqueror. As to the true Messias, whose divine characteristics are foretold by the victims offered in sacrifice, this Jew will deny him, for he finds Jesus too closely resembling those poor victims, by his sufferings and meekness.

Then oomes the last of the Prophets, Malachias. He turns to the Gentiles : they have been less favoured than Israel, but they have kept up the expectation of a Saviour, and, when he comes, will lovingly receive him. Malachias announces the final abrogation of a worship which had been so perverted, and the substitution of a divine memorial, which shall be the same in all places, and shall make all people one, by their all partaking of the great Sacrifice to come : I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, to the priests of Israel ; I will not receive a gift of your hand ; for, from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered unto my name a clean oblation. 2

The fulness of time is come ; then, bless Ood, 0 ye Gentiles ! Make the voice of his praise to be heard !*

• Ib. i. 11-13, * Malach. i. 10, 11. »?•, Ixr. 8,

Too long, life has been to you but the empty dream of night. You hungered after the fruit of life; you thirsted for living water. But, like the hungry man who dreams of a sumptuous repast, yet never satisfies the hunger which gnaws him ; like the thirsty man who dreams that he drinks, yet, on waking, is tormented with the same burning thirst, and finds his soul still empty ; — so was the multitude of your erring people. 1 Yet, now, behold ! The standard of Jesse appears on the mountain, and rallies them around it. Ye Gentiles, that once were strangers, feed now to your heart's content, in the deserts turned into fruitfulness ! 2 The Water from the rook flows plentifully through your onoe parched lands. The glory of Iibanus, the beauty of Carmel and Saron, adorn your hills, and refresh your lonely plains ; your wilderness shall rejoioe, and flourish like the lily. 8 Bain shall be

S'ven to vour seed ; and the bread of the corn of your nd shall be delicious. 4 'Tis just it should be so ; for, shall the labourer plough all day long P Shall he be ever opening and harrowing his ground P No ; the time oomes when, having made smooth the surfaoe of his field, he sows and scatters his seeds, and puts wheat in the rows he has marked. Suoh is the providence shown to the Gentiles by the Lord God of hosts ; and, thereby, he evinces both the sureness of his divine oounsels, and the magnificence of his justice. 5

No : eternal Wisdom had not given up the mysterious designs of his love. He kept close to the fallen human race, even when he severely chastised it. He owed it to himself to put guilty man to the test, so to make him feel, before raising him up, how deep had been his fall. It was on this aooount that he permitted him to be overtaken by night, and fear, and

1 Is. xxix. 7, 8 4 Is. xxx. 23.

2 Ibid. v. 17. s Ibid, xxviii. 24, 29. 5 Ibid. xxxy. 1, 7.

OOEPUfl CHmiSTI.

Anguish ; he himself Sends him sufferings, in Ord» that, having thus brought him to sound the frightful depth of his misery, he might trust Himself to the sale welcome and keeping of his oreature's humility; This done, he would raise him up by repentance, and strengthen him with hope, and, joyously meeting him, disclose to him again his divine charms, and enrich him with the treasures which are in the keeping of his love. 1

This is Saturday ; let us turn to Mary, who was made for us Gentiles, the Seat of Wisdom. It wSfc in her chaste womb that was wrought the mystery of mercy, which had been the expectation ef all thfc long ages past. It was her most pure blood which provided the substance of that spotless Body whet ewith the most beautiful of the sons of men contracted the indissoluble alliance of our nature with eternal Wisdom^ Mary's soul is enraptured at seeing the ineffable mystery of these divine nuptiala effected in her chaste womb. She is that enclosed Garden where, more delightedly than in the early days of the universe* Wisdom enjoys light and love ; the flowery oouch of the Canticle, 2 perfumed, by the Holy Spirit* with the sweetest fragrance ; the glorious tabernacle incomparably more holy than that of Moses,, It is within her, under the immaculate veil of her flesh* that, by the unspeakable embrace of the two natures in the unity of God's Only Begotten Son, the fioly Ghost pours forth the unction, which makes him Spouse, and, at the same time, Priest for ever aocording to the order of Melchisedeoh*

Let man* then, be of good courage ; the Bread of heaven, the Bread of the covenant* is at last oome down upon our earth ; and although nine months must pass before the great night comes, when he is to be made visible to us all in Bethlehem* yet, even i {Icclus, iv. 18, 2L <5ftt. 1. 16,

SATURDAY* WITHIN THB OCTAVB. 88T now, the High Priest is at his work in this his holy temple. Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldest not, says he to his eternal Father ; but a Body thou hast Jit ted unto me. Holocausts for sin did not please thee. Then said I : " Behold I come ; in the head of the book it is " written of me, — that I should do thy will, 0 God /" 1 We will close, to-day, our seleotions from the Office of the Blessed Juliana, by the following Hymn ; it is assigned to Compline in the ancient books of the Church of St. Martin-au-Mont.

HYMN FOR COMPLINE.

Christ is truly our meat, Christ is truly our drink ; the Flesh of Christ is truly our meat, the Blood of Christ is truly our drink.

The true Flesh, which he took from the Virgin, is what we eat'; the true Blood, which he shed for man, is what we <}riuk.

In this banquet, the "Word made Flesh is truly eaten ; it is on him that our worship rests, and by him that we enter heaven.

This Bread, which is all full of sweetness and grace, is the King of eternal glory, that Was carried in the Virgin's Womb.

Let us feed on the richness of Angel's Bread ; that we may find delight in the sweetness of a viaticum so full of mercy.

0 thou heavenly banquet ! O glory of the redeemed ! 0 repose of the humble ! grant us eternal joys.

Christus noster vere cibus, Christus noster vere potus, Caro Christi vere cibus, Sanguis Christi vere potus.

Vera caro quam sumimus, Quam assumpsit de Virgine : Verus sanguis quern bibimus,

Quern effudit pro homine.

Vere tali convivio, Verbum caro comeditur ; Per quod viget Religio, Per quod ccelum ingredimuf .

Panis iste dulcedinis Totus plenus, et gratise Alvo gestatus Virginis, Rex est seternse glorise.

Hujus panis angelici Saginemur pinguedine ; Ut tarn pii viatici Delectemur dulcedine.

0 coeleste convivium ! O redemptorum gloria ! 0 requies humilium ! JEterna confer gaudia,

TO* X.

! Eeb. x, 5, 7,

COBPTJS OHRISTI.

Praesta Pater per Filium, ProstaperalmumSpiritum; Quibus boo das edulium, Prosperum serves exitum. nouperous

Grant, 0 Father, through thy Son, grant, through the Spirit of love, that we, to whom thou givest such rishment as this, may be brought by thee to a prosend. Amen. Amen.

We will oontinue our selections from the magnificent Preface given in the Liturgy of the 8th Book of the Apostolic Constitutions.

CONST1TUTIO JACOBI.

