THEStation is in the church of Saint Clement, Pope and Martyr. In this, more than in any other church of the city of Rome, there has been preserved the ancient arrangement of the early Christian basilicas. Under its altar reposes the body of its holy patron, together with the relics of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, and of the consul St. Flavius Clemens.
Collect
Præsta quæsumus, omnipotens Deus, ut familia tua quæ se, affligendo camera, ab ali mentis abstinet, sectando justitiam, a culpa jejunet. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Grant, we beseech thee, O almighty God, that thy people who mortify themselves by abstinence from meat, may likewise fast from sin, and follow righteousness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Epistle
Lectio Danielis Prophetæ.
Cap. ix.
In diebus illis: Oravit Daniel Dominum, dicens: Domine, Deus noster, qui eduxisti populum tuum de terra Ægypti in manu forti, et fecisti tibi nornen secundum diem hane: peccavimus, iniquitatem feeimus, Domine, in omnem justitiam tuam. Avertatur, obsecro, ira tua et furor tuus a civitate tua Jerusalem, et a monte eaneto tuo. Propter peccata enim nostra, et iniquitates patnim nostrorum, Jerusalem et populus tuus in opprobrium sunt omnibus per circuitum nostrum. Nano ergo exaudi, Deus noster, orationem servi tui et preces ej us: et ostende faciem tuam super sanctuarium tuum, quod desertum est, propter temetipsum. Inclina, Deus meus, aurem tuam, et audi: aperi oculos tuos, et vide desolationem nostram, et civitatem super quam invocatum est nomen tuum: neque enim in justifiGationibus nostris prostemimus preces ante faciem tuam, sed in miserationibus tuis multis. Exaudi, Domine; placare, Domine: attende et fac: ne moreris, propter temetipsum Deus meus: quia nornen tuum invocatum est super civitatem et super populum tuum, Domine Deus noster.
Lesson from the Prophet Daniel.
Ch. ix.
In those days: Daniel prayed to the Lord, saying: O Lord our God, who hast brought forth thy people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and hast made thee a name as at this day: we have sinned, we have committed iniquity, O Lord, against all thy justice. Let thy wrath and thy indignation be turned away, I beseech thee, from thy city Jerusalem, and from thy holy mountain. For, by reason of our sins, and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are a reproach to all that are round about us. Now, therefore, O our God, hear the supplication of thy servant, and his prayers: and show thy face upon thy sanctuary which is desolate, for thy own sake. Incline, O my God, thy ear and hear: open thine eyes, and see our desolation, and the city upon which thy name is called: for it is not for our justifications that we present our prayers before thy face, but for the multitude of thy tender mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, be appeased; hearken, and do; delay not for thy own sake, O my God; because thy name is invocated upon thy city, and upon thy people, O Lord our God.
Such was the prayer and lamentation of Daniel, during the captivity in Babylon. His prayer was heard; and, after seventy years of exile, the Jews returned to their country, rebuilt the temple, and were once more received by the Lord as His chosen people. But what are the Israelites now? What has been their history for the last eighteen hundred years? The words of Daniel’s lamentation but faintly represent the sad reality of their present long chastisement. God’s anger lies heavily on Jerusalem; the very ruins of the temple have perished; the children of Israel are dispersed over the whole earth, a reproach to all nations. A curse hangs over this people; like Cain, it is a wanderer and a fugitive; and God watches over it, that it become not extinct.
The rationalist is at a loss how to explain this problem: whereas the Christian sees in it the punishment of the greatest of crimes. But what is the explanation of this phenomenon? The light shone in darkness; and the darkness did not comprehend it![1] If the darkness had received the light, it would not be darkness now; but it was not so; Israel, therefore, deserved to be abandoned. Several of its children did, indeed, acknowledge the Messias, and they became children of the light; nay, it is through them that the light was made known to the whole world. When will the rest of Israel open its eyes? When will this people address to God the prayer of Daniel? They have it; they frequently read it; and yet, it finds no response in their proud hearts. Let us, the Gentiles, pray for the Jews— the younger for the elder. Every year there are some who are converted, and seek admission into the new Israel of the Church of Christ. Right welcome are they! May God, in His mercy, add to their number; that thus all men may adore the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, together with Jesus Christ, His Son, whom He sent into this world.
