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LET US PRAY.

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O God, who chiefly manifestest thine omnipotence by pardoning and having mercy: increase thy mercy upon us; that, hastening to the things thou hast promised, thou mayst make us partakers of heavenly goods. Through, etc.

OREMUS.

Deus, qui omnipotentiam tuam parcendo maxime et miserando manifestas, multiplica super nos misericordiam tuam, ut ad tua promissa currentes, cœlestium bonorum facias esse consortes. Per Dominum.

THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY

AFTER PENTECOST.

WITH the Greeks, this Sunday,—their eleventh of Saint Matthew,-is called The Kings Parable, who calls his servants to account.' In the Western Church, it has gone under the name of Sunday of the deaf and dumb, ever since the Gospel of the Pharisee and Publican has been assigned to the tenth. To-day's Mass, as we now have it, still gives evidence as to what was its ancient arrangement. Our commentary on to-day's liturgy, will show us this very plainly.

In those years, when Easter falls nearest to the 21st of March, the Books of Kings are continued as lessons of Matins up to, but never beyond, this Sunday. The sickness of the good king Ezechias, and the miraculous cure he obtained by his prayers and tears, are then the subject of the first Lessons of the Night Office."

MASS.

The learned and pious Abbot Rupert,-writing on this Sunday's Mass previous to the change made in the order of the Gospel Lessons, thus explains the Church's reason for selecting the following Introit: "The Publican, in the Gospel, accuses himself, say"ing: I am not worthy to lift up mine eyes to heaven! "St. Paul, in the Epistle, does in like manner, and 2 4 Kings, xx.

1 St. Matth. xviii. 23-35.

"says: I am the least of the Apostles, who am not "worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the "Church of God. As, then, this Humility, which is "set before us that we may practise it, is the guar"dian of the union between the servants of God, "because if keeps them from being puffed up one against the other,1-it is most appropriate that we "should first sing the Introit, which tells us, that "God maketh men, in His house, abide together as though they were all but one soul."2

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INTROIT.

God in his sanctuary: God, who maketh brethren abide together in the house: he will give might and strength to his people.

Ps. Let God arise, and his enemies shall be dispersed; and let those that hate him, flee before his face. Glory, etc. God.

Deus in loco sancto suo: Deus, qui inhabitare facit unanimes in domo: ipse dabit virtutem et fortitudinem plebi suæ.

Ps. Exsurgat Deus, et dissipentur inimici ejus: et fugiant, qui oderunt eum, a facie ejus. Gloria Patri. Deus.

The Collect, which follows, is most touching, when we see it in the light of the Gospel which, originally, was fixed for this Sunday. Though that connection has now been broken, yet the appropriateness is still very striking; for, the Epistle, as Abbot Rupert was just telling us, continues to urge us to Humility, by proposing to us the example of St. Paul; the Humility of the repentant Publican has been anticipated. Our Mother the Church is all emotion at beholding this Publican, this object of contempt to the Jew,striking his breast, and scarce able to put his sorrow into words: she, with motherly tenderness, comes and takes up his faltering prayer, and gives it her own eloquence. Nothing could exceed the delicate way, in which she asks of the Omnipotent, that, in his

11 Cor. iv. 6.

2 RUP. De div. Off. xii. 11.

infinite mercy, he would restore peace to troubled consciences, by pardoning them their sins, and granting them what they, poor sinners, are too afraid to presume to ask for.

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1 Cap. xv. Fratres, Notum vobis facio Evangelium, quod prædicavi vobis, quod et accepistis, in quo et statis, per quod et salvamini: qua ratione prædicaverim vobis, si tenetis, nisi frustra credidistis. Tradidi enim vobis, in primis quod et accepi: quoniam Christus mortuus est pro peccatis nostris secundum Scripturas: et quia sepultus est, et quia resurrexit tertia die secundum Scripturas: et quia visus est Cephæ, et post hoc undecim. Deinde visus est plus quam quingentis fratribus simul: ex quibus multi manent usque

Lesson of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle, to the Corinthians.

1 Ch. xv.

Brethren: I make known unto you the gospel which I preach to you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved: if ye hold fast after what manner I preached unto you, unless ye have believed

in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures: and that he was seen by Cephas; and after that by the eleven. Then he was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once; of whom

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many remain until this present, and some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen by James, then by all the apostles and last of all, he was seen also by me, as one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace in me hath not been void.

adhuc, quidam autem dormierunt. Deinde visus est Jacobo, deinde Apostolis omnibus: novissime autem omnium tamquam abortivo visus est et mihi. Ego enim sum minimus Apostolorum, qui non sum dignus vocari Apostolus, quoniam persecutus sum Ecclesiam Dei. Gratia autem Dei sum id quod sum, et gratia ejus in me vacua non fuit.

The

Last Sunday, the Publican reminded us of the Humility which should exist in the sinner: to-day, the Doctor of the Gentiles shows us, by his own example, that this virtue is quite as suitable to a man, who, though now justified, never forgets how, in the past, he offended his Maker. The sins of the now just man, even though long since forgiven, are always before him;1 having a tendency to be his own accuser," he finds, in the fact that God has pardoned and forgotten his sins, nothing but an additional motive for his own never ceasing to remember them. heavenly favours, which may sometimes come upon him, as a recompense for the sincerity of his repentance, -the manifestation of the secrets of eternal Wisdom may be accorded him,'-he may, perhaps, be permitted to enter into the powers of the Lord, and there get a keen insight into the rights of infinite justice,5yet, all these favours do but help him to see, more clearly, the enormity of those voluntary sins of his, which added their own malice to the original stains he was born with. As he progresses in sanctity, Humility becomes to him something more than a satisfaction paid to justice and truth, by a mind en

1 Ps. 1. 5.

2 Prov. xviii. 17.

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