Neque hoc solum ; verum etiam et posteris ejus, a te in multitudinem innumerabilem efiusis, eos qui tibi adhseserunt glorificasti, eos vero qui a te defecerunt punivisti; admisso quidem Abelis sacrificio ut innocentis, fratricidi autem Caini munere ut detestandi fastidito.

Tu enim es opifex hominum, vitee largitor, indigentise expletor; legum dator, easque servantium remunerator, transeredientium vindex. Qui diluvium mundo propter impie viventium multitudinem intulieti, et eo ex diluvio in area eripuisti cum octo animabus justum Noam, finem quidem eorum qui prseterierant, originem vero successurorum. Qui horrendum ignem adversus Sodomitanam pentapolim concitasti, ac sanctum Lotum ex incendio eruisti.

And not this only; but, when thou hadst increased the posterity of man to an innumerable multitude, thou glorifiedst them that kept faithful to thee, but punishedst them that fell off; aocepting the sacrifice of Abel, because he was innocent, rejecting the gifts of the fratricide Cain; because he was abominable.

For thou art the maker of mankind, the giver of life, the supplier of indigence; the giver of laws, and the rewarder of such as keep them, the avenger of them that transgress. 'Twas thou didst bring a deluge upon the world, because of the multitude of the ungodly ; from which deluge, thou, by the ark deliveredst the just Noe, with eight souls, Noe who was the end of the foregoing generations, but the source of them that were to follow. 'Twas thou that kindledst a fearful fire against the five cities of Sodom, and snatchedst holy Lot from the burning.

'Twas thou delivered st Abraham from the impiety of his forefathers, and madest him the heir of the world, and showedst him thy Christ. 'Twas thou appointedst Melchisedech to be high-priest of thy divine worship ; tnou that madest Isaac the son of the promise ; thou that broughtest Jacob into Egypt.

Thou, Lord, didst not abandon the Hebrews, when they were oppressed by the Egyptians, on account of the promises made to their fathers. And when men had corrupted the natural law, and had, at one time, looked on creation as the effect of chance, and, at another, had honoured it more than it deserved, thou permittedst them not to be led astray by error, yea, thou raisedst up thy holy servant Moses, giving, through him, the written law, as an aid to the natural; thou showedst that creatures are thy work, and tookest away the error of plurality of gods.

'Twas thou didst adorn Aaron and his, posterity with the priestly honour ; that punishedst the Hebrews, when they sinned, receiving them, when they repented ; that inflictedst the ten plagues on the Egyptians ; that carried st the Israelites across the divided sea ; that drownedst the Egyptians, who pursued them. 'Twas thou madest the bitter water become sweet, by the wood; that broughtest water out of the hard rock; that rainedat manna from heaven ;

Tu es qui Abrahamum liberasti avita impietate, et mundi hreredem constituisti, ipsique Christum tuum apparere fecisti. Qui Melchisedecum pontificem divini cultus designasti. Qui Ieaacum effecisti filium promissionis. Qui Jacobum ad JEgyptum introduxisti.

Tu, Domine, Hebraeos ab -33gyptii oppressoe, ob promissa patribus eorum facta non neglexisti. Cumque homines legem naturalem corrupissent, et creaturam modo fortuitam arbitrarentur, modo plusquam oportet honorarent ; non sivisti errore duci; quin potius edito sancto famulo •tuo Moyse, per eum legem scriptam in adjutorium naturalis tribuisti ; et creaturas ostendisti opus tuum esse, errorem vero de multitudine deorum exterminasti.

Aaron et posteros ejus honore sacerdotali decora sti. Hebraeos, cum peccarent, castigasti ; cum reverterentur, suscepisti. -^jgyptios decern plagis ultus es; mari divisio trajecisti Israelitas; insecutos iBgyptios delevisti submersione. Ligno amaram aquam dulcescere fecisti ; ex petra dura aquam profudisti; e coelo mannam depluisti ; prsebuisti ex aere escam, ortygometram : constituisti noote oolumnam ignis ad illujtra-

OOBPUS CHRIST!. tionem, et die columnam nubis ad umbraculum in sestu. Per Jesum ducem a te deolaratum septem gentes •yertisti, Jordanem dirupisti, fluvios Ethan siccasti, muros prostravisti absque machini.

Pro omnibus tibi gloria, I Domine omnipotens.

Te adorant innumerabiles copifiB angelorum, archangelorum, tnronorum, dominationum, principatuum, potestatum virtutum et cherubini, item seraphini, senis alis, binis quidem ve-. lantes pedes suos, binis vero capita, et duabus aliis volantes, ac dicentes una cum mille millibus archangelorum et denis millibus denum millium angelorum, indesinenter ac sine vocis intermissione clamantibus :

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Sabaoth : pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria ejus : Benedictus in seecula.

Amen. that grantedst quails to come from the air, as food ; that appointedst a pillar of fire, by night, to giye light, and a pillar of a cloud, Dy day, to overshadow them from heat. By Josue, proclaimed by thee as leader, thou didst overthrow the seven nations ; thou dividedst the Jordan, driedst up the rivers of Ethan, and 07erturnedst the walls, without instruments.

Glory be to thee, 0 almighty Lord, for all these things !

Thee do adore the innumerable hosts of angels, archangels, thrones, dominations, principalities, powers, virtues, and cherubim ; the seraphim, also, with their six wings, with two covering their feet, with two their heads, and with two flying, and saying, with thousand thousands of archangels, and ten thousand times ten thousand angels, incessantly, and, with uninterrupted voices, crying out :

Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord of hosts : heaven and earth are full of his glory : be he blessed for ever !

Amen.

SUNDAY

WITHIN THK OCTAVK OF CORPUS CHRISTI.

Let us adore Christ, the Christum regem adore-

King, who ruleth the nations : mus dominantem ^entibus, who giveth fatness of spirit to qui se manduoantibus dat them that eat him. spiritus pinguedinem.

The Desired of all nations, 1 the Angel of the testament whom Israel longs for, 2 has come down from heaven. Wisdom is come among us. Who, asks the Prophet, shall go up into heaven, to take Wisdom, and bring him down from the clouds ? Who shall pass over the sea, and bring him from distant lands, him, the treasure more precious than the purest fold ? Israel has forsaken the fountain of Wisdom, [e has not even been heard of in the land of Ohanaan ; he has not been seen in Idumea. The children of Agar, the princes of the nations, the philosophers of earthly wisdom, the ingenious inventors, the searchers after science, the hoarders of riches, and makers of strength and beauty, which do but cheat the beholder, — all these have not known the ways of Wisdom, they have not understood his paths. 8 But, lo ! the Son promised to David has sate upon his throne of glory ; he is the source of Wisdom ; the four rivers of paradise have derived all their waters from Him. His thoughts are more vast than the sea, and his counsels more deep than the great ocean. 4 He is come to fulfil the mysterious design of the divine and sovereign will, — that is, to re-establish,

1 Agg. ii.8. * Baruoh. iii. 12-38.

2 Malach ni. 1. 4 Ecclutf. xxiv. 34-39. by uniting all things in himself, all that are in heaven and on earth. 1 He is truly Mediator, for he is, himself, both God and Man ; and being also High Priest, he is the bond of that holy religion, which fastens on all things to the Creator, in the unity of one same homage. His Sacrifice is the master-piece of the divine Wisdom : it is by that Sacrifice, that, embracing all created beings in the immensity of the love, whose impatient ardour has been the subject of our past considerations, he makes the whole world become one sublime holocaust to his Father's glory. Let us, then, proceed to consider him in this immolation of his victim ; let us reverently watch him setting forth his table. 2 The Eucharist has been instituted for the very purpose of ceaselessly applying, here on earth, the reality of Christ's Sacrifice. To-day, therefore, we will turn our thoughts upon this Sacrifice, as it is in its own self ; this will enable us the better to understand how it is continued in the Churoh.

