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rum et immortalium mysteriorum. Viam nostram dirige, confirma nos in timore tuo, custodi vitam nostram, fac securos gressus nostros: precibus et intercessione gloriosæ Deiparæ, et semper virginis Mariæ, et omnium sanctorum.

Diac. Recti participes effecti divinorum, sanctorum, illibatorum, immortalium, supercolestium, et vivificorum mysteriorum, digne gratias agamus Domino.

Chor. Domine, miserere.

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and immortal Mysteries. Direct thou our ways, strengthen us in thy fear, guard our life, make safe our steps; by the prayers and intercession of the glorious Mother of God, and ever virgin Mary, and of all the Saints.

The Deacon: Let us who, being just, have been made partakers of the divine, holy, spotless, immortal, supercelestial and life-giving Mysteries, let us worthily give

thanks unto the Lord.

The Choir: O Lord, have mercy.

The Deacon: Receive, save, have mercy upon, and preserve us, O God, by thy grace.

The Choir: O Lord, have mercy.

The Deacon: Let us pray, that every day of ours may be perfect, holy, peaceful, and free from sin; and let us commend ourselves, and one another, and our whole life, unto Christ, our God.

The Choir: Unto thee, O Lord!

The Priest, lifting up his voice: For thou art our sanctification, and to thee we give glory, Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, now and always, and for all ages.

The Choir: Amen.

FRIDAY

WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI.

Let us adore Christ, the King, who ruleth the nations: who giveth fatness of spirit to them that eat him.

Christum regem adoremus. dominantem gentibus, qui se manducantibus dat spiritus pinguedinem.

GOD has satisfied the intense desires of man's heart. The house of the marriage-feast, built by divine Wisdom on the top of mountains, has had flowing unto it all the nations of earth. Yesterday, the whole Catholic world was animated with sentiments of love towards the adorable Sacrament; and the people said to each other, in a holy transport of gratitude: Come! let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob. Yesterday, the bud of the Lord was seen by us all in magnificence and glory; this divine Bud, this rich ear of corn that has sprung up from our earth, was carried in triumph, and excited the enthusiasm of the Faithful, making them rejoice before It, as they that rejoice in the harvest.3 It was a heavenly harvest, that had been the expectation of nations. It was the precious ear of corn, despised indeed by Israel, but gleaned by Ruth, the stranger, in the field of the true Booz, in Bethlehem.

2

It was for this day of the great meeting of nations, foretold by Isaias, that the Lord had kept reserved on the mountain the feast on a victim such as had never been seen before, a feast of wine, the richest and purest. The poor have eaten at this banquet,

4

J Is. ii. 2.

2 Ibid. iv. 2.

3 Is. ix. 3.
4 Ibid. xxv. 6.

and they have given fervent praise to their God; the rich have eaten, and have fallen down in adoration ; and all the ends of the earth, prostrate in his sacred Presence, have recognised, that he who thus gave them to feast, was Christ their King.1 This, they said, is our God, we have waited for him; we have patiently waited for him; he was the desire of our soul; we desired him in the night, and, in the morning early, our first thoughts were upon him; he is the Lord, and his remembrance could not be effaced, not even through the long ages of expectation. Thou, O Lord, art my God, I will exalt thee, and give glory to thy name, for thou hast done wonderful things; thy designs of old, faithful! faithfully hast thou fulfilled thy eternal decrees.

4

These expressions of love on the part of the human race were but a feeble echo to the infinite love which God vouchsafed to have for his creature, man. The divine Spirit, who has achieved the wonderful union between the children of Adam and eternal Wisdom, shows us, everywhere in the Scriptures, that this Wisdom was impatient of delay, that he was taking each obstacle, as it came, and removing it, and was preparing, in countless ways, for the Marriage Feast so much longed for.

We will devote these first two days of the Octave to the considering the leading features in the history of this eucharistic preparation; we shall be well repaid, by the additional light which these truths will reflect upon the dogma itself. We are going to review the loving ways, whereby eternal Wisdom sought, for so many long ages, to bring about his own union with ourselves. As a matter of course, we clothe these truths in Scripture language, for the Scriptures are our guide in this research; it is they

1 Ps. xxi. 27-30.

2 Is. xxv. 9.

3 Is. xxvi. 8, 9.
4 Ibid. xxv. 1.

that tell us the workings of the divine intentions in our regard. How, then, do the Scriptures speak of these, before the mystery of the Incarnation was actually accomplished?

The second Person of the adorable Trinity is there brought before us under the name of Wisdom; until such time as her union with man being accomplished in the most perfect degree possible, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ; this is the name under which he passes in the Scriptures, a name which gives him the appearance of a Bride. But, once the mystery of perfect union achieved, another name is given him, the name of Spouse, or Bridegroom. His other name of Wisdom seems almost forgotten; and yet, in the ages of lively faith, it was not so; the people of those days were too full of the Scriptures, to forget it. Thus we find the first Christian Emperor dedicating, to this ruler and centre of his every thought, the trophy of his victory over paganism, and that of the triumph of the Martyrs: all burning with love for the Wisdom of God, says Eusebius,' Constantine consecrated the ancient Byzantium, which he called by his own name, to the God of the Martyrs; and dedicated to Eternal Wisdom the grandest structure of this new Rome, Saint Sophia, which, for many ages, was the finest Christian Church in the world. Like our forefathers in the faith, let us, too, honour divine Wisdom, and gratefully think upon the love which urged him, from all eternity, to unite himself to man!

2

It is this love that explains that mysterious joy, which, as the Scripture tells us, he had at the beginning of Time, when this world of ours was being gradually developed in all the beauty of its fresh creation; for sin had not then come in, to break the harmony of this work of the Most High. At each

1 De Vita Constant. lib. iii. cap. 48.

2 Ibid.

additional manifestation of creative power, Wisdom takes delight, and by his delight, adds a new charm to this the future scene of the divine marvels, planned as those had been by his love. This Wisdom is delighted at the omnipotence which produces Creation; he plays every day, as the Creation goes on, yes, he plays in this world, for, each progress in its formation brings Man nearer,-Man, whose palace itis; and his delights are to be with the children of men.1

Incomprehensible love! It precedes, though it foresees, sin; and, though foreseeing it, loves not the less! It has its divine delights to be with us, and we have attractions for it, in spite of all the bitterness caused by the sight of our future black ingratitude! The Fall of man will, as one of its terrific consequences, modify, much and cruelly, the earthly existence, which Wisdom is to have upon our earth. But, in order that we may the more easily understand, and more fully appreciate, how immense must that love be, which could be proof against such obstacles, let us turn our thoughts, to-day, to the course that these loving intentions would have taken, had man persevered in the state of innocence. Although the Sacred Scriptures, written as they have been for the benefit of fallen man, suppose that state, and are ever telling us of the mystery of the restoration of the sinful world,—yet do they make frequent allusions to God's original intention; and with these to guide us, it is not difficult to mark out the leading features of the primitive plan.

Wisdom, speaking of herself, says: The Lord possessed me, in the beginning of his ways. Is she not the first of all creatures ? not, of course, as to that divine form of which the Apostle speaks, and by which Wisdom is equal to God, but in that human

1 Prov. viii. 30, 31.
2 Tbid. viii. 22.

3 Ecclus. i. 4.

4 Philipp. ii. 6.

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