said. Oh, let us note attentively how His meek Heart is content with one gentle word: Simon, sleepest thou?

E. O vos omnes- "Oh, all you who pass by the way heedless," stay here to look at the disciples of Jesus sleeping. For the Holy Spirit is saying as we gaze: What is that that hath been? The same thing that shall be! The children of this world are more prudent than the children of light. They do not slumber and sleep when great danger is nigh, "but Thy disciples, Lord Jesus, do ". Who is blind, He asks, when temptation and sin and ruin is near, but My servant? Who is deaf, but he to whom I have sent My messengers, to warn them that enemies are near? Who is blind, but the servant of the Lord? (Isaias xlii.).

Every one else watches in the night when the housebreakers are near.

F. Simon, sleepest thou? Canst thou not watch one hour with Me?

The one great and lifelong hope of every good Christian is that he will be permitted to spend his eternity with Christ Jesus.

And yet, even His own chosen ones, His special friends and familiars, cannot watch with Him in His hour of trouble; for the corruptible body is a load upon the soul, and the earthly habitation presseth down the mind that museth on many things (Wisdom ix.).

Holy men and women who have begun to know Jesus Christ, and have tasted and seen that the Lord is sweet (Psalm xxxiii.), take care to be abstemious, lest the pampered body should become, more than need be, a load upon the soul. They even grudge their bodies the necessary food and repose; and one of their earnest prayers is: From my necessities, deliver me, O Lord (Psalm xxiv.).

St. Ignatius holds it to be a fundamental principle of the Gospel that we are bound to use all creatures, such as money and time and food and sleep and the rest, honestly, as means, as helps to the work we have to do for God. We are created for God; all other things are created to help

us to praise God, to reverence Him and to serve Him. Hence diet, as all other things, ought to be so regulated that it shall help the soul to pray and to work; and not press down too much the mind that museth on many things.

G. Canst thou not watch one hour with Me?

How new, how startling, how cogent this appeal becomes to us, now that our most loving Saviour is living close to us in the tabernacle, in order to be near us and ever ready for us! Canst thou not watch one hour with Me?-He says to us, most meekly indeed and humbly from His tabernacle, but also most earnestly and urgently; for He sees how greatly we need to watch and pray. Well He knows how all the powers of darkness are busy night and day, to prevent that honour, that reverence, that ardent love to which His littleness in the tabernacle and the almighty weakness of His goodness so well entitles Him. The theatres and ball-rooms and concert-halls are studiously made most brilliant and attractive that they may lure away Christian men and women from the Sanctuary of the Blessed Sacrament. The old ways of dealing with unseen wicked spirits are revived, and new ones invented, to turn men's minds away from communion with their Hidden God, and with His Blessed Mother, and His saints and angels.

H. Canst thou not watch one hour with Me?

Before we turn away and reject this modest petition of Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, let us reflect once more on the triumphant jeering of the wicked spirits as they go about on their rounds of malice and blasphemy. On a certain day, we read in the Book of Job, when the sons of God came to stand before the Lord, Satan also was present among them. And the Lord said to him: Whence comest thou? And he answered and said: I have gone round about the earth and walked through it (Job i.). From the context we gather that Satan was there to boast that he has been in every part of the world, and has everywhere found that God is

neglected by the men whom He created to replace the fallen angels, and that he, Satan, is supreme master. The malicious exultation of this enemy of God and men is a thousand times greater now when he can persuade men to neglect and ignore Jesus Christ in His tabernacle, the prison of His love; and to cover Him with dishonour and opprobrium.

Grateful, therefore, most grateful, is His meek and humble Heart to those who take a little trouble to solace Him by being present at Holy Mass, and finding some time to watch with Him.

I. Simon, sleepest thou?

Judas can watch by night to gain his thirty pieces of silver. The Priests and Ancients can watch to work out the design of their envy. Children of the world watch readily for pleasure or for money. "For Thee alone, my God, I am unwilling to watch." Tibi soli peccavi.