God has a right to his creature's homage. If earthly kings and lords may claim from their vassals this recognition of their sovereignty, — the sovereign dominion of the great and first Being, the first cause and last end of all things, demands it, on an infinitely just title, from beings called forth from nothing by his almighty goodness. And, just as by the rent or service which accompanies it, the homage of vassals implies, together with the avowal of their submission, the real, the effective declaration that it is from their liege-lord that they hold their property and rights ; so the act, whereby the creature, as such, subjects himself to his Creator, should adequately manifest, by and of itself, that he acknowledges him as the Lord of all things, and the author of life. Moreover, if, by the infringement of his oommands, he has deserved

1 Eph. i. 10, * Prov. ix. 2*

SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE. fc death, and only lives because of the infinite mercy of this his sovereign Lord, — then, his act of homage or fealty will not he complete, unless it also express an avowal of his guilt, and the justice of the punishment. Such is the true notion of Sacrifice, so called, beoause it sets apart from the rest of similar beings, and makes sacred, the offering whereby it is expressed: for spirits purely immaterial, the offering or oblation will be interior and exclusively spiritual ; but, as regards man, this oblation must be spiritual, and, at the same time, material, for, being composed of a soul and a body, he owes homage to his God for both.

Sacrifice may not be offered but to the one true God, for it is the effective acknowledgment of the Creator's sovereign dominion, and of that glory which belongs to him, and which he will not make over to another. 1 It is essential to religion, be the state that of innooenoe or of fall; for religion, the queen of moral virtues, whose object is the worship due to God, necessarily demands Sacrifice, as its own adequate exercise and expression. Eden would have witnessed this Sacrifice offered by unfallen man ; it would have been one of adoration and thanksgiving ; its material portion would have been that garden's richest fruits, those symbols of the divine fruit, promised by the tree of life ; sin would not have put its own sad stamp on such Sacrifioe, and blood would not have been required. But man fell; and, then, Sacrifioe became the only means of propitiation, and the neoessary centre of religion, in this land of exile. Until Luther's time, all the nations of the earth held and lived up to this truth; and when the so-called Reformers excluded Sacrifice from religion, they took away its very basis. Nor is the duty of Sacrifioe limited to man's earthly existence ; no : the creature

1 14. zlyiiL 11. when in heaven, and in the state of glory, must still offer Saorifice to his Creator ; for he has as muoh, and even more, obligation, when he is in the brightness of the Vision, as when he lived amid the shadows of Faith, to offer to the God who has crowned him, the homage of those gifts received.

It is by Sacrifice that God attains the end he had in view by creation, that is, his own glory. 1 But, in order that there should go up from this universe a homage in keeping with the magnificence of its Maker, there was needed some one leader or head, who should represent all creation in his one person ; and then, using it as his own property, should offer it, in all its integrity, together with himself, to the Lord God. There was something better than this : and it is just what God has done : by giving his own Son, clad in our nature, to be the Head of creation, he obtains an infinite return of glory ; for the homage of this inferior nature assumes the dignity of the Person offering it ; and the honour thus paid beoomes truly worthy of the supreme Majesty. And, as a banker knows how to draw golden interest from even the least sum intrusted to his keeping, so our God has, from a world made out of nothing, produced a fruit of infinite worth.

Yes, truly marvellous finish to his work of oreation ! The immense glory rendered to the Father by the Word Inoarnate, has brought God and the creature nearer to eaoh other ; it tells upon the world, by filling up its hateful depths of misery with grace, grace abundant and rich ; and, thereby, the distance between God and us does not exclude the union for whioh he first made us. The Saorifice of the Son of Man becomes the basis and cause of the supernatural order, both in heaven and on earth. Christ was the first ttnd chief object of the decree of creation ;

1 Prov. xvi«4. and, therefore, it was for him, and upon him as type, and in harmony with the qualities of the nature, which he was, at a given future time, to assume to himself, — that, at the Father's bidding, there oame forth, out of nothing, the various grades of being, spiritual and material, all of whioh were intended to form the palace and court of the future God-Man. It was the same, also, in the order of grace, — this God-Man, who is to be the most Beautiful among the children of men, is, in all truth, the Well-Bkloved. The Spirit of love, as a precious and fragrant ointment, will flow from this one Well~Beloved, from this dear Head, upon all his Members, yea, and even to the lowest skirt of his garment, 1 generously communicating trtte life, supernatural being, to those whom Christ shall have graciously called to a participation of his own divine substance, in the banquet of love. For, the Head will lead on his Members ; these will unite to his, their own homage, which, being in itself too poor to be offered to God's infinite Majesty, will, — by their incorporation with the Incarnate Word, in the act of his Sacrifice, — put on the dignity of Christ himself.

It is on this account, as we have already noticed, and cannot too strongly urge, that one should inveigh against the narrow-minded individualism which is now so much the fashion, of attaching more importance to the praotices of private devotion, than to the solemnity of those great acts of the Liturgy, which form the very essence of religion. Thus, as we were just saying, it is by the sacrifice of the God-Man, that the entire oreation is consummated in unity, and that true social life is founded upon God. God is one in his essence ; the ineffable harmony of the Three Divine Persons does but bring out more clearly, by its sublime fecundity, this infinite Unity. The creature, on the oontrary, is multiplicity ; and the division, resulting

1 Ps. cxxxii. 2. from Adam's fall, has strongly emphasised this mark of finite and borrowed being. And yet, having come forth from God's hands, it must return thither, it must, that is, procure his glory ; and this it cannot do, save on the condition of there being removed that unhappy division, which separates it from both God and its fellow-creatures ; its very multiplicity must reproduce, as it tends towards its Maker, an image of the fruitful harmony of the Three Divine Persons. That they, also, map be one in us y as we also are onb : x there is the grand revelation of God's intentions, when he produced creatures; and the revelation is made to us by the Angel of the great Counsel, who is come upon this earth, that he might carry out the divine plan. Now, what is it that brings all the several elements of the social body into oneness, by bringing them back to their Creator ? It is religion. And what is the fundamental aot of religion P Saorifioe. Sacrifice is both the means and soope of this magnificent unification in Christ ; its perfect realisation will mark the consummation of the eternal kingdom of the Father, who will have become, through his Christ, all in all. 2

