Resipisce, o anima mea, actus quos es operata, recogita, eosque ob oculos statue, atque ab oculis lacrymarum stillas funde. Dic palam Christo actiones tuas et cogitationes, et justifi care. Non fuerit in vita peccatum, actiove, aut malitia, quam ego, Salvator, intellectu et cogitatione atque proposito non peccaverim, affectu, mentis judicio, et actione, ut nemo unquam gravius peccaverit. Inde etiam damnationis incurri reatum; inde, miser ego, conscientia propria judice, qua nihil mundus violentius habet, causa cecidi tu judex et redemptor, cognitorque meus, parce et libera, salvumque fac servum tuum. Recover thyself, O my soul ! Recal to mind the acts of thy life; bring them before thee, and let thine eyes shed tears over them. Openly confess thy deeds and thoughts to Christ, and be justified. There is no sin, or evil action, or wickedness, which I, O Jesus! have not committed in mind and thought and intention. None ever sinned more grievously than I, in desire, in judgment, and in deed. Therefore have I incurred damnation; therefore is sentence given against me, a wretched sinner, whose own conscience is my judge, and whose crimes surpass all that this world has seen. Do thou, my Judge, my Redeemer, and my Witness, spare and deliver and save thy servant. My life is short, and filled with labour and trouble: but do thou receive me, for I repent; call me back unto thee, for I acknowledge thee to be my Lord. Let me not become the property and prey of any but thee. Thou art my Saviour; have mercy on me. My words are haughty, and my heart presumptuous. Condemn me not with the Pharisee, but give me, O thou the one only merciful God, the humility of the Publican, and number me with him, Ő my just Judge! I have made myself my idol, and my sins have corrupted my soul: but do thou receive me, for I repent; call me back unto thee, for I acknowledge thee to be my Lord. Let me not become the property and prey of any but thee. Thou art my Saviour have mercy on me. agnoscentem. Ne efficiar alieno in possessionem et escam: tu ipse Salvator mei miserere. WEDNESDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT. THE Station, at Rome, is in the Church of Saint Xystus, on the Appian Road. It now goes under the name of Saint Xystus the Old, in order to distinguish it from another Church that is dedicated to the same holy Pope and Martyr. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his. And all the people saw the voices and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mount smoking; and being terrified and struck with fear, they stood afar off, saying to Moses Speak thou to us, and we will hear; let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die. And Moses said to the people: Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that the dread of him might be in you, and you should not sin. And the people stood afar off. But Moses went to the dark cloud wherein God was. And the Lord said to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver, nor shall you make to yourselves gods of gold. You shall make an altar of earth unto me, and you shall offer upon it your holocausts and peace-offerings, your sheep and oxen, in every place where the memory of my Name shall be. domum proximi tui, nec desiderabis uxorem ejus, non servum, non ancillam, non bovem, non asinum, nec omnia quæ illius sunt. Cunctus autem populus videbat voces, et lampades, et sonitum buccinæ, montemque fumantem: et perterriti, ac pavore concussi steterunt procul, dicentes Moysi: Loquere tu nobis, et audiemus: non loquatur nobis Dominus, ne forte moriamur. Et ait Moyses ad populum: Nolite timere: ut enim probaret vos venit Deus; et ut terror illius esset in vobis, et non peccaretis. Stetitque populus de longe. Moyses autem accessit ad caliginem, in qua erat Deus. Dixit præterea Dominus ad Moysen: Hæc dices filiis Israël : Vos vidistis quod de cœlo locutus sim vobis. Non facietis deos argenteos, nec deos aureos facietis vobis. Altare de terra facietis mihi, et offeretis super eo holocausta et pacifica vestra, oves vestras, et boves, in omni loco in quo memoria fuerit Nominis mei. The Church reminds us to-day of the divine Commandments which relate to our duties towards our neighbour, beginning with that which enjoins respect to Parents. Now that the Faithful are intent on the great work of the conversion and amendment of their lives, it is well that they should be reminded that their duties towards their fellow-men are pre LENT. U scribed by God himself. Hence, it was God whom we offended, when we sinned against our neighbour. God first tells us what he himself has a right to receive from our hands: he bids us adore and serve him; he forbids the worship of idols; he enjoins the observance of the Sabbath, and prescribes Sacrifices and Ceremonies: but, at the same time, he commands us to love our neighbours as ourselves, and assures us that he will be their avenger when we have wronged them, unless we repair the injury. The voice of Jehovah on Sinai is not less commanding when it proclaims what our duties are to our neighbour, than when it tells us our obligations to our Creator. Thus enlightened as to the origin of our duties, we shall have a clearer view of the state of our conscience, and of the atonement required of us by Divine Justice. But, if the Old Law, that was written on tablets of stone, thus urges upon us the precept of the love of our neighbour; how much more will not the New Law,-that was signed with the blood of Jesus, when dying upon the Cross for his ungrateful brethren,-insist on our observance of fraternal charity? These are the two Laws, on which we shall be judged; let us, therefore, carefully observe what they command on this head, that thus we may prove ourselves to be Christians, according to those words of our Saviour: By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another1 runt ad Jesum ab Jerosoly- and Pharisees came from Je 1 St. Luke, xiii. 35. |