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is through thee, as such, that are wrought all the manifestations which God vouchsafes to make to us his creatures. It was thou that broughtest this divine Person, the Word, into the womb of the immaculate Virgin Mary, there to clothe him with sinless flesh, and so make him our Brother and our Saviour. And now that he has ascended to his Father and our Father, depriving us of the sight of his human nature, all beauteous with its perfections and charms; now that we have to go through this vale of tears, deprived of his visible company; he has sent thee unto us;2 and thou art come, O divine Spirit, as our Consoler. But the consolation thou bringest us, dear Paraclete! is ever the same;-it is the faithful remembrance of our Jesus; yea, more, it is his divine Presence, perpetuated by thee in the Sacrament of Love. We had been already told that this would be so; that thou wouldst not speak of thyself, or for thyself; but that thou wouldst come to give testimony of the Emmanuel,5 continue his work, and produce his divine likeness in each one of us.

How admirable is this thy fulfilment of thy sublime mission, which is all for the glory of Jesus! O divine Spirit, Guardian of the Word in the Church! it is far beyond our power to describe how great is thy vigilance over the word of teaching, brought by the Saviour to this earth of ours, a teaching which is the true expression of himself, and which, coming, as he himself does, from the mouth of the Father, is the nourishment of his Bride here below. But with what infinite respect and vigilance, O holy Spirit, dost thou not preside over the august Sacrament, wherein is present, with all the reality of his adorable Flesh, that same Incarnate Word, who, from the very first of creation, was the centre and object of all thy dealings with creatures!

1 St. John, xx. 17.
2 St. Luke, xxiv. 49.
3 St. John, xiv. 26.

VOL. X.

4 St. John, xvi. 13.
5 Ibid. xv. 26.
6 St. Matth. iv.

M

It is by the mystery which is produced by thine omnipotence, that the exiled Bride recovers her Spouse; it is by thee that she traverses the long ages of time, holding and prizing her infinite treasure; it is by thee that she, with such superhuman wisdom, puts it to profit, by so arranging, so modifying her discipline, yea, her very life, as to secure in each age of time the greatest possible faith, respect, and love towards the Divine Eucharist. If she anxiously hide It from the profane men that would only turn their knowledge into blasphemy; or if she lavish upon It all that Liturgy can give of pomp and magnificence; or if, again, she bring It forth from her sacred temples, and triumphantly carry It in processions through the crowded streets of cities, or the green lanes of the quiet country, it is thou, O divine Spirit, that inspirest her with what is best; it is thy divine foresight that suggests to her what is the surest means for gaining, in each respective period and age, the most of honour and love for that Jesus of hers, who is ever present in the Sacred Host, and who deigns to let his love be delighted with being thus among the children of men.1

Vouchsafe, O Holy Ghost, to aid us in our contemplations of this sacred Mystery. Enlighten our understandings, inflame our hearts, during these hours of preparation for its Feast. Give to our souls the knowledge of that Jesus, who is coming to us beneath the Sacramental veil.

2

May this holy Mystery be to us, during this last portion of the year and its liturgy, our Bread to support us on the journey we have still to make through the desert, before we can reach the mount of God; we have yet a great way to go, and a way so different from the one we have already passed through, when we had the company of our Jesus in the Mysteries he was working for our salvation. Be thou, O holy Spirit, our guide in those paths, which the Church, under 2 3 Kings, xix.

1 Prov. viii. 31.

thy direction, is courageously traversing, and is, every day, approaching nearer to the end of her pilgrimage here below. Yet, scarcely have we entered on this second portion of our Year, than thou, divine Spirit! bringest us to the banquet prepared by divine Wisdom,1 where the pilgrim gets the strength he needs for his journey. We will walk on, then, in the strength of this heavenly food; and when our course is run, we will, with the same Bread to support us, cry out, with the Spirit and the Bride, that our Lord Jesus may come to us, at that last hour, and admit us into his eternal kingdom.

3

In honour of the adorable Sacrament, and in memory of the Blessed Juliana, to whom the Church owes the Feast she is about to celebrate, we will offer our Readers, to-day and during the Octave, the main portions, which are still extant, of the Office which bears her name. It will be interesting to them to hear how this Office was drawn up; we give the details as supplied to us by the Bollandists, in the Life written of her by one of her contemporaries.

