St Isidore of Seville (560 - 636)

He was born in Seville in about 560 and after his father’s death he was educated by his brother Leander, Archbishop of Seville. He was instrumental in converting the Visigothic kings from the Arian heresy; he was made Archbishop of Seville after his brother’s death; and he took a prominent part in councils at Toledo and Seville. The Council of Toledo, in particular, laid great emphasis on learning, with all bishops in the kingdom commanded to establish seminaries and to encourage the teaching of Greek and Hebrew, law and medicine. He promoted the study of Aristotle, long before the Arabs discovered him and centuries before 13th-century Christian philosophers discovered him through the Arabs.
    He embarked on the project of writing an encyclopaedia of universal knowledge but did not live to complete it. 

Saint Ceallach (1080 - 1129)

He became hereditary bishop of Armagh in 1105 and made many reforms; not least on his deathbed, when he abolished the hereditary principle by appointing St Malachy as his successor.

Saint Enda (- 530)

He founded a monastery on the pagan island of Aran Mor in Galway Bay, which remained a centre for sanctity and learning for the next 300 years. 

Blessed John Anne (- 1589)

It is hard to know who he was. He may have been John Amias, born at Wakefield in Yorkshire, where he married and had a family: on his wife’s death he divided his property among his children and left for the Continent to become a priest. In this case the surname “Anne” would be an alias. But equally he may have been William Anne, youngest son of John and Katherine Anne, of Frickley near Wakefield.
    In any case, on 22 June 1580 a widower calling himself “John Amias” entered the English College at Rheims to study for the priesthood. He was ordained a priest in Rheims Cathedral on 25 March 1581 and on 5 June he set out for Paris and then England, as a missionary, in the company of another priest, Edmund Sykes. Little is known of his missionary life. Towards the end of 1588 he was arrested at the house of a Mr. Murton at Melling in Lancashire and imprisoned in York Castle. He was hanged, drawn and quartered outside York on 16 March 1589, together with a fellow priest, Robert Dalby. Both were beatified by Pope Pius XI on 15 December 1929.

Saints Perpetua and Felicity (- 203)

They were martyred at Carthage in 203 during the persecution of Septimius Severus. With so many martyrs of the third and fourth centuries we have to say “they were martyred but nothing else is known about them.” That is not the case here. We have a detailed contemporary account of their arrest, trial, sufferings and martyrdom, written partly by the saints themselves and partly by an eye-witness. Devotion to them spread rapidly and they are mentioned in the Roman Canon of the Mass. 

St Alexander of Alexandria (250 - 328)

Alexander played an important role in the growth of the catechetical school at Alexandria. When he was made bishop, he continued in his efforts to educate the faithful in the faith. He encountered serious challenges especially from Arius, a priest who was teaching that Jesus was only human and not divine. Alexander called bishops together to deal with Arius, who remained incorrigible in his position even after being excommunicated. Alexander died in 328, at the age of seventy-eight.

Bl Josepha Girbes (1820-1893)

Josepha Naval Girbés was born at Algemes in the Archdiocese of Valencia, Spain, on December 11, 1820. As a very young woman she consecrated herself to the Lord by a perpetual vow of chastity. Josepha’s life was simple. She stood out for her ardent love, and she made progress along the way of prayer and evangelical perfection, while dedicating herself generously to apostolic works in her parish community. In her own home she opened a school where she taught needlework, prayer, and the evangelical virtues. She formed many young girls and women and shared with them her wisdom and spiritual understanding. She was a member of the Third Order Secular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Teresa of Jesus, and had a special love for the Virgin Mother of God. Her holy death took place on February 24, 1893. She is buried in her parish church of Saint James in her native city.

Bl. Christopher of Milan OP (c.1410 - 1484)

Dominican Friar and Priest.

    Blessed Christopher was born at Milan around 1410. He dedicated his whole life to itinerant preaching after the example of Saint Vincent Ferrer. The austerity of his life and his zeal for souls led an ancient chronicler to say of him: “He was truly a Christ-bearer, for he carried Christ not only in name, but in his heart and on his lips.” While master of novices for the Dominican Order he wrote a treatise On the Service of God for them. He died at Taggia in March, 1484.

Blessed William Richardson (1572 - 1603)

He was born in Yorkshire and studied for the priesthood at seminaries in Valladolid and then Seville. He was ordained priest at some time between 1594 and 1600. He was then sent back to England, where he used the alias William Anderson, but he was quickly betrayed, arrested and imprisoned. He was tried and convicted within a week and hanged, drawn, and quartered.

AFTER DEATH-WHAT? By Rev. Richard Felix O.S.B.