Gospel
Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Joannem.
Cap. viii.
In illo tempore: Dixit Jesus turbis Judæorum: Ego vado, et quæretis me, et in peccato vestro moriemini. Quo ego vado, vos non potestis venire. Dicebant ergo Judæi: Numquid interficiet semetipsum, quia dixit: Quo ego vado, vos non potestis venire? Et dicebateis: Vos de deorsum estie; ego de euperme sum. Vos de mundo hoc estis; ego non sum de hoc mundo. Dixi ergo vobis, quia moriemini in pcccatis vestris: si enim non credideritis quia ego sum, moriemini in peccato vestro. Dicebant ergo ei: Tu quis es? Dixit eis Jesus: Principium, qui et loquor vobis. Multa habeo de vobis loqui, et judicare. Sed qui me misit, verax est; et ego quæ audivi ab eo, hæc loquor in mundo. Et non cognoverunt quia Patrem ejus dicebat Deum. Dixit ergo eis Jesus: Cum exaltaveritis Filium hominis, tunc cognoscetis quia ego sum, et a meipso fació nihil, sed sicut docuit me Pater, hæc loquor: et qui me misit, mecum est, et non reliquit me solum: quia ego, quæ placita sunt ei, facio semper.
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to John.
Ch. viii.
At that time: Jesus said to the multitude of the Jews: I go, and you shall seek me, and you shall die in your sin. Whither I go, you cannot come. The Jews, therefore, said: Will he kill himself, because he said: Whither I go, you cannot come? And he said to them: You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin. They said therefore to him: Who art thou? Jesus said to them: The beginning, who also speak unto you. Many things I have to speak and to judge of you. But he that sent me is true; and the things I have heard of him, these same I speak in the world. And they understood not that he called God his Father. Jesus therefore said to them: W’hen you shall have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father hath taught me, these things I speak: and he that sent me is with me, and he hath not left me alone: for I do always the things that please him.
I go; could Jesus say anything more awful? He has come to save this people; He has given them every possible proof of His love. A few days ago, we heard Him saying to the Canaanite woman, that He was sent not but for the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel. Alas; these lost sheep disown their Shepherd. He tells the Jews that He is soon going to leave them, and that they will not be able to follow Him; but it makes no impression on them. His works testify that He is from above; they, the Jews, are of this world, and they can think of no other. The Messias they hope for, is to be one of great earthly power; he is to be a great conqueror. In vain, then, does Jesus go about doing good;[2] in vain is nature obedient to His commands; in vain do His wisdom and teaching exceed all that mankind has ever heard: Israel is deaf and blind. The fiercest passions are raging in his heart; nor will he rest, till the Synagogue shall have imbrued its hands in the blood of Jesus. But then the measure of iniquity will be filled up, and God’s anger will burst upon Israel in one of the most terrible chastisements that the world has ever witnessed. It makes one tremble to read the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem, and the massacre of that people that had clamoured for the death of Jesus. Our Lord assures us that nothing more terrible had ever been from the beginning of the world, or ever would be.[3]
God is patient; He waits a long time: but when His anger bursts upon a guilty people like the Jews, the chastisement is without mercy, and serves as an example to future generations. O sinners! you who, so far, have turned a deaf ear to the admonitions of the Church, and have refused to be converted to the Lord your God, tremble at these words of Jesus: I go. If this Lent is to be spent like so many others, and to leave you in your present state, are you not afraid of that terrible threat: You shall die in your sin? By remaining in your sins, you number yourselves with those who cried out against Jesus: ‘Crucify Him, crucify Him!’ Oh! if He chastised a whole people—a people that He had loaded with favours, and protected and saved innumerable times—think you, He will spare you? He must triumph; if it be not by mercy, it will be by justice.
Humiliate capita vestra Deo.
Adesto supplicationibus nostris, omnipotens Deus: et quibue fiduciam sperandæ pietatis indulges: consuetæ misericordiæ trihue berlignus effectum. Per Christum Dominum nostrum.
Amen.
Bow down your heads to God.