But, this royalty of endless ages, which is tojjbe procured for the Father by Christ's reign here below, 3 has enemies, and they must be subdued. The principalities, and powers, and virtues, of Satan's kingdom are leagued against it. They were jealous of Man, the image of Ood's own likeness ; and that envy made them turn their attacks upon man ; they led him to disobedience, and disobedience brought death into the world. 4 By man, now become its slave, sin took occasion, by every one of God's commandments, to insult that God. 5 Far from studying how to offer

1 St. John, xvii. 21, 22. * Wisd. ii. 23, 34.

2 I Cor. xv. 24-28. 6 Rom. vii. 11. 8 Ibid. 24, 25. to its Maker the homage due to him, the human race seemed bent on intensifying the poverty of its original nothingness, by adding to it the baseness of every sort of defilement. So that, before being capable of aoceptableness with the Father, the future members of Christ have need of a Sacrifice of propitiation and acquittance. Their Christ will himself have to live the expiatory life, which comports a sinner ; he will have to suffer their sufferings, and die the death. 1 Yes, death was the penalty threatened, from the very commencement, as sanction of God's oommandment ; it was the severest penalty the transgressor could possibly pay, and yet was not adequate to the offence offered, by the transgression, to the infinite Majesty of God, unless a Divine Person, taking upon himself the terrible responsibility of' this infinite debt, were to undergo himself the punishment due upon man, and, by so doing, restore man to innocence.

Oh ! then, let our High Priest come forth ; let the divine Head of our human race and world show himself ! Because he hath loved justice, and hated iniquity, therefore hath God anointed him with the oil of gladness, above his fellows, 2 his brethren. He was Christ by the priesthood destined to be his from the very bosom of his Father, and confirmed by a solemn oath ; 3 he is Jesus, too, for the sacrifice he is about to offer will save his people from their sin : 4 Jesus- Christ, then, is to be, for ever, the name of the eternal Priest. What power and what love are there not in his Sacrifice ! Priest and Victim at one and the same time, he swallows death, in order to destroy it, and, by that very act, crushes sin by his own innocent flesh suffering its penalty ; he satisfies, even to the last fartbing, yea, and far beyond it, the justice of his Father ; he takes the decree that was against us, nails it to the

1 Gen. ii. 17. 8 Ps. cix. 4.

• Ps. xliv. 8. * St. Matth. i. 21.

Gross, and blots out the hand- writing ; and then, despoiling the principalities and powers of their tyrant sway, he triumphs over them in himself. 1 Our old man was crucified together with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed ; renovated by the Blood of his Redeemer, he can rise, together with him, from the tomb, and begin a new life. 9 Ye are dead, says the Apostle, and your life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ shall appear, who is your Life, then ye also shall appear with him in glory? For, it is as our Head, that Christ suffered ; his Sacrifice includes the whole body, of which he is the Head, and he transforms it, by uniting it to himself, for an eternal holocaust, the sweet fragrance of which is to fill heaven itself.

"The Word comes forward," says St. Ambrose, " in the robes of the High Priest, which Moses described; 4 he is clad with the world in its magnifi- " cence, that he may fill all with the fulness of God. " He is the Head which rules the body, and he unites " it olosely to himself. 5 Speaking of himself, he said : " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all " things unto myself? David had sung all this, in the "Psalm, wherein he said : All flesh shall come unto " thee? How so ? Because," answers St. Augustine, " he took flesh ; and that flesh, which he took, shall " draw all flesh. He took its first-fruits, when he took "flesh from the Virgin's womb ; the rest will follow, " and the holocaust will be complete ; 8 the holocaust, of which this same Psalm says, that the vow shall be paid in Jerusalem. For, what is this vow, made by Christ, our Head, but the vow which he himself describes so fully in the next Psalm ? I will go into thy

1 Coloss. ii. 14, 15. 5 De fuga seBculi, xyi.

2 Rom. vi. 4-10. 6 St. John, xii. 32.

3 Coloss. iii. 3. 7 Ps. lxiv. 3.

4 ExocL xxviii. 8 Enarrat. in F& lxiv. house with burnt-offerings ; I will pay thee my vows, which my lips have uttered. And my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble : I will offer up to thee holocausts full of marrow, with the incense of rams ; I will offer to thee bullocks, with goats. 1

What is this day, whereon our High Priest was in trouble ? It is that of which the Apostle speaks, when he tells us, that, with a strong cry and tears, he offered up prayers and supplications to Him, (his Father), who was able to save him from death. 2 But, why does this Jesus mention rams and bullocks and goats, — those offerings become useless and rejected of God P Did he not himself say, when he came into our world : Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldst not; but a Body thou hast fitted unto me / 3 Tea, truly : and it is this Body of Christ, says St. Augustine, "whioh is here shown to us, in this Psalm ; he presents his Body % as the offering he vows to his Father ; the rams are the leaders of the Church. 4 Hear my prayer, continues the Psalmist, prophesying of our High Priest, — 0 hear my prayer : all Flesh shall come unto thee. Princes and people of all nations, children, young men and old, Jews and Gentiles, Greeks, Romans, Barbarians, — all are on the Wood, and are the victim vowed to the Father. It is with all these, and in their name, and for their sakes, in the entirety and unity of his Body, that Christ said to his Father : I will go into thy house with burnt-offerings ; send thy Fire, the fire of thy Spirit, the divine flame of me, Eternal Wisdom ; let it burn and wholly burn this Body which I have taken to myself ; let it be a holocaust, that is, let it be all thine, 0 Father ! 6

Come, then, 0 ye children of God ! bring unto the Lord tJie offspring of rams.* The voice of the Lord

1 Ps. lxv. 13-15. * Enarrat. in Ps. lxv.

• Heb. v. 7. 5 St. Aug passim in Psalmos

*fbid. x. 5, 6. 6 Ps. xxviii. 1. has been heard in its power ; he bids the flame of Fire come down upon the mount ; the Holocaust is already burning, and from Calvary, the fire will spread throughout the world. The divine Fire pursues its work, each succeeding generation ; it absorbs into itself each of the members of the great Victim, that is, each one of the Faithful ; it devours sin ; it burns out the dross of vice ; it purifies, even in the dust of the grave, the flesh that has onoe been sanctified by the touch of Christ, in the sacred Mystery. It is a true fire of Heaven ; it is the uncreated flame ; it destroys nought but evil ; it sends, indeed, suffering and death among men, but it is only that it may deliver them from the wreck and ruin of the Fall, and, by expiation, remake the whole human race. The day will come when this Fire of the great Sacrifice, having drawn into itself the last member of Christ's mystical body, the very flesh itself of the elect will re-appear all spiritual and glorified ; and this wonderful transformation of the victim will make it a sacrifice truly worthy of the Lord Q-od, and an assertion, far stronger than was its destruction by death, of the sovereign power and dominion of Him who is the Author of Life. Then will the complete body of the Word Incarnate ascend, like purest inoense, from the holy mount whereon the Church had fixed her tent here below, and make its way even to the Altar of heaven ; it will be the eternal aliment of the divine flame, the immense holocaust, in which "the city of the redeemed, the people of the " saints, will be offered to God, as the universal sacri- " fioe, by the great High Priest, who offered himself " for us, in his Passion, in the form of a servant and "slave, that we might be the body of so great a "Head." 1