No truth of revealed religion is set forth more clearly in Holy Scripture than the fact that we shall live after death. “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin and in my flesh I shall see my God. This my hope is laid up in by bosom.” (Job xix., 25.) Daniel the Prophet speaks to the same effect: “Those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see it always.” (xii., 2.) But of all the pictures given us in the Old Testament of the final resurrection, none is so graphic or so gripping as that recorded in the Vision of the Prophet Ezekiel. “The hand of the Lord was upon me and brought me forth in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of a plan that was full of bones. And He said to me: Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall live? And I answered: O Lord God, Thou knowest. He said to me: Prophesy concerning these bones and say to them, Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Behold, I will send spirit into you and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to grow over you and will cover you with skin, and I will give you spirit and you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I prophesied as He had commanded me; and as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold a commotion. And the bones came together, each one to its joint. And I saw, and behold the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin was stretched out over them; but there was no spirit in them. And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, O son of man, prophesy, and say to the spirit, Thus said the Lord God, Come, Spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these slain and let them live again. And I prophesied as He had commanded me. And the spirit came into them, and they lived; and they stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.” (Ez. xxxvii., 1.) In the New Testament constant reference is made to the resurrection of the body. In the Gospel of St. John, for in- stance, we read, “Jesus said to Martha: Thy brother shall rise again. Martha said to Him: I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her: I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth in Me, although he be dead, shall live.” (John xi., 23.) During the public life of our Blessed Lord, Jesus raised at least three persons from death to life. These three are re- corded. There may have been many more. The three resurrections recorded in the Gospels embrace the three stages of death: first, the daughter of Jairus, dead but a few hours; secondly, the son of the widow of Naim, who had been dead several days, and was being carried out to burial; and, thirdly, Lazarus, who was dead and had been buried for a number of days. By calling back the dead to life Jesus gave proof of His power over death and the grave. Hence the Significance of that saying of the Saviour, “They that shall be accounted worthy of that world, and of the Resurrection from the dead, can die no more; for they are equal to the Angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the Resurrection.” (Luke xx., 35.) Besides bringing back the dead to life, Our Blessed Lord foretold, not once but many times, His own Resurrection from the dead (e.g., Matt. xx., 19). What He had thus foretold came to pass precisely as He had predicted (Luke xxiv., 39; John xx., 20). And inasmuch as He has proclaimed that all the dead shall rise again, it follows that this prediction will likewise be fulfilled to the letter. What Christ proclaimed so plainly concerning the resurrection of the body, the Apostles repeated over and over again. “We will not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that you be not sorrowful, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again; even so them who have slept through Jesus, God will bring with Him.” (1 Thess. iv., 12.) St. Paul, in speaking of the dead as they who are asleep, signifies that death shall have an awakening. Our Divine Lord used the same expression for death when He informed His followers that Lazarus was dead, saying to them, “Lazarus, our friend, sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep.” (John xi., 11.) In his Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle further declares: “If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Rom. viii.. 11.) How all this will be accomplished we know not. But accomplished it will be. The lowly caterpillar that crawls upon the earth and feeds on leaves and weeds buries itself at autumn time in a tomb of its own making; and after a few months bursts the confines of its sepulchre, a winged creature of the air, a beautiful butterfly, which now scorns the earth and lives on the nectar of fragrant flowers. So, too, the Apostle tells us, it will be with our bodies. “It is sown in corruption; it shall rise in incorruption. It is sown in dishonour; it shall rise in glory. It is sown in weakness; it shall rise in power. It is sown a natural body; it shall rise a spiritual body.” (1 Cor. xv., 42.) On the word of Our Lord, “The hour cometh, wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that have done good things shall come forth unto the Resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the Resurrection of judgment.” (John v., 28.) What happens immediately after death? When man dies, his body and soul are separated for a time; the body is buried and returns to dust; the soul goes at once to God to be judged, and is rewarded or punished according to its works. The judgment immediately after death is known as the Particular Judgment. The necessity of a Particular Judgment is evident from the fact that at death the souls of different men go to different destinations, Purgatory, Hell, or Heaven. The communication to the soul of its sentence immediately after death obviously involves a judgment immediately after death. Although never expressly mentioned in the Bible, the idea of a Particular Judgment is clearly implied in those passages which speak of an immediate retribution after death. Our Lord taught that Dives was punished and Lazarus rewarded directly after death (Luke xvi., 22), and He promised Paradise to the penitent thief at once (Luke xxiii., 43). The judgment set forth as an article of faith in all of the ancient Creeds-----.the Apostles‟, the Nicene, and the Athanasian.-----is the final or General Judgment. What is meant by the General Judgment? The fact that there will be a General Judgment is emphasised throughout the Sacred Scriptures. The Prophets of the Old Law call it the “Day of the Lord” (Joel ii., 31; Ezekiel xiii., 5; Isaias ii., 12). Our Lord describes it in minute detail (Matt. xxiv., 27; xxv., 31); and His Apostles mention it frequently (Acts x., 42; xvii., 31; Rom. ii., 5; xiv., 10; 1 Cor. iv., 5; 2 Cor. v., 10; 2 Tim. iv., 1; 2 Thess. i., 5; James v.,7). The General Judgment of mankind will take place at the end of the world. The bodies of all men will be reunited with their souls and every man will come before God for a second and final judgment. In the Particular Judgment only the soul appears before God. In the General Judgment the body as well as the soul of each individual will receive the reward or punishment that it justly deserves. At that time all the words and works of men, even their most secret thoughts, will be made manifest to the world. At that time the Mercy and Justice of God will be vindicated before all the world. At that time will take place the great and eternal segregation of the good from the wicked; the former to hear the welcoming words of Our Lord, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. xxv., 34); and the latter those terrifying words that will ring in their ears throughout eternity, “Depart from Me, you cursed into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt. xxv., 41.) What an awakening that will be on Judgment Day! How different the sentiments that will well up in the souls of the just and the unjust on that day of days! What remorse and regret will haunt the heart of the impious, the ungodly, the scof- fer at religion. What joy and peace and holy happiness will possess the soul of the saved! Banished from God eternally, yet beholding for one brief moment the glory and rich reward of those who in life served God sincerely, the lost will lament: “These are they whom we had some time in derision and for a parable of reproach. We fools esteemed their life madness and their end without honour. Behold how they are numbered among the children of God and their lot is among the saints. We wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and have walked through hard ways, but the way of the Lord we have not known. What hath pride profited us or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us! All those things have passed away like a shadow, and as a ship that passeth through the waves whereof, when it is gone by, the trace cannot be found, nor the path of its keel in the waters; so we also have been able to show no mark of virtue, but are consumed in our wickedness. Such things as these said the sinners in Hell. . . . But the just shall live forever-more, and their reward is with the Lord, and the care of them with the Most High, They shall receive a Kingdom of glory and a crown of beauty at the hand of the Lord.” (Wisdom v., 5.) What will be the nature and condition of our bodies in the Resurrection? It is the teaching of the Church that the body, which will be reunited to the soul at the Resurrection, will be identified with the one inhabited by the soul on earth. Every soul will receive back its own body. “This corruptible body,” says St. Paul, “must needs put on incorruption, and this mortal body immortality.” (1. Cor., xv., 53.) Consequently, it is the one and same body which, having been corruptible and mortal in this life, becomes incorruptible and immortal after the Resurrection Moreover, the risen body will be whole and entire, perfect and complete in every respect. No infirmities, no deformities of any kind will be seen in Heaven. Thus St. Augustine tells us, “As all the members of the body appertain to the integrity of human nature, they shall all be restored together. They who were either blind from birth or lost their sight on account of some disease, the lame, the maimed, and the paralysed shall rise again with an entire and perfect body.” The same holy Doctor then goes on to express the expectation that, “whatever old age or disease has wasted in the body shall be repaired by the divine power of Christ,” and that “the body will be raised not in an immature or decrepit condition but as it appeared in the prime of life.” (“De Civitate Dei,” xxii.,6) HEAVEN. What is Heaven? In attempting to give an answer to this question we must remember that any statement about Heaven is bound to be miserably inadequate and far short of the full truth. This misfortune is rooted in the limitations of our nature. God is an infinite Person; His attributes in every way infinite; His home one of infinite holiness and happiness, one of infinite beauty and loveliness. But we, being finite, and having only a very limited conception of things that are infinite, can speak of them only by way of analogy—that is to say, in human terms. With this understanding, then, we ask in all humility: What is Heaven? Heaven, says the Church, is the clear Vision and the perfect Possession of God. The essential happiness of Heaven is found in the Blessed Vision of God, the Beatific Vision, as it is called; seeing God, and in seeing God, seeing all things as in a mirror; seeing God, loving God, enjoying God; in one word, the possession of God; that is Heaven. On the other hand, the pain of privation, the lack of God‟s presence, the loss of His possession, make up the main misery of Hell. To think correctly on this subject, we must keep in mind that we have been created for Heaven. In creating us for Heaven, the Creator endowed us with all the faculties that we would need in order to enjoy Heaven. In the faculties of the soul and body that God gave us, we have a definite, though indirect, intimation of the joys of Heaven. The human soul thirsts for knowledge and hungers for love; the bodily senses yearn for sensible delights. Heaven, therefore, must and does supply every faculty with its supreme satisfaction, must and does meet every legitimate longing of the human heart. That the soul of man thirsts for knowledge is evident to every one. The inquisitive child, the man of science in his laboratory, people pouring over the evening newspaper are all seeking one thing—knowledge. They are in quest of one object only—truth. In Heaven this thirst of the soul for truth will be more than satisfied in the blessed Vision of God, which is nothing less than the storehouse of God‟s Mind laid open and made manifest to the eye of man. All that is knowable is in God. The knowledge and science that men may gather by generations of study and research are only partial and veiled glimpses of God‟s Mind reflected in matter. “We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known.” (1 Cor., xiii., 12.) The soul seeing God face to face in Heaven drinks in the knowledge if all things at their fountain-head, and to the utmost of its created ability knows all things with the knowledge of God. The second thing desired by the soul is love—to love and to be loved. The history of the human race and of every individual in it bears witness to this fact. In God this hunger of the human soul for love will be gratified fully. “God is Love” (John iv., 16), Love personified. All that is lovable is in God. All parental love, the love of fathers and mothers; all filial love, the love of little ones; all marital love, the love of husbands and wives; all fraternal love, the love of kinsfolk; all friendship; all ties of affection; the love of the good, the sublime, the beautiful; all these are but so many sparks from the divine furnace, the loving and adorable Heart of God. The hunger of the soul for love will be sated in the loving possession of God. The soul, loving God with all the powers of its being, and in turn beloved by Him Who is Love itself, rests in God. To the faithful soul on Judgment Day Our Lord will say, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matt. xxv., 21). Observe, it is not said, “May the joy of thy Lord enter into thee,” but, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Men‟s third want is that of sensible delight—that is, the enjoyment that the soul derives through the senses. All the delights of the senses freed from the dross and alloy that sin brought into the world are enjoyed in Heaven. Nature in all of its wonderful forms and colours, in all of its glory and grandeur, is nothing more than a thought of God presented to man in matter. That is why nature so appeals to the human heart. In its beauties we catch a glimpse of the glory and beauty of God Himself. The resurrected man takes into eternity all the senses and faculties that he possessed here on earth. There these same senses and faculties will be spiritualised and will seek with an eternal longing for their proper objects, and in God will have their every longing satisfied. This is no less true of the sensible delights of man than it is of his quest for truth and love. In Heaven, too, will be renewed and intensified all the love and affection that was ours in life. We will know one another more dearly and more clearly than even on earth. Parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, relatives and friends, all who once parted in tears shall meet and know and never part again. In that day, says St. John, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away.” (Apoc. xxi.,4) The loving