Chapter the Eighth on the Office of Compline During the Time after Pentecost

This Office, which concludes the day, commences by a warning of the dangers of the night; then immediately follows the public confession of our sins, as a powerful means of propitiating the divine justice, and obtaining God's help, now that we are going to spend so many hours in the unconscious, and therefore dangerous, state of sleep, which is also such an image of death. The lector, addressing the priest, says to him :

Jube, domne benedicere. Pray, father, give thy blessing.

The priest answers :

Noctem quiet am, et finem May the almighty Lord grant perfectum concedat nobis us a quiet night and a perfect

Dominu omnipotens. end.

R. Amen. R. Amen.

The lector then reads these words, from the first Epistle of St. Peter :

Fratres: Sobrii estote et vigilate: quia adversarius vester diabolus tamquam leo rugiens circuit, quserens

Brethren, be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may quern devoret : cui resistite devour: whom resist ye, strong fortes in fide. Tu autem, in faith. But thou, 0 Lord, Domine, miserere nobis. have mercy on us.

The choir answers : B. Deo gratias.

Then the priest :

B. Thanks be to God.

F. Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini.

The choir : B. Qui fecit caelum et ter-

V. Our help is in the name of the Lord.

B. Who hath made heaven and earth.

Then the Lord's Prayer is recited in secret; after which, the priest says the Confiteor, and when he has finished, the choir repeats it.

The priest, having pronounced the general form of absolution, says :

V. Converte nos, Deus, Salutaris noster.

B. Et averte iram tuam a nobis.

V. Deus, in adjutorium meum intende.

B. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.

Gloria Patri.

Ant. Miserere.

V. Convert us, O God our Saviour.

B. And turn away thine anger from us.

V. Incline unto mine aid, 0 God.

B. 0 Lord, make haste to help me. Glory, etc.

Ant. Have mercy.

The first psalm expresses the confidence with which the just man sleeps in peace ; but the wicked know not what calm rest is. psalm 4

Cum invocarem exaudivit me Deus justitise mese : * in tribulatione dilatasti mini.

Miserere mei : * et exaudi orationem meam.

When I called upon him, the God of my justice heard me : when I was in distress, thou hast enlarge/! me.

Have mercy on me : and hear my prayer.

Filii hominum, usquequo gravi corde ? * ut quid cQligitis vanitatem, et qusBritis mendacium ?

Et scitote quoniam mirificavit Dominus sanctum suum : * Dominus exaudiet me, cum clamavero ad eum.

Irascimini, et nolite peccare : * quse dicitis in cordibus vestris, in cubilibus vestris compungimini.

Sacrificate sacrificium justitise, et sperate in Domino: *multi dicunt: Quis ostendit nobis bona ?

Signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui, Domine :* dedisti lsetitiam in corde meo.

A fructu frumenti, vini et oiei sui : * multiplicati sunt.

In pace in idipsum : * dormiam et requiescam.

Quoniam tu, Domine, singulariter in spe : * constituisti me.

O ye sons of meu, how long will ye be dull of heart ? why do ye love vanity, and seek after lying?

Know ye, also, that the Lord hath made his holy One wonderful : the Lord will hear me, when I shall cry unto him.

Be ye angry, and sin not : the things ye say in your hearts, be sorry for them upon your beds.

Offer up the sacrifice of justice, and trust in the Lord : many say, Who showeth us good things ?

The light of thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us: thou hast given gladness in my heart.

By the fruit of their corn, their wine, and oil, they are multiplied.

In peace, in the self-same, I will sleep, and I will rest.

For thou, 0 Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope.

The Church has introduced here the first six verses of Psalm xxx. because they contain the prayer which our Saviour made when dying : Into thy hands, 0 Lord, I commend my Spirit ! — words so beautifully appropriate in this Office of the close of day.

PSALM 80

In te, Domine, speravi, non confundar in seternum : * in justitia tua libera me.

Inclina ad me aurem tuam : * acceleraut eruas me.

Esto mini in Deum protectorem, et in domum refugii : * ut salvum me facias.

In thee, 0 Lord, have I hoped; let me never be confounded: deliver me in thy justice.

Bow down thine ear unto me : make haste to deliver me.

Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a house of refuge, to save me.

7—2

Quoniam fortitude mea, et refugium meum es tu : * efc propter nomen tuum deduces me, et enutries me.

Educes me de laqueo hoc, quern absconderunt mini :* quoniam tu es protector meus.

In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum : * redemisti me, Domine, Deus veritatis.

For thou art my strength, and my refuge : and for thy name's sake, thou wilt lead me, and nourish me.

Thou wilt bring me out of this snare, which they have hidden for me : for thou art my protector.

Into thy hands I commend my spirit : thou hast redeemed me, 0 Lord, the God of truth.

The third psalm gives the motives of the just man's confidence, even during the dangers of the night. There is no snare neglected by the demons ; but the good angels watch over us, with brotherly solicitude. Then we have God Himself speaking, and promising to send us a Saviour.

Qui habitat in adjutorio Altissimi : * in protectione Dei coeli commorabitur.

Dicet Domino : Susceptor meus es tu, et refugium meum, *Deus meus, sperabo in eum.

Quoniam ipse liberavit me de laqueo venantium : * et a verbo aspero.

Scapulis suis obumbrabit tibi : * et sub pennis ejus sperabis.

Scuto circumdabit te Veritas ejus * non timebis a timore nocturno.

A sagitta volante in die, a negotio perambulante in tenebris: ab incursu, et dsemonio meridiano

M 90

He that dwelleth in the aid of the Most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven.

He shall say unto the Lord : Thou art my protector, and my refuge : my God, in him will I trust.

For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters : and from the sharp word.

He will overshadow thee with his shoulders : and under his wings thou shalt trust.

His truth shall compass thee with a shield : thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night.

Of the arrow that flieth in the dav : of the business that walketn about in the dark : of invasion, or of the noonday devil.

Cadent a latere tuo mille, et decern millia a dextris tuis : * ad te autem non appropinquabit.

Yerumtamen ooulis tuis considerabis : * et retributionem peccatorum videbis.

Quoniam tu es, Domine, spes mea : * Altissimum posuisti refugium tuum.

Non accedet ad te malum : * et flagellum non appropinquabit tabernaculo tuo.

Quoniam angelis suis mandavit de te : * ut custodiant te in omnibus viis tuis.

In manibus portabunt te : * ne forte offendas ad lapidem pedem tuum.

Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis : * et conculcabis leonem et draco - nem.

Quoniam in me speravit, liberabo eum : * protegam eum, quoniam cognovit nomen meum.

Clamabit ad me, et ego exaudiam eum : * cum ipso sum in tribulatione, eripiam eum, et glorificabo eum.

