From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
The paralytic carrying his bed is the subject of this day’s Gospel, and gives the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost its title. This Sunday is inserted in the missal immediately after the Ember-days of autumn. We will not, like the liturgists of the Middle Ages,[1] discuss the question of its having taken the place of the vacant Sunday, which formerly used always to follow the ordination of the sacred ministers,[2] in the manner we have elsewhere described.[3] Manuscript sacramentaries and lectionaries of very ancient date give it the name, which was so much in use, of Dominica vacat.[4] Whatever may be the conclusion arrived at, there is one interesting point for consideration, viz., that in the Mass of this day the order of the lessons taken from St. Paul is broken. The Letter to the Ephesians, which has furnished the Epistles since the sixth Sunday after Pentecost, is to-day interrupted, and in its stead we have some verses from the first Epistle to the Corinthians, wherein the apostle gives thanks to God for the manifold gratuitous gifts granted, in Christ Jesus, to the Church. Now, the powers conferred by the imposition of the bishop’s hands on the ministers of the Church are the most marvellous gift that is known on earth, yea, in heaven itself. The other portions of the Mass, too, are, as we shall see further on, most appropriate to the prerogatives of the new priesthood. So that the liturgy of the present Sunday is particularly interesting when it immediately follows the Ember-days of September. But this coincidence is not of very frequent occurrence, at least as the liturgy now stands; nor can we dwell longer on these subjects without going too far into archæology, and exceeding our limits.
MASS
The Introits of the Sunday Masses since Pentecost have hitherto been taken from the Psalter. From Ps. xii. to Ps. cxviii. the Church, without ever changing the order of these sacred canticles, chose from each of them, as its own turn came, the verses most appropriate to the liturgy of each Sunday. But, dating from to-day, she is going to select her Introits elsewhere, with one exception, however, when she will again turn to this, the Book by excellence of divine praise. Her future opening anthems for the dominical liturgy to the end of the year will be taken from various other Books of the old Testament. For this eighteenth Sunday we have Jesus, son of Sirach, the inspired writer of Ecclesiasticus, asking God to ratify the fidelity of His prophets[5] by the accomplishment of what they foretold. The present interpreters of the divine oracles are the pastors, whom the Church sends, in her own name, to preach the word of salvation and peace: let us, her children, pray with her that their words may never be void.
Introit
Da pacem, Domine, sustinentibus te, ut prophetæ tui fideles inveniantur; exaudi preces servi tui et plebis tuæ Israel.
Ps. Lætatus sum in his, quæ dicta sunt mihi: in domum Domini ibimus. Gloria Patri. Da pacem.
Give peace, O Lord, to those who patiently wait for thee, that thy prophets may be found faithful; hear the prayers of thy servant, and of thy people Israel.
Ps. I rejoiced at the things that were said unto me: we shall go into the house of the Lord. Glory, etc. Give peace.
The surest way to obtain grace is to be ever humbly acknowledging to our God our deep conviction that, of ourselves, we cannot please His divine Majesty. The Church continues to give us, in her Collects, the most admirable expressions of such an avowal.
Collect
Dirigat corda nostra, quæsumus Domine, tuæ miserationis operatio : quia tibi sine te placere non possumus. Per Dominum.
May the influence of thy mercy, O Lord, direct our hearts: for, without thy help, we cannot please thee. Through, etc.
Epistle
Lectio Epistolæ beati Pauli Apostoli ad Corinthios.
1 Cap. i.
Fratres, Gratias ago Deo meo semper pro vobis in gratia Dei, quæ data est vobis in Christo Jesu : quod in omnibus divites facti estis in illo, in omni verbo, et in omni scientia: sicut testimonium Christi confirmatum est in vobis : ita ut nihil vobis desit in ulla gratia, exspectantibus revelationem Domini nostri Jesu Christi, qui et confirmabit vos usque in finem sine crimine, in die adventus Domini nostri Jesu Christi.
Lesson of the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians.
1 Ch. i.
Brethren: I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God, that is given you in Christ Jesus; that in all things you are made rich in him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge, as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace, waiting for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who also will confirm you unto the end without crime, in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The other Collects, as on page 120.
