be in the Church a picture of that union of hearts which is to be produced by the Sacrament of Love.

Many grains in one wheaten cake, the juice of many grapes in one chalice; even so shall many hearts be brought together and made one by feeding on the same Divine Food. They shall drink together in heavenly charity from the fountains of their Saviour, and from His Heart learn to love even as He loved. "In Thy clemency, O Lord, grant, we beseech Thee, to Thy Church the graces of unity and peace, which in the offered gifts are mystically signified; through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1

V. Arise, let us go.

For add to all, that this holy work of the first Good Friday is too sacred, far too necessary, and too full of heavenly loveliness, to be allowed to pass away with the day. From henceforth, such is the will of the Eternal Father, every day is to be a Good Friday, and every hour of the day and the night is to be tinged and coloured by the sacred darkness on Calvary; and the men and women of all nations under heaven shall crowd round the altar, and be witnesses of the Death of the Lord, and the offering of the clean oblation, the unbloody and everlasting Sacrifice of the New Covenant.

The Holy Mass, she knows, is to be the Death of the Lord perpetuated, but with all the hideousness of sin taken out of it, and so tempered and softened by God's inventive charity, that even weak men and women can now look on without being scandalised or staggered, even as the blessed angels gazed on the Sacrifice of Calvary.

W. Arise, let us go hence.

Beyond all this, the Blessed Mother also knows that the Most Blessed Eucharist is planned by her God to be, till time is done, a memorial of (all) His wonderful works (Psalm cx.).

A memorial of His creation, for the Lord will speak,

1 Secret for the feast of Corpus Christi,

and the adorable miracle shall be effected. He shall command, and it shall be created (Psalm xxxii.).

A memorial, too, like the rainbow set in the heavens, of His enduring mercy. For so long as the Body of the Lord shall be offered upon the altar, and the adoring angels are able to cry out: Look, O God, on the face of Thy Christ (Psalm lxxxiii.), never shall the mercies of the Lord be taken away, never again shall the waters of the flood of God's wrath destroy all flesh.

A memorial, too, of the ever adorable Incarnation, when the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us. For, in the Holy Eucharist, that blessed hour shall be made perpetual; and for ever and for ever shall be renewed that glorious pledge, that no word shall be impossible with God. The faithful, therefore, who wish devoutly to adore the Divine Infant concealed in His Mother's womb, will kneel before the hidden God in the Tabernacle and have Nazareth present to their souls. Even so, as each festival of Holy Church shall come round, the Christmas and the Passiontide and the Easter Resurrection, the Holy Mass and the Blessed Eucharist will serve every man's will and be turned to what every man likes, and be a living memorial of Bethlehem and Calvary and the Sepulchre.

X. Lastly, every day and every night, nay during every hour of the sunlight, and every still hour of the darkness, the Lord Jesus, though living so unknown, so unthanked, so unblessed in the midst of men, shall yet be ever saying to their poor souls, always inclined to grovel and despair, Sursum corda. "Go, tell My brethren—for they are all My brethren, of My Flesh and of My bones-go tell them that My God is their God; My Father is their Father, and My eternal home is their home for ever. Tell them that whenever they eat My Flesh and drink My Blood, a certain pledge of future glory is given to them.

"Not yet, not yet, can I call them away from earth to enter into their rest; but a little while, a very little while and I will come and say: This day thou shalt be with Me."

Holy Mary has all these things and all this hope laid up in her bosom. And therefore as, full of grace, she bends her steps towards the chosen Sanctuary, many tears are relieving her full heart that is sighing with vehement desires for the miracle of love: Arise, O Lord, my Son, into Thy resting-place. And what words can bring home to us the consuming intensity with which she adds the prayer that follows in the Psalm, O may Thy priests, my Son Jesus, may Thy priests be clothed with justice, and may Thy saints rejoice? (Psalm cxxxi.).

As she arrives at the Sanctuary and kneels most reverently in the place prepared for her, we may humbly contem. plate the devout expectancy of her heart that is watching and waiting and crying out: How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God (Psalm lxxxiii.).