Longitudine dierum replebo eum: *et ostendam illi Salutare meum.

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand ; but it shall not come nigh thee.

But thou shalt consider with thine eyes: and shalt see the reward of the wicked.

Because thou hast said: Thou, 0 Lord, art my hope: Thou hast made the Most High thy refuge.

There shall no evil come unto thee, nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling.

For he hath given his angels charge over thee : to keep thee in all thy ways.

In their hands they shall bear thee up : lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Thou shalt walk upon the asp and basilisk : and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon.

God will say of tliee : Because he hoped in me, I will deliver him : I will protect him, because he hath known my name.

He will cry unto me, and I will hear him : I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.

I will fill him with length of days : and I will show him my salvation.

The fourth psalm invites the servants of God to persevere, with fervour, in the prayers they offer during the night. The faithful should say this psalm in a spirit of gratitude to God, for raising up in the Church adorers of His holy name, whose grand vocation is to lift up their hands, day and night, for the safety of Israel. On such prayers depend the happiness and the destinies of the world. psalm 188

Eoce nunc benedicite Dominum : * omnes servi Domini.

Qui statis in domo Domini : *in atriis domus Dei nostri.

In noctibus extollite manus vestras in sancta : * et benedicite Dominum.

Benedicat te Dominus ex Sion: *qui fecit coelum et terram.

Ant. Miserere mihi, Domine, et exaudi orationem meam.

Behold ! now bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord.

Who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.

In the nights, lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless ye the Lord.

Say to Israel : May the Lord, out of Sion, bless thee, he that made heaven and earth.

Ant. Have mercy on me, 0 Lord, and hear my prayer.

HYMN

Te lucis ante terminum, Berum Creator, poscimus, Ut pro tua dementia, Sis prsesul et custodia.

Procul recedant somnia, Et noctium phantasmata; Hostemque nostrum cornprime, Ne polluantur corpora.

Prsesta, Pater piissime, Patrique compar Unice, Cum Spiritu Paraclito Begnans per omne sseculum.

Amen.

Before the closing of the light, we beseech thee, Creator of all things ! that, in thy clemency, thou be our protector and our guard.

May the dreams and phantoms of the night depart from us ; and do thou repress our enemy, lest our bodies be profaned.

Most merciful Father! and thou, his only-begotten Son, co-equal with him, reigning for ever, with the holy Paraclete, grant this our prayer !

Amen.

According to the monastic rite, as follows :

Te lucis ante terminum, Berum Creator, poscimus, Ut solita dementia Sis prsesul ad custodiam.

Procul recedant somnia Et noctium phantasmata ;

Hostemque nostrum comprime, Ne polluantur corpora.

Prsesta Pater omnipotens, Per Jesum Christum Dominum, Qui tecum in perpetuum Begnat cum sancto Spiritu.

Amen.

OAPITULUM

{Jeremia xiv.)

Tu autem in nobis es, Domine, et nomen sanctum tuum invocatum est super nos : ne derelinquas nos, Domine, Deus noster.

B. In manus tuas, Domine: * Commendo spiritum meum. In manus tuas.

V. Redemisti nos, Domine Deus veritatis. * Commendo.

Gloria. In manus tuas.

V. Custodi nos, Domine, ut pupillam oculi.

B. Sub umbra alarum tuarum protege nos.

But thou art in us, 0 Lord, and thy holy name hath been invoked upon us: forsake us not, 0 Lord, our God.

B. Into thy hands, 0 Lord :* I commend my spirit. Into thy hands.

V. Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord God of truth. * I commend.

Glory. Into thy hands.

V. Preserve us, O Lord, as the apple of thine eye.

B. Protect us under the shadow of thy wings.

The canticle of the venerable Simeon — who, while holding the divine Infant in his arms, proclaimed Him to be the light of the Gentiles, and then slept the sleep of the just— is admirably appropriate to the Office of Compline. Holy Church blesses God for having dispelled the darkness of night by the rising of the Sun of justice ; it is for love of Him, that she toils the whole day through, and rests during the night, saying: 'I sleep, but my heart watcheth.'1

CANTICLE OF SIMEON

(St. Luke ii.)

Nunc dimittis servum Now dost thou dismiss thy tuum, Domine : * secun- servant, 0 Lord, according to dum verbum tuum in pace, thy word, in peace.

Quia viderunt oculi mei : Because mine eyes have seen * salutare tuum. thy salvation, i Cant. v. 2.

Quod parasti : * ante faciem omnium populorum.

Lumen ad revelationem Gentium : * et gloriam plebis tuae Israel.

Gloria.

Ant. Salva nos, Domine, vigilantes ; custodi nos dormientes, ut vigilemus cum Christo, et requiescamus in pace.

OREMUS

Visita, quaesumus, Domine, habitationem istam, et omnes insidias inimici ab ea longe repelle : angeli tui sancti habitent in ea, qui nos in pace custodiant : et benedictio tua sit super nos semper. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus sancti Deus, per omnia seecula saeculorum. jB. Amen.

V. Dominus vobiscum.

B. Et cum spiritu tuo.

V, Benedicamus Domino.

B. Deo gratias.

Benedicat et custodiat nos omnipotens et misericors Dominus, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus sanctus.

B. Amen.

Which thou hast prepared ; before the face of all peoples.

A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

Glory, etc.

Ant. Save us, O Lord, while awake, and watch us as we sleep, that we may watch with Christ, and rest in peace.

LET US PRAY

Visit, we beseech thee, 0 Lord, this house and family, and drive from it all snares of the enemy : let thy holy angels dwell herein, who may keep us in peace, and may thy blessing be always upon us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.

B. Amen.

V. The Lord be with you.

B. And with thy spirit.

V. Let us bless the Lord.

B. Thanks be to God.

May the almighty and merciful Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, bless and preserve us.

B. Amen.

ANTHEM TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN

Salve, Begina, mater raise ricordise.

Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.

Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Evas.

Ad te suspiramus, gemen-

Hail, holy Queen, mother of mercy.

Our fife, our sweetness, and our hope, all hail !

To thee we cry, poor banished children of Eve ;

To thee we send up our tes et flentes in hac lacrymarum valle.

Eia, ergo advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte ;

Et Jesum benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exilium ostende ;

0 clemens,

O pia,

0 dulcis Virgo Maria.

V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix. jR. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.

Turn, then, most gracious advocate 1 thine eyes of mercy towards us ;

And, after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus ;

0 merciful,

0 kind,

0 sweet Virgin Mary ! V. Pray for us, 0 holy Mother of God, B. That we may be worthy Christ. made of the promises of

LET US PRAY

0 almighty and everlasting God, who, by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, didst prepare the body and soul of Mary, glorious Virgin and Mother, to become the worthy habitation of thy Son : grant that we may be delivered from present evils, and from everlasting death, by her gracious intercession, in whose commemoration we rejoice. Through the same Christ our Lord. B. Amen.