companionship of our dear ones, our family, our friends; our intimate fellowship with the saints and angels, with Mary the Mother of Jesus, with Our Blessed Lord Himself; all this will be ours in God, the possession of Whom is Heaven. Truly, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man what things God hath pre- pared for them that love Him.” (1 Cor.ii., 9.) How is it possible for man to enjoy the delights of sense in the world to come? First of all it is a mistaken notion to think that the universe will be utterly destroyed on the last day. It will not be destroyed. All of man‟s works and all that Adam‟s fall brought into the world will be consumed, but neither the earth nor the starry heavens above will cease to exist. They will be changed only. “As a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed.” (Hebr. i., 12.) And, again, God says in Isaias, “Behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth.” (ixv., 17.) St. Peter tells us, “We look for new heavens and a new earth, according to His promises” (2 Peter iii., 13), and St. John in the Apocalypse, “He that sat on the throne said: Behold I make all things new” (xxi.,5). Nature then renewed in God and glorified will continue to give joy to the resurrected man in eternity and fill his heart with sensible delight. In the final resurrection the souls of all men will be reunited with their bodies. The bodies of the elect will be spiritualised like unto the body of our Risen Lord on Easter Day. Endowed with agility, they will be able to transport themselves anywhere with the swiftness of thought; matter will no longer be a barrier to them; clarity and the glory of Grace will shine from their countenance—every saved soul a spiritualised creature, a living jewel sparkling with the splendour of God. Wherever they may go new and magnificent beauties will burst upon them. Every moment of their existence will bring its new delights; delights that will never diminish or dwindle, because they radiate from One Who is Infinite; delights that will renew ever their life of joy in God, impelling them to break forth in that hymn of praise sung by all in the heavenly court, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts, all the earth is full of Thy glory.” (Isaias vi., 3.) What does the Church tell us about the angels? The angels were the first citizens of Heaven. Unlike the saints, the angels never lived in this world or possessed material bodies. They were created pure spirits, intellectual beings distinct from God and by nature of higher dignity than man. Their number is told in the millions. Christ Himself spoke of legions of them. According to their dignity and nearness to God, the angels are divided into nine choirs—namely, the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones; the Dominations, Virtues, and Powers; the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. Each of these choirs probably comprises many millions. Upon creation none of the angels were admitted at once to the presence of God, but all were put to a test to prove their worthiness of Heaven. The nature of this test has not been revealed to us. It is the common opinion of theologians, however, that God made known to the angels that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity would one day become man, and in the flesh redeem a creature of lesser dignity than they, and thus make it possible for man to attain Heaven. Many of the angels, with Lucifer at their heed, rebelled against God, refused to believe and obey, and were banished eternally from Heaven. “God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them unto torments.” (2 Peter ii., 4.) Thus the origin of Hell. Out of envy lest man should acquire the place that they had forfeited in Heaven, these evil spirits seek to draw man away from God and bring about his spiritual ruin. Their power, though, is limited to suggestion and temptation; they may never coerce the will of man. Most of the angels, however, were true to God in the test that He gave them and were admitted then into Heaven. These good angels make up the heavenly court, and will spend eternity in the joy and glorification of God. God employs some of them as His messengers in the guidance and government of the word. To each man at birth is assigned a special angel, called his Guardian Angel, whose duty It is to protect his charge throughout life, shield him from the snares of the spirits of evil, suggest good thoughts to him, offer his prayers and good works to the Almighty, protect him especially in the hour of death, and after death conduct his soul to the throne of the Most High for judgment. This sums up in brief the teaching of the Church concerning the angels. What should one think of the idea of Heaven held by those outside the Church? Outside the Church the idea of Heaven has been greatly distorted. Those who left the Church in the sixteenth century discarded the theology of the Church about Heaven along with many other things of historic Christianity. In consequence, they have been forced ever since to fall back more and more on the imagery of Scripture. For over four hundred years now they have talked and preached and sung of Heaven as a place of harps and hymns and crowns of gold and streets of jasper. These, of course, are but symbols. As symbols they are good as far as they go, but they give us no more an idea of the life of Heaven than pictures of men with wings give us a notion of the being of angels. Substituting the symbol for the substance, and discarding the teaching of the Church on the subject, the non-Catholic world for centuries has had no food for its mind on this subject except the symbols; and symbols, while they may serve very well as stimuli for the imagination, are not food sufficient for the intellect. The result is that, for the average men, Heaven, thought of in terms of endless hymn-singing, is anything but attractive. This, however, is not the idea of the Church about Heaven. For her Heaven is the clear Vision and the perfect Possession of God, with all that that implies. Will all men go to Heaven? Those who live without God in this life cannot expect to live with God in life eternal. Our Lord Himself has told us, “Not every man that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doth the Will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matt. vii., 21.) Fifteen hundred years ago the great St. „Augustine observed that, “though God has brought us into this world without consulting us about it, He will not save us without our co-operation.” (Sermo 169.) Our cooperation is absolutely necessary. “He who doth the Will of My Father, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” A good life, freedom from sin, the state of Sanctifying Grace, wholehearted obedience to Christ and to the One Church that Christ established in this world; these are the keys that unlock the portals of Paradise and fit one for the abode of the Blessed. HELL. Is there a literal Hell? No, indeed, says the man-about-town. He simply cannot brook the idea of Hell or bring himself to believe in such a dreadful doctrine. The very word grates upon his sensitive soul. He hates to hear it even mentioned. The notion of Hell, he will tell you, is something medieval, outmoded, incompatible with the modern conception of God. Thus speaks the live-as-you-like individual. But what does Christ say about Hell? After all, it is His word and His word alone that counts in a question like this. What does Christ say about the matter? Even a cursory reading of the New Testament will convince one that Our Lord was very explicit in His teaching about the reality of Hell. In demanding that men follow Him and believe in His Gospel, Christ continually tells them that their eternal salvation is at stake and that they will suffer eternal damnation if they die in their sins. Thus He warns them against the sin of impenitence (Matt. xii., 32), and the sin of scandal (Matt,. xviii., 8); He urges the duty of charity (John xv., 6), and the virtue of chastity (Matt. v., 28)—all under the penalty of eternal punishment. The Kingdom of Heaven is for those “who do His Father‟s will,” the pit of Hell for “the workers of iniquity” (Matt. vii., 21). It was the custom of Christ to present the truths that He came to teach us in the form of parables. Many of the parables of Our Lord close with a condemnation of the wicked to Hell—e.g., the parable of the tares and the wheat (Matt. xiii., 24), of the net (Matt. xiii., 47), of Dives and Lazarus (Luke xvi., 18), of the great supper (Luke xiv., 16), of the royal wedding feast (Matt. xxii., 13), of the wise and foolish virgins (Matt. xxv., 10), and of the talents (Matt. xxv., 14). Even in His Ser- mon on the Mount, Our Lord refers to Hell six different and distinct times. The teaching of Christ concerning the dread reality of Hell is brought out best of all, perhaps, in the graphic picture that He gives us of the Last Judgment. All the millions of men are gathered together before the Judgment seat of the King Who is Christ Himself. “All nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from the other, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then shall the King say to them That shall be on His right hand: Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, and then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, and these shall go into everlasting punishment; but the just into life everlasting.” (Matt. xxv., 82.) The Apostles repeat the teachings of Our Lord. St. Peter tells us that false prophets and lying teachers shall be punished in Hell like the rebel angels. (2 Peter ii., 1.) St. Jude speaks of ungodly men, deniers of Christ, who, like the fallen angels, shall suffer the punishment of eternal fire and shall be cast into eternal darkness. (Jude 4.) St. Paul consoles the Thessalonians by promising them a fitting reward in the future for their faith and constancy here on earth, and assures them that their persecutors shall be banished eternally from the Lord and undergo everlasting tribulation. (2 Thess. i., 6.) The wicked, he tells us elsewhere, shall not possess the kingdom of God. (1 Cor. vi., 9; Gal. v., 19; Eph. v., 5.) In view of all this, we cannot escape the conclusion that there is a literal Hell. Christ taught the doctrine plainly. No artifice of speech or method of modern exegesis can minimise the meaning of His unmistakable words. There is a Hell and that Hell is a menacing reality for every member of the human race. Whether or not we shall escape that dungeon of despair depends entirely on us. “Consider that I have set before thee this day life and good, and, on the other hand, death and evil: That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and walk in His ways and keep His commandments . . . but if thy heart be turned away so that thou wilt not hear, and, being deceived with error thou adore strange gods and serve them, I foretell thee this day that thou shalt perish ... I call Heaven and earth to witness this day that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose, therefore, life that thou may live.” (Deut. xxx., 15.) In what does the punishment of Hell consist? “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Mat. xxv., 41.) In these words Christ Our Lord tells us three truths about Hell concerning which there may be no doubt or uncertainty. First, the damned in Hell are cursed of God and separated from Him forever (Depart from Me, ye cursed); secondly, they must suffer terribly (fire); and, thirdly, their sufferings will endure eternally (everlasting fire). God alone can satisfy the soul of man. God alone can fill the heart of man with happiness. To be banished from Heaven and branded with the curse of God eternally—what unutterable catastrophe this! Second only to the eternal loss of God is the pain of punishment suffered by the damned. Christ refers to this constantly under the figure of fire (e.g., Mark ix., 42; Luke xvi., 24; Matt xxv. 41). Our Lord had the whole dictionary at His command yet He deliberately chose the word fire to describe Hell. The nature of this fire is unknown. The Catholic Church indulges neither in fantastic exaggeration nor in foolish denial concerning the reality of this fire. Fire it is and that says enough. Lastly, Hell is everlasting. The soul of man is immortal. It will live as long as God is God, and that means forever and ever. It will live either with God in Heaven, or without God in the company and conditions of the devils of Hell. “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.” Terrible truths these, but truths that come from the lips of that same Christ, Who died on a cross that He might save men from such a fate if only they would avoid sin and avail themselves of His redeeming blood. How can a sin committed in a moment of time deserve an eternity of punishment? Even in this world duration of punishment is not determined by the length of time it took to commit the offence. For instance, murder may be the work of a moment, yet it is justly punished by long years of imprisonment and even death. The Church teaches that only those go to Hell who die in mortal sin. But mortal sin is not an accidental mishap that may overtake a man unawares. Mortal sin is the knowing and conscious violation of the law of God in an important matter. He who commits a mortal sin sins with eyes open, knowing full well what he is doing, yet deliberately choosing to do that which he knows to be seriously evil. God is not only infinitely good and merciful, but He is also infinitely just and holy. His justice and holiness compel Him to hate and punish sin in proportion to its guilt. If there were any chance of conversion in the next world, or any hope that Hell might come to an end even after a million years, how few would shrink from sin. The thought of eternal punishment alone could and does deter the average man from sin. Fear of punishment is not indeed the highest or most noble motive for good conduct. Yet Our Lord, Who is Wisdom incarnate, appeals constantly to this motive, and tells us that Hell is the one and only thing that we need to fear in this life (e.g., Matt. x., 28; xviii., 8). Even in human affairs prudence demands that we take precaution against the things that threaten our well-being. We do not trifle with pestilence. We shun and avoid smallpox. That is what God wants us to do with regard to Hell. He would have us fear Hell and shun it in the same way and for the same reason that we fear and avoid any dreadful disease. People who live good lives are not worried about Hell, any more than the orderly citizen is disturbed by the presence of jails and penitentiaries in our midst. He knows that these things exist, but that they do not exist for him as long as he lives an honest and honour-able life. So, too, with the good Christian. He knows full well that there is a Hell, and that it would be foolish for him to decry or deny the existence of such a place. But he knows, too, that if he lives a sincere Christian life Hell shall never claim him. Such fear is salutary and soul-saving. “The fear of the Lord driveth out sin.” (Ecclesiasticus i., 27.) What souls will be sent to Hell? As we live so we die, and as we die so we shall be throughout the endless ages of eternity. This life is a period of preparation for the next. Heaven or Hell, whichever it be, is but the logical continuation of the kind of life we have lived here on earth. In a very real sense, then, every man decides his own destiny in eternity. The sentence which will be imposed on the soul in the final Judgment, whether it be for eternal weal or for eternal woe, is nothing more than God‟s ratification of the sentence that each one has composed for himself in life. “God will have all men to be saved” (1 Tim. ii., 4), but God will not force a man to be saved. “It depends on the will of man, whether he shall do or not do.” (Numbers xxx., 14.) Whether we will be saved or not depends on us. If a man dies with his will rebellious to God he puts himself in Hell. Who, then, will go to Hell? The answer is plain: those who put themselves there by ignoring God in this life and defying His holy law. And who will go to Heaven? The answer is equally clear: those who love God and keep His commandments. Words without deeds do not count. Christ was not content merely to declare His love for us. He lived it. If we love Him truly we must show it by the service of our lives. