largely increasing their Faith, their Hope, their Love, as a preparation for their first Holy Communion.

Imprint, O Lord, also in our hearts lively sentiments of faith, hope, and charity, and a true contrition for our sins.

STATION VIII.

Philip saith to Him: Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us (v. 8).

A. The Apostles believed our Lord to be the Messias, and the Son of God; but they did not all as yet realise with a vivid faith that He was "God of God and Light of light and consubstantial with the Father".

I believe, O Lord, help Thou my unbelief (St. Matt.).
B. Show us the Father, and it is enough for us.

Still, from this request of Philip we can draw great humiliation for ourselves. For, as the words of our Lord are more and more creating a clean heart in him, his one desire now is to know the Father; and there is true charity also in his soul, for what he wishes for himself he wishes for all: Lord, show us the Father.

Is our prayer to God such as this: Show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us? Sometimes men say, "Give me health and I ask no more," "Give me an income that will keep me out of debt, and I am quite content," "Deliver me from this one disgrace hanging over my head in consequence of my folly, and I ask for nothing further". Philip has chosen the better part. The bliss of Heaven, our Lord says, is that they know Thee, My Father, and Him Whom Thou hast sent. Therefore, St. Philip's prayer is a most wise one. "Give us to know our Father Who is in Heaven, give us here a beginning of our eternal bliss, and that is sufficient."

We may be sure that our Blessed Saviour was not displeased with this petition of Philip's, even though there was imperfection in it. He had shown a special mark of affection to him before the miracle of the loaves, when He

consulted him: Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? (St. John vi.). And when the Gentiles on Palm Sunday wished to see Jesus, it was to Philip they addressed themselves. Perchance, Father à Lapide conjectures, because they perceived in his countenance and the tone of his voice a special gentleness and kindness and simplicity which attracted them. He may have been in his character, like his comrade Nathaniel, whom he drew to our Lord, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile (St. John i.). However this may be, we are sure that it was with great kindness that our Lord answered him.

STATION IX.

Jesus saith to him: So long a time have I been with you: and have you not known Me? Philip, he that seeth Me, seeth the Father also. How sayest thou, Show us the Father? (v. 9).

A. He that seeth Me, seeth the Father.

These same words our Saviour had cried out aloud as He was leaving Jerusalem on the Palm Sunday: He that seeth Me, seeth My Father. But then they did not make impression. Now He is communicating much more light to His Apostles, and increasing their Faith as an immediate preparation for the great mystery of the Blessed Eucharist. B. So long a time have I been with you: and have you not known Me?

Not more than three years had elapsed since Philip was called to know Jesus.

"Alas! my Lord and my God, how much more reason Thou hast to say to me from Thy tabernacle: So long a time have I been with you: and have you not known Me? (St. John xiv.). Forty years have I been near to this generation, and I said: Always they go astray in their hearts" (Psalm xciv.).

Do

you

STATION X.

not believe that I am in the Father and the Father

in Me? The words that I speak to you, I speak not of Myself. But the Father Who abideth in Me, He doth the works. Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? (vv. 10-11).

Every word is strengthening in the soul of Philip and the other Apostles faith in our Lord's Divinity and His intimate and essential union with His Father, and making them more ready for the Most Holy Sacrament. Credo, Domine, Credo.

STATION XI.

Otherwise believe for the very works' sake (v. 12).

To raise their faith and render it more vivid, He reminds them of the stupendous miracles they have witnessed. And then, to make them see more clearly what a value He sets on faith, He adds:

STATION XII.

Amen, amen, I say to you, he that believeth in Me, the works that I do, he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do (v. 12).

A. "O vos omnes. Attendite." We must pause here to wonder at the marvellous effect of Divine faith. By believing firmly in our Lord, we become in a manner one with Him, and share His Divine powers, and do the wondrous works He does.

B. Still more wonderful and beautiful and loveable is the humility of our Blessed Lord's Heart. Charity, St. Paul writes, is not ambitious, seeketh not its own. Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, does not, as we have seen, seek the first place. His disciples shall do greater works than He did. He trod the wine-press alone. He went through His Passion alone; for His Blessed Mother, the only one who shared it, was as a second self to Him, half of His

Soul. Alone and in sorrow He sowed the seed; but He has no wish to reap the harvest alone. It is one man that soweth, He had said to His Apostles, and it is another that reapeth. I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours (St. John iv.). This thought was to keep His Apostles humble in the midst of their marvellous success. After the first discourse of St. Peter, many more became disciples, than Christ had won during His three years of preaching. And even an ordinary priest, when he absolves many, as so often happens, does, in a way, a greater work than our Lord had done when He uttered these words; greater, that is, in this sense, that to absolve many is a greater work than to absolve few. So, too, when the Holy Father rules and teaches the whole Church, he may be said in a certain sense to be doing a greater work than our Lord did.

C. The works that I do he shall do, and greater than these shall he do.

"Attendite." What lesson do we need so much as this: to practise humility of heart, to be content with labouring and sowing, and to be willing that others shall reap, or at least share with us in the reaping? Fac fieri was a word of advice which a spiritual guide used to give to all in authority: get things done by others; do not be anxious to do all yourself. Be content, like our Saviour, that others should do greater work than you have done.

STATION XIII.

Because I go to the Father. And whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask Me anything in My Name, that will I do (vv. 12-14).

A. Whatsoever you shall ask, that will I do.

Now, in the second place, our Blessed Saviour, as a preparation for the Blessed Eucharist, strengthens Divine

Hope in the hearts of His Apostles. Full of the truest and most tender affection for His brethren, and for all the members of His fallen race, His Sacred Heart pours out this most consoling promise: I am leaving you, but ere I go, I make this covenant with you, that: Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My Name, that will I do. So that He may well say a little later: It is expedient for you that

I go.

B. Mark, too, how He inculcates again and again that He is one with His Father, and yet a distinct Person: Whatsoever you ask My Father, that will I do.

C. Whatsoever you ask in My Name.

We must understand this word. A priest absolves in the Name of Christ. He speaks as Christ's delegate and proxy, and therefore says: I absolve thee. For the Scribes

were right when in their hearts they thought: Who can forgive sins but God only? (St. Mark ii.). If a man forgives sin, it can only be as God's vicar and delegate and alter ego. From this example we can understand in some measure what our Blessed Saviour means when He tells us to ask in His name. We are to go to prayer as His delegates, dressed, as it were, in His garments: not to get from His Father surreptitiously the blessing that belongs to our elder brother, but authorised and commissioned by Him to ask in His name and through His merits, as if they were our own, for the blessing that belongs to Him, but which He wishes to share with us.

D. That the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Oh, when shall our cry be heard: Our Father, hallowed be Thy name? When shall that name, so full of comfort and joy and hope, be a reality to us? When shall the great desire of our heart be in all our works, that our Father may be glorified in us?

E. If you shall ask Me anything in My Name, that will I do. Here again He reveals His Divinity. We may either pray to His Father or to Him.

"O most compassionate Saviour, remember Thy promise.