F. May the divine assistance remain always with us. B. Amen.

Then in secret Pater, Ave, and Credo ; page 12.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui gloriosse Virginia Matris M arise corpus et animam, ut dignum Filii tui habitaculum effici mereretur, Spiritu sancto cooperante, praeparasti : da ut cujus commemoratione lsetamur, ejus pia intercession ab instantibus malis et a morte perpetua liberemur. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum.

B. Amen.

V. Divinum auxilium maneat semper nobiscum. B. Amen.

1 In the monastic rite this response is as follows : B. Et cum fratribus no- B. And with our stris absentibus. Amen. brethren. Amen. absent

PEOPEE OF THE TIME

The liturgical season, over which presides the Spirit of sanctification and love, has commenced its career amidst the brightness of a light, which is new both for the Church and for the Christian soul. The weak eye of our intellect, veiled by the protecting cover of faith, has ventured to gaze on the deep things of God; in the midst of the eternal relations which make up the holy Trinity, we have been enabled to discern those sublime links which exist between each of the divine Persons and man, nothingness though he be by his own origin. Then, too, we have been given to know Him who is eternal Wisdom, in the feast of the Eucharist ; and through the revelation there made to us of the divine love for mankind, we understood why the world has been created. Beyond these grand teachings given to us by the bright festivals, first of Trinity Sunday, and then of Corpus Christi, we have had the sacred Heart of Jesus repeating to us, and summing up in itself, all these mysteries ; that divine Heart was revealed to us as the source of supernatural life, as the organ of praise, as the centre where the love of God for man, and the love of man for God, were united. All this has filled the whole earth with the magnificence of the supernatural order.

With these three bright mysteries the Holy Ghost has begun His reign. Our Emmanuel Himself, during His sojourn upon our earth, did not shed such light as this upon us. True, our Emmanuel was Himself the light ; 2 and the Holy Ghost, far from revealing to us any new dogmas, does but remind the world of the truths taught it by

1 1 Cor. ii. 10. 2 St. John viii. 12. 3 Ibid. xiv. 26.

Him who is ever the true master and teacher of His Church. How, then, is it that the light becomes doubly strong immediately Jesus leaves us ? How comes it that the Holy Ghost, who was not to speak of Himself, no sooner descends upon us than we are enabled to see the heavenly mysteries with such intensified clearness ? Let us master the lesson involved in all this.

The Holy Ghost does not speak of Himself, and yet He teaches divinely. It is from the Word that He receives what He tells to our earth; He hearkens to that Word, and says the same things Himself ; but He says them in His own way.

The eternal Word is the one only word spoken from the very commencement of creation ; its varied utterances have filled the whole earth ; its divine teaching has been heard, day telling it unto day, and night unto night. And yet, this almighty voice of Wisdom, which penetrateth into the bottom of the deep, was but too frequently allowed to speak unnoticed. The light shone in the darkness, but the darkness would not be removed, as the Church reminded us during the season of Advent, when the four weeks of those wintry, dark days told us how man, for four thousand years, had abased the very light of his reason by making it serve to put out the light of the divine Word. 10 During all this long period the Word had sought, though in vain, to put the imprint of Himself upon the successive generations. That period transpired, and He came down upon earth, there to take up His abode, and converse with men, and, with His own lips, to give to the world the unreserved

1 St. John xiii. 13.— St. Matt, xxiii. 8-10, xxviii. 19, 20.

2 Ibid. xvi. 13. 3 Ibid. * Ibid. 14.

6 Ibid. 13. 6 Ps. xviii. 3. 7 Wisd. xviii. 15.

8 Ecclus. xxiv. 8. 9 St. John i. 5. 10 Bom. i. 18-23. 11 Heb. i. 1, 2, xi. 3. 12 Baruch. iii. 88. 12 gt. John xv. 15. heavenly message of light and truth. The children of Adam heard with their own ears, and saw with their own eyes, and touched with their very hands, the word of life, the Word made Flesh. And yet, in spite of all this condescension and intimacy, even the very men who enjoyed most of His presence — those men who were selected to become the messengers of His word, and to be His heralds and His witnesses to the nations, — failed to take in the light of that kingdom of God, which shone so strongly, so directly, upon them. Yes, even for these future sowers of the word in the souls of men, our Emmanuel, during His mortal life among them, was always a hidden God, a word not understood. He lovingly complained of all this, when wishing them farewell at the last Supper! But, if we rightly appreciate that complaint, it was not so much a reproach made to His disciples as an earnest prayer offered to His Father, 10 beseeching Him to send down that creating Spirit, who alone could transform those hearts, rid them of their innate weakness, and fill them, as the Church expresses it, with the warmth of the Word.

For there is the secret of success : the incomparable teaching of the Spirit of love. How universal and how grand soever was the manifestation of Himself offered to the minds of men by the Word; how intimate and familiar soever were the conversations of our Emmanuel with those whom He had graciously selected as His friends. In both cases the truth made no way beyond the outside; the teaching went no farther than the

1 1 St. John i. 1. a Ibid. 14. 3 St. Luke L 2.

4 Acts i. 8. 6 St. Luke viii. 10. 6 Ibid. 11.

7 Isa. xlv. 15. 8 St. Luke xviii. 34. 9 St. John xiv. 9.

10 Ibid. 16. 11 Ps. ciii, 3Q. la Hymn for Matins of Whit-Sunday. 18 St. John i. 9. 14 Ibid. xv. 15. exterior ; like the material sun, the reflection of the eternal light was but on the surface, it did not penetrate into the depths of men's souls. The Holy Ghost, on the contrary, like an impetuous stream, flowed into man's heart, bringing with Himself, into the inmost recesses of the creature, substantial and living truth. The Man-God had foretold this to His disciples. He had said to them : * These things which I have spoken unto you, while abiding with you, the Paraclete will teach them all to you more efficaciously, for He will not only abide with you, but will be in you. The truths which you could not bear now, you shall have from Him; He will lead you into the whole truth.'4

It is the office of the Holy Ghost to act, rather than to speak. He is, so to say, less intent on proclaiming the truth than on realizing it, by sanctification, in the Church and in the soul. * The Spirit,' says St. Cyril of Alexandria, ' has a marvellous school of His own in the saints: He does more than speak ; He produces knowledge by an efficient demonstration — that is, He passes on to the creature what belongs to God; He makes us partakers of the divine nature.'6 Not only, therefore, does He purify the senses, and cleanse th interior eye from its imperfections : but, moreover, in virtue of that sanctifying action which is His special attribute, He establishes, in the very midst of the regenerated creatures, that kingdom of God whose hidden excellences were declared by Jesus to the as yet ignorant fishermen of Galilee. No sooner has the Holy Ghost done this His work in the soul, than all doubt, all gross ignorance and

1 Ps. xlv. 5. 2 St. John xiv. 25. a Ibid. 17. 4 Ibid. xvL 12, 13, juxta grcec,

6 In Johan. Lib. x. et xi., passim. 6 2 St. Pet. i. 4

7 St. Luke xvii. 21. * St. John i. la error, are at an end. The only obscurity left is that of faith, which as yet sees not, but knows, and possesses by the Spirit the gifts of God. Man, thus renewed, comprehends, as the apostle assures us, what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth of the teachings of our Emmanuel ; for it is Christ Himself who, through the Paraclete, dwells in our hearts, and fills them with the fulness of God.