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John xi., 15.) It is consoling to consider that, up to the last moment of life, the sinner may turn from his evil way and be saved. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the sinner, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” (Ezekiel xviii., 32.) No sin is too great for God‟s mercy, nor any number of sins too many for His forgiveness. Christ, Who is God in human flesh, came into this world solely to save sinners. That was the one and only purpose of His coming. His life, His doctrine, His death on the cross, all bear eloquent testimony to that. Christ established His Church to continue His mission of mercy and salvation to sinful, sinning men. Christ gave to His priests “the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. v., 18), and set up within His Church the Sacraments of Baptism and Penance as two perpetual fountain-heads of mercy and forgiveness for repentant men. Truly God has left nothing undone to save even the worst sinner in the world. But man must be in earnest with God and make use of the means of mercy placed at his disposal. For God, Who has promised forgiveness to the penitent sinner, has not promised him his own time for repentance. If the sinner persists in his evil life, puts off his conversion, and presumes on God‟s mercy, he will find the Justice of God overtaking him without warning and when he least expects it. “Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day. For His wrath shall come on a sudden, and in the time of vengeance He will destroy thee.” (Ecclesiasticus V., 8.) PURGATORY. The Catholic doctrine of Purgatory Is a truth so grounded in Scripture and Tradition, so consonant with reason, and so consoling to the human heart that it is more than strange that it should ever be called into question. It was set forth explicitly in the Old Testament, and at least assumed in the New; it was taught by all the Fathers and writers of the early Church, and found expression in all the ancient liturgies of the Eastern as well as the Western world; for fifteen hundred years the whole of Christendom held fast to this doctrine as a fundamental fact of the Christian faith. It remained for the reformers of the sixteenth century, when they undertook to reform the irreformable Church of Christ, to be the first to deny it. Denying as they did the efficacy of prayer for the dead, they were obliged to deny the existence of a state of purgation after death; and to support the denial of Purgatory, they had to deny further the possibility of venial or slight sins. But all these denials are repugnant alike to reason and to revelation. Unaided, reason sees that all sins cannot be deadly to the soul. The very nature of Justice would be destroyed if all sins were equal, for it is the office of justice not only to punish but to proportion the punishment to the crime of the offender. All human laws are founded upon this principle. According to the greatness of his crime and the degree of guilt, a man will be given a light sentence in gaol or life-long confinement in a penitentiary. What reason of itself would tell us, Revelation confirms. That there are different degrees of guilt in sin and that some sins, while displeasing indeed to God, are not deadly to the soul is evident from more than one passage of Scripture. Our Lord rebukes the Scribes because they “strain out a gnat and swallow a camel” (Matt. xxiii., 24). He compares some sins to a beam and others to a mote (Luke vi., 41). He declares that the sin of Judas was greater than that of Pilate (John xix., 11). St. James the Apostle wrote, “In many things we all offend” (iii., 2). Surely the Apostles and the saints of God did not sin seriously and often and “in many things.” St. James would not write in that matter of-fact way if those offences were not slight and of such a nature that a man falling into them even “seven times” may still be called “just” by the Holy Ghost (Prov. xxiv., 16). It would seem, further, that a place of purgation is a necessity for most men if they are to be saved at all. Those who die wholly bad are banished forever from the Presence of God and delivered at once to eternal damnation; those who die wholly good are welcomed at once into the Presence of God and enjoy forever the sense and glory of eternal salvation. Only the wilfully wicked go to Hell; only the perfectly perfect go to Heaven. But what about those who are neither altogether good nor altogether bad, who leave this life soiled with slight sin? That, let us hope, will take in the most of us. On the word of God, absolutely nothing defiled may enter into Heaven (Wisd. vii., 25; Hab. i., 3; Apoc. xxi., 27). If such are to be saved at all, it can only be in a place and through a process of purgation, which the Christian Church has ever called Purgatory. In the words of St. Paul, there are sins for which “he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Cor. iii., 15). At the time of Our Lord there was such a place or prison, and there were souls in it, because in times past they “had been incredulous” (1 Peter iii., 20). Yet they were just souls, for to them the soul of Christ descended immediately after His death on the Cross, that He might announce to them the glad news of their ransom and redemption. Then, too, recall that other word of warning of Our Lord, reminding man of that prison from which He says, “Thou shalt not go out from thence until thou repay the last farthing” (Matt. v., 26; comp. Luke xii., 59). This is exactly what the Church understands by Purgatory. That those who are detained in that prison of Purgatory can be relieved by the prayers and good works of the living has always been the belief of God‟s people. The practice of praying for the dead is plainly taught in the Old Testament, and to this day piously practised by the Hebrew race. “And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachmas of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection.” (2 Mach. xii., 43.) So thought our brethren of the old dispensation. Concerning the belief of the early Christians, we can do nothing better than bring you the testimony of St. Augustine. He relates that, when his mother was at the point of death she beckoned him to her bedside and said to him, “Son, when I am dead, lay this body anywhere; let not the care of it in any way disturb you. This only do I request of you, that, wherever you be, you remember me at the Altar of the Lord.” And that pious son then prays most earnestly for the soul of his dear departed mother, saying, “O God of my heart, I do beseech Thee for the sins of my mother. Through the medicine of the wounds that hung upon the wood, hear me and heal her. Have mercy on her, O Lord, and inspire my brethren, that as many as shall read these words may remember at Thy altar, Monica, my mother” (Conf. ix., 27). Thus cried out the soul of a saint fifteen hundred years ago. No monument of marble, no mountain of cut flowers, no mere memorial service can soothe the sorrowing heart of man in the sight of his beloved dead. We stand by the open grave and see lowered into the earth the last remains of our loved ones; instinctively, we turn our eyes to Heaven, and with a heart full of faith and confidence, repeat that consoling prayer of the Church: May his (or her) soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. In what way does Purgatory differ from Hell? Purgatory differs from Hell widely and in many ways. The essential note of distinction between the two states is found in the fact that Hell is permanent and eternal, while Purgatory is passing and temporary. The soul made for God and drawn to God as steel is drawn to a magnet, realising at last that its one and only happiness consists in possessing God, in Hell is banished from God eternally and deprived of the beatifying Presence of Him Who alone can make it happy. This sense of privation, this eternal loss of God is the greatest misfortune that can befall the soul of man. The souls in Purgatory likewise are not permitted to see God. The souls in Purgatory, however, are saved souls. Knowing that their exile from Paradise is for a time only, they live in eager expectation of the blessed day when they will be admitted to the beatifying Presence and Possession of God. The damned in Hell live eternally in despair, without hope or love; the saved in Purgatory live in hope and suffer in love, knowing that their time of purgation is but temporal, and that as soon as they are free from the least stain of sin they will be permitted to enter into the eternal happiness. In eternity there are but two permanent states, Heaven and Hell. Purgatory will come to an end with the end of time. What souls go to Purgatory? There is only one key that opens the gates of Heaven and gives man a real right to eternal reward, and that one key is the possession of Divine Grace without spot or scar. The soul that appears before God in the state of Divine Grace without the least sin or stain of sin upon it is admitted at once into Heaven. The soul that appears before God in the state of Divine Grace free from grievous sin, but still soiled with slight sin, or carrying a debt of temporal punishment for sins that have been forgiven and for which full satisfaction has not yet been made, must retire to Purgatory until it has properly prepared itself for the company of the saints and the countenance of God. Temporal punishment due to sin that has been forgiven—what is meant by that? We distinguish two things in sin, guilt and punishment. The removal of the one does not necessarily imply the removal of the other. The Scriptures tell us that God pardoned Adam his sin of disobedience; and yet in penance and punishment Adam had to earn his bread in the sweat of his brow and ultimately undergo death. And thus it is with every sin. Besides the forgiveness of the guilt and eternal punishment due to sin, there always remains some temporal punishment left for us to do. This temporal punishment may be performed in this life by means of prayer, penance, suffering, fasting, alms deeds, and the like. If this temporal punishment is not taken care of fully in this world, then it must be made good in the next, before the soul that is otherwise in Grace can claim admittance into the Presence of God. By way of illustration, take the case of a man who has neglected his duties as a Christian for many years. He is pardoned on his deathbed, but has no time to do further penance for his sins. But penance must be done either here or hereafter. He cannot do it in Heaven; he has escaped Hell. There must be some other place, then, in which the requisite penance may be performed, and that place we call Purgatory. Since many people, then, die in slight sin and others die without having fully paid the debt of temporal punishment due to their sins, it is only logical as well as scriptural to conclude that there must be an intermediate place of purgation in the next world where these sins may be expiated and this punishment completed. How long will the soul have to remain in Purgatory? The soul consigned to Purgatory will have to remain there until the Justice of God is fully satisfied. Indeed, this would be a fair definition of Purgatory—a place where the injustice of man is adjusted to the Justice of God, to the Justice of God tempered by the Love of God. To this we might add another thought— namely, that Purgatory is also a place where the injustice of man to man may be readjusted. Referring to this subject in one of his radio addresses, Dr. Sheen remarks, “Most men are quite unconscious of the injustice and the ingratitude of their lives, until the cold hand of death is laid upon one whom they love. Then only do they begin to realise something of the coldness, and unkindness, and lack of love in their lives. The bitterest tears are shed over the grave just because of words left unsaid and deeds left undone. The child never knew how much I loved her. He never knew how much he meant to me. I never knew how dear she was to me until she was gone. How differently we would act if the dear departed one could come back again. But our regrets are too late; they are in vain. Oh, no. They are neither too late nor in vain. The place we call Purgatory enables hearts that are left behind to break the barriers of time, to manifest a love that is stronger than death, to convert unspoken words into audible prayers, unburned incense into sacrifice, unoffered flowers into alms, and undone acts of kindness into help for eternal life. Take away Purgatory and how meaningless would be our memorial and armistice days, when we keep in memory the memory of the dead. Take away Purgatory, and how empty our wreaths, our bowed heads, our moments of silence. But if there be a Purgatory, then immediately the bowed head gives way to the bent knee, the moment of silence to a moment of prayer, the wreath of faded flowers to the offering of the unfailing Sacrifice of the Cross. Only the Christian can fully appreciate what all this means to the broken heart of man. How can we help the souls in Purgatory? “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” (2 Mach. xii., 46.) In keeping with this principle of prayer, we Catholics follow our beloved dead beyond the veil. We know that in life they were human and may have been guilty of many little faults that will not stand the scrutiny of an all-holy God. But we know, too, that God in His goodness has devised an intermediate state of purgation, where those who die free from mortal sin, but still not entirely ready for that place wherein nothing defiled may enter, may prepare and perfect themselves for the all-holy Presence of God. Knowing all this, and knowing, too, that our prayers can hasten for them that happy day, we have Masses said for them and beg God to apply to them in unbounded measure the merits of the crucified Christ; we offer up our own good works and seek to gain indulgences with the same end in view; we pray unceasingly that God in His mercy may grant them speedily eternal rest and peace and glory. What comfort and consolation all this to the grief- stricken soul of man! Alfred Tennyson, though not a Catholic, has caught the spirit of the Church and expressed her mind on this matter in the following beautiful words: “I have lived my life, and that which I have done May He within Himself make pure ,But thou, If thou shouldst never see my face again, Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of. Wherefore thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheep and goats That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands in prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friends? For so, the whole round earth is every way Bound by chains of gold about the feet of God. —“Morte d’Arthur.” Nihil obstat: F. MOYNIHAN, Censor Deputatus. Imprimatur:  D. MANNIX, Archiepiscopus MeIbournensis. 10/2/1942 ********