Hear our prayers and entreaties, O almighty God; and grant that those, to whom thou givest hopes of thy mercy, may experience the effects of thy usual clemency. Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
We will begin to-day the beautiful hymn of Prudentius on fasting. Its extreme length obliges us to divide it into fragments. We reserve the stanzas which refer to the fast of Ninive for Monday in Passion-week. Formerly, several Churches of the Roman rite introduced this hymn into the Divine Office, but they only made a selection from it; whereas the Mozarabic breviary gives the whole hymn from beginning to end.
Hymn
O Nazarene, lux Bethlem, verbum Patris, Quem partus alvi virginalis protulit, Adesto castis, Christe, parcimoniis, Festumque nostrum Rex serenus aspice, Jejuniorum dum litamus victimam.
Nil hoc profecto purius mysterio, Quo fibra cordis expiatur vividi: Intemperata quo domantur viscera, Arvina putrem ne resudans crapulam, Obstrangulatæ mentis ingenium premat.
Nam si licenter diffluene potu, et cibo, Jejuna rite membra non coerceas, Sequitur, frequenti marcida oblectamine Scintilla mentis ut tepescat nobilis, Animusque pigris stertat in præcordiis.
Frænentur ergo corporum cupidincs, Detersa et intus emicet prudentia: Sic excitato perspicaz acumine, Liberque flatu laxiore spiritus Rerum parentem rectius precabitur.
O Jesus of Nazareth, O Light of Bethlehem, O Word of the Father, born to us from a Virgin’s womb, be thou with us in our chaste abstinence. Do thou, our King, look with a propitious eye upon our feast, whereon we offer thee the tribute of our fast.
Truly, nothing can be more holy than this fast, which purifies the inmost recesses of man’s heart. By it is tamed the unruly carnal appetite; that thus the ardent soul may not be choked by the surfeiting of a pampered body.
By fasting are subdued luxury and vile gluttony. The drowsiness that comes of wine and sleep; lust with its defilements; the impudence of buffoonery; yea, all the pests that come from our sluggish flesh, are hereby disciplined into restraint.
For, if thou freely indulgest in meat and drink, and bridlest not thine appetite by fasting, it needs must be that the noble fire of the spirit, smothered by the frequent indulgence of the body, should grow dull, and the soul, like the drowsy flesh it inhabits, fall into heavy sleep.
Therefore, let us bridle our bodily desires, and follow the clear interior light of prudence. Thus, the soul having her sight made keener, will breathe more freely, and will pray to the Creator with the stronger hope.
[1] St. John i. 5. [2] Acts x. 38. [3] St. Matt, xxiv. 21.
The saint we have to honour to-day is the apostle of that faithful people, whose martyrdom has lasted three hundred years: it is the great St. Patrick, he that gave Erin the faith. There shone most brightly in this saint that gift of the apostolate, which Christ has left to His Church, and which is to remain with her to the end of time. The ambassadors or missioners, sent by our Lord to preach His Gospel, are of two classes. There are some who have been entrusted with a small tract of the Gentile world; they had to sow the divine seed there, and it yielded fruit more or less according to the dispositions of the people that received it: there are others, again, whose mission is like a rapid conquest, that subdues a whole nation, and brings it into subjection to the Gospel. St. Patrick belongs to this second class; and in him we recognize one of the most successful instruments of God's mercy to mankind.
And then, what solidity there is in this great saint’s work! When is it that Ireland received the faith? In the fifth century, when Britain was almost wholly buried in paganism; when the race of the Franks had not as yet heard the name of the true God; when Germany had no knowledge of Christ’s having come upon the earth; when the countries of northern Europe deeply slumbered in infidelity: yes, it was before these several nations had awakened to the Gospel, that Ireland was converted. The faith, brought to her by her glorious apostle, took deep root and flourished and fructified in this isle, more lovely even by grace than she ifl by nature. Her saints are scarcely to be numbered, and went about doing good in almost every country of Europe; her children gave, and are still giving, to other countries, the faith that she herself received from her beloved patron. And when the sixteenth century came with its protestantism; when the apostasy of Germany was imitated by England, Scotland, and the whole north of Europe, Ireland stood firm and staunch; no persecution, however cleverly or however cruelly carried on against her, has been able to detach her from the faith taught her by Saint Patrick.