St. Cyril admirably develops all this in the treatise we have already quoted. Amongst other things, he says that, as the sweet fragrance of a flower which makes itself felt to our senses seems to be doing nothing else but telling us about the flower itself, so the holy Spirit, when He leads us to the plenitude of truth, does nothing else than infuse into us the mystery of Christ. The silent operation of the Paraclete is ever revealing to our mind, and applying to our soul, the power and hidden mysteries of the Incarnation. He is the Spirit of truth ; but what is the truth but Christ Himself, who, in His person and His perfections, dwells, through the Holy Ghost, in holy souls ? If the Incarnate Word, in His visible presence, has been taken from among us, it is for no other purpose than that He may manifest Himself to our souls — the manifestation best becoming a God. When, therefore, our Lord tells us, and when His apostles repeat the announcement, that He is going to teach us all things by the Holy Ghost, we must not suppose that He is hereby intending to pass us on to some other master than Himself. No; according to the promise He made us, He dwells in pure souls ; He reveals Himself to them in an unspeakable manner ; He, as their Head,

1 1 Cor. ii. 12. 2 2 St. Pet i. 4. 3 Eph. iii. 16-19.

4 St John xiv. 17. 6 Ibid. 6. 6 Ibid. 26.

7 Eph. i. 17 ; iii. 16. 8 St. John xiv. 21. directs them in all their ways ; only, He does all this by His Spirit. For the Spirit is the author of sanctification ; and what is this sanctification but the transformation of a creature into the image of Him who saith unto us : ' Be ye holy, because I the Lord your God am holy'1? Now, the one perfect and beautiful image of God, the divine seal which impresses on our souls a likeness of the Father's face, is no other than the eternal Son of that Father. The Word, in His sacred Humanity, sanctified Himself, together with us, and for us, by anointing the temple of His body with the holy Spirit. With and by that Spirit He transforms us, from brightness unto brightness, on the type and model of His sacred Humanity ; He is born again and grows in each of us, by the incorporation of the mysteries of His deifying life.

Christians ! you were made sad, a few days back, on hearing of the speedy departure of your Jesus ; learn, now, that your sadness must give place to joy, for this our Emmanuel, though He has ascended into heaven, has not left our earth. Jesus Christ yesterday, and to-day, and the same for ever. He is the one sole object of the Father's good pleasure, the one sole worthy instrument of God's glory, who centres into His own unity the divine plan for the sanctification of the elect. So far, then, is the glorious Pentecost from separating us from Jesus, our divine exemplar and guide, by means of the coming of the Holy Ghost, that the very contrary is the result ; the Paraclete comes upon this earth, in order that he may make all the closer the union between the Head and the

1 Lev. xix. 2. 2 Ps. iv. 7. 8 St. John xvii. 19.

4 Ibid. ii. 21. 6 2 Cor. iii. 18. 6 Gai iv. 19.

7 S. Cyril Alex. In Johan., lib. i., ix., x., xi. ; De Trinit. Dial. iv., v. ; et alibi passim. * St. John xvi. 6. 8 Heh. xiii. 8. 10 St Matt. xvii. 5. members ; He comes that He may, by faith and love, make us one with Him, who alone is holy, as He alone is Lord, and alone most high, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever !

Now, let us *think on what the Church's liturgy is with regard to all this. We have passed one half of the Church's year ; from Advent up to this present day we have celebrated the several seasons with her ; and what have they all been but so many ascensions (as the psalmist calls them), so many steps, gradually leading up to that summit of perfect justice, where the holiness of Christ's Church has been consummated in union. Though a humble daughter of earth, yet did the Son of God, even from the day of eternity, love and desire her beauty. This does not mean that any individual of the fallen human family, which had to form the members of this bride of Jesus, could ever contribute to the Church a loveliness worthy of the King, but it means, that the King Himself, Jesus, the Sun of justice, who had gratuitously set His heart on this His chosen one, had resolved to deck her brow with His own charms. By this His own anticipated gratuity, He found in her that sublime perfection of likeness to the heavenly Father which, being the essential beauty of the Word Himself, was, for that very reason, to constitute the sanctity of the favoured race called by His merciful love from the desert mountains of the Gentiles. Thus was to be fully verified that saying of the apostle, that the Spouse is the image and the glory of God, but the bride is the glory of the Spouse ; and

1 The Hymn Gloria in exceUis. 2 Ps. lxxxiii. 6.

3 Jerem. xxxi. 3. 4 Ps. xliv. 12. 6 Malach. iv. 2.

6 St. Matt.v. 48. 7 Wisd. vii. 26. 8 Cant. iv. 8. y. Cor. xi. 7. that both of them are one, because they both harmonize in the one same divine plan.

Yes, the gentile world, the barren woman despised by the Synagogue, the black inhabitant of the parched deserts of Ethiopia, was to be transformed by grace into the true daughter of the Father, and to become the bride of his Son. Such an adoption, and such a nuptial union, would depend, in part, on the consent of the chosen one ; and not only would her consent be required, but she would also have to do something towards winning her honours, by labouring for them. The liturgy expresses and achieves all this. First of all, there was the season of Advent, a time of expectation and struggle, corresponding to what is called the purgative way. The Son of God was then cleansing the human race from its defilements, removing the obstacles which kept it down. Then followed those rich seasons of the Church, in which Jesus, the divine Spouse, offered Himself to mankind as their model, and light and guide, all for the purpose of bringing them up to the divine ideal which they were to reproduce in themselves. It is called the illuminative way. During those mystic seasons, Jesus showed Himself to His Church, by again treading the royal way of His mysteries. He drew her after Him, in the fragrance of His footsteps, from Bethlehem to the Jordan, from Mount Quarantine to the cross on Calvary's top, and thence to the glorious sepulchre. In each stage of His life's mysteries, He so deeply imprinted on the Church the divine likeness of His sacred Humanity that she stood before Him as the new Eve, taken out of the Man-God, and formed of His substance. The Lord God, the eternal Father,

1 1 Cor. xi. 11. 2 1 Kings ii. 5.

