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seemed open to misconstruction. It will be seen to be framed on the model of the Breviary Services. The Litany of the Passion' and the Prayers following it are translated from a volume of Devotions called Cœleste Palmetum,' published at Mechlin. The Meditations which follow the Litany will explain themselves.

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With a view to the general object which the compilers propose to themselves in the publication of this little volume, they have added, in an Appendix, extracts from the Roman Breviary applicable to the Passion and Easter Seasons. The latter have been introduced as a suitable termination to a series of Devotions on that sacred Mystery, by the earnest and habitual contemplation of which the mind can alone be prepared for the due reception of the glorious Easter tidings.

The compilers desire to add, that in the English version of the hymn Pange, lingua,' which they have introduced, they have taken the liberty of borrowing several whole lines from a translation contained in the Stations.'

Lent, 1842.

Holy Week.

"WE call these days," says S. John Chrysostom, “the Great Week, on account of the great things that our Lord has done in it. Then He put an end to the long tyranny of the devil, destroyed death, bound the strong one, and despoiled him of his arms, effaced sin, abolished the malediction, opened Paradise and the entrance into Heaven, reunited men to Angels, demolished the wall of separation, and removed the veil of the sanctuary; the God of Peace re-establishes peace between heaven and earth. It is on that account that the faithful redouble their attention; some augmenting their fast, others prolonging their vigils, multiplying their alms, occupying themselves with good works and the practices of piety, to testify to God their gratitude for the great blessings He has deigned to grant us. It is not a single city which goes to meet Jesus Christ, as after the resurrection of Lazarus, but many Churches throughout the world present themselves before Him, not with palms, but with works of charity, humanity, and courage; with fasting, prayers, tears, vigils, and practices of piety. Even our emperors observe these holy days with exactitude. They cause the public affairs to stop, to the end that their subjects, free from all other cares, may meditate only on the worship of the Lord. Let, say they, the occupations of the law, trials, disputes, public vengeance, and punishments, be suspended. The sufferings and the graces of the Saviour are for all, let His servants therefore now do good to their brethren.

Now let prisoners be set at liberty. As our Saviour descended into hell, to set at liberty all those whom death held in captivity, so His servants, according to the measure of their power, and to imitate His mercy, break the corporal chains of the guilty, not having it in their power to break their spiritual ones.”—Bingham, Orig. Eccles. lib. xxi. c. 1. § 34.

"There is nothing sweeter," says Père Crasset, "than to think of the Passion of Jesus, because it discovers to us the excess of His love, and inspires us with a lively confidence that God will pardon our sins, and grant us mercy; for God the Son has satisfied the justice of God the Father. For us has He made over all His merits; and the price at which He has purchased us is worth infinitely more than all the blessings of grace and glory we hope from His goodness. What consolation ought so sweet a thought to diffuse in the soul; what delight, to draw waters from the fountains of grace and salvation! Our consciences are oppressed by our sins, but their troubles shall be appeased when we think of the wounds of our Saviour, for it was for our sins He received them.

"The remembrance of the Passion of our Lord is also essential, because, by it we are rendered victorious over our enemies, the devil, the world, and the flesh. The devil tempts us by despair and presumption : despair comes from an ignorance of the mercy of God, and presumption from an ignorance of His justice. The Passion of Jesus discovers to us the bowels of the mercy of God, who delivered His Son to death for the salvation of sinners, and who received His sufferings in payment of their debt. He makes known His justice, in treating so rigorously His most innocent and most holy Son, covering Him with the shadow of our crimes, and making Him answer for them.

"The Passion of Jesus renders us victorious over the world, that tempts us by the love of pleasure and the fear of pain. Who can be in love with pleasure, seeing his Saviour consumed with sufferings? Who will fear afflictions, knowing that He preferred them for the love of us to all the delights of Paradise?

"The flesh is our most dangerous enemy; it is that which tempts us through love and fear; but the Passion of Jesus gives us a horror for all the pleasures that it loves, and a love for all the evils which it fears. When I see the Body of my Saviour covered with wounds, I cannot, said a Saint, look at mine without them.

"O Saviour of my soul, I am not astonished that I should be strongly tempted, and that I should fall into temptations, since I think so seldom of Thy sacred Passion. I have had a horror of Thy sufferings, and turned aside from the sight of Thy wounds. I will henceforth establish my dwelling on Calvary. It is there I would live;-it is there I would die. It is not on Mount Tabor I will fix my tent, but on the Mountain of Sorrows. On that Mount I will say, O, it is good to be here! O, how profitable and consoling, to behold a God expiring for our love on the Cross!"

POSTSCRIPT.

THE editors are led, by circumstances which have occurred since the publication of this little volume, to add a very brief explanation of some of its contents.

1. They observe, as a matter of fact, that the address contained in the Antiphon at page 21, is not an Invocation, but an Apostrophe. It is not, indeed, easy to see how it differs from a mere statement, except in force and vividness of expression. The language of high devotion is essentially, in the true sense of the word, poetical.

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2. Neither is the last line of the Third Word" in the Rhythm of S. Buonaventura (p. 29) an Invocation (i. e. of any Saint), but a Prayer to our Lord, that He will grant us a great blessing at the suit" of one who is worthier than ourselves to ask it. Upon the great antiquity of this doctrine of the "Intercession of Saints" (as distinct from the Invocation of them, which is not here in question), see the Oxford Translation of Fleury's Ecclesiastical History, book xix. c. 31, note i.

3. The rubrics at pages xix. xx. of the Tenebræ Office were retained, not, it is almost needless to observe, as a direction for use, but as the record of a fact in the Roman Service. It was conceived th

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