Let us honour the admirable apostle, chosen by God to sow the seed of His word in this privileged land; and let us listen to the simple account of his labours and virtues, thus given in the lessons of his feast:
Patritius, Hiberniæ dictus apostolus, Calphurnio patre, matre Conchessa, sancti Martini Turonensis episcopi, ut perhibent, consanguInea, majori in Britannia natus, puer in barbarorum sæpius incidit captivitatem. Eo in statu pascendis gregibus præpositus, jam tum futuræ sanctitatis specimen præbuit. Fidei namque, divinique timoris, et amoris spiritu repletus, antelucano tempore per nivea, gelu, ac pluvias ad preces Deo fundendas impiger consurgebat; solitus centies interdiu, centiesque noctu Deum orare. A servitute tertio exemptus, et inter clericos relatus, in divinis lectionibus longo se tempore exercuit. Galliis, Italia, insulisque Tyrrheni maris labore summo peragratis, divino tandem monitu ad Hibernorum salutem advocatur; et facta a beato Cœlestino Papa Evangelii nunciandi potestate, coneecratusque episcopus, in Hibemiam perrexit.
Eo in munere mirum quot vir apostoiicus mala, quot ærumnas, et labores, quot pertulerit adversarios. Verum Dei afilante benignitate, terra illa, idolorum antea cultrix, eum mox prædicante Patritio fructum dedit, ut sanctorum insula deinde fuerit appellata. Frequentissimi ab eo populi sacro sunt regenerati lavacro:episcopi, clericique plurimi ordinati; virginea ac viduæ ad continentiæ leges institutæ. Armachanam Sedem, Romani Pontificis auctoritate, totius insulæ principem metropolim constituit, sanctorumque reliquiis ab Urbe relatis decoravit. Supernis visionibus, prophetiæ dono, ingentibusque signis, et prodigiis a Deo exornatus adeo refulsit, ut longe, lateque celebrior Patritii se fama diffuderit.
Præter quotidianam Ecclesiarum sollicitudinem, invietum ab oratione spiritum nunquam relaxabat. Aiunt enim, integrum quotidie psalterium, una cum canticis et hymnis, ducentisque orationibus consuevisse recitare: ter centies per dies singulos flexis genibus Deum adorare, ac in qualibet hora diei canónica centies se crucis signo munire. Noctem tria in spatia distribuens, primum in centum psalmis percurrendis, et bis centies genuflectendo, alterum in reliquis quinquaginta psalmis, algidis aquis immersus, ac corde, oculis manibusque ad ccelum erectus, absolvendis insumebat; tertium vero super nudum lapidem stratus tenui dabat quieti. Humilitatis eximius cultor, apostólico more a manuum suarum labore non abstinuit. Assiduis tandem curis pro Ecclesia consumptus, verbo et opere clarus, in extrema senectute, divinis mysteriis refectus, obdormivit in Domino; sepultusque est apud Dunum in Ultonia, a Christiana salute sæculo quinto.
Patrick, called the apostle of Ireland, was born in Great Britain. His father’s name was Calphumius. Conchessa, his mother, is said to have been a relation of St. Martin, bishop of Tours. He was several times taken captive by the barbarians, when he was a boy, and was put to tend their flocks. Even in that tender age, he gave signs of the great sanctity he was afterwards to attain. Full of the spirit of faith, and of the fear and love of God, he used to rise at the earliest dawn of day, and, in spite of snow, frost, or rain, go to offer up his prayers to God. It was his custom to pray a hundred times during the day, and a hundred during the night. After his third deliverance from slavery, he entered the ecclesiastical state and applied himself, for a considerable time, to the study of the sacred Scriptures. Having made several most fatiguing journeys through Gaul, Italy, and the islands of the Mediterranean, he was called by God to labour for the salvation of the people of Ireland. Pope Saint Celestine gave him power to preach the Gospel, and consecrated him bishop. Whereupon, he set out for Ireland.