3 Cant. i. 4, 5, iv. 8; Soph. iii. 10. 4 Exod. xxv. 40.

6 St. John viii. 12. 6 Num. xxi. 22. 7 Cant. i. 3. 8 Gen. ii. 23. is rejoiced that the new Adam is no longer alone ; He has found the helper like unto Himself, which neither earth nor heaven had been able to give Him. The first Adam did not so ardently love her whom he declared to be flesh of his flesh, as the Word does that glorious Church, His bride, who hath neither spot nor wrinkle, but is all beautiful with His holiness upon her. She has no life of her own ; the only life she can henceforth possibly live is the life of her divine Spouse. That life has been worked into her by the stupendous power of the mysteries celebrated by her in the previous seasons of the divine liturgy ; — let Pentecost come, let the breath of the sanctifying Spirit make itself felt upon her, and Jesus and His Church will be one * spirit, one body. The departure of the Man-God in His triumphant Ascension was not an abandonment of His Church. On the contrary, desirous to accomplish the mystery of divine union with her, which had been so long in preparation, He returned, as the psalmist expresses it, on the wings of the winds, to that sanctuary of the Godhead, where from the Father and the Son proceeds the third Person, the Spirit of love. He ascended into heaven, that He might send this Spirit upon the children of men, and send Him directly from His eternal source.

The Spirit came down. The annals of holy Church then began their course on earth ; for it was then alone, thanks to the permanent and intimate union of which this holy Spirit is the cause, that she could begin to receive, from her divine Head Jesus, movement and life. Were the union transient, were it to fail for a single instant, the incomparable bride of the Son of God would be

1 Gen. ii. 18-20. 2 Eph. v. 25-27. 3 1 Cor. xi. 8, 9. 4 Ibid. vi. 17. 5 Eph. i. 23. 6 Cant. viii. 14.

7 Ps. ciii. 8. 8 gt# j0hn xvi. 7.

8—2 separated from her Spouse ; and thus forfeiting the principle and reason of her existence, she would cease to be. Hence it follows that the unitive way is as essential to the Church as the purgative and illuminative ways. Moreover, it belongs to her alone ; it is her privilege and her secret as bride of the Incarnate Word. Consequently, it is only by uniting himself with the Church, by being a member of this one bride of Christ Jesus, that the Christian, thus hiding himself with Christ in God, can reach those high degrees of divine charity where Jesus so masters the powers of mortal man, that, even here below, they derive from Him their whole movement and life. On the other hand, there is not one among the baptized who, by the mere fact of his being thereby incorporated into the Church of Christ, may • not be led to a greater or less degree of that inner life of union. If there be few who enjoy the privilege offered them, it is because the majority correspond with grace too feebly or inconstantly.

And here we are not expressly speaking of those exceptional favours which form the special object of mystic theology. Favours of that kind produce those extraordinary states which are of heaven rather than of earth. In such states, the Spirit of God is not merely treating the favoured souls as the Scripture describes where it speaks of the eagle enticing its young ones to fly to the mountain-top ; He seems impatient of the tedious exile, suddenly carries off the astonished and passive soul, and leads her, through unknown paths, right up to the throne of God. There, standing on the shore of the crystal sea of light which inundates the blessed, she is ravished with the music of heaven. At times there is something even more exquisite than that

1 Cant. vi. 8. 2 Col. iii. 3. « Gal. ii. 20.

• Deut. xxxii. 11, 6 Apoc. iv. 6. 6 Ibid. xv. 2. granted to such a privileged soul ; God takes her to Himself, and speaks to her mysterious words and ineffable secrets; and, when she returns to herself, she is all inebriated with love and impressed with the divine communications wherewith she has been entrusted, and which human language is too poor to hold or to utter. The noblest and sublimest pages of the Church's history, which relate the lives of the saints, abound with instances of favours like these. They manifest to us creatures that the great Creator is master to prove, when it pleases Him, the independence and the power of His love. And yet He has not promised any mortal such marvellous favours as these. Though they are not so rare as the world supposes, they are, nevertheless, beyond and above the normal and ordinary development of the Christian life.

Whilst thus recognizing these extraordinary results of union produced by the Spirit of God in some few of the Church's children, let us reverently pass them by, to speak on that perfection which constitutes the very essence of the unitive way. What, then, is that perfection ? It is divine charity, reigning supreme in the soul of one that has been baptized. Let us recall to mind how, in the presence of the crowds that had come together to hear His words, our Lord Jesus proclaimed from the mount the supernatural vocation of all to perfection and holiness. Did He not thereby distinctly tell us that the way which leads to divine union, understood in this its true meaning, is open to all ? For it is divine union, thus understood, that alone produces perfect holiness. Sex, age, condition, are not obstacles to this divine union, provided the soul in question is really desirous of developing the heavenly germ within, and is faithful to grace. There is no

1 2 Cor. xii. 4. 2 St. Matt. iv. 25 3 Ibid. v. 48. 4 Bom. i. 7. 5 Heb. iii. 14.

Christian who, if thus rightly disposed, may not ascend from the lower degrees, where hope and fear are in the ascendancy, and reach the perfect love of God. And what is this but union ? What is it but an assimilation with Him who, our faith tells us, should be now at once, even in this life, the one object of our desires and thoughts ? If such a soul as that be taught, by faith alone, the glorious relations which grace is meant to produce between her and her God— these relations, though not perhaps felt and relished as is the case in those mysterious communications of which we were just now speaking, are none the less real, and may even be more substantially intimate, than those others. The higher or lower degree of divine union does not depend on the various and always incomplete manifestations which God may vouchsafe to grant a soul in this world ; no, it results from the more or less perfect and constant union of the soul with the divine will ; and this is brought about by progress in justification, and by the exercise of the Christian virtues. Thus God sometimes withholds those mystical favours from His dearest and most faithful servants : and there are generous souls that have never trodden any but the ordinary paths, and yet will be found dearer to the Heart of the Man-God in the next world than many others who, in the days of their mortal life, may have been considered as His special favourites, by reason of the exceptional favours bestowed upon them.