The last coming of the Son of Man is no longer far off! The approach of that final event, which is to put the Church in full possession of her divine Spouse, redoubles her hopes; but the last judgment, which is also to pronounce the eternal perdition of so great a number of her children, mingles fear with her desire; and these two sentiments of hers will henceforth be continually brought forward in the holy liturgy.
It is evident that expectation has been, so to say, an essential characteristic of her existence. Separated from her Lord, she would have been sighing all day long in this vale of tears, had not the love which possesses her driven her to spend herself, unselfishly and unreservedly, for Him who is absolute Master of her whole heart. She, therefore, devotes herself to labour and suffering, to prayers and tears. But her devotedness, unlimited as it has been, has not made her hopes less ardent. A love without desires is not a virtue of the Church; she condemns it in her children as being an insult to the Spouse.
So just and, at the same time, so intense were, from the very first, these her aspirations that eternal Wisdom wished to spare His bride, by concealing from her the duration of her exile. The day and hour of His return is the one sole point upon which, when questioned by His apostles, Jesus refused to enlighten His Church.[6] That secret constituted one of the designs of God's government of the world; but, besides that, it was also a proof of the compassion and affection of the Man-God; the trial would have been too cruel; and it was better to leave the Church under the impression, which after all was a true one, that the end was nigh in God’s sight, with whom a thousand years are as one day.[7]
This explains how it is that the apostles, the interpreters of the Church’s aspirations, are continually recurring to the subject of the near approach of our Lord’s coming. St. Paul has just been telling us, and that twice over in the same breath, that the Christian is he who waiteth for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the day of His coming. In his Epistle to the Hebrews, he applies to the second coming the inflamed desires of the ancient prophets for the first, and says: ‘Yet a little, and a very little while, and He that is to come, will come, and will not delay.’[8] The reason is that, under the new Covenant as under the old, the Man-God is called, on account of His final manifestation, which is always being looked for, He that is coming, He that is to come.[9] The cry which is to close the world’s history is to be the announcement of His arrival: 'Behold! the Bridegroom is coming.’[10]
And St. Peter, too, says: 'Having the loins of your mind girt up, think of the glory of that day whereon the Lord Jesus is to be revealed! Hope for it, with a perfect hope!'[11] The prince of the apostles foresaw the contemptuous way in which future false teachers would scoff at this long-expected, but always put-off, coming: ‘Where is His promise, or His coming? For, since the fathers slept, all things continue so, from the beginning of the creation!'[12] Yes, he foresaw this, and forestalled their sarcasm, by answering it in the words which his brother Paul[13] had previously used :[14] ‘The Lord delayeth not His promise, as some imagine; but dealeth patiently, for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance. But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence; and the elements shall be melted with heat; and the earth, and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up. Seeing, then, that all these things are to be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness, looking for, and hastening unto, the coming of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat of fire? But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to His promises, in which justice dwelleth. Wherefore, dearly beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent that ye may be found undefiled and unspotted to Him in peace. . . . Wherefore, brethren, knowing these things before, take heed lest, being led aside by the error of the unwise, you fall from your own steadfastness.'[15]
If, in those last days, the danger is to be so great that the very powers of heaven shall be moved,[16] our Lord, as we are told in our Epistle, has providentially confirmed in us His testimony and our faith, by continual manifestations of His power. And, as if to verify that other word of the same Epistle, that He will thus confirm unto the end them that believe in Him, He redoubles His prodigies in these our times, as though they were precursors of the end. Miracles are forcing themselves on the world’s unwilling notice; and our modern facilities for propagating news are made to tell this glory of the Lord all over His earth! In the name of Jesus, in the name of one or other of His saints, but especially in the name of His Immaculate Mother, who is preparing the final triumph of the Church, the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, every misery of both body and soul is suddenly made to yield. So incontestable, indeed, and so public, is the manifestation of supernatural power, that business-managers of all kinds, though they must, out of regard for incredulity, laugh at the facts, yet are most serious in turning the occasion to their profit. Such very material agencies as railway companies have been glad to accommodate the faithful thousands, and carry them as quickly as they could to the favoured sanctuaries, where the holy Mother of God has appeared. It is not in Catholic countries only that the divine power has made itself felt. Quite recently, in the very centre of Mohammedan infidelity, the city of the Sultans rejoiced at hearing of the marvels done by the Queen of heaven within its own walls. The water of the miraculous fountain has been carried even into the city of Mecca, where is the tomb of the founder of Islam, and into which, until but lately, it was death for any Christian to enter.
