OFFERTORY.

Out of the depths have I cried unto the, O Lord: Lord, hear my prayer: out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord!

De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine: Domine, exaudi orationem meam: de profundis clamavi ad te, Domine.

The service we pay to God is, of itself, far beneath what his sovereign Majesty deserves; but the Sacrifice, which, every day, constitutes part of our service, ennobles it even to an infinite worth, and supplies all our own deficiencies of merit. This is what we are told in this Sunday's Secret.

Having, by these sacred Mysteries, entered into a participation of divine life, let us beseech our Lord, that we may no longer be subject to the dangers of this world. Let us say with the Church:

POSTCOMMUNION.

We beseech thee, O almighty God, that thou wouldst not permit to be subject to the

Quæsumus, omnipotens Deus: ut, quos divina tribuis participatione

gaudere, humanis non sinas subjacere periculis. Per Dominum.

dangers of this human life, those whom thou hast admitted to the joyful participation of thy divine life. Through,

etc.

The other Postcommunions, as in page 137.

VESPERS.

The Psalms, Capitulum, Hymn, and Versicle, as above, pages 74-84.

ANTIPHON OF THE MAGNIFICAT.

THE TWENTY-FOURTH AND LAST SUNDAY

AFTER PENTECOST.

THE number of the Sundays after Pentecost may exceed twenty-four, and go up as far as twenty-eight, according as Easter is each Year, more or less near to the vernal equinox. But, the Mass here given, is always reserved for the last; and the intervening ones, be their number what it may, are taken from the Sundays after the Epiphany, which, in that case, were not used at the beginning of the year. This, however, does not apply to the Introit, Gradual, Offertory, and Communion, which, as we have already said, are repeated from the twenty-third Sunday.

We have seen how that Mass of the twenty-third Sunday was regarded, by our fore-fathers, as really the last of the Cycle. Abbot Rupert has given us the profound meaning of its several parts. According to the teaching we have already pondered over,2 the reconciliation of Juda was shown us as, being, in time, the term intended by God: the last notes of the sacred Liturgy blended with the last scene of the world's history, as seen and known by God. The end

1 Further on (vid. inf., pages 515-533,) we have given these Sundays, which are the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th, after the Epiphany. Those Years, when there are Twenty-five Sundays after Pentecost, it is the 6th after the Epiphany, which is put after the twenty-third; -if the number of those Sundays be twenty-six, the 5th after the Epiphany becomes the twenty-fourth after Pentecost;-if the number be twenty-seven, we go back to the 4th after the Epiphany, and the rest follow ;-if it be as high as twenty-eight, we begin with the 3rd.

2 The 13th Sund. aft. Pent.

proposed by eternal Wisdom in the world's creation, and mercifully continued, after the Fall, by the mystery of Redemption, has now, (we speak of the Church's Year and God's workings,) been fully carried out-this end was no other, than that of divine Union with Human Nature, making it one in the unity of one only body. Now that the two antagonistpeople, gentile and jew, are brought together in the one same New Man in Christ Jesus their Head, the Two Testaments, which so strongly marked the distinction between the ages of time, the one called the Old, the other the New,-yes, these Two Testaments fade away, and give place to the glory of the Eternal Alliance.

It was here, therefore, that Mother Church formerly finished her Liturgical Year. She was delighted at what she had done during all the past months; that is, at having led her children, not only to have a thorough appreciation of the divine plan, which she had developed before them, in her celebrations, but, moreover, and more especially, to unite them themselves, by a veritable Union, to their Jesus, by a real communion of views, and interests, and loves. On this account, she used not to revert again to the second Coming of the God-Man and the Last Judgment, two great subjects which she had proposed for her children's reflexions, at the commencement of the Purgative Life, that is, her season of Advent. It is only since a few centuries that, with a view of giving to her Year a conclusion more defined and intelligible to the Faithful of these comparatively recent times, she closes the Cycle with the prophetic description of the dread Coming of her Lord, which is to put an end to Time, and open Eternity. From time immemorial, St. Luke had had the office of announcing, in Advent, the approach of the Last

Judgment; the Evangelist St. Matthew was selected for this its second, and more detailed, description, on the last Sunday after Pentecost.

MASS.

INTROIT.

The Lord saith: I think thoughts of peace, and not of affliction; ye shall call upon me, and I will hear you and bring back your captive people from all places.

Ps. Thou, O Lord, hast blessed thy land: thou hast brought back the captive children of Jacob. Glory, etc. The Lord,

Dicit Dominus: Ego cogito cogitationes pacis, et non afflictionis: invocabitis me, et ego exaudiam vos: et reducam captivitatem vestram de cunctis locis.

Ps. Benedixisti, Domine, terram tuam: avertisti captivitatem Jacob. Gloria Patri. Dicit Dominus.

The doing of good works, by the help of divine grace, prepares us to receive a still greater grace, for greater works in the future. In the Collect, let us unite with our Mother, the Church, in praying for an efficacious influence, of the divine Mover, upon our Wills.