In this " universal Sacrifice," as we have just heard St, Augustine calling it, in this Sacrifice of adoration

• St Aug. Be ctvit, Dei y x. 6. and thanksgiving, wherein expiation will no longer have part, the very spirits of the angelio hosts will be included ; for they, too, are the Saorifice of the Lord, making up, together with ourselves, the one only City of God of which the Psalm sings. 1 St. Cyril of Alexandria, thus speaks on the Angels forming part of the "universal Sacrifice" : " We have all received of the "fulness of Christ, as St. John tells us ; for every orea- " ture, not only visible but invisible, also, receives of " Christ ; for the Angels and Archangels, and the spirits " that are above these, and, finally, the very Cherubim, " are sanctified in the Holy Ghost, not otherwise than " by Christ alone. So that He (Christ) is the Altar, " He is the Incense, He is the High Priest, just as He " is the blood of the cleansing away of sins." 2

Having, therefore, as our great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God, who, by one oblation, hath perfected for ever the holy City, — let us hold fast the teaching of this glorious faith. 3 As the high priest of old, went, on the day of Atonement, himself alone, into the Holy of Holies, holding in his hands the blood of. propitiation, — so our High Priest, Jesus, having purchased eternal redemption for us, has withdrawn himself, for a time, from our sight. 4 Minister of the true sanctuary and tabernacle, set up by God himself, 5 we have seen this Jesus of ours entering, by his triumphant Ascension, beyond the veil ; and that veil is still down, hiding God's sovereign Majesty from our view. There, in the sanctuary of heaven, is he celebrating, and with unbroken unity, the rite of his Sacrifice, presenting thereby, to his Father, in the human nature which he has assumed, and which is now marked with the bright stigmata of his Passion, the august Victim, whose immolation here on earth called for the consummation in heaven. Meanwhile,

1 S. Aug. Be civit. 7 ; and in Ps.lxxxvi. 4 Heb. ix. 12, 24.

2 De adorat in spir. et ver. y lib. ix. 5 Ibid. viii. 2, 'Heb.iv. 14 ;x. 14 as, heretofore, the people of Israel awaited the high priest's return out of the Holy of Holies, so, too, we Christians here below, keep close to our Priest, and and are ever at prayer round the Altar which is in the outer court. "It is the day of atonement," says Origen, "and it lasts till the setting sun, that is, till " the world oomes to an end. We stand nigh the " door, awaiting our High Priest who is within the " Holy of Holies, praying, not for the sins of all, but " for the sins of them that are awaiting him. . . * " There were two portions of the holy place, as we are " told by Soripture : one was visible, and accessible " to all the priests ; but the other was invisible, and " no one might enter into it, save only the High " Priest, and, whilst he was there, the rest stood " outside ; I believe that by this first portion is to be " understood the Church wherein we now are, whilst " in the flesh ; in this portion priests are ministering " at the altar of holocausts which is fed by that fire " of which our Jesus speaks, saying : I came to cast fire " on the earth, and I will it to be enkindled. .... It " is there, in that first portion, that the High Priest " offers the victim ; and it is thence, also, that he " goes forth, in order to enter into the inner veil, the " second portion, which is heaven itself, and the " throne of God. But, take notice of the wonderful " order of the mysteries : the fire which he takes " with him into the Holy of Holies, he takes from " the altar of that first portion ; and the incense, he " takes it from that same portion ; yea, and the vest- " ments wherewith he is robed, ho received them in " that same place." 1

Nor is that all : even after his departure, the fire of the Sacrifice is not extinguished in the outer court ; and the victim of Atonement, whose Blood gives him admission into the most holy sanctuary, continues to burn, and be offered on our outer Altar.

• In Levit. Horn, ix,

MASS.,

This Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi is the second after Pentecost. The Introit is taken from the 17th Psalm, which sings the praises of the God, who protects his people, and delivers them from their enemies. Let us lovingly extol this God, who is our support and our refuge.

INTROIT.

The Lord hath become my Pactus est Dominus pro-

Erotector, and set me at large : tector meus, et eduxit me e hath saved me, because he in latitudinem : salvum me loved me. fecit, qaoniam voluit me.

Pe. I will love thee, 0 Lord, Ps. JDiligam te, Domine, my strength : the Lord is my virtus mea: Dominus finna- support, my refuge, and my mentum meum, et refugium deliverer. Glory, etc. The meum, et liberator meus.

Lord, etc. Gloria Patri. Pactus est.

In the Collect, the Church prays for us, that we may have love and fear of God's holy name. Tea, the fear here spoken of, the fear which ohildren have for their father, does not exclude love ; on the con 1 - trarv it strengthens love, by guarding it against the negligence and oversights, into which oertain souls are led by a false familiarity.

Grant us, 0 Lord, both a constant love and fear of thy holy Name : since thou never withdrawest thy protection from those whom thou solidly groundest in thy love. Through, etc.

VOL. X.

Sancti nominis tui, Domine, timorem pariter et amorem fac nos habere perpetuum quia nunquam tua gubernatione destituis quos in soliditate tuae dilectionis instituis. Per Dominum. 2a

MASS.

COMMEMORATION

Deus qui nobis sub Sacramento mirabili passionis tuee memoriam reliquisti : tribue qusesumus; ita nos Corporis et Sanguinis tui sacra mysteria venerari, ut redemptionis tuse fructum in nobis jugiter sentiamus. Qui vivis.

F CORPUS CHRISTI.

O God, who, under the wonderful Sacrament, hast left us a memorial of thy Passion : grant us, we beseech thee, so to reverence the sacred mysteries of thy Body and Blood, that, in our souls, we may always feel the fruit of thy Eedemption. Who livest, etc.

EPISTLE.

Lectio Epistol beati Johannis Apostoli.

1 Cap. HI.

Charissimi, nolite mirari, si odit vos mundus. Nos scimus quoniam translati siimus de morte ad vitam, quoniam diligimus fratres. Qui non diligit, manet in morte: omnia qui odit fratrem suum, homicida est. Et scitis quoniam omnis homicida non habet vitam aeternam in semetipso manentem. In hoc cognovimus charitatem Dei, quoniam ille an imam suam pro nobis posuit: et nos debemus pro fratribus animas ponere. Qui habuerit substantiam hujus mundi, et viderit fratrem suum necessitatem habere, et clauserit viscera sua ab eo : quomodo charitas Dei manet in eo ? Filioli mei, non diligamus verbo, neque lingua, sed opere et veritate.

Lesson of the Epistle of Saint John the Apostle.