Juliana, then, began to ask herself whom she should get to compose the Office of the great Feast. She knew of no clever man, nor any holy priest, who seemed to her fitted for the work; so, trusting solely to divine Wisdom, she made up her mind to select a young brother of the Hospital, named John, whose innocent life had been revealed to her by God.

John refused the work, declaring that it far exceeded his powers or learning; he begged her to excuse him, as he was but an ignorant man. Juliana knew all that; but she also knew, that divine Wisdom, whose work

1 Wisd. ix.

2 3 Kings, xix. 8.

Apoc. xxii. 17. 4 We must not confound him with John de Lausanne, of whom we have previously spoken.

she was furthering, could speak admirable things through an unlearned man; she kept to her purpose; and John, unable to resist the entreaties and influence of Juliana, began his labours. She prayed, and he wrote; and with the efforts of the two united, the work progressed in a way that surprised the young Brother. He attributed all, and he was not far wrong, to Juliana's prayers. When he had got any considerable portion of the composition ready, he gave it to her, saying: "This, Sister, is what heaven sends "thee: read it, and examine whether I have put "down anything, either in the chant, or the words, "which needs correction." She would then take it; and, by the wonderful infused wisdom which she possessed, would examine, and, where needed, correct; but with so much prudence and judgment, that not even the most expert critics could find anything to change. And thus, by the wondrous help of God, was completed the whole Office of the new Feast.'

2

The Antiphons we here subjoin were taken, by the Bollandists, from a very ancient Directorium of the Church of Saint-Martin-au-Mont. They are the Antiphons assigned for the Benedictus and Magnificat of each day within the Octave.

ANTIPHONS.

Animarum cibus Dei Sapientia nobis carnem assumptam proposuit in edulium, ut per cibum hujus pietatis invitaret ad gustum divinitatis.

Discipulis competentem conscribens hereditatem, sui

The Wisdom of God, the food of souls, hath offered to us, for our nourishment, the Flesh he had assumed to himself; that, by this food of his love, he might lead us to taste of what is divine.

Leaving to his Disciples a worthy inheritance, he urged

1 Vita B. Julianæ, ab auctore coævo descripta; lib. ii. cap. 2. Act. SS. ad diem 5tam Aprilis.

2 Ibid. in Append.

them to be mindful of himself, saying: do this in memory of

me.

Christ gave his whole self to us as our food; that as he, whom we taste with our heart, divinely refreshes us, so he, whom we receive with our mouth, might refresh us by his human nature;

And thus it is, that he gives us to pass from things visible to invisible, from temporal to eternal, from earthly to heavenly, from human to divine.

Man hath eaten of the Bread of Angels; so that we who, according to the soul, receive the food of the godhead, may take, according to the flesh, the food of Christ's humanity: for, as the rational soul and the flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ.

O Bread of Life! O Bread of Angels! Jesus Christ, true life of the world! who ever feedest us, and never failest in thyself! heal us of all our weakness; that being refreshed on earth by thee as our viaticum, we may feed on thee, to our fill, in eternity.

Daily doth Christ wash us in his Blood, for daily is renewed the remembrance of his sacred Passion.

His Blood is not shed by the hands of faithless men, which would be to their destruction; but daily is it received, and sweetly, and to their salvation, by the Faithful.

Once did Christ, true God and true Man, hang upon the Cross, and offer himself to the

memoriam commendavit inquiens: Hoc facite in mei commemorationem.

Totum Christus se nobis exhibet in cibum, ut sicut divinitus nos reficit quem corde gustamus, ita nos humanitus reficiat quem ore manducamus;

Et sic de visibilibus ad invisibilia, de temporalibus ad æterna, de terrenis ad cœlestia, de humanis ad divina nos transferat.

Panem angelorum manducavit homo, ut qui secundum animum cibum divinitatis accipimus, secundum carnem cibum humanitatis sumamus: quia sicut anima rationalis et caro unus est homo, ita Deus et homo unus est Christus.

Panis vitæ, panis angelorum, Jesu Christe vera mundi vita; qui semper nos reficis, in te nunquam deficis, nos ab omni sana languore, ut te nostro viatico in terra recreati, te ore plenissimo manducemus in

æternum.

Suo Christus sanguine nos lavat quotidie, cum ejus beatæ passionis quotidie memoria renovatur.

Sanguis ejus non infidelium manibus ad ipsorum perniciem funditur; sed quotidie fidelium suavi ore sumitur ad salutem.

Verus Deus, verus homo semel in cruce pependit, se Patri redemptionis hostiam

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