is to be deprived of her honours; and Rome, the very centre of the Pagan world, is to possess within her walls that Chair which was the glory of Jerusalem, and from which were proclaimed the prophecies so visibly fulfilled in Jesus. Henceforth, this Chair is never to be moved, though all the fury of the gates of hell will seek to prevail against it; it is to be the unfailing source, at which all nations are to receive the teaching of revealed truths. The torch of faith has been removed from Israel, but it has not been extinguished. Let us live in its light, and merit by our humility that its rays ever shine upon us. What was it that caused Israel's loss? His pride. The favours he had received from God excited him to self-complacency; he scorned to recognise any one for the Messias, who was not great in this world's glory; he was indignant at hearing Jesus say, that the Gentiles were to participate of the grace of redemption; he sought to imbrue his hands in the blood of the God-Man, and this because he reproached him for the hardness of his heart. These proud Jews, even when they saw that the day of God's judgment was close upon them, kept up their stubborn haughtiness. They despised the rest of the world as unclean and sinners. The Son of God became the Son of Man. He is our Master, and yet he ministered to us, as though he were our Servant. Does not this show us how precious a virtue is Humility? If our fellow-creatures call us Master or Father, let us not forget that no one is Master or Father but by God's appointment. No one deserves to be called Master, but he by whose lips Jesus gives us the lessons of divine wisdom; he alone is truly a Father, who acknowledges that his paternal authority comes from God alone; for, as the Apostle says: I bow my knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named.1 Bow down your heads to God. Be appeased, O Lord, by our prayers, and heal the infirmities of our souls that our sins being forgiven, we may ever rejoice in thy blessings. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Humiliate capita vestra Deo. Propitiare, Domine, supplicationibus nostris, et animarum nostrarum medere languoribus: ut remissione percepta, in tua semper benedictione lætemur. Per Christum Dominum strum. Amen. no Let us continue the Hymn we began yesterday; our readers will remember it is by Prudentius, the Prince of Christian Poets. HYMN. It was by the observance of a forty-days' Fast, that Elias, the venerable Priest, the guest of the desert, received his great glory. We read that he fled far from the noisy world, and the wickedness of cities, and lived in the happy innocence of silent deserts. But soon was he carried to heaven in a chariot drawn by swift fiery steeds; for so long as he remained nigh this wretched world, it might breathe something of the contagion of its vices upon the Prophet, though his life was one of retirement, and his spirit had long been fortified by holy Fasts. Moses, the faithful interpreter of the dread Throne, Helia tali crevit observantia, Vetus sacerdos ruris hospes aridi : Fragore ab omni quem remotum segregem Sprevisse tradunt criminum frequentiam, Casto fruentem syrtium silentio. Sed mox in auras igneis jugalibus, Curruque raptus evolavit præpeti, Ne de propinquo sordium contagio Dirus quietum mundus afflaret virum, Olim probatis inclytum jejuniis. Non ante cœli Principem septemplicis 1 Eph. iii. 14, 15. Moses tremendi fidus inter- Quater volutis sol peragrans Omni carentem cerneret substantia. Victus precanti solus in lacrymis fuit: Nam flendo pernox irrigatum pulverem Humi madentis ore pressit cernuo: Donec loquentis voce præ- minus potens, Hanc obsequelam præparabat nuncius, Mox affuturo construens iter Deo, Clivosa planis, confragosa ut lenibus Converterentur, neve quidquam devium Illapsa terris inveniret Veritas. Non usitatis ortus hic natalibus, Oblita lactis jam victo in pectore Matris tetendit serus infans ubera: was not permitted to see the King of the seventimes holy heaven, until the sun had forty times passed over his head and witnessed him abstaining from every food. Prayer and weeping, these were his only nourishment. He spent the night in weeping, and lay prostrate on the ground, which was bedewed with his tears; till at length, aroused by the voice of God, he directed his steps towards the fire, on which no man could fix his gaze. John, too, was fervent in the practice of Fasting. He was the Precursor of the Son of God, who was to make the crooked ways straight, and the rough ways plain, and was to teach men the right path wherein to walk. The Baptist, as a herald that was preparing the way of the Lord who was soon to come, exacted this of men ;that every mountain and hill should be made low, and that all should be in the right path, when Truth should come down upon the earth. His birth was not like that of other children. Elizabeth, old as she was, was made to bear this child within her hitherto barren womb. She fed him, too, at her own Nec ante partu de senili ef- breast. Before his birth, he fusus est, announced to his Mother the WEDNESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT. THE Station is in the Basilica of Saint Cecily. This Church, one of the most venerable in Rome, was the house of the illustrious Virgin and Martyr whose name it bears. The body of St. Cecily is under the high altar, together with those of Saints Valerian, Tiburtius, Maximus, and of the holy Popes Urban and Lucius, all Martyrs. |