angels for ever. If the soul of a baptised child were to appear to us above the tabernacle, we should think, as St. John thought when he fell down to worship an angel, that we were in presence of the Divine Child Jesus.

(d) The house of God, the house of Christ Jesus on earth, is not only the house where we are born, but it is there that WE ARE NURSED AND FED: fed on the food of angels; fed on the Bread from Heaven, having in It all that is delicious and the sweetness of every taste; fed on the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of Christ.

(e) The Church is, moreover, THE SCHOOL where we receive our best education.

The altar teaches us. We are taught from the pulpit. At the altar-rails we learn our catechism. In the confessional we are taught. The sacred font teaches us admirable mysteries. The Stations of the Cross, and the crucifix, and the altars of the saints, and holy images all help to educate us for the everlasting world to come.

(f) The Church is OUR HOSPITAL also.

When our souls are sick even to death, this is the moment when most urgently our Saviour says to us: Come to Me, you who labour. They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill (St. Matt. ix.). Say once from your heart, say in secret, say to one man, My delegate, the salutary word, the word privileged ineffably: "Peccavi" -I have sinned: and if your sins be as scarlet they shall be made white as snow (Isaias i.). My minister shall at once say: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, I absolve thee". And, Amen, I say to you, what he forgives on earth shall be forgiven in Heaven. And if you sin again, and again repent, seven times, and seventy times seven times, and more, even then shall the forgiveness be ratified in Heaven.

(g) And when the poor sinner can come no more to the holy altar, but is waiting on his death-bed for the Judgment to come, then as he cannot come to Jesus, the Good Shepherd will go from the altar to him. In the

dark hour on Mount Calvary, He has earned for the dying disciple the HOLY VIATICUM, the LAST ANOINTING with the oil of peace, the LAST LARGE FORGIVENESS, and INDULGENce.

(h) And, finally, when death has done its work, it cannot take the Christian soul out of reach of the plentiful redemption. Bring the anointed corpse to the foot of the altar, and let the Everlasting Sacrifice, THE PROPITIATION FOR THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, be offered, and through the green sward of the graveyard there shall descend an abundant refreshment to the Holy Soul in the prison-house. For it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, and have the Holy Mass offered for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins (2 Mach. xii.). M. It is consummated.

9. But some one objects-if Christ has so thoroughly redeemed, why have we still so much suffering, so much poverty, so much sickness, so much misery?

He

One sufficient answer is that it is no part of our Lord's plan to banish suffering from the earth. He has no wish to make the earth once more a paradise of pleasure. has chosen a much more excellent way. He takes the valley of tears as He found it when He became Man. He with all His Heart embraced poverty and suffering as His portion and His Blessed Mother's portion. He allows death and sorrow and poverty and pain to remain; but He has taken the sting out of death and pain and sorrow, and changed all these things into heavenly blessings. So that He is not afraid now to say: Blessed are the poor. Blessed they that mourn. Blessed the dead who die in the Lord.

Suffering has become, since the first Good Friday, a double blessing; a blessing full of grace to the patient sufferer; and a blessing to all the sufferer's household; for it moves them all to compassion and charity and to powerful almsgiving. N. It is consummated.

10. Even the sins of wicked men, and the cruelty of persecutors, and the malicious hostility of the anti-Christian world, are changed into the shortest and quickest and most

direct route to Heaven. Deny Christ, the tyrant will say. Neither death nor life, the martyr answers, shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Sentence is forthwith pronounced, and in a short time-hours, perchance, or days-the martyr does the work of long years, and wins the eternal weight of glory. "Consummatus in brevi explevit tempora multa" (Wisdom ii.).

O. It is consummated.

...