1 Ch. III.

Dearly beloved, wonder not if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother, is a murderer. And ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in himself. In this we have known the charity of God, because he hath laid down his life for us : and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shut up his bowels from him : how doth the charity of God abide in him P My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

These impressive words of the Beloved Disoiple could not have a more appropriate oooasion for their being addressed to the faithful, than this joyous Octave. God's love for us is both the model and motive of that whioh we owe to our fellow-men ; the divine charity is the type of ours. 1 have given you an example, says our Lord, that, as I have done unto you, so ye may also do. 1 If, then, he has gone so far as to lay down his life for us, we, also, shoukLbe ready, if occasion so required, to lay down ours, in order to procure our neighbour's salvation ; and still more ready to help him, to the best of our power, when he is in need ; we should love, not in word, or in tongue, but in deed, and in truth.

Now the divine memorial, which is shining on us in all its splendour, what else is it, than an eloquent demonstration of infinite love ? A living remembrance, and abiding representation of that Death of our Lord, upon which the Apostle bases his argument.

Hence it was, that our Divine Master deferred his promulgation of the law of fraternal love, whioh he came upon our earth to establish, till he instituted the holy Sacrament, whioh was to give the strongest support to the observance of that law. No sooner has he effeoted the august mystery, no sooner has he given himself to mankind under the sacred species, than he exclaims : A new commandment I give unto you ; — and this is my commandment : — that ye love one another, as I have loved you. 2 Truly, the commandment was a new one, considering that the world, to which it was given, had egotism as its leading law. This new commandment was to be the distinctive mark of all Christ's Disciples, 8 and, as one of the shrewd observers of these early pagan times says, consign them to the hatred of the

1 St. John, xiii. 15. * Ibid. xiii. 34 ; xv, 12

8 St. John, xiii. 35.

MASAt human fate? which was in open violation of this law of love. It was in answer to the hostile reception given by the then world to the new progeny, that is, to the Christians, that St. John thus speaks, in the Epistle of this Sunday : Wonder not, dearly beloved, if the world hate you. We, yes we, know, t/iat we have passed from death to life, because we love our brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death.

The union of the members with each other, through their divine Head, is the oondition on which the existence of the Christian religion is based. The Euoharist is the vigorous nourishment of this union ; it is the strong bond of Christ's mystioal body, which, thereby, maketh increase in charity} Charity, therefore, and peace, and concord, are, together with the love of God himself, the best proof that our reception of holy Communion is not turning to our condemnation, and the most needful of all preparations for our participation in the sacred Mysteries. It is the meaning of that injunction of our Lord : If thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there thine offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother ; and then coming, thou shalt offer thy gift. 3

The Gradual, whioh is taken from the Psalms, gives thanks to God for the protection he has accorded us in the past ; and prays for its continuation, seeing that our enemies are as unrelenting as ever.

GRADUAL.

Ad Dominum cum tribu- In my troubles, I cried unto larer clamavi, et exaudivit the Lord, and he heard me. me

Domine, libera animam 0 meam a labiis iniqnis et a lingua dolosa.

Lord deliver my soul from wicked lips and a deceitful tongue. Alleluia, alleluia* Alleluia, alleluia.

Tacitus, Ann. xv. 1 Eph. iv. 16. » St. Matth. v. 23, 24

SUNDAY WITH** THE OCTAVE, #57 f. 0 Lord my God, in thee have I put my trust : save me from those that persecute me, and rescue me. Alleluia. t. Domine Deus mens, in te speravi : salvum me f ac ex omnibus persequentibus me, et libera me. Alleluia.

G08FEL.

Sequel of the holy Gospel according to Lute.

Ch. XIV.

At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to the Pharisees : A certain man made a great supper, and invited many. Ado! he sent his servant, at the hour of supper, to say to them that were invited, that they should come, for now aU things are ready. And they began all at once to make excuse. The first said unto him : I have bought a farm, and must needs go out and see it : I pray thee, hold me excused. And another said : I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them : I pray thee hold me excused. And another said : I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. And the servant returning, told these things to his lord. Then the master of the house, being angry, said unto his servant : go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city ; and bring in hither the poor, and the feeble, and the blind, and the lame. And the servant said : Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant : Go

Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Lucam.

Cap. XIV.

In illo tempore : Dixit Jesus Pharisaeis parabolam hanc : Homo quidam fecit ccenam magnain, et vocavit multos. Et misit servum suum hora coense dicere invitatis ut venirent, quia jam parata sunt omnia. Et coeperunt simul omnes excusare. Primus dixit ei: Villain emi, et necesse habeo exire, et videre illam: rogo te, habe me excusatum. Et alter dixit : Juga bourn emi quinque, et eo probare ilia: rogo te, habe me excusatum. Et alius dixit : Uxorem duxi, et ideo non possum venire. Et reversus servus nuntiavit heec domino buo. Tunc iratus paterfamilias, dixit servo suo : Exi oito in plateas, et vioos civitatis : et pauperes, ao debiles, et oaecos, et claudos introduchuc. Et ait servus: Domine, factum est ut imperasti, et adhuc locus est. Et ait dominus servo: Exi in vias et sepes : et compelle intrare, ut impleatur domus mea. Dico autem vobis, quod nemo virarua illorum,

MASS. qui vocati sunt, gustabit out into the highways, and coenam meam. hedges ; and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. But I say unto you, that none of those men that were invited, shall taste of my supper.

The (Jospel just read was appointed for this Sunday long before the institution of the Corpus Christi feast, as we learn from the Capitulary of Gospels, published by Blessed Thomasi, upon manuscripts much earlier than the 13th Century. 1 The Holy Spirit, who guides the Church in her arrangement of the Liturgy, was thus anticipating and completing the instructions suited for the future grand Solemnity.

The parable here spoken by Jesus at the table of one of the leading Pharisees, 3 was again used by him, when he spoke so strongly in the Temple, a few days previous to his Passion and Death. And what is this Supper, to which many are invited, — what is this Marriage-Feast, — but that which eternal Wisdom has been getting ready, from the very beginning of the world P Nothing could exceed the magnificence of these preparations ; there was a splendid banquet-hall, built on the top of a mountain, 8 and supported by seven pillars 4 of mysterious beauty ; there were the choicest meats, — purest bread, and wine the most delicious, — served up to the King's table. It was with his own hands, that the Wisdom of the Father pressed the rich cluster of Cyprus grapes into the oup; 5 it was He ground down the wheat, that had sprung up, without having been sown, from a soil holy beyond description ; it was Me that immolated the Victim. 6 Israel, the Father's chosen people, 7 was the fortunate

1 Opp. t. v. p. 429. 5 Cant i. 13.

• St. Luke, xiv. 1. 6 Prov. ix. 2.