SCENE VI.

FROM THE GUEST-ROOM TO THE SANCTUARY.

STATION I.

That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath given Me commandment, so do I. Arise, let us go hence (St. John xiv. 31).

A. In the days of old, the Son of God, much grieved because His sheep were neglected by the appointed shepherds of Israel, said by His Prophet Ezechiel: I Myself will seek My sheep and will visit them: I will feed them. I will seek that which was lost, and that which was driven away I will bring again: and I will bind up that which was broken ; and I will strengthen that which was weak, and that which was fat and strong I will preserve. And I will feed them in judgment (Ezech. xxxiv.).

I will feed them in judgment, that is, in the wisest and best way. I will feed them in the most fruitful pastures, and

these pastures shall be in the high mountains of Israel; there shall they rest on the green grass; and be fed in fat pastures upon the mountains of Israel (v. 14).

Now, on Mount Sion, in the centre of Israel, our Lord Jesus Christ is going to keep His promise and do all this. Rejoicing like a giant to run His way (Psalm xviii.), the Good Shepherd rises to lead His little flock to the fruitful and fat pastures, and the pleasant places of repose.

B. Reverently and in great tranquillity the holy ones. chosen to be the first-born of the Christian priesthood are, in their processional order, moving towards the Sanctuary, round which the blessed angels are already gathered, to see the valley of tears changed into the house of God, and a Paradise at the gate of Heaven. And after them walks the High Priest of the New Testament, beautiful above the sons of men, His features radiant with that ineffable contentment, that peace of His own, which fills His Soul because He is going to do what His Father has commanded. He is going in gladness as a bridegroom coming out of his bridechamber to set His tabernacle in the sun, so that henceforth no one may be able to hide himself from His heat (Psalm xviii.).

St. Paul will be, in days soon to come, desiring and longing to be dissolved and to be with Christ. What are his longings, to the yearning of Christ Jesus in this hour to be dissolved and to be with men, the Food of men! I in them, and they in Me: to be dissolved-not by death-but to have all natural and material impediments caused by flesh and blood melted away, if we may so speak, by the fire of charity, and so spiritualised that He can become, under the guise of bread and wine, Himself the food of His little flock.

Not in the cave of Gethsemani did He say for the first time, My Father, Thy will be done. Since the moment of His Incarnation His Heart has found in this one desire its meat and drink-its only repose.

C. He has found at last what He could not find in Heaven; He has found littleness: perfect littleness, to its

lowest degree, into which He can enter, and where He can admirably prove His love for His Father; and He is now arising in gladness unspeakable to go into His new resting-place, there to abide till time on earth is done.

D. As the procession moves towards the chosen Sanctuary, may we contemplate the High Priest, reciting with His priests elect some one of those familiar Psalms, so suitable, because they were inspired by the Holy Spirit as memorials of His wonderful words and wonderful works and wonderful sufferings.

As the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so my soul panteth after Thee, my God.

My soul hath thirsted after the strong, living God. When shall I come and appear before the face of God?

My tears have been my bread, day and night; whilst it is said to me daily, Where is thy God?

These things I remembered, and poured out my soul in me: for I shall go over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God.

With the voice of joy and praise, the noise of one feasting. Why art thou sad, O my soul? and why dost thou trouble me? Hope in God, for I will still give praise to Him: the salvation of my countenance, and my God (Psalm xli.).

SCENE VII.

THE SANCTUARY. HOLY MASS.

Arrived at the Sacred Oratory, we may assume that they find there, provided by a most cheerful giver, the good man of the house, all which is necessary in order that the first Eucharistic Sacrifice may be a model for Holy Church in after ages.

Some of those privileged ones who in prayer are permitted to penetrate the veils drawn by time and space, tell us that the precious chalice used by Melchisedech of old, was ready in this holy house for use at the first Mass. Venerable Bede records that in his day this sacred chalice was still preserved with devout veneration in Jerusalem.

What is more important (at least, if the letter be authentic) is that the holy Pope and Martyr, St. Fabian, preserves in one