Origen: The Eucharist

"Again, Celsus," Origen writes, " wishes us to be thankful to these demons, imagining that we owe them thanks-offerings.  . . . And we have a symbol of gratitude to God in the Bread which we call the Eucharist." 7

Again, "For you who are joined to the Lord, to Jesus Christ, the true High Priest, who by His blood has recovered for you the grace of God, and has reconciled you to the Father, do not hold on any longer to the blood of sacrificed animals, but recognise the blood of the Word, and hear Him saying : ' This is My blood which is shed for you unto the remission of sins '; however, he that is initiated knows already the body and blood of the Word. We do not long dwell on what is known sufficiently by those who know and cannot be explained to those who do not know." 8

Also, "As for us who return thanks to the Creator of all things, we eat the breads which are offered with prayers and thanksgivings, because we have received these breads which by prayer become a holy body which sanctifies those who receive it with a pure heart." 9

7 Contra Celsum, vii., 57.

8 Hom. In Levit, ix., n. 1C.

9 In Levit, Hom. 13, p. 176. 

From The Mass In The Infant Church By Rev Garrett Pierse

Minister in the Sanctuary. Christ’s High Priesthood in the Letter to the Hebrews

NOVEMBER 30, 2018 BY MARCUS BENEDICT PETER

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.” – Hebrews 4:14

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews advocates a novel manner of approaching the Old Testament — as typologically speaking of Christ. He demonstrates how there exists a truly eloquent continuity to all of Sacred Scripture, particularly when considering that, even from the Old Testament, God continually reveals himself in and through his Word, covenanting himself to his creation, as he did with Abraham (Gen 15:18) and, through Moses, with all of Israel (Ex 24:8). Drawing his people unto himself, God continued to reveal himself in both word and deed to them. The oikonomia of the Trinity is seen throughout Scripture to be a consistent revelation of God as he truly is: one, living, and true. It was within this plan of salvation that God willed for man to come to experience him. He accomplished this by revealing himself in material time, by speaking to them, covenanting himself to them, ministering to them, and, ultimately, becoming one with them (Ps 21:28–29; 95:1–3; Is 2:1–4; Jer 3:17). By making of his people a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation (cf. Ex 19:6; 1 Pt 2:9), God paved the way for Israel to eventually become a kingdom of priests to him (cf. Rev 1:6; 5:10), priests who ministered in the covenants God so graciously showered upon man, the last of which he instituted in and through his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. This New and Eternal Covenant and its priesthood called for a new and eternal high priest who would eternally minister it — a covenant role God had prepared for his Son since the beginning of Salvation History. It is in this light of a hermeneutic of continuity between the Old and New Testaments that this article explores the theme of this high priesthood of Christ in the Letter to the Hebrews. continued

The Promise Of Our Divine Saviour to give to men His very Flesh to eat and His very Blood to drink. part 24.

FROM JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST BY REV. FERREOL GIRARDEY, C.Ss.R.

Wherefore in matters of faith it belongs not to us to examine, whether the doctrines we are required to believe are comprehensible to us, but merely to inquire whether they have been revealed by Jesus Christ, our divine Savior; if they are included among the doctrines He has revealed, they are necessarily true, however incomprehensible and mysterious they may appear to our weak and limited reason. In believing them we cannot err, for Jesus Christ, being God, can neither deceive us, nor be Himself deceived or mistaken, and we can then be more certain of their truth and of all the other truths of faith than of any truth pertaining to our natural reason, and why? Because in believing the truths or doctrines of faith, we rely on the infallible testimony of the all-knowing and infinitely perfect God, and there can be nothing more certain, more sure, than the testimony of God Himself, who can neither deceive nor be deceived: " The testimony of God is greater" (i John 5:9).

The intellect of the brightest and most intelligent of men is very limited indeed. St. Thomas Aquinas, speaking of the human intellect in relation to the revealed mysteries of our holy religion, compares it to the eyes of the owl in relation to the light of the sun, which is too bright for them to behold. Our modern unbelievers, who reject the truths of divine revelation, merely because they are above their comprehension, are like the owl that would deny the existence of the light of the sun, merely because it is too bright for its vision! But as the owl's denial of the sun-light does not and cannot prove that there is no such thing as the sun-light, so also the unbelievers' denial of the existence and truth of divine revelation has not the least weight against its existence and truth, for they are no more competent to judge in this matter than the owl is to judge of the light of the sun. Unbelievers are the most conceited of men. They pride themselves on their superior intelligence as self-sufficient and subject to no one, independent of all authority, even of God Himself; their mind becomes the slave of their passions and falls into the most absurd theories and gross errors, and they have the arrogance and effrontery of claiming to be the benefactors of man kind, on the plea of freeing them from all subjection to God and His holy law.