8 Is. ii. 2. 7 Ecclus. xxiv. 15.

♦ Prov. ix. 1,

8TTNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE. $59 guest invited by the loving kindness of the Master, that is, Wisdom, that is, the Son of the Father ; he had sent messengers without end to the children of Jacob. As we read in the Gospel : The Wisdom of Ood said : " I will send unto them prophets and apostles} " But this favoured people, this loved one, as the Book of Deuteronomy says, grew fat, and kicked, that is, it abused the gifts bestowed on it ; it seemed to study how to provoke the anger of God its Saviour, by despising his invitations, and going their ways. 1 This daughter of Sion in her adulterous pride, preferred the bill of divorce to the Marriage- f east ; 8 Jerusalem rejeoted the heavenly messengers, and. killed the prophets, 4 and crucified the Spouse himself.

But, even so, eternal Wisdom still offers the first plaoe at the Supper to the ungrateful children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jaoob ; he does so, because of those saintly fathers of theirs. Yes, it is to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, that are first sent the Apostles. 5 " What delicate attention ! " may we justly exclaim with St. John Chrysostom. " Before " his Cruoifixion, Christ calls the Jews ; he does the " same after it, he goes on inviting them. Instead " of crushing them with a terrible chastisement, as it " seemed most just he should do, he invites them to " a Marriage ; he loads them with honours. But " they that have slain his prophets, and murdered " even Him, — these same, invited so pressingly by " such a Spouse, urged so lovingly to go to the Wed- "ding, and that by the very Viotim of their own " making, — these same, I say, pay no regard to the "invitation, and give, as an excuse, their yoke of " oxen, and their wives, and their estates ! " 6 Soon,

1 St. Luke,xi. 49. 2 Deut. xxxii. 15. s Is.l. 1.

• St. Matth. xxiii. 34-37.

« Ibid. x. 6; .Acts, xiii.;46.

8 Freely from Mom 69, in Matth,

MASS. these Priests, these SoribeB, these hypocrite Pharisees, mil persecute and day these Apostles also ; and the Servant of our parable will find none in Jerusalem, whom he can induce to come to the Master's Supper, except the poor, and little, and sickly ones, of the roads and by-lanes, with whom there is no ambition, or avarice, or pleasure, to keep them from the divine banquet. tiles, — that great mystery of a new people being substituted for the former one, in the covenant with Jehovah. "The Marriage of my Son is, indeed, . " ready," will God the Father say to his servants ; " bid they that were invited, were not worthy. Oo ye " therefore : abandon the wicked city that hath not ** known her time, and my visit f go ye into the high- " ways, and hedges, and countries of the Gentiles ; and, " as many as ye shall find, call ye to the Marriage /"* 0 ye Oentiles ! praise the Lord for his mercy fl Ton have been invited, without any merits of your own, to a feast that was prepared for another people ; take heed, lest you incur the reproach given to the intended guests, who were excluded from the promises made to their fathers. 0 thou lame one, and blind, that hast been called from the by-path of thy sin and misery, hasten to the holy table ! But, then, take care, out of respect to Hiih who calls thee, to put off the rags of thy former life ; and quickly put on the wedding-garment ! The invitation given thee has made a queen of thy soul ; " give her, then, the pur- "ple robe and diadem, and set her on a throne! " Think of the Marriage thou art invited to attend, — the Marriage of God ! Oh ! the soul that goes to " it, should be clad and decked with a garment richer " than all the garments of earth ! " 3

1 St. Matth, xxii. 8-14 ; St. Luke, xix. 44. realised the vocation of the Gen-

• Rom. xv. 9.

8 From St. John Chrys. ubi supra.

Like the Gradual, the Offertory is an earnest prayer for God's help ; it is his mercy that enoourages the soul to make this prayer.

OFFERTORY.

Turn to me, O Lord, and Domine, convertere, et deliver my soul : 0 save me, eripe animam meam : salfor thy mercy's sake. vum me fac propter miseri- cordiam tuam.

In the Secret, the Church prays for the twofold effect of the holy Sacrament, in the transformation of man's soul : purification from the remnants left by sin, and progress in the works which lead to life everlasting.

SECRET.

Oblatio nos, Domine, tuo Nomini dicanda purificet: et de die in diem ad coelesvitse transferat actionem, etc. Per Dominum.

May this Sacrifice, offered to thy Name, purify us, 0 Lord : and make us, every day, advance towards a hea- tis venly life. Through,

COMMEMORATION OF CORI'US CHRISTI.

Ecclesise tuae, qusesumus, Domine, unitatis et pacis propitius dona concede : sub oblatis muneribus etc. mystice designantur. Per

Mercifully grant thy Church, 0 Lord, we beseech thee, the gifts of unity and peace, which are mystically represented in qnse these offerings. Through,

Dominum.

During the Communion, holy Church enriched as she is with heavenly favours, pours forth her gratitmde towards Him, who, though the Most High God, is, also, her Spouse, and loads her with exquisite gifts,

MASS.

COMMUNION.

Cantabo Domino, qui I bona tribuit mihi, et psallam nomini Domini altis- will sing unto the Lord, who hath bestowed good things on me, and I will sing simi. a psalm to the name of the

Lord, the Most High.

Let us pray with the Churoh, in the Postoommunion, that our frequent participation in these sacred Mysteries may not be fruitless in our souls, but may effect with increased assuranoe, the whole work of our salvation,

POSTCOMMUNION.

Sumptis muneribus sacris Haying qusesumus, Domine, ut cum cat nostras salutis effectus. Per Christum. received, O Lord, this sacred oblation, grant, frequentationemvsteriicres- that by frequenting these mysteries, the work of oar salvation may increase.

Through, etc.

COMMEMORATION OF CORPUS CHRIS II.

Fac nos, qusesumus, Do- Grant us, 0 Lord, we be- mine, divinitatis tuse sem- seech thee, the everlasting piterna fruitione repleri : possession of thyself : as a quam pretiosi Corporis et pledge of which, we have

Sanguinis tui temporalis received thy Body and Blood, perceptio prs&figurat. Qui Who livest, etc. vivis.

VESPEKS.

The Vespers for this Sunday within the Ootave of Corpus Christi, are the same as those of the Feast itself (page 294), excepting what follows :

CAPITTJLUM.

(1 St. John, in.)

Dearly beloved, wonder not if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. t. He hath fed them with the fat of corn, alleluia.

&. And hath filled them with honey from the rock, alleluia.

Chariesimi, nolite mirari, si odit vos mundus. Nos scimus quoniam translati 8umus de morte ad vitam, quoniam diligimus fratres. y. Cibavit illos ex adipe frumenti, alleluia.

Et de petra, melle saturavit eos, alleluia.

ANTIPHON OF THE MAGNIFICAT.

Ant. Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city ; and compel the poor and the feeble, the blind and the lame, to come in, that my house may be filled, alleluia.

LET US PRAY.

Grant us, 0 Lord, both a constant love and fear of thy holy Name : since thou never withdrawest thy protection from those whom thou solidly groundest in thy love. Through, etc.

