same great teachings will be again brought before us, filling our souls with a salutary fear. May we, then, be permitted, on this last Sunday of our Liturgical Year, to address ourselves, in a prayer of desire and praise, to our adorable Lord and King, the solemn hour of whose Judgment is to be the consummation of his work, and the signal of his triumph.

O Jesus! who then art to come to deliver thy Church, and avenge that God who has so long borne every sort of insult from his creature man, that day of thy coming will indeed be terrible to the sinner! He will then understand, how the Lord hath made all things for himself, all, even the ungodly, who, on the evil day, is to show forth the divine justice.' The whole world, fighting on his side against the wicked2 shall then, at last, be avenged for that slavery of sin, which had been forced upon it.3 Vainly will the wicked cry out to the rocks to fall upon them, and hide them from the face of him that will then be seated on his throne: the abyss will refuse to ingulf them: in obedience to him who holds the keys of death and hell," it will give forth, to a man, its wretched victims, and set them at the foot of the dread tribunal. O Jesus, how magnificent will not thy power then appear! The heavenly hosts will also be standing around thee, forming thy brilliant court, and assembling thy elect from the four quarters of the earth.

For we also, we thy redeemed, who had become thy members by becoming the members of thy beloved Church, we are to be there on that day, and our place, O ineffable mystery! is to be the one thou hast reserved for thy Bride,-it is to be thy own throne,' where seated, we shall judge the very angels. Even now, all those blessed of the Father, all those elect,

1 Prov. xvi. 4.
2 Wisd. v. 21.
Rom. viii. 21.

4 Apoc. vi. 16.
5 Ibid. i. 18.
6 Ibid. xix. 14.

"Ibid. iii. 21.
8 1 Cor. vi. 3.

9 St. Matth. xxv. 3.

2

whose youth, like that of the eagle, has been so often renewed by their receiving thy precious Blood,1-have they not had their eyes fitted to gaze, and without being dazzled, on the Sun of Justice, when he shall appear in the heavens? The tediousness of their long exile has given such keenness to their hunger, that nothing will have power to stay their flight, once the sacred prey of thy divine Body shall be shown them! What hindrance could be strong enough to check the impetuosity of the love, which will bring them all together to the banquet of the eternal Pasch? The trumpet of the Archangel, which will ring through the graves of the just, is to be a summons calling them, not to death, but to life, to the sight of the old enemy's destruction,3 to a redemption, which is to include their very bodies,1-to the unimpeded passover to the true Land of promise,—in a word, to the Pasch, and, this time, quite real, and for all, and for ever. What will not be the joy of that true Day of the Lord !5-what joy for them that have, by faith, lived in Christ, and loved him without seeing him! Identifying themselves with thee, O Jesus, notwithstanding the weakness of the flesh, they have continued here below, thy life of suffering and humiliation what a triumph, when, delivered for ever from sin, and vested in their immortal bodies, they shall be borne aloft before thy face, that they may for ever be with thee!"

But, their chiefest joy on that great Day, will be to assist at the glorification of their most dear Lord, by the manifestation of the power which was given to him over all flesh. It is to be then, O Emmanuel! that, crushing the heads of kings, and making thine enemies thy footstool, thou wilt be shown as the one

Ruler of all nations. It is to be then, that heaven, and earth, and hell, will bow their knee before that Son of Man, who, heretofore, appeared on earth as a slave, and was judged, and condemned, and put to death between two thieves; it is to be then, dear Jesus, that thou wilt judge the unjust judges, to whom, even in the midst of all the humiliations they put on thee, thou didst foretell this thy Coming on the clouds of heaven.3 And when, after the irrevocable sentence has been passed, the wicked shall go to everlasting torments, and the just to life eternal, thy Apostle tells us, that having conquered thine enemies, and been proclaimed undisputed King, thou wilt consign to thy eternal Father this thy Kingdom won over death; it will be the perfect homage of thee, the Head, and of all thy faithful members.5 God will thus be all in all. It will be the perfect accomplishment of that sublime prayer thou taughtest mankind to make, which they daily offer up to the Father who is in heaven, and say to him: Hallowed be thy name! Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven! O blissfully peaceful Day, when blasphemy is to cease, and when this poor earth of ours, cleansed by fire from the filth of sin, shall be turned into a new paradise! Where, then, is the Christian, who would not thrill with emotion at the thought of that last of all the Days of time, which is to usher in beautiful Eternity? Who would not despise the agonies of his own last hour, when he reflects that those sufferings have really only one meaning in them, that is, as the Gospel words it, that the Son of Man is nigh even at the very doors!

O sweet Jesus, detach us, every Year, more and more from this world, whose fashion passeth away," with its vain toils, its false glories, and its lying pleasures. It was thine own foretelling, that, as in 1 Ps. ii. 2 Philip. ii. 10. 3 St. Matth. xxvi. 64. ▲ Ibid. xxv. 46. 1 Cor. xv. 24-28. St. Matth. vi. 9. 7 1 Cor. vii. 31.

the days of Noe, and Sodom, men will go on with their feasting, and business, and amusements, without giving any more thought to thy approaching Coming, than their forefathers heeded the threat of the Deluge, or of the fire, which came upon them and destroyed them. Let these men go on with their merrymaking, and their sending gifts one to the other, as thine Apocalypse expresses it, because, so they will have it, Christ and his Church are then to be wornout ideas!2 Whilst they are tyrannising over thy holy City in a thousand varied ways, and persecuting her as no past period had ever done, they little think that all this is an announcement of the Eternal Nuptials, which are nigh at hand. All these trials were the fresh jewels, which the Bride was to have on her before all her beauty was complete; and the blood of her last Martyrs was to incarnadine her already splendid robes with all the richness of royal crimson. As for us, we lend an ear to the echoes of our home above; and, from the throne of our God, we hear going forth the voice heard by thy beloved Prophet of Patmos: Give praise unto our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, little and great! Alleluia! For the Lord our God the almighty hath reigned! Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory unto him; for the Marriage of the Lamb is come, and his Wife hath prepared herself! Yet a little while, till the number of our brethren be made up; and then, with the Spirit and the Bride, we will say to thee, in all the ardour of our souls that have long thirsted after thee: COME, LORD JESUS!5 Come, and perfect us in love, by Union eternal, unto the glory of the Father, and of thyself the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever!

1 St. Luke, xvii. 26-30. Apoc. xi, 10.

3 Apoc. xix. 5-7.
4 Ibid. vi. 11.

5 Ibid. xxii. 17.

OFFERTORY.

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, 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.

In the Secret, let us ask of God, that, at the approach of the Last Judgment, he turn all hearts towards himself, and vouchsafe to make our earthly desires give place to the desire for, and relish of, heavenly things.

May the divine Sacrament, as is the Church's petition in the Postcommunion, fully cure, by its virtue, whatsoever there may remain faulty in our souls, at this close of the Year!