But the real truth is that they have led mankind astray from virtue and correct living, and undermined, by their false teachings, the very basis of society itself, the human family. Not one of the proud and boasting unbelievers has ever done as much good to man kind as one Sister of Charity, of Mercy, or one Little Sister of the Poor by her virtuous life and her devoted charity towards her fellow-men! Those vain boasters, claiming infallibility for themselves and their erroneous theories, attempt to destroy in men all belief in God and the supernatural, and practically seek to debase their fellow-men to the level of the brute!

On.the other hand, the Protestant sects, hardly less boastful, less arrogant, put their own private judgment, or views, in the place of the Church, which Jesus Christ instituted as His infallible organ, as the competent teacher of His revelation, as the guide and promoter of salvation. Instead of seeking to know what Jesus Christ really did teach, what His words really mean, and adapting their belief thereto, they exert themselves so to explain His words and doctrines as to suit them to their own views or theories. Our divine Savior, when commanding His apostles to go into the whole world and teach all men the very things He Himself had taught them, and threatening eternal punishment to all who would refuse to accept and embrace such teachings, such doctrines, established His Church, the Catholic Church, and not Protestantism or any one of the Protestant sects, as the lawful teacher and competent interpreter of His revelation. Wherefore, the true meaning of His words, of His doctrines, must be sought and will be found, not in the views or teaching of Protestantism or any of its sects, but solely in the teaching and doctrines of the Catholic Church from the time of Christ until the present day.

In previous articles we have seen the invincible arguments and unquestionable testimonies, which clearly prove that our divine Savior instituted at the " Last Supper " the Holy Eucharist, by changing bread into His true body, and wine into His true blood. He who denies this, might as well reject Christ and the whole Christian religion, as so many Protestants now practically do, for without the Real Presence, without the Eucharist, man's redemption would, in some manner, be incomplete! For by His Incarnation Jesus, the Son of God, united Himself to our human nature; by His sufferings and death He effected man's redemption; but by means of the Holy Eucharist Jesus Christ intimately unites Himself, not merely to human nature in general, but to individual men, and makes each individual man who receives the Holy Eucharist, or Holy Communion, a partaker of the fruits of His Passion and death, of the Redemption, and imparts to him the right to heaven and its glory, and thereby completes the individual Redemption of each communicant, who believes in Him and worthily receives Him.

The Promise Of Our Divine Saviour to give to men His very Flesh to eat and His very Blood to drink. part 23.

FROM JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST BY REV. FERREOL GIRARDEY, C.Ss.R.

Hence to change a bit of bread into His own body, He has only to will it, to declare it, saying: This is My body.  Just as there are mysteries in nature, such as the intimate union of our soul and body, our physical life, the changes of substances into one another, the workings of electricity, so also, and even much more, there are greater and deeper mysteries in religion, in all that relates directly to God Almighty and infinitely perfect, and in the truths He has deigned to reveal to us through His divine Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, such as the Blessed Trinity, that is, one God in three equal and distinct divine Persons, the Incarnation of the Son of God, and other mysteries, especially that of the Blessed Eucharist or Real Presence.

Wherefore in matters pertaining to faith and revelation, the question is not and should not be, whether we understand the doctrines proposed to our belief, but whether these doctrines have been really revealed and taught by Jesus Christ. Our divine Savior, whilst calling Himself the Son of man because He was really man like ourselves, claimed to be the Son of God, to be true God and equal with God, His Father, and to be one with Him; this claim He upheld and proved to be true by numerous unquestionable miracles; the greatest of which and the most unquestionable and the most clearly proved of historical facts, was the raising of Himself to life the third day after His most cruel and public death. Jesus Christ, therefore, is true God, almighty, omniscient, and the infallible Truth itself. Wherefore, all that Jesus Christ said, declared, and taught, must be accepted as absolutely and infallibly true, how may be to us. To gainsay the words, the teaching of Jesus Christ is to charge God Himself with deception, ignorance, or impotence. Every man claiming to be a Christian, is bound to admit this without any qualification whatever. The writer of these lines has clearly and conclusively proved that at the Last our divine Savior actually changed bread and wine into His very body and very blood, and, at the same time, empowered the priests of His Church to do likewise in remembrance of Him; and, moreover, that Jesus Christ actually declared that the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood is necessary to salvation. 

However incomprehensible all this is to our reason, we have no valid reason to doubt it or to hesitate in believing it firmly, for he who denies or doubts it, is not a true Christian, and practically charges Christ with deception, or with lacking the power to do what He wills and expressly declares; he practically joins the ranks of infidels, of unbelievers.

A man cannot be or consistently call himself a Christian, a believer in, a follower of Christ, unless he sincerely believes the words of Christ, who alone has the words of eternal life. (John 6:69)

We know that at the Last Supper Jesus Christ said, This is My body, which shall be delivered for you (i Cor. ii: 24). What He then held in His hands must have been His true body, though this was not apparently so; to doubt or deny it would be to charge Jesus Christ either with uttering an unmitigated falsehood, or with being unable to change bread into His true body, or with not knowing what He was actually holding in His hands. The true Christian who believes Jesus Christ to be God, to be truth itself, to be omniscient and almighty, will say; I firmly believe that after Jesus Christ had pronounced these aforesaid words over the bread He had taken into His hands: This is My body, which shall be delivered to you, He actually held in His hands, no longer bread, but His own body, which He sacrificed on the following day on the cross for the salvation of mankind. How the bread could become the true body of Christ, I do not know, I do not understand, but I know that Christ, being God, is almighty and can therefore effect all that He wills, and consequently, that He then by His almighty power, changed the bread He was holding into His true and real body. I know and believe that Jesus Christ willed, that all who desire salvation should partake of His very flesh and blood, and that He therefore instituted the priesthood in His Church, so that they should multiply His presence in the Blessed Eucharist all over the earth, to enable all men to partake of His flesh and blood and believe that Jesus Christ, being God and almighty, can do this and has actually done all this; although it is beyond my comprehension and that of all mankind, nevertheless, I believe it all most firmly, for Jesus Christ is the all-wise and all powerful God.

The Promise Of Our Divine Saviour to give to men His very Flesh to eat and His very Blood to drink. part 22.

FROM JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST BY REV. FERREOL GIRARDEY, C.Ss.R.

XI THE REAL PRESENCE, A MYSTERY 

Many sincere Non-Catholics refuse to believe in the Real Presence, on the ground that it is wholly incomprehensible to them, how a little piece of bread can become the true body of Jesus Christ, and a few drops of wine can become His true blood, and how His body and blood can be in so many places at the same time and be actually received whole and entire by so many persons. They claim that, if they could understand this, they would no longer  refuse to believe in the Real Presence. 

We should, however, bear in mind that the truth of a thing does not depend on our understanding it. Experience shows that every one of us holds many things to be true which he does not and can not understand. Every one knows and believes, that the food he partakes of is changed into his own blood and flesh ; that the blood circulating in his body becomes flesh, veins and arteries, bones, skin, hair, and forms the different organs of his body; but does he understand all this ? how this is done is a perfect mystery to him. The same may be asserted of the vegetable kingdom: plant, for instance, a peach stone ; in the course of time it will grow into a tree ; now tell me how the very same sap of the peach tree formed in its roots and circulating in the tree forms its bark, its wood, its branches, its leaves, its blossoms, and its fruit which is composed of the stone, the seed, the pulp, the skin, each of which would naturally argue a different origin for every other part. But although we know that the same sap forms them all, can we understand how this is effected? Hence even in the natural order there are everywhere mysteries which surpass our understanding, and the only rational explanation we can give thereof is, that God made things so. Our senses, our reason testify to the existence, reality and truth of these natural facts and we act reasonably, when we believe them, although we cannot understand them. Their truth does not depend on our understanding them. Let us never lose sight of the fact that God is almighty, and is also Truth itself; that He gives existence to things by His mere word, by a mere act of His will. 

The Promise Of Our Divine Saviour to give to men His very Flesh to eat and His very Blood to drink. part 21.

FROM JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST BY REV. FERREOL GIRARDEY, C.Ss.R.