It would be difficult to relate how much this apostolic man had to suffer in the mission thus entrusted to him: he had to bear with extraordinary trials, fatigues, and adversaries. But, by the mercy of God, that land, which heretofore had worshipped idols, so well repaid the labour wherewith Patrick had preached the Gospel, that it was afterwards called the island of saints. He administered holy Baptism to many thousands: he ordained several bishops, and frequently conferred Holy Orders in their several degrees; he drew up rules for virgins and widows, who wished to lead a life of continency. By the authority of the Roman Pontiff, he appointed Armagh the metropolitan See of the whole island, and enriched that church with the saints’ relics, which he had brought from Rome. God honoured him with heavenly visions, with the gift of prophecy and miracles; all which caused the name of the saint to be held in veneration in almost every part of the world.
Besides his daily solicitude for the churches, his vigorous spirit kept up an uninterrupted prayer. For it h said, that he was wont to recite every day the whole psalter, together with the canticles and the hymns, and two hundred prayers: that he every day knelt down thrco hundred times to adore God; and that at each canonical hour of the day, he signed himself a hundred times with the sign of the cross. He divided the night into three parts: the first was spent in the recitation of a hundred psalms, during which he genuflected two hundred times: the second was spent in reciting the remaining fifty psalms, which he did standing in cold water, and his heart, eyes, and hands lifted up to heaven; the third he gave to a little sleep, which he took laid upon a bare stone. Being a man of extraordinary humility, he imitated the apostles, and practised manual labour. At length, being worn out by his incessant fatigues in the cause of the Church, powerful in word and work, having reached an extreme old age he slept in the Lord, after being refreshed with the holy mysteries. He was buried at Down, in Ulster, in the fifth century of the Christian era.
The following sequence, in honour of our saint, is taken from an ancient manuscript missal, published by Messingham, in his Florilegiam Insulœ Sanctorum, Paris, 1624:
Sequence
Læta lux est hodierna, Qua conscendit ad superna Vir Dei Patricius.
Qui prælatus in hanc lucem Puer bonus Christi crucem Veneratur ocyus.
Humo pressit signum crucis, Fons erupit, donum lucis Cæco nato præbuit.
In mel aquam convertebat, Quo nutrici, quæ languebat, Sanitatem tribuit.
A piratis venditur, Fit cuetos porcorum: Aurum quo redimitur Reperit decorum.
Opprimens per triduum Satan hunc vexavit: Sed Helias artuum Robur reparavit.
Deprimit a vitiis, Moribus imbutus, Corpus abstinentiis, Moysen secutus; In montis cacumina Scandit et jejunat; Glacierum fragmina Succendens adunat.
Sub Germani disciplina, Documentis et doctrina Studet evangelicis.
His a Papa Cœlestino Doctor est, nutu divino, Transmissus Hibemicis.
Fugiens mortem sago tectus Obiit ante, post revectus Orante Patricio.
Virosa reptilia Prece congregata Pellit ab Hibernia, Mari liberata. Cœlos aliquoties Apertos aspexit; Et Jesum suspiciens Dominum conspexit. Transit pater ab hac luce Signis plenus, Christo duce, Lucie ad palatium.
Ubi nobis, prece sua, Confer, bone Jesu, tua Pietate gaudium.
Amen.
Joyful is the light of this day's feast, whereon Patrick, the man of God, ascended to heaven!
When yet in the early dawn of life, the holy youth devoutly venerated the cross of Christ.
He made the sign of the cross on the ground: a fount gushed forth upon the spot, and with its waters he gave sight to one born blind.
He turned water into honey, and by it restored his nurse to health.
He was led captive by pirates, and was made keeper of swine: but the saint found a piece of glittering gold, and with it bought his freedom.
For three days did satan harass him with bodily injuries; but Elias healed him, and gave him back his strength.
His soul was vigorous in grace, and, like Moses, he restrained his body from vices by fasting. He ascends a high mountain, and there he fasts. He throws ice upon a fire, and it burns as though it were wood.
He puts himself under the care and teaching of Germanus, and studies under him the maxims of the Gospel.
Pope Celestino, by a divine inspiration, sends him to teach salvation to the people of Hibernia.
The thief, that had stolen a goat, was discovered by its bleating; and he and his family were punished with a severe scourge.
A man had covered himself with a cloth, and asked to be restored to health. He was first punished with real death, and was then restored to life by Patrick’s prayer.
He drew together, by his prayer, all venomous reptiles, and drove them from Hibernia’s shore. At times, he saw the heavens opened; and as he gazed above, he saw the Lord Jesus. Our father passed out of this world, under the guidance of Christ; and, glorious by his miracles, he was taken to the courts of heavenly light.
