sands, who are all alike engaged in observing one and the same practice of religion, and are, with one common accord, praying with one and the same spirit? In the eyes of God, my dearly beloved, it "is a great and precious sight, when all Christ's people are earnest at the same offices; and that, "without any distinction, men and women of every grade and order, are all working together with one "heart. To depart from evil and do good', that is "the one and same determination of them all. They all give glory to God for the works he achieves in "his servants. They all unite in returning hearty "thanks to the loving Giver of all blessings. The hungry are fed; the naked are clad; the sick are visited; and no one seeketh his own profit, but "that of others. By this grace of God, who "worketh all in all, the fruit is common, and the "merit is common; for the affection of all may be the

same, although all are not equally rich; and they "who are receivers of the liberality of others, may "not be able to make a like return, but they can "entertain a like affection. There is nothing out of 'joint in such a people as that; there are no "variances; for all the members of the whole body are alike in the energy of the same piety. . . . The beauty of the whole becomes the excellence of each "member. Let us, then, embrace this blessed. solidity of holy unity, and with one agreement of "the same good will, let us enter upon this solemn "Fast."

"

Let us not, in our prayers and fasts, forget the new Priests and other Ministers of the Church, who, on Saturday next, are to receive the imposition of hands. The September ordination is not, usually, the most numerous of those given by the Bishop during the

1 Ps. xxxiii. 15.

1 Cor. xii. 6. 3 St. LEO, Serm. iii. De jej. sept. mensis.

year. The sublime function, to which the Faithful owe their Fathers and Guides in the spiritual life, has, however, a special interest, at this period of the year, which, more than any other, is in keeping with the present state of the world, which is one of rapid decline towards ruin. Our Year, too, is on the fall, as we say. The sun, which, we beheld rising at Christmas, as a giant who would burst the bonds of frost asunder, and restrain the tyranny of darkness,— now, as though he had grown wearied, is drooping towards the horizon; each day, we see him gradually leaving that glorious zenith, where we admired his dazzling splendour, on the day of our Emmanuel's Ascension; his fire has lost its might; and though he still holds half the day as his, his disc is growing pale, which tells us of the coming on of those long nights, when Nature, stripped of all her loveliness by angry storms, seems as though she would bury herself, for ever, in the frozen shroud which is to bind her. So is it with our world. Illumined as it was by the light of Christ, and glowing with the fire of the Holy Ghost, it sees, in these our days, that charity is growing cold,1 and that the light and glow it had from the Sun of Justice, are on the wane. Each revolution takes from the Church some jewel or other, which does not come back to her when the storm is over; tempests are so frequent, that tumult is becoming the normal state of the times. Error predominates, and lays down the law. Iniquity abounds. It is our Lord himself who said: When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find, think ye, Faith on earth ?2

Lift up, then, your heads, ye children of God! for your redemption is at hand. But, from now, until that time shall come, when heaven and earth are to be made new for the reign that is to be eternal, and shall bloom in the light of the Lamb, the Conqueror,

1 St. Matth. xxiv. 12.

2 St. Luke, xviii. 8.

3 Ibid. xxi. 28-31. 4 Apoc. xxi.

-days, far worse than these, must dawn upon this world of ours, when the elect themselves would be deceived, if that were possible! How important is it not, in these miserable times, that the Pastors of the flock of Christ be equal to their perilous and sublime vocation; let us then fast and pray; and how numerous soever may be the losses sustained in the christian ranks, of those who once were faithful in the practices of penance, let us not lose courage. Few as we may be, let us group ourselves closely round the Church, and implore of that Jesus, who is her Spouse, that he vouchsafe to multiply his gifts, in those whom he is calling to the, now more than ever, dread honour of the Priesthood; that he infuse into them his divine prudence, whereby they may be able to disconcert the plans of the impious; his untiring zeal for the conversion of ungrateful souls; his perseverance even unto death, in maintaining, without reticence or compromise, the plenitude of that truth, which he has destined for the world, and the unviolated custody of which, is to be, on the last Day, the solemn testimony of the Bride's fidelity.

1 St. Mark, xiii. 22.

THE EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY

AFTER PENTECOST.

The Paralytic carrying his bed is the subject of this day's Gospel, and gives the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost its title. It has been thought, by some, that its having the number it bears, has caused it to be inserted in the Missal immediately after the Ember Days of autumn. We will not, like the Liturgists of the Middle Ages,' discuss the question as to whether we should consider it as having taken the place of the vacant Sunday, which, formerly, used always to follow the ordination of the sacred ministers, in the manner we have elsewhere described.3 Manuscript Sacramentaries and Lectionaries, of very ancient date, give it the name, which was so much in use, of Dominica vacat. Whatever may be the conclusion arrived at, there is one interesting point for consideration,-that the Mass of this day is the only one, in which is broken the order of the lessons taken from St. Paul, and which invariably form the subject of the Epistles, from the sixth Sunday after Pentecost: the Letter to the Ephesians,-which we have had already before us, and will be afterwards continued,—is to-day interrupted, and, in its stead, we have some verses from the first Epistle to the Corinthians, wherein the Apostle gives thanks to God for the manifold gratuitous gifts granted, in Christ

'BERNO AUG. Cap. v; etc.

2 MICROLOG. Cap. xxix.

3 Advent: Ember Saturday.

THOMASI Opp. Edit. VEZZOSI, t. v. p. 148, 149, 309.

Jesus, to the Church. Now; the powers conferred, by the imposition of the Bishop's hands, on the ministers of the Church,-are the most marvellous gift that is known on earth, yea, in heaven itself. The other portions of the Mass, too, are, as we shall see further on, most appropriate to the prerogatives of the new Priesthood. So that the Liturgy of the present Sunday is doubly telling, when it immediately follows the Ember Days of September. But this coincidence is far from being one of every year's occurrence, at least, as the Liturgy now stands; nor can we dwell longer on these subjects, without seeming to be going too far into archæology, and exceeding the limits we have marked out for ourselves.

MASS.

The Introit of the Sunday Masses, since Pentecost, was always taken from the Psalms. From the 12th to the 118th, the Church, without ever changing the order of these sacred canticles, chose from each of them, as its own turn came, the Verses most appropriate to the Liturgy of each Sunday. But, dating from to-day, she is going to select her Introits elsewhere, with one exception, however, when she will again turn to this the Book, by excellence, of divine praise. Her future opening-Anthems, for the Dominical Liturgy, to the end of the Year, will be taken from various other books of the Old Testament. For this 18th Sunday, we have Jesus, son of Sirach, the inspired writer of Ecclesiastes, asking God to ratify, by the accomplishment of what they foretold, the fidelity of his Prophets. The interpreters of the divine oracles are, now, the Pastors, whom the Church sends, in her own name, to preach the word of salvation and peace; let us, her children, pray with her, that their words may never be void.

1

1 Eccles. xxxvi. 18.