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ON THE REAL PRESENCE

The Angelic Doctor so clearly and so beautifully elucidates the doctrine of the Real Presence, that it will not be thought inopportune or wearisome, to devote another article to quotations from his works on this vital subject, especially since our holy Mother the Church has made so prominent a use of them. After the Epistle of the Mass of Corpus Christi, the priest before proceeding to read or sing the Gospel, reads the following " Sequence,'or hymn of St. Thomas, in honor of the Blessed Eucharist:

"Praise, O Sion, thy Savior; sing hymns and canticles in praise of thy Guide and Shepherd. Praise Him with all thy might, for He is above all praise and can never be sufficiently praised. As a special theme of praise, there is this day proposed the living and life-giving Bread, which at that blessed supper Christ, it cannot be denied, gave to His twelve apostles. Let our praise be full and melodious, let the rejoicing of our mind abound in joyful and becoming strains, for this is the day when we solemnly celebrate the first institution of this Sacred Table. In this feast of the New King the New Pasch of the New Law puts an end to the passover of the Old Law. This new Feast puts the ancient to flight. Truth expels the shadow and day light displaces the darkness of night. That which Christ performed at His Last Supper, He declared should ever be done in remembrance of Him. Taught by His holy precepts, we consecrate bread and wine into the Victim of salvation. The Christians are taught that bread is changed into the flesh of Christ, and wine into His blood. That which thou graspest not and seest not, since it is outside the order of nature, thou shouldst believe with a lively faith. Under diverse species (of bread and wine), which are mere signs and not sub stances, there are hidden far more excellent things. The flesh of Christ is food and His blood is drink; and yet Christ is whole and entire under each species. He is not cut by those who receive Him, nor is He broken or divided (by the division of the species), but He is always received whole and en tire. One person receives Him; a thousand also receive Him; yet all and each one receive one and the same (neither more nor less) ; and when He is received, He is not consumed. The good receive Him; the wicked also receive Him, but with the different result, either of life or of perdition. He is death to the wicked, and life to the good; thus thou seest how different is the outcome of each, although both receive the very same food. When the Sacred Host is broken, do not waver, but remember that Christ is contained in the smallest part, as well as in the whole. There is no breaking of the substance (of Christ's body), but only the breaking of the sign (species), by which neither the state nor the size of the ' signified ' (the body of Christ) is diminished. Behold (then) the Bread of Angels, become the food of wayfarers (on the road to heaven, our true country, our true home); it is the real Bread of the children (of God), which should not be given to the dogs (to the unworthy, to those laden with mortal sin). It was prefigured in the immolation of Isaac, in the paschal lamb, and in the manna given to the Israelites. O Jesus, our Good Shepherd, truly (our) bread, have mercy on us; deign to feed us, deign to protect us, deign to make us see the good things in the land of the living (heaven). Thou who art omniscient and almighty, who here below feedest us mortals, deign to admit us into heaven, as coheirs and companions of its holy citizens, to share (there forever) in Thy Sacred Banquet. Amen."

Such is the grand hymn of St. Thomas explaining most clearly the doctrine of the Real Presence, which the priest reads in the Mass of the Feast of Corpus Christi, and which is called by its first words: Laud a, Sion. In Catholic countries, either on the Feast itself or on the Sunday following, there is a solemn triumphal procession with the Blessed Sacrament in the open air, during which the Lauda Sion, and other hymns in honor of our Eucharistic Savior are sung.

St. Thomas Aquinas also composed the antiphons for the Magnificat of first and second Vespers of the office of Corpus Christi. They are as follows:

1. " O Lord, how sweet is Thy Spirit, since in order to manifest Thy sweetness towards Thy children, Thou by bestowing the most sweet Bread from heaven, fillest the hungry with good things, and sendest away hungry the fastidious rich."

2. " O sacred Banquet in which Christ is received, the remembrance of His passion is recalled, the mind is filled with grace, and the pledge of future glory is given to us."

These antiphons remind us of the words of our divine Savior in His discourse promising the institution of the Blessed Eucharist. There is another hymn of St. Thomas in honor of the Blessed Eucharist, which, although not placed either in the Office or in the Mass of Corpus Christi, is found among the prayers recommended to be said by priests during their thanksgiving after saying Mass, and is well adapted to be recited during a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, or sung when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for the adoration and benediction of the faithful, and therefore we give it here.

"Devoutly I adore Thee, O hidden God, who truly remainest concealed under these species. My heart wholly subjects itself to Thee, because whilst contemplating Thee, it grows faint (with love). The sight, the touch, the taste are deceived in Thee; here we can trust our hearing only; wherefore what ever the Son of God has said, I firmly believe for there is nothing more true than this word of Truth itself. On the Cross Christ's Divinity alone was concealed; but here even His humanity is hidden; nevertheless, believing and acknowledging both, I pray for that which the penitent thief prayed for. Thy wounds, O Jesus, I do not, like Thomas, be hold ; nevertheless I own Thee for my God. Grant that I may evermore and more believe in Thee, hope in Thee and love Thee. O Memorial of the Lord's death, living Bread imparting life to man; grant that my mind may always live by Thee, and that it may always relish Thy sweetness. O loving Pelican, Lord Jesus, cleanse my impurities with Thy blood, a single drop of which is sufficient to save the whole world from its sins. O Jesus, whom I now behold veiled (in this Sacrament), grant, I beseech Thee, that which I thirst for, that when I shall see Thy Face revealed, I may be made happy by the vision of Thy Glory. Amen."

In this hymn and in his prayers destined for priests before and after Mass St. Thomas shows that he is not a dry, learned philosopher and theologian, but that his piety is as tender as his learning is great. This will be apparent to our readers from two of his prayers recommended especially to priests by the Church, the one before, and the other after Mass, which all of us may well use before and after holy Communion.

1. BEFORE COMMUNION. " O almighty and eternal God, behold me approaching the Sacrament of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; I come to It as a sick man goes to the Physician of life, the unclean to the Fountain of mercy, the blind to the Light of eternal splendor, the poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth. Wherefore I beseech the abundance of Thy immense bounty to deign to heal my infirmity, to wash my uncleanness, to enlighten my blindness, to enrich my poverty, to clothe my nakedness, so that I may receive the Bread of Angels, the King of kings; the Lord of lords, with such reverence and humility, with such contrition and devotion, with such purity and faith, with such good purpose and intention as is conducive to the salvation of my soul. Grant me, I beseech Thee, to receive not only the Sacrament of the Lord's body and blood, but also the reality and virtue of this Sacrament. O God of meekness, grant that I may so receive the body of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, which He took from the Virgin Mary, that I may deserve to be incorporated into His mystical body and numbered among His members. O most loving Father, grant that I may for ever contemplate face to face Thy beloved Son, whom I propose to receive concealed in this Sacrament. Amen."

The foregoing prayer of St. Thomas before holy Communion is addressed to the heavenly Father to obtain from Him the graces we need to receive His divine Son worthily and profitably for our salvation.

In like manner, the Saint addresses his thanksgiving after holy Communion to the eternal Father also, for giving him the body and blood of His only-begotten Son as the food of his soul, and beseeches Him to grant that he may derive therefrom the fruits of eternal life:

2. AFTER COMMUNION. " I give Thee thanks, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, who, without any merit on my part, but solely through Thy merciful condescension, didst deign to satiate me, a sinner and Thy unworthy servant, with the precious body and blood of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I beseech Thee to grant that this holy Communion be not to me a source of punishable guilt, but a wholesome intercession for pardon; may it be to me the expulsion of my evil habits, the extermination of my concupiscence and lust, an increase of charity and patience, of humility and obedience, and of all the virtues; a firm defense against the snares of all my enemies, both visible and invisible; the perfect appeasement of all my emotions, both carnal and spiritual; may it be to me a firm clinging to Thee, the one and true God, and the happy con summation of my end. And I beseech Thee to deign to lead me, a sinner, to that ineffable Banquet, nowhere Thou with Thy Son and the Holy Ghost, art to Thy Saints the true light, the complete fulness, everlasting joy, consummate pleasure and perfect happiness. Amen."

The Promise Of Our Divine Saviour to give to men His very Flesh to eat and His very Blood to drink. part 20.

FROM JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST BY REV. FERREOL GIRARDEY, C.Ss.R.

THE REAL PRESENCE AND THE ANGELIC DOCTOR

Who is the Angelic Doctor? St. Thomas Aquinas. He is surnamed the Angelic Doctor, or the Angel of the Schools, because in clearness and depth of learning he is more like an angel than a man. Without exaggeration it may be said that his was the grandest mind ever possessed by mortal man. All our modern intellectual giants are veriest pigmies when compared to St. Thomas Aquinas. In his works are found, as Pope Leo XIII insinuates, besides the clearest proofs and the vindication of the Christian truths, the most thorough refutation of all errors past, present and future. Although so wonderfully learned, he writes in a style so simple, so plain and clear, that there can be no mistaking of his meaning. But many complain of finding it hard to understand him. That is true; but the difficulty of understanding St. Thomas lies not in the intricacy or obscurity of his sentences, or in the ambiguity of his terms, for his sentences are very simple and his terms are well defined; the difficulty of understanding him results from the depth and sublimity of the subjects he treats, both in philosophy and theology. St. Thomas was also a very holy man and very much addicted to prayer. When ever in writing on a subject, he came across a difficult point, he had recourse to mental prayer to obtain from God the light he needed, and would continue therein till the difficult point became clear in his mind, so that he was wont to say that he learned more by prayer than by study. Luther dreaded the works and arguments of St. Thomas more than anything else, for he uttered the vain boast that, if the Catholics would give up St. Thomas, he would destroy the Catholic Church! At the great Council of Trent the two great works that were the oftenest consulted and that were placed side by side, were the Holy Bible and the great Summa of St. Thomas. St. Thomas Aquinas was born about the year 1226 in Southern Italy. At the age of nineteen years he received the Dominican habit at Naples, where he was prosecuting his studies. This greatly displeased all members of his family who, finding their entreaties useless, resolved to remove him from the convent by force. To prevent this, the Dominicans secretly sent him to Paris. But he was waylaid and captured by his brothers, and imprisoned in a castle. There every means, both fair and foul, was used to prevail on him to give up his vocation, but all in vain, for he not only remained steadfast, but even succeeded in prevailing upon his sisters, who had been sent to overcome his constancy, to leave the world and enter the religious state. With their help he escaped from his prison and succeeded in reaching Paris; and soon was sent first to Cologne to study under the renowned Blessed Albert the Great, and later on to Paris where he received the degree of Doctor with St. Bonaventure, and for a number of years taught with wonderful success theology and philosophy in its celebrated University. "The Church," says Father Bowden, " has ever venerated his numerous writings as a treasure-house of sacred doctrine; while in naming him the Angelic Doctor, she has indicated that his science is more divine than human. The rarest gifts of intellect were combined in him with the tenderest piety."