Mercifully grant unto us, O good Jesus! by his intercession, that we may enter into joy.
Amen.
The following antiphons and prayers are taken from the Officium Sancti Patricii, Paris, 1622:
ANT. Veneranda imminentis diei solemnia, læta mente, concelebrat fidelium turma; quo beatus præsul Patricius, deposita corporali gleba, felix migravit ad regna cælestia.
ANT. Ave præsul egregio, pastor gregis Hiberniæ! O Patrici, præsul pie, nostræ cuetos familiæ, funde preces quotidie, pro nobis, Regi glorias.
ANT. Benedictus sit Dominus universorum, qui suam visitavit plebem per beatum Patricium, cujus prece absoivamur a vinculis criminum, et requie perfruamur cum illo beatorum.
ANT. The faithful people, with glad souls, celebrate the venerable solemnity of this day’s feast; whereon the blessed pontiff Patrick laid aside the burden of mortality, and joyfully took his flight to the heavenly kingdom.
ANT. Haü illustrious pontiff, pastor of Hibernia’s flock! O Patrick! holy bishop! the guardian of our people! pray for us daily to the Kin of glory.
ANT. Blessed be the Lord of all, who hath visited his people by blessed Patrick; by whose prayers may we be loosed from the bonds of our sins, and come to the enjoyment of rest of the blessed, together with him.
Another favourite antiphon, used in the ancient Proper Office of St. Patrick, was composed of the words spoken to him by the angel:
ANT. Hibernenses omnes clamant ad te pueri: Veni, sancte Patrici, salvos nos facere.
ANT. All the children of Ireland cry out to thee: Come, O holy Patrick, and save us!
We conclude these liturgical extracts with a prayer from an ancient manuscript breviary of Armagh.
Prayer
Deus qui beatum Patricium Scotorum apostolum tua providentia elegisti, ut Hibernenses gentes, in tenebris et in errore gentilitatis errantes, per lavacra regenerationis filios Dei excelsi efficeres: tribue nobis quæsumus, ut ejus intercessionibus ad ea quæ recta sunt quantocyus festinemus. Per Dominum.
O God, by whose providence the blessed Patrick was chosen to be the apostle of the Irish; that thus the people of Hibernia, who had gone astray in darkness and in the errors of the Gentiles, might be made children of the Most High by the laver of regeneration: grant, we beseech thee, that by his intercession, we may hasten without delay to the paths of justice. Through, etc.
Thy life, great saint, was spent in the arduous toils of an apostle; but how rich was the harvest thou didst reap! Every fatigue seemed to thee light, if only thou couldst give to men the precious gift of faith; and the people to whom thou didst leave it have kept it with a constancy which is one of thy greatest glories. Pray for us, that this faith, without which it is impossible to please God,[1] may take possession of our hearts and minds. It is by faith that the just man liveth,[2] says the prophet, and it is faith that, during this holy season of Lent, is showing us the justice and mercy of God, in order that we may be converted, and offer to our offended Lord the tribute of our penance. We are afraid of what the Church imposes on us, simply because our faith is weak. If our principles were those of faith, we should soon be mortified men. Thy life, though so innocent, and so rich in good works, was one of extraordinary penance: gain for us thy spirit, and help us to follow thee, at least at a humble distance. Pray for Erin, that dear country of thine, which loves and honours thee so fervently. She is threatened with danger even now, and many of her children have left the faith thou didst teach. An odious system of proselytism has disturbed thy flock; protect it, and suffer not the children of martyrs to be apostates. Let thy fatherly care follow them that have been driven by suffering to emigrate from their native land: may they keep true to the faith, be witnesses of the true religion in the countries to which they have fled, and ever show themselves to be the obedient children of the Church. May their misfortunes thus serve to advance the kingdom of God. Holy pontiff! intercede for England; pardon her the injustice she has shown to thy children; and, by thy powerful prayers, hasten the happy day of her return to Catholic unity. Pray, too, for the whole Church; thy prayer, being that of an apostle, easily finds access to Him that sent thee.
[1] Heb. xi. 6. [2] Hab. ii. 4.
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