St. Ignatius recommends us to reflect upon ourselves. Yesterday for me, to-day for thee. A little while, a very little while, and my Angel shall whisper to me also: "Consummatum est"-It is consummated. . . . Thou canst be steward no longer. Suddenly, when I am not expecting it, when I am in the midst of my dreams, the cry is raised: Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet Him. Prayer for delay or respite cannot now avail: The Angel lifted up his hand to heaven and he swore by Him that liveth for ever and for ever, that for me Time shall be no more (Apoc. x.). Now is an end come upon thee; and I shall judge thee according to thy ways (Ezech. vii.). The things of this world are passed away like a shadow (Wisdom v.). God shall judge both the just and the wicked, and then shall be the time of everything (Eccles. iii.). Everything shall then have its true value.

"O Blessed Mother of God, pray for us now and in the hour of our death; that we may be able to say, humbly and gratefully, Thanks be to God Who gave us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ; for we have done the one thing necessary."

P. It is consummated.

As the princes of darkness were so urgent that Christ should come down from the Cross, so now are they watching eagerly, daily and hourly, for the opportunity to persuade us not to persevere. We must arm ourselves as the saints

did with holy thoughts and earnest prayers.

(a) "What shall it avail a man," St. Bernard writes, "if he do not persevere to the end? Of how many once strong in virtue have we read that they fell!"

(b) "Oh," he adds, "how great a fear is awakened by that thought, that a man knows not whether he shall persevere. But we have an efficacious antidote which we can apply to the terror, for we can put our trust in Him of Whom Isaias writes: Behold, God is my Saviour. I will deal confidently, and will not fear" (c. xii.).

"So that I can say, It is through Thy help, O Lord, and not of my strength, that I have fought a good fight, and finished my course, and kept the faith" (2 Timothy iv.).

(c) Be subject to the Lord and pray to Him (Psalm xxxvi.). Being confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus (Philipp. i.).

(d) St. Ephraim writes: "Knowest thou not, miserable man, that the Lord crucified for thee will from thee demand an account of all thy graces?"

(e) He adds: "Glory be to Thee Who art to come again in the glory of the Father to judge every soul that renders void Thy Sacred Passion. In that hour, may Thy hand, I pray Thee, cover me, and deliver my soul from everlasting fire."

(f) St. Bernard laments: "If I look upon myself, I cannot bear the sight; so many things do I find in myself that deserve confusion. And whereas I ought to bewail and pray, Wo is me! the effect is just the contrary."

(g) But another holy Father supplies this consoling thought: "There is no sin that is not cancelled by Thy love; no crime so heinous that is not chased away by the advent of Thy love".

"In sins I have wasted my days, but do Thou, most compassionate Jesus, vouchsafe to help me that so I may say: Omnis consummationis vidi finem."

That is, contemplating the perfect consummation of Thy work, may I too be able to say, It is consummated.1

1 This, however, is not the usual sense given to these words of the 118th Psalm.

Q. It is consummated.

And as we stay here and contemplate, may the Blessed Mother remind her crucified Son of His promise. I will pour out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of prayer, and they shall look on Me Whom they have pierced; that we may remain here, looking on Jesus, "auctorem et consummatorem fidei"—the author and finisher of faith (Hebrews xii.), till we find ourselves moved to mourn over Him as one mourneth for an only son, and to grieve over Him as the manner is to grieve for the death of the first-born (Zach. xii.).

SCENE IX.

THE SEVENTH WORD.

STATION I.

And Jesus again crying with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost (St. Matt. xxvii.).

And Jesus having cried out with a loud voice, gave up the ghost (St. Mark xv.).

And Jesus crying with a loud voice said: Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit. And saying this, He gave

up the ghost (St. Luke xxiii.).

Jesus therefore, when He had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated. And bowing His Head, He gave up the ghost (St. John xix.).

A. Jesus again crying with a loud voice.

St. Matthew's account, and St. Luke's also, make it clear that this loud cry is distinct from the cry, Eli, Eli.

From St. Matthew and St. Mark's words we should naturally conclude that there was a last loud cry without any words; St. Luke, on the other hand, gives the impression that the loud cry means that our Blessed Lord said with a loud voice His parting word: Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit.

From the Greek word in St. Matthew's narrative κpáέas, and from the comments of some of the Fathers,