cœlo super uno peccatore pœnitentiam agente, quam super nonaginta novem justis, qui non indigent pœnitentia. Aut quæ mulier habens drachmas decem, si perdiderit drachmam unam, nonne accendit lucernam, et everrit domum, et quærit diligenter donec inveniat? Et cum invenerit, convocat amicas et vicinas, dicens : Congratulamini mihi quia inveni drachmam, quam perdideram ! Ita dico vobis, gaudium erit coram Angelis Dei super uno peccatore pœnitentiam agente.

ninety-nine just who need not penance. Or what woman having ten groats: if she lose one groat, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it? And when she hath found it, call together her friends and neighbours, saying: Rejoice with me, because I have found the groat which I had lost? So I say to you, there shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance.

This parable of the Sheep that is carried back to the fold on the Shepherd's shoulders was a favourite one with the early Christians; and they made representations of it at almost every turn. The same is put before us in to-day's Gospel, that our confidence may be strengthened in God's infinite mercy. It reminds us, in its own beautiful way, of our Lord Jesus; whom we contemplated, a few weeks back, ascending triumphantly into heaven, carrying thither, in his arms, the lost human family, which he had won back from Satan and death and sin. For, as St. Ambrose says, "who "is the Shepherd of our parable? It is Christ, who "carries thee, poor man, in his own Body, and has "taken all thy sins upon himself. The Sheep is one, "not by number, but by its kind. Rich Shepherd this, of whose flock, all we human beings form but the "hundredth part! for he has the Angels, and Arch"angels, and Dominations, and Powers, and Thrones, "and all the rest,-all those other countless flocks, "whom he has left yonder up the mountain, that he "might run after the one Sheep he had lost." 1

1 St. Amb. in Lucam, vii.

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But it is from St. Gregory the Great that the Church, in her Matins of this Sunday, took the Commentary of this Gospel. And, in the sequel of that Homily, the holy Doctor gives us the explanation of the Parable of the Woman and the ten Groats. "He," says St. Gregory, "that is signified by the Shepherd, is also meant by the Woman. Jesus is "God; he is the Wisdom of God. And because good "coin must bear the image of the king upon it, there"fore was it that the Woman lost her groat, when 'Man, who had been created after God's image, "strayed from that image by committing sin. But, "the Woman lights a lamp; the Wisdom of God hath appeared in human flesh. A lamp is a light which "burns in a vessel of clay; and Light in a vessel of "clay, is the Divinity in our flesh. It is of the vessel "of his Body, that this Wisdom says: My strength is "dried up like a potsherd. For, just as clay is made "hard by fire, so His strength was dried up like a "potsherd, because it has strengthened unto the glory "of his resurrection, in the crucible of sufferings, the "Flesh which it (Wisdom) had assumed.

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"Having found the groat she had lost, the Woman "calleth together her friends and neighbours, saying:

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Rejoice with me! because I have found the groat "which I had lost.' Who are these friends and neigh"bours, if not the heavenly Spirits, who are so near to "divine Wisdom, by the favours they enjoy of the "ceaseless vision ? But, we must not, meanwhile, "neglect to examine why this Woman, who represents "divine Wisdom, is described as having ten groats, one "of which she loses, then looks for, and again finds "it? We must know, then, that God made both Angels and Men, that they might know him; and that having made both immortal, they were both "made to the image of God. The Woman, then, had

1 Ps. xxi. 16.

"ten groats, because there are nine orders of Angels, "and Man, who is to fill up the number of the elect, "is the tenth groat; he was lost by his sin, but was "found again, because Eternal Wisdom restored him, by lighting the lamp, that is, by assuming his flesh, "and, through that, working wonderful works, which "led to his recovery."

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The Offertory is an outpouring of gratitude and love for the God who dwelleth in Sion; he does not abandon them that seek him; he does not forget the poor man's prayer.

Exaudi nos, Deus Salutaris noster: ut per hujus Sacramenti virtutem, a cunctis nos mentis et corporis hostibus tuearis, gratiam tribuens in præsenti, et gloriam in futuro.

Graciously hear us, O God our Saviour: that by virtue of this sacrament, thou mayest defend us from all enemies, of both soul and body: grant us grace in this life, and glory in the next.

The third Secret is left to the Priest's own choice.

1 S. Greg. Homil. xxxiv. in Evangelia.

The Preface is that appointed for all Sundays during the year, for which no proper one is fixed, either of the Time, or for a Feast. It is given in page 128.

The Communion-Anthem recalls to our minds, and with much appropriateness, the merciful teaching of to-day's Gospel, now that Eternal Wisdom has regained full possession of the last groat, by means of the sacred Banquet, which He Himself had given to the repentant prodigal.

SECOND POSTCOMMUNION.

May the oblation of this divine Sacrament, we beseech thee, O Lord, both cleanse and defend us; and by the intercession of Blessed Mary, the Virgin-Mother of God, of Blessed Joseph, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, of Blessed N. and of all the Saints, free us from all sin, and deliver us from all adversity.

Mundet et muniat nos, quæsumus, Domine, divini Sacramenti munus oblatum, et intercedente beata Virgine Dei Genitrice Maria, cum beato Joseph, cumque beatis Apostolis tuis Petro et Paulo, atque beato N. et omnibus Sanctis, a cunctis nos reddat et perversitatibus expiatos, et adversitatibus expeditos.

The third Postcommunion is left to the Priest's own choice.