STATION III.

Watch ye and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (St. Matt. xxvi. 41). This is the warning word of vital importance which our Lord has come from the Grotto to speak to the three disciples and to all of us. For we are all present to His Heart; and to each of us He says: Even if the mother can forget her child, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee in My hands (Isaias xlix.).

A. Watch and pray.

Because He speaks mildly, we forget the infinite earnestness with which He is uttering this admonition : Watch and pray. We must ever keep in mind the principle, "Non in commotione Dominus" (3 Kings xix.), that is to say, the Lord does not always visit us in earthquakes and whirlwinds. He is not like a short-lived, weak, and fearful man, who acts and speaks in haste and anger, because he is conscious how small his power is and how short his

time. The eternal and all-powerful God has no need to be in a hurry, or nervously excited. Thou being Master of power, judgest with tranquillity, and with great favour disposest of us, for Thy power is at hand when Thou wilt (Wisdom xii.). He judges and speaks with tranquillity; but every word has, according to our way of expressing ourselves, been weighed and considered from eternity; and therefore, whenever we hear a word from Him, surely we ought not to harden our hearts.

B. Watch and pray.

If the word He spoke, Let there be light, had been by some malicious power rendered void, who can calculate the loss and the detriment and the confusion that would have followed? If these words, This is My Body; This is My Blood; Thy sins are forgiven; Lazarus, come forth, could fall to the ground baffled and blighted and ineffectual, who can measure the calamity and ruin ?

Yet there is no word that comes from the mouth of God that is not unspeakably precious, as these words are. Alas, we fools! we heed not the words of our Lord Jesus, infinitely wise, infinitely loving, and all-powerful, because He speaks to us in kindness and in tranquillity.

C. Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

Had St. Peter through that one hour watched with his Master, how many bitter tears of anguish, and how many hours and nights of painful lamentation might he have been spared! True, indeed, in his case, the inventive love of his Master found out a means of changing his sin by loving contrition into a glorious ornament of heavenly glory. But in our case, how good and prudent an economy it is to prevent sin by watching one hour, rather than to have to lament sin through many long hours of bitter remorse; and then to begin again lamenting and crying out: Wash me yet more, O Lord.

D. Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

Pious persons are sometimes tempted to think that

they gain no good by going to Mass and receiving Holy Communion. Never till Judgment comes shall we know how many times we have escaped entering into temptation by having been present at Holy Mass, or by having received Holy Communion.

In certain conditions of spiritual health, when a man's virtue is weak, and habits of sin have long prevailed, we may predict with tolerable certainty that if he perseveres in attending Holy Mass and approaching to Holy Communion regularly and frequently, he will abide in the grace of God; but if he omits through sloth to strengthen himself with the Bread of Heaven, he will relapse very soon into grievous sin.

So, too, with our regular daily prayers: if we are faithful to them, the day goes on happily according to God's ordinance; but if we will not watch a little time with our Lord, we fall into many venial sins of the tongue, or sins of thought. The Prophet asks: What is the meaning that my beloved hath wrought much wickedness in my house? (Jerem. xi.). The answer is: We did not pray, and therefore entered into temptation.

E. Pray, lest you enter into temptation.

It is wonderful to observe with what diligence Satan labours to induce us, if we will not abandon prayer entirely, at least to put off and delay our prayers. What does he gain by this? Two great advantages:

It is a

1. In the first place, Christ is dishonoured. great confusion indeed to a father of a family to find that to his wife and children every one else is more welcome than he is; that all others are quickly attended to, but he left to the last. So, too, does it give great contentment to the malice of Lucifer, when he can so easily persuade us to write a letter first, or read a book, or prolong a conversation, and not till later on, perchance not till the last drowsy moments before bed-time, say hurriedly the unwelcome prayer to our God.

2. Besides this, Satan knows well that a prayer said