As to these, then, whose union with Christ is that of devoted love kept up by faith alone, they have all the greater need of keeping close to the Church, from the very fact of their not enjoying the direct light and caresses of their Lord. Let them go on courageously, taking comfort from the thought that if the way they are pursuing is more fatiguing, it is also more secure. The Church alone has had the promise made to her of not going wrong while journeying along the paths where precipices abound, and on which the spirit of darkness is ever busily setting snares. Let us, then, keep hold of our mother's hand as we proceed in the unitive way of this Time after Pentecost ; for many a soul has been allured into misery by the deceitful appearance of a spirituality, which promised things far above the common. Woe to the soul that pretends to extraordinary results of divine union by systems which alienate her from the Church! She talks of having special lights from heaven, whereas she is but the dupe of satan, who can put on the appearance of a bright angel. Let her retrace her steps and recover the beaten path ; let her return to her mother ; let her learn from the seraphic St. Teresa, that the essential condition of winning favours from Christ is to be a true ' daughter of the Church ' — a title so dear to the saint that, when on the point of death, she made it the subject of her warmest thanks to God. If our holy mother the Church has sometimes to lament over souls that would have been models of generosity had they but followed her guidance, but who, allowing themselves to be led astray, as Eve was by the serpent, have taken false views, and fallen from the simplicity that is in Christ 3 — what a much more frequent cause of her grief is the sight of those countless Christians who utterly disdain the divine call to union, some from tepidity, some from sloth, some from false humility, and all saying that the low standard of Christian life which they take is all that God has any right to expect from them ! God has put into the Church's heart those two deepest and strongest affections which He has created : the tenderness of a mother and the fervent love of a bride. Imagine, then, how great 1 2 Cor. xi. 13-15. 2 Kibera, lib. iii. c. 15. 3 2 Cor. xi. 13. must be her zeal, and how intense her desire, to win over the whole world to her Jesus, and teach them how to attain union with Him! Like St. Paul, she is jealous with divine jealousy, as she thinks of all those millions of Christians who undervalue the sublime vocation to which they are all created ; those children of hers whom she cannot induce to rise above earthly goods ; and yet these Christians are her own members by Baptism ! She grieves at seeing how her Jesus is treated by the indifference or the half-hearted love of these sluggish members, who yet make up some part of that Body, which she was told to 'present as a chaste virgin to Christ.'2

0 holy Church of Christ, thou art a model for thy children ! Thou art the valiant woman of the Scripture, for it is thy faith alone that keeps up thy union with thy divine Spouse; and this glorious lamp of thine shall not be put out, dark as is the night of the world. Like ourselves, thou hast to love without seeing. Ten days after our Emmanuel had disappeared in a cloud, He sent from heaven the Spirit, who was to animate the bride He had formed for Himself; He would have the Spirit of love, who proceeds from Him, to be the soul of this 'flesh of His flesh.'7 Love became thy life, 0 Church of Jesus ! and yet He, towards whom thou wast irresistibly drawn, withdrew Himself from thy sight. In place of the beloved One, mortal men were commissioned by Him to receive thee at thy birth, and to transmit to thee the testament of His alliance, the dowry of the Blood which had redeemed thee, and all the priceless pledges of divine union. These apostles, these messengers of thy Spouse, who had been eye-witnesses of His works, yet at the

1 2 Cor. xi. 2. a Ibid. 3 Prov. xxxi. 10-31.

4 1 Pet. i. 8. 6 Acts i. 9. 6 Gen. ii. 7.

7 Ibid. 23. 8 Eph. v. 25 ; 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.

/ time understood them so imperfectly; His chosen friends, who had at first no idea of his heavenly designs ; with what humble devotedness, with what enthusiastic fidelity, now that they have been enlightened and inflamed by the same Holy Ghost, do they impart to thee all the exquisite secrets entrusted to them by Jesus, and tell thee all about the most beautiful among the sons of men i Dear Church, not a single word of theirs escaped thee. The sacred pageantry of thy liturgy, wherewith thou each year celebratest the mysteries achieved by the Man-God, is proof enough of how thou hast made the memories of thy Spouse become the very life thou livest. But, thanks to the omnipotent grace of the Holy Ghost, who ever dwells within thee, thy life here below is not merely the charm of the remembered magnificences of thy Jesus' mysteries ; those magnificences, by thy celebration of them, become thy realities, for it is not in name alone that thou art the bride of Him who wrought them. The Holy Ghost, by thy inspired liturgy, puts into thy possession the whole dower of thy Spouse's works. Beautiful land ! where the seed, the word of God, is all thickly sown ! The whole of that land belongeth to the Lord ! Land of beauty, thy ceaseless fertility, which all these ages have not impaired, is evidence enough that thy Beloved, though He has fled away to the everlasting hills, is still thy Sun of justice, and that, even from behind the cloud where He is hid, He darts straight upon thee His life-giving rays.

1 Ps. xliv. 3. * Ps. xxiii. 1. 3 Ps. lxxv. 5.

It is this permanent fact of the union between Christ and His Church, it is the fruit-bearing existence of His bride throughout all ages, that the holy liturgy signifies by the long months of the Time after Pentecost. No wonder that this last season of the liturgical year is as long as, and frequently longer than, all the others put together, because it has for its object, first the real life of the Church which she is living and will live till the end of time, and secondly, that reign of love which is intended to absorb the whole life of every Christian during his sojourn on earth. It is in this season of the Time after Pentecost that Jesus wins the end towards which all His previous labours and mysteries have been directed, that is, the union of His members with Himself, their Head, union which is to be produced by the persevering action of the Holy Ghost. It is now that Incarnate Wisdom, having fuller possession of mankind, produces in them more abundant fruits for His eternal Father. It is the season when the seed of the word, which has been so unstintedly sown by the previous mysteries, is producing perhaps a hundred-fold. Love, now in full power, tells upon the souls of the faithful by prayer, and suffering, and action. Yes, that third result, action, is imperative ; for there is nothing so impossible for genuine love, as false quietude. The absurd pretence of habitually reposing in God without working for Him is a dangerous system, for, under the pretext of letting nothing be in the soul but love, the powers of the soul become clogged ; the action of the Holy Ghost is paralyzed, and, sooner or later, it will seem to a soul who adopts such a spirituality that the exercise of the most indispensable virtues is a distraction, and therefore an imperfection. Perfect love, when it enters a soul, rules all her faculties ; but far from crushing, or even indiscreetly using them, it makes each one of them more vigorous, and each one tends to make love itself more intense. Because of all this, therefore, the Time after Pentecost is the longest season of the liturgical year ; and the Church, during this most precious time, will fill her children with the manifold doctrine included in the action of the Holy Ghost, who is governing us in the unitive way, and is gradually forming in each of us the perfect man, even unto the measure of Christ Himself.

Moreover, this latter portion of the liturgical year teaches us that, from the very fact of the Holy Ghost's leading the Church to divine union, all her labours tend to one result : that one result is religion, or worship of God. The liturgy is the worthy and official expression of the Church's worship of God ; and happy we who have made that liturgy our guide in the ways which lead to God ! As it is with the Church herself, so must it be with us her children : the virtue of religion characterizes every degree of divine union.

