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reconciliation with Divine Justice. She would have us argue, for our own consolation, that, from such a Saviour, we may well hope for pardon. Being thus rid of our fears, we shall be the more at liberty to contemplate the Sacrifice of our august Victim, and compassionate his Sufferings. Let us attentively consider the Gospel just read to us. A heart-broken mother is following to the grave the corpse of an only son. Jesus has compassion upon her; he stays the bearers; he puts his divine hand on the bier; he commands the young man to arise; and then, as the Evangelist adds, Jesus delivered him to his mother. This mother is the Church, who mourns over the death of so many of her children. Jesus is about to comfort her. He, by the ministry of his Priests, will stretch forth his hand over these dead children; he will pronounce over them the great word that gives resurrection; and the Church will receive back into her arms these children she had lost, and they will be full of life and gladness.

Let us consider the mystery of the three resurrections wrought by our Saviour: that of the Ruler's daughter, that of the young man of to-day's Gospel, and that of Lazarus, at which we are to assist tomorrow. The daughter of Jairus, (for such was the Ruler's name,) had been dead only a few hours: she represents the sinner who has but recently fallen, and has not yet contracted the habit of sin, nor grown insensible to the qualms of conscience. The young man of Naim is a figure of a sinner, who makes no effort to return to God, and whose will has lost its energy: he is being carried to the grave; and but for Jesus' passing that way, he would soon have been of the number of them that are for ever dead. Lazarus is an image of a worse class of sinners. He is already a prey to corruption. The stone that

1 It is given in the Gospel for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost.

closes his grave, seals his doom. Can such a corpse as this ever come back to life? Yes, if Jesus mercifully deign to exercise his power. Now, it is during this holy Season of Lent, that the Church is praying and fasting, and we with her, to the end that these three classes of sinners may hear the voice of the Son of God, and hearing, rise and live. The mystery of Jesus' Resurrection is to produce this wonderful effect in them all. Let us take our humble share in these merciful designs of God; let us, day and night, offer our supplications to our Redeemer, that, in a few days hence, seeing how he has raised the dead to life, we may cry out, with the people of Naim: A great Prophet is risen up among us, and God hath visited his people!

Humiliate capita vestra

Deo.

Populi tui, Deus, institutor, et rector, peccata quibus impugnatur expelle: ut semper tibi placitus, et tuo munimine sit securus. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Bow down your heads to God.

O God, the author and governor of thy people, deliver them from the sins by which they are assaulted, that they may be always well pleasing in thy sight, and safe under thy protection. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

We offer to our readers this admirable canticle of the Gothic Church of Spain. It is addressed to the Catechumens, who are admitted to Baptism; but, here and there, it is applicable to the Penitents, who are soon to be reconciled.

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The Creator, loving the works of his hands, invites thee; the Redeemer lovingly draws thee, saying: Come, I am thy only God.

You had departed from the bright light; you had wretchedly fallen into the great abyss; there was no longer a heaven for you; cruel death had come upon the earth.

Lo I, your Creator and your Re-Creator, your God, am come to you in love. I, though a sharer of your weakness, am the mighty God; I will carry you in my strength; come unto me, and the fold of joy shall welcome you back.

Your foreheads shall be marked with the sign of the cross; and your ears and mouth anointed with oil: Lend the ear of your heart to what you are taught; and sing the Symbol as a canticle of fervent praise.

Rejoice in the new Name that is given you. You are all made heirs to a new inheritance. Not one of you shall remain a slave to the enemy. You shall be the permanent kingdom of the one God.

Honour be to the eternal God! Glory be to the One Father, and to his Only Son, together with the Holy Ghost: the Almighty Trinity, that liveth unceasingly for ever and ever. Amen.

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Redemptor attrahit benigno spiritu ;

Venite, dicit, vester unus sum Deus.

Prorsus relicto claritatis lumine,

Ingens chaos vos pessime concluserat :

Locus beatitudinis jam non erat;

Cruenta terra quare mors intraverat.

En, mitis adveni, creans; et recreans Deus; Potens, infirmitatis particeps vestræ

Valenter vos feram, concurrite;

Ut jam receptet vos ovile gaudii.

Signo crucis frons præno

tetur indito:

Aures, et os perfusa signet unctio :

Præbete dictis cordis aurem: vividum

Confessionis personate canticum.

Omnes novo estote læti nomine :

Omnes novæ sortis fovet hæreditas :

Nullus manebit servus hosti subditus :

Eritis unius Dei regnum

manens.

Honor sit æterno Deo, sit gloria

Uni Patri, ejusque soli Filio, Cum Spiritu; quæ Trinitas perenniter Vivit potens in sæculorum sæcula. Amen.

FRIDAY

OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT.

THE Station is in the Church of Saint Eusebius, Priest of Rome, who suffered for the faith, in the Arian persecution, under the Emperor Constantius.

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Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him into the upper chamber where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, and said: O Lord, my God, hast thou afflicted also the widow, with whom I am after a sort maintained, so as to kill her son? And he stretched, and measured himself upon the child three times, and cried to the Lord, and said: O Lord, my God, let the soul of this child, I beseech thee, return into his body. And the Lord heard the voice of Elias; and the soul of the child returned unto him, and he revived. And Elias took the child, and brought him down from the upper chamber to the house below, and delivered him to his mother, and said to her: Behold thy son liveth. And the woman said to Elias: Now, by this, I know thou art a man of God, and the word of the Lord in thy mouth is true.

de sinu ejus, et portavit in cœnaculum ubi ubi ipse manebat, et posuit super lectulum suum. Et clamavit ad Dominum, et dixit: Domine Deus meus, etiamne viduam, apud quam ego utcumque sustentor, afflixisti ut interficeres filium ejus? Et expandit se, atque mensus est super puerum tribus vicibus, et clamavit ad Dominum, et ait: Domine Deus meus, revertatur, obsecro, anima pueri hujus in viscera ejus. Et exaudivit Dominus vocem Eliæ: et reversa est anima pueri intra eum, et revixit. Tulitque Elias puerum, et deposuit eum de cænaculo in inferiorem domum, et tradidit matri suæ, et ait illi: En vivit filius tuus. Dixitque mulier ad Eliam : Nunc in isto cognovi, quoniam vir Dei es tu,et verbum Domini in ore tuo verum est.

Again, it is a mother, that comes, with tears in her eyes, praying for the resurrection of her child. This mother is the Widow of Sarephta, whom we have already had as the type of the Gentile Church. She was once a sinner, and an idolatress, and the remembrance of the past afflicts her soul; but the God that has cleansed her from her sins, and called her to be his Spouse, comforts her by restoring her child to life. The charity of Elias is a figure of that of the Son of God. Observe how this great Prophet stretches himself upon the body of the boy, fitting himself to his littleness, as did also Eliseus. Here again, we recognise the divine mystery of the Incarnation. Elias

LENT.

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