solemn celebration of the great Sacrifice, over which this Blessed Spirit presides in the omnipotence of his operation.

O holy hour of Tierce! O sacred Nine o' Clock, as men call that third hour! it is then that the Bride, the Church of Christ, feels an alleviation of her exile; for, though still on earth, she gives to her God a homage that is worthy of him, and receives back from him every grace wherewith to bless her dear children. In this sense, the Mass is her fortune, her dower; it belongs to her to regulate its celebration, to prescribe the formulas and the ceremonies, and to receive its fruits. The Priest is her minister: she prays; he immolates the Victim, and gives her prayer an infinite power. The indelible character of the Priesthood, stamped by God himself on the Priest's soul, makes him the exclusive depositary of the marvellous, the divine, power, and gives to the Sacrifice, offered by his hands, a validity which no human power can control; but he may not, licitly and lawfully, make the oblation, save in and with the Church.

This mutual dependence, this union which confounds not, of the Priest and the Church, in the Sacred Mysteries, was deeply impressed on the minds of the early Christians. In the cemetery of Saint Callixtus, -that central point of the Roman cemeteries, and the one set apart for the burial of the Bishops of the Mother-Church during the entire 3rd Century,— there is a whole series of paintings, going back as far as the beginning of the Catacomb itself. These were a symbolic teaching of the initiated how the dogma of the Eucharist was instituted by our Lord, as basis of the religion, whereof the Popes, who were buried there, in the papal crypt, had been the faithful guardians. The repast of the seven disciples, for whom, during their mysterious fishing, Jesus himself has been preparing bread and a fish roasted on hot

coals,' is painted in one of the rooms, on the centre of the wall facing the entrance-door. On either side of this central subject, there are two other smaller ones: one is the sacrifice of Abraham, with its well-known meaning; the other represents a non-historic scene, which, however, evidently forms a counterpart with the one on the other side; it speaks of the Sacrifice of the Christian Church; and symbolism so thoroughly hides the secret of the Mysteries from the profane, that we may expect the symbolism to be deep in proportion. On a table lies a loaf, whose meaning is made plain enough by the fish, the eucharistic icthus, being placed near it. On the spectator's right hand is an aged female; she is standing, with her arms stretched out as an Orante, and is offering up her prayer to heaven; on the left is the figure of a young man; he wears a simple pallium, which was the usual garb of the Christian cleric in the 2nd Century ; with an air of authority, he is holding his open hands over the table and its gifts. We know the meaning of all this; it is the Church, who is united, in the consecration, with the Priest, her minister and her son.2

-

With what fidelity does not this queen, who is in mourning for her Spouse, carry out the Testament, which left her, in the Sacrifice, the eternal and undying remembrance of his Death, and he gave her that Testament at his Last Supper! Whilst he gives his whole Self to her in the mystery of love, she is forcibly reminded, by the state of immolation in which she sees Him, that she is not to be taken up so much with the joy this sweet presence of his causes her, as with the duty of completing and continuing his work, by immolating herself together with Him. Under the Altar, where she and her Jesus

1 St. John, xxi. 8.

2 De Rossi, Rom. sott. tom. ii.

meet, she, the valiant woman,' has laid the relics of her Martyrs, for she is aware that the Passion of her Lord demands, from her children, who are his members, a something which will fill up what is wanting of his sufferings. She was produced from his open Side, when on his Cross, and she was espoused to him in Death; that first embrace, which, from her very birth, put her Spouse's Bleeding Body into her arms, has communicated to the soul of this second Eve the same inebriation of devotedness and love, which sent the heavenly Adam into his deep sleep on Calvary.