He died in 1274 on his way to the General Council of Lyons, to which Pope Gregory X had summoned him. St. Thomas is intimately connected with the history of the Blessed Eucharist in the Catholic Church. In the year 1264 Pope Urban IV ordered the celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi, which he had just instituted, through out the whole Church. He enjoined a committee of theologians, among whom were St. Thomas and the great St. Bonaventure, surnamed the Seraphic Doc tor, on account of the ardent piety and sublimity of his writings, to prepare each the Office and the Mass of the Blessed Sacrament for that great Feast. When St. Thomas had read what he had written on the subject St. Bonaventure would not read what he himself had prepared, because, as he said, it would bear no comparison with what St. Thomas had com posed. Let us now examine some of the beautiful passages of the wonderful composition of St. Thomas on the Blessed Eucharist. The following is a passage from the Divine Office:

" The immense benefits of the divine bounty be stowed on Christians confer on them an inestimable dignity. For there is not, nor was there ever in former times, a nation that had its gods so near as our God is near to us. The only-begotten Son of God, wishing to render us partakers of His divinity, assumed our nature, in order that, after becoming man, He might make man divine. Moreover, the nature He assumed like ours, the very same He delivered up for our salvation; for He offered on the altar of the cross His body as victim for our reconciliation with His Father; He shed His blood both for our ransom and as a cleansing bath, so that we, being redeemed from a wretched slavery, might be cleansed from all sins. Now, in order that the remembrance of so great a benefit should remain constantly in us, He left His body and His blood, under the appearances of bread and wine, to be used by the faithful as (spiritual) food and drink. O feast so precious, so much to be admired, bringing salvation and filled with every sweetness! For what can be more precious than this feast, in which, not the flesh of bullocks and goats as in the Old Law, are placed before the guests, but in which Christ, the true God, is given to us as our food? What is more wonderful than this Sacrament ? For in it the bread and wine are substantially changed into the body and blood of Christ; and therefore Christ, the true God and perfect man, is contained under the appearances of a little bread and wine. He is eaten by the faithful, but not torn in pieces; for, if the Sacrament is divided, Christ (is not divided, but) remains whole under each particle. The accidents subsist without subject in this Sacrament, so as to make room for our faith, whilst we are receiving visibly that which is invisibly hidden under a foreign species."

In the above quotation we see that St. Thomas expressly declares that in Holy Communion, Christ, the true God, is given us as our food and is eaten by us; however He is not torn in pieces as bodily food. When the Sacred Host is divided, the body of Christ is not divided, but is entire in each piece, however small it may be. In the Blessed Eucharist, he tells us the accidents, that is the taste, color, smell and other properties of bread and wine are present, but the substance of bread and the substance of wine are not present, for they have been changed by consecration into the substance of the body and the substance of the blood of Jesus Christ. The receiving of Holy Communion is visible, but the body and the blood of Christ which we therein really receive, are invisible to our senses, and thus give us the opportunity of exercising our faith.

" No other Sacrament," continues St. Thomas, " is more wholesome than this one, for it purifies our sins, increases our virtues and replenishes our mind with an abundance of good gifts. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all, might prove useful to all. In fine, no one can sufficiently express the sweetness of this Sacrament, by which spiritual sweetness is tasted in its very fountain, and in which the remembrance is recalled of the most excellent charity which Christ showed in His Passion. Wherefore, in order to impress the more deeply in the hearts of the faithful the immensity of His love, Christ, after celebrating the Jewish Passover with His disciples at the Last Supper, and being about to go from the world to His Father, instituted this Sacrament, as a perpetual memorial of His Passion, the fulfillment of the ancient figures and the greatest miracles wrought by Him; and He thereby left a wonderful consolation to those who grieved at His departure from this world."

In another place, speaking of the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi, he says: " It is befitting the devotion of the faithful, that they should solemnly celebrate the institution of so salutary and so wonderful a Sacrament, and that we should revere the ineffable manner in which our God is present in this visible Sacrament, and praise the power of God working so many wonders in this very Sacrament, and give due thanks to Him for so salutary and sweet a benefit. Although on Holy Thursday, the day on which this Sacrament was instituted, special mention of its institution is made during the solemn Mass, nevertheless, all the remainder of the Office of that day is devoted to the veneration of the Passion of Jesus Christ. Wherefore, in order that the Christian people should worthily celebrate the institution of so great a Sacrament, Pope Urban IV, filled with devotion towards this Sacrament, piously decreed, that the memory of its institution should be celebrated by all the faithful on the first Thursday following the octave of Pentecost, so that whilst making use of the Sacrament all the year round for our salvation, we may celebrate its institution, especially at the time when the Holy Ghost taught the hearts of the disciples to know fully the mysteries of this Sacrament. It was also at that time that the faithful began to partake of this Sacrament as their spiritual food."

Let us now turn our attention to the beautiful hymns of the Divine Office of the Blessed Sacrament composed by the Angelic Doctor, beginning with the Pange, lingua, gloriosi, the hymn for vespers. " Sing, O my tongue, the mystery of the glorious body and precious blood which the King of the nations, who was brought forth from the Virgin's fruitful womb, shed for the world's ransom. To us He was given, for us He was born of the spotless Virgin, and conversed with men, sowing the seed of the word (of God), till He closed in a wonderful manner the time He spent on earth. Whilst at table with His brethren at the Last Supper, after com plying fully with the prescriptions of the (Mosaic) law in eating of the paschal lamb, He with His own hands gave Himself as food to His twelve apostles. The Word made flesh with a word makes real bread His real flesh, and real wine His real blood; and although our senses fail to recognize this change, faith alone suffices to confirm (convince) a sincere heart. (The last two stanzas are the Tantum ergo and the Genitori, which are sung before every benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.) "Therefore let us, this so great Sacrament, profoundly revere, and let the ancient figures give way to the new rite, and our faith supply the deficiency of our senses, To the Father and to the Son let there be praise, rejoicing, greeting, honor, virtue and blessing, and equal praising to the Holy Ghost from both proceeding. Amen."

The next hymn we give here of St. Thomas is the " Sacris solemniis " for the " Matins " of the Office of the Blessed Sacrament. " Let us celebrate this holy and solemn Feast with joy, and let us sound its praises from our inmost hearts. Let us lay aside the things of old, and let all things be new, our hearts, our voices, our deeds. We now recall the Supper of that last night when Christ, as we believe, gave the lamb and the unleavened bread to His brethren, in accordance with the laws prescribed to their ancestors. After they had eaten the lamb, a figure of Christ, and finished the repast, Christ, as we should confess, gave to His disciples with His own hands His own body, whole and entire to all, whole and entire to each one likewise. To them in their weakness He gave His body as a strengthening food, and in their sadness He gave them the chalice of His blood, saying: Receive the cup I give you, drink ye all of this. Thus did the Lord institute that Sacrifice which He wished to entrust to His priests alone, for whom it is meet and fit that they should partake of it themselves and also give it to others. Thus the Angels' bread becomes the bread of men. This heavenly bread puts an end to the figures of the Old Law. O wonder of wonders, in deed, for a poor, humble servant feeds on the Lord Himself! O triune Deity, we beseech Thee, deign to visit us, as we worship Thee; through Thy paths lead us to the light to which we tend, and in which Thou dwellest. Amen."

The next hymn of St. Thomas in the Divine Office is that for Lauds beginning with the words " Verbum supernum." The fourth stanza is worthy of admiration. The great Latin poet, Santeuil, of the seventeenth century, was wont to say, that he would be willing to give up all his fame his Latin poetry had acquired for him, could he thereby possess that of being the author of those four verses, beginning " Se nascens." The fifth stanza and the sixth are those usually sung at Benediction when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed, " O salutaris" and " Uni trinoque." Here is the hymn: " The Word of God went forth from heaven without leaving the right hand of His Father; He came on earth to do His work, and reached at length the evening of His life. As He was about to be betrayed to His en emies by one of His disciples, He previously gave Himself to His disciples as the Bread of life. To them under a two-fold species He gave His flesh and blood, so that He might feed the whole of man (who is composed of flesh and blood) — (Se nascens). At His birth He gave Himself to man as a fellow-man; when at table, He made Himself man's food; when dying, He became man's ransom; and reigning in heaven, He gives Himself to man as his reward. (O salutaris) O saving Victim, which openest heaven's gate, whilst enemies wage against us a relentless war, deign to give us strength, to bring us help. (Uni trinoque) To the triune Lord be everlasting glory, that He may bestow on us in our country a life without end. Amen."