COMMEMORATION

Ant. 0 sacred banquet, wherein Christ is received ; the memorial of his Passion is - celebrated ; the mind is filled

Ant. Exi cito in plateas et vicos civitatis : et pauperes ac debiles, caecos et claudos, compelle intrare, ut impleatur domus mea, alleluia.

OREMUS.

Sancti Nominis tui, Domine, timorem pariter et amorem fac nos habere perpetuum : quia nunquam tua gubernatione destituis, quos in soliditate tuse dilectionis instituis. Per Dominum.

OF THE OCTAVE.

Ant. 0 sacrum convivium, in quo Christus sumitur : recolitur memoria passionis ejus : mens impletur gratia : et futurse'glorise nobis pignus datur, alleluia.

Panem de coalo praestitisti eis, alleluia.

Omne delectamentum in se habentem, alleluia.

0REMTJ8.

Deus, qui nobis sub Sacramento mirabili passionis tuae memoriam reliquisti : tribue, qusesumus, ita nos Corporis et Sanguinis tui sacra mysteria venerari, ut redemntionis tuse fructum in nobis jugiter sentiamus. Qui vivis. with grace; and a pledge of future glory is given unto us, alleluia. y. Thou hast given them bread from heaven, alleluia.

&. Having in it all that is delicious, alleluia.

LET US PEAT.

0 God, who, under the wonderful Saorament, hast left us a memorial of thy Passion : grant us, we beseech thee, so to reverence the sacred mysteries of thy Body and Blood, that, in our souls, we may always feel the fruit of thy Eedemption. Who livest, etc,

The Liturgy given in the Apostolic Constitution*, under the name of St. James, thus continues, after the Trisagim ; it is the Bishop who is speaking :

CON»TITUHO JACOBI.

Sanctus enim vere es ac sanctissimus, altissimus, et superexaltatus in saBcula. Sanctus quoque unigenitus tuus Filius, Doininus noster et Deus, Jesus Ohristus.

Qui ad omnia tibi Deo suo et Patri, turn in yaria creatione, turn in providentia convenienti ministrans, non despexit genus humanum quod peribat : sed post naturalem legem, post legalem admonitionem, post propheticas reprehensiones ; cum legem naturalem una cum lege posita violarent, atque e memoria abjwexent diluvium, confla-

For truly art thou holy, mud most holy, most high and exalted above all for ever. Holy, also, is thine Only Begotten Son, our Lord and God, Jesus Christ.

Who, in all things, ministered to thee his God and Father, both in thy manifold creation, and in thy suitable providence, not despising the human race, that had perished. But, after the law of nature, after the admonition of the law, (of Sinai), after the chidings of the Prophets, — violating both the natural and positive law, forgetting the deluge, the horning of Sodom, the plagues of Egypt, and the extermination of the inhabitants of Palestine, itself was on the verge of total destruction: he> thy Son, willed, by thy consent, to become Man, who was man's Creator ; be under the law, who was the giver of the law; be the victim, who was Priest ; be the sheep, he who was Shepherd. He also appeased thee, his God and Father, and reconciled thee with the world, being made of a Virgin, became flesh, God the Word, the Son Beloved, the first born of every creature, and was, according to the prophecies foretold by him of himself, sprung from the seed of David and Abraham, and of the tribe of Juda.

He was made in the Virgin's womb, who was the Maker of all men that are begotten ; He became Flesh, who was without flesh ; He that was born when time was not, was born in time. He lived in holiness, and taught the truth; he drove every sickness and disease from men ; wrought signs and wonders among the people. He took food, drink, and sleep, who feeds all the needy with nourishment, and fills every living creature with blessing. He made known his Name to them that knew it not ; he put ignorance to night ; he raised up charity ; he fulfilled thy will; he finished the work thou gavest him to do. And when ne had brought all these things to a happy issue, he was betrayed by the man who grationem Sodomitioam plagas iEgyptiis et csedev Paleestinis iUatas, cumqueillioo perituri essent omnes ; ex sententia tua ipse elegit, creator hominis homo fieri, legislator sub legibus, pontifex hostia, pastor ovis ; et te suum Deum ac Patrem placavit atque mundo reconcilia vit, factus ex virgine, factus in came, Deus Verbum, dilectus Filius, primogenitus omnia creatures, et secundum prophetias ab ipso de se praxhctas ortus ex semine Davidis et Abrahami ac de tribu Judse.

Et factus est in utero Virginis, formator omnium qui gignuntur; incarnatus est, qui carnis expers ; qui sine tempore genitus, in tempore natus est; sancte vixit, et legitime docuit ; omnem morbum et omnem infirmitatem ab hominibus expulit ; signa et prodigia in populo edidit : cibum, potum, somnum cepit is qui cunctos alimento indigentes nutrit omneque animal implet beneplacito : manifestavit Nomen tuum iis qui illud ignorabant ; f ugavit ignorantiam ; pietatem exsuscitavit ; voluntatem tuam implevit : opus quod ei dedisti consummavit : atque his omnibus feliciter gestis, pel proditionem illius qui malitise morbo languebat, oomprehensus est manibus flagitiosomm pontificum et populi iniqui; a quibus multa paeans est, et omnem ignoininiam sustinuit, permissu tuo.

Traditus est Pilato prsesidi; judicatus est, Judex; condemnatus est, Salvator; cruci affixus est, qui pati non potest ; mortuus est, natura immortalis ; sepultus est, vitse effector; ut illos propter quos advenerat a passione solveret et a morte eriperet, ut diaboli vincula rumperet illiusque ex fallacia hberaret homines.

Besurrexit e mortuis tertia die : quadraginta diebus commoratus cum discipulis, assumptus est in coelos; et ad dexteram assidet tibi, Deo ac Patri suo.

Itaque memores passionis ejus et mortis, et a mortuis resurrectionis, atque in coelum reditus ; necnon secundi adventus quern idem fac turns est, in quo cum gloria et potestate veniet judicare vivos et mortuos, et reddere singulis juxta opera eorum : tibi regi ac Deo panem hunc et calicem hunc offerimus, secundum constitutionem ejus, gratias tibi per eum agentes. was sick with the disease of wickedness, and (thus betrayed) was seized by the hands of wicked priests and iniquitous people, from whom, by thy permission, he suffered many things, and every kind of insult.

He was delivered up to the governor, Pilate; He, the Judge, was judged; he, the Saviour, was condemned ; he that could not suffer, was nailed to the Cross; he, that by nature was immortal, died ; he, the giver of life, was buried ; that he might loose them, for whose sakes he had come, from suffering and death, that he might break the bonds made by the devil, and deliver men from his deceit.

He rose again, the third day, from the dead; abode forty days with his disciples ; was taken up into heaven, and sits at the right hand of thee, his God and Father.

We, therefore, calling to mind his Passion and Death, and his Resurrection from the dead, and his Return to heaven ; of his second coming, also, which he is to make, in which he will come, with glory and power, to judge the living and the dead, and render to each one according to his works : to thee, King and Gk>d, we offer this Bread and this Chalice, according to his appointment, giving thanks unto thee, through Him.