As where charity rules the seven great virtues, there supernatural movement and life is most vigorous ; so, where all the acts of virtue, prompted by love, have the glory of God for their aim (and this is religion), there is the most unequivocal proof that the Holy Ghost has worked union in that soul. Religion was the life of Jesus upon earth ; and it is the same now, for He is the eternal High Priest, ever offering sacrifice to the Trinity. So then, if we have attained to any degree of true union with Him, wrought in us by the Holy Ghost, we must have a corresponding degree of religion within us. The apostle tells us that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. We repeat it : seeking to give glory to the blessed Trinity is the characteristic feature of a soul united with Christ Jesus.

1 Eph. iv. 13-15. 2 1 Cor. vi. 17.

The Church's being united to Him necessitated her making religion (or, what is the same, worship) be the very essence of her existence. The magnificent celebrations of her liturgy, joined with the perfect integrity of her faith, will ever distinguish her, amidst the countless sects that lay claim to truth, as the true bride of, and the truly united to, Jesus. Hence, the temple — where God is most solemnly worshipped by the adorable sacrifice, and its accompaniment, its preparation, its sequel, of the choral service of Divine Office — the temple consecrated to God is the Church's home. If she leave it for a time, it is only to bring back with her more and more worshippers. It is there that she convenes her children to join her in celebrating the mysteries wrought by our Lord, or in honouring His blessed Mother, or the angels or the saints. It is there she becomes the joyful mother of children to her Spouse ; there she blesses them with the gifts, and enlightens them with the truth, imparted to her by Him. And as she made His house their happiest dwelling during their life, so, after their death, she would (if men did not interfere with her wishes) have them rest in peace under the shadow of those consecrated walls.

Among the souls whom God has entrusted to the Church's care there are some who are so taken with admiration at her ceaseless voice of praise, breathing forth all over the world hfcr adoring love of her Spouse's works and mysteries and perfections, that they aspire to do in like manner, and keep Uninterrupted company with their mother, who is ever in search of the Beloved ; they will do as she does, that is, have but one thought, one occupation, one ambition : divine union and a life of perfection. The mother gives them a hearty welcome ; she admits them into her closest intimacy ; she gladly and unreservedly imparts to them all her own secrets of how best to please, and how soonest find, their same beautiful Lord. And because they are thus filled with her spirit, the spirit of religion, she distinguishes them from all the rest of her sons 1 Cant. iii. 1, v. 8-16. 2 Ibid. 17. and daughters by the grand title of religious. The world cannot understand them. The life they lead is such a puzzle to them that live a life of very different occupations that it creates a habit of irritation against these men and women who thus live religion. The irritation makes them watchful to discover imperfections; or it makes them ingenious in putting forward theories about the religious state which would minimize its excellence ; or it will make them pull down monasteries, and disband the monks and nuns who live there wasting (!) their lives in the worship of God, in religion towards Him ! All this is quite natural But these religious are one of the most unmistakable manifestations of the Church's union with Christ ; and, for that very reason, no human power can deprive her of that manifestation. She, by being bride of Christ, is one body with Him ; that body exists solely for the purpose of being offered in sacrifice of complete homage to the eternal Father; and the Church fulfils all this fully and unreservedly in those whose whole being, by the vows they make and the sublime consecration given to them by the Church, is absorbed into the religion and the perfect oblation of Christ Jesus, the eternal High Priest.

Though all Christians do not, and cannot, lead the life of religion in the perfect and untrammelled way that we have just been describing, yet are they all called upon, if they would enter heaven, to attain such a degree of union with Christ as will make them His true and real members. Now, that union, even supposing it to be the lowest degree, unites them to the Man-God, who is victim and Priest, and whose oblation is the highest worship that can be given to the most high God. The

1 1 Cor. ii. 14. a- Cant, iii 2-4.

8 Gen. ii. 24. 4 Heb. x. 5-14. apostle teaches us that this union with the Incarnate Word is absolutely requisite for salvation. That union began when we were baptized, when, as the same apostle says, we not only put on Christ, but we were ingrafted into Him as the great Immolated, which the sacred text expresses by the words ' in the likeness of His death.' 3 The unction of the chrism, given to us the moment after Baptism, attests the existence, in all the baptized, of the kingly priesthood, which gives them a share in the oblation (the religion) of the High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ.

These truths form the basis of the moral teaching contained in the Epistles of Saints Peter and Paul. Here, as the purest and sublimest teaching, the science of Christian life is summed up, as might be expected, in our seeking God's glory; in the religion and the sacrifice of the Head, passed on to His members, so that His worship becomes shared in by them. Let us again think on the meaning of that anointing in Baptism, which gives to every Christian the impress of the great High Priest Jesus : it implies, as we have said, the share Christians have in the sacrifice, the religion of Christ ; it enables them to transform into a sharing in Christ's eternal holocaust all their victories over sin, and all their sacrifices, and all their virtuous acts, here on earth. So that the newly-baptized Christian who is just born to the supernatural life could say, as Christ did on His first coming into this world, that he had received his body only for the one purpose of immolating it to God's glory. The Christian is told by St. Paul that he too must present his body a living sacrifice, as a service, a worship, due unto God. Bendered, as he thus is,

1 Rom. viii 29, 80. 2 Gal. iii. 27. 3 Rom. vi. 5.

4 1 St. Pet. ii. 2, 9. . 6 1 Cor. x. 31. « Heb. x. 5. 7 Rom. xii. 1, a sharer in the priesthood of the Man-God, he mast remember what is the purpose of that participated honour : it is, as St. Peter shows him, that he make his good works be so many spiritual sacrifices offered unto God by Jesus Christ, and therefore acceptable.

Those same two apostles teach us that we Christians are also living stones of the temple built by the Holy Ghost on the corner-stone. Nay, that we ourselves are temples; and, as such, we should resemble our Lord in this, as in all other things. Now He, in His sacred Humanity, was the sanctuary of the adorable Trinity. A temple should be what its name implies : therefore, adoration, prayer, praise, and the great sacrifice above all, should be uppermost in our thoughts, and should tell upon our whole conduct ; otherwise the divine Majesty who dwells in us would be justly displeased.

But what is it that makes us sanctuaries of the Divinity? It is the coming into us of the Holy Ghost. The reign of the Paraclete within us puts upon us the sublime obligation of glorifying and carrying God in our bodies. 'If anyone love Me,' said our Lord, ' My Father will love Him* (that is to say, will give him that holy Spirit who is love) ; 8 ' and We will come unto him, and will make Our abode with him/9 The promise was formal ; it was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. The holy Spirit, proceeding from the throne, filled, with the divine stream which flows together with Him from the sacred Heart of Jesus, the baptistery where the Church, in the person of the three thousand

1 1 St. Pet. ii. 5. 2 J5^# 4> 5> s Eph. & 20-22.