To this Church, then, to this Mother of the living, the immense human family runs with all its manifold miseries, and countless wants. She makes good use of the treasure confided to her; that treasure is the Mass, and it supplies every necessity; and, by that same, she is enabled to fulfil all her duties, both as Bride and Mother. Each day identifying herself, more and more, with the universal Victim, who imparts to her Sacrifice his own infinite worth, the Church adores God's sovereign Majesty, gives him thanks for his favours, sues for the pardon of the past and present sins of her children, and asks for them the bestowal of blessings temporal and eternal. The precious Blood of her Jesus flows from her Altar upon the suffering souls in Purgatory, assuages their fire of expiation, or leads them to the place of refreshment, light and peace.3

So great is the power of the Sacrifice offered in the Church, that, of itself, and (as far as the principal effect is concerned,) independently of the merits of the Priest or the people present, it fulfils those four ends, whose realisation includes the sum total of religion, that is, Adoration, Thanksgiving, Propitiation, and Impetration ;-yes independently of the merits of the human Priest,-for it is the Victim,

1 Prov. xxxi. 10.

2 Coloss. i, 24.

3 Can. Miss.

2

which gives this Sacrifice its worth; and the Victim on our Altars is the Same that was on Calvary; it is a Victim equal to the Father, who offers himself, as he did on the cross, for these same ends, and in one same Oblation. The Creator of space and time is not bound to observe their laws, and he has proved his divine independence in this mystery. "Just as though offered in many places, it is one and the same Body, and not several bodies," says St. John Chrysostom, "so is it with the unity of the Sacrifice, though offered in different ages." Between the Altar and the Cross, there is but the difference of the manner of the offering. Bloody on the Cross, unbloody on the Altar, the offering is one, notwithstanding this diversity of mode. The immolation of the august Victim on the Cross was a visible one, for it was amidst all the cruel horrors which slew Him; but the violence of the executioners concealed the Sacrifice offered to God, by the Incarnate Word, in the spontaneity of his generous love. At our Altar, the immolation is not visible; but the religious worship of the Sacrifice is as patent as the noon-day brightness, and as splendid in its glorious ritual. Upon the earth, which on that terrible Friday, had drunk the stream of its shedding, the precious Blood left the malediction of deicide; but the chalice of salvation held by the Church's hand sheds benediction throughout our planet.

3

O glorious condition of this Earth of ours, from whose surface, the Lamb that is slain, who is now receiving, on the Throne of God, the homage due to his triumph, is presenting, each day, in his state of infinite lowliness as Man, total satisfaction to his Father for the sins of the world, and a glory adequate to the perfections of the divine Majesty! The Angels

1 In Ep. ad Heb. Hom. 17.

2 Heb. x. 14.

3

* Apoc. v. 6, 12.

same

are in admiration as they look down upon this our globe, mere speck as it is amidst the bright heavenly spheres, and yet so loved, from the very onset, by eternal Wisdom; they surround, trembling the while, this Altar on earth, so closely resembling, so one with theirs in heaven, that, on the two, the one High Priest pays homage to the one same God in the one same infinite Offering. Hell from its deepest depths, trembles at it; and, raging as it does against God, and vowing vengeance against man, there is no object so hateful to it as this Sacrifice. What untiring efforts has not Satan been making, what artful designs has he not planned, in order to make this much-detested Sacrifice cease! And, alas! there has been, even in the very heart of christendom, some partial success to those efforts and designs, there has been the protestant heresy, which has destroyed thousands of our Altars, especially in our own dear fatherland, and there is still the spirit of Revolution, which is spreading as our modern times grow older, and whose avowed aim is to shut up our Churches, and do away with the Priests who offer sacrifice!

So it is: and, therefore, our world, which heretofore used to be set right again after the storms that swept its surface, now complains that the impending ruin is an universal one, and one wherein there is no strength, save in the very chastisements sent by God. It vainly busies itself with its plans of safety, and, at each turn, feels that the human legislation it would trust to, is but an arm of human folly stretched out to support a decrepit age of proud weakness. The Blood of the Lamb, once the world's power, no longer flows upon it with its former plenty. And yet the world goes on; it does so, because of that same Sacrifice, which, though despised, and, in many lands totally suspended, is still offered in thousands of happy spots on earth; and, on the world will go, for the time yet