4 St. John ii. 21. 5 St. Benedict, H. Rule, e. 52.

6 1 Cor. iii. 16. * jh^. yi. 20. 8 1 St. John iv. 12, 13. » St. John xiv. 23. 10 Keep, of 2nd Fer. aft. Pent.

11 Ps. lxiv. 10. neophytes, was awaiting her birth. The three divine Persons came down upon that first baptismal font ; and, while the water was yet moist on these first converts of the Spirit of Christ, there descended upon them what the sacred liturgy enthusiastically terms an inundating grace of the Deity. Blind and poor as they were before, they then were enriched with light and love. Not only was the mystery of the Trinity made known to the world, but, by the all-efficacious formula of holy Baptism, the Trinity took up Its abode in those regenerated creatures, making them all and each, as St. Augustine says, Its true temple.

Nothing, therefore, could be more natural than for the feast of the holy Trinity to be placed immediately after that of the glorious Pentecost. No sooner would the Church, wakening into life, feel within her the divine indwelling, than she would prostrate herself in grateful adoration before that thrice-holy God, who thus deigned to fill her with His infinite Majesty. Later on she would be led to enrich her year with a festival, whose doctrinal light and teaching would so admirably harmonize with the rest of her liturgy.

If that festival of Trinity rightly followed Pentecost, it, with equal appropriateness, preceded the one of Corpus Christi, — for the manifestation of the three divine Persons, and the creature's acknowledgment of the homage it owes to the adorable Unity, really preceded the union, in the Sacrament of love, between Christ and His Church. The feast of the Eucharist would, from the very fact of its following that of Trinity, tell the bride that the glorification of God, one in three Persons, was to be the fruit justly expected from the divine nuptials. The children of the Church, invited so high up by

1 Acts ii. 41. 2 Resp. of 5th Fer. aft. Pent.

3 St. Aug. Epist. 187, alias 57. divine Wisdom, though from no merits of their own, would now clearly understand why it was that our Lord did not wish to give Himself to His servants, except in the very celebration of that sacrifice, which gives infinite glory to the blessed Trinity. The union between the Church and her divine Spouse was to be on this condition, that the holiness of the Son of Man was to be communicated to the Church, whom He had chosen for His Bride. Let us give respectful attention to certain most mysterious words addressed by Jesus to His Father. ' Father,' said He, 'sanctify in the truth them whom Thou gavest Me ; sanctify them in the truth, which is Thy Word ; for it is for them that I do sanctify Myself that they also may be sanctified in truth.'1 What means this, that Jesus, who is sanctity itself, and is the source of sanctity to all creatures, should speak of sanctifying Himself? The fathers of the Church explain it as being the consecration of the sacrifice, by which Jesus, who is the great High Priest, gives to God, in the name of the whole world, the infinite homage which is due to infinite Majesty. In human language, as also in the inspired Scriptures, justice and sanctity 4 are one and the same. If, then, infinite sanctity is one with infinite justice, is not the essentially sanctified and sanctifying act that sacrifice of the Son of Man which so loudly proclaims, and so amply, yea so infinitely, satisfies the right of God, the eternal right, whence all other rights derive their existence, the right which is the origin of all justice ?

Sacrifice, then, thus sanctifying the Head and the members, is also the consummation of union between Christ and His Church. With this before

1 St. John xvii. 17, 19. 2 Ps. xv. 10 ; St. Mark i. 24.

3 Among others, St. Cyril, in Joan., lib. x., c. 10.

4 Acts iii. 14. 6 Heb. ii. 10. 6 Ibid. x. 14. us, we shall have no difficulty in understanding how it is that the holy sacrifice, in its imposing and simple unity, should be the very centre and soul of a season, which signifies, and celebrates, and gives ever new perfection to that divine union. We must not expect to find, in the series of the Sundays after Pentecost, that connexion of dramatic design, that interesting gradation, working up to some fixed day of a mystery, as was the case in the preceding periods of the liturgical year. In those other seasons, the Church was in search of her divine Spouse ; she was approaching closer to Him by the gradual celebration of His several mysteries ; each celebration did its glorious share in the work of incorporating her with Him ; till at length, being all transformed into Him, there was nothing to prevent the longed-for union. True, it was precisely then that the Man-God hid Himself from her view, and seemed to be leaving her for further probation ; but that was the very time when He sent the Holy Ghost upon the earth ; and He, the Spirit, revealed to the Church the sense of the word spoken by the divine Spouse in the Canticle : ' Till the day break, and the shadows retire, I will go to the mount of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.'1

Bight well has the Church taken all in. She has fixed her abode on the mount of sacrifice ; and there has she mingled the myrrh of her sufferings, and the frankincense of her worship, with the homage paid to the Trinity by the great High Priest, her Jesus. It is there that the fullness of Christ is filled by her partaking of it ; there she receives, day by day, an increase of fruitfulness. Having there found Him whom her soul loved so ardently, she holds Him fast, 3 and will never leave the happy place He had fixed for the meeting. The

1 Cant. iv. 6. 2 Eph. i. 23. 3 Cant. iii. 4. day will come when she is to flee with Him to the mountains, where the flowers of heaven blend their fragrance wifch that of the eternal holocaust ; but even now love predominates and triumphs ; for, though the bright land of heaven seems so far away, yet from the hills of her exile, where the Man-God continues His sacrifice, the Church may, in all truth, say to her divine Spouse: 'My Beloved is mine, and I am His, till the day break, and the shadows retire/2

We thought it a necessity to offer these considerations to our reader, in order to give him a clearer idea of the importance of this liturgical season, and enable him to thoroughly understand its spirit. We may now resume our explanation of the liturgy for this Time after Pentecost ; our last volume ended with the third Sunday. The work of sanctification carried on by the Holy Ghost in the souls of men, and His ceaseless operations in the Church at large, would have provided us with abundant matter of instruction for each day of these twenty-four weeks. The liturgy itself would have suggested admirable daily reflections, for we could have taken them from the Epistles and Gospels which, for a long time, were assigned to nearly every feria of this portion of the year. But this would have obliged us to make our volume as large again as it is. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to an explanation of the Mass for each Sunday. The present usage of the Latin Church sets us the example ; for, dating from the sixteenth century, she prescribes, as a general rule, that should a feria, on which no saint's feast is kept, occur during the week, the Sunday's Mass is to be simply repeated. In order to supply the faithful with suitable reflections for each of the weeks after Pente-

1 Cant. viii. 14. 2 Ibid. ii. 16, 17.

9—2 cost, we have taken the suggestion thus offered by the practice and rubrics of the Church for this holy season, and have made our commentary on the several portions of the Sunday's liturgy somewhat longer than will be found in the previous volumes of the work.