The infidel may say in his heart : 'There is no God!’[17] If he hears not the divine testimony, it is because corruption, or pride, has more power over him than the light of reason, just as it had over the enemies of Jesus during His life upon earth. He is like to the asp of the Psalm,[18] which maketh itself deaf; it stoppeth its ears, that it may never hear the voice of the divine Enchanter, who speaketh that He may save. His life is one piece of madness[19] and folly;[20] he has done his best to draw down vengeance upon himself.
Let us not be like him, but, with the apostle, let us thank God for the rich profusion of grace which He has so mercifully poured out upon us. Never were His gratuitous gifts more necessary than in these our miserable times. True, the Gospel does not now need to be promulgated; but the efforts of hell against it have become so violent that, in order to withstand them, there is need of a power from on high equal in some sense to that we read of as granted in the beginning of the Church. Let us beseech our Lord to bless us with men powerful in word and work. Let us, by the fervour of our fastings and prayers, obtain from His divine Majesty that the imposition of hands may produce, now more than ever, in them that are called to the priesthood, its full result: that it may make them rich in all things, and especially in all utterance, and in all knowledge. May these days, in which all principles are growing shadowy, find that the supernatural light is kept up, in full splendour and purity, by the zeal of the guides of Christ’s flock. May the compromises and flinchings of a generation, in which all truth is being etiolated and diminished, never lead our newly ordained priests, either themselves to shorten, or to permit anyone else to curtail, the measure of the perfect man,[21] which was bestowed on them, in order that they might apply it to every Christian who is desirous of observing the Gospel! In spite of all threats, in spite of the noisy passions which are boisterous against any priest who dares to preach the truth, let their voice be what it should be—that is, an echo of the Word: let it vibrate with the holy firmness of the saints!
In the Gradual, the Church repeats the Introitverse, to celebrate once more the joy felt by the Christian people at hearing the glad tidings, that they are soon to go into the house of the Lord. That house is heaven, into which we are to enter on the last day, our Lord Jesus Christ leading the way. But the house is also the temple in which we are now assembled, and into which we are introduced by the representatives of that same Lord of ours, that is, by His priests.
Gradual
Lætatus sum in his, quæ dicta sunt mihi : in domum Domini ibimus.
V. Fiat pax in virtute tua, et abundantia in turribus tuis.
Alleluia, alleluia. V. Timebunt gentes nomen tuum, Domine : et omnes reges terræ gloriam tuam. Alleluia.
I rejoiced at the things that were said unto me : we shall go into the house of the Lord.
V. Let peace be in thy strength, and abundance in thy towers.
Alleluia, alleluia. V. The Gentiles shall fear thy name, O Lord: and all the kings of the earth thy glory. Alleluia.
Gospel
Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Matthæum.
Cap. ix.
In illo tempore : Ascendens Jesus in naviculam, transfretavit, et venit in civitatem suam. Et ecce offerebant ei paralyticum jacentem in lecto. Et videns Jesus fìdem illorum, dixit paralytico : Confide, fili, remittuntur tibi peccata tua. Et ecce quidam de scribis dixerunt intra se : Hic blasphemat. Et cum vidisset Jesus cogitationes eorum, dixit : Ut quid cogitatis mala in cordibus vestris? Quid est facilius dicere : Dimittuntur tibi peccata tua : an dicere : Surge et ambula? Ut autem sciatis, quia filius hominis habet potestatem in terra dimittendi peccata, tunc ait paralytico : Surge, tolle le ctum tuum, et vade in domum tuam. Et surrexit, et abiit in doraum suam. Videntes autem turbæ timuerunt, et glorifica verunt Deum, qui dedit potestatem talem hominibus.
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to Matthew.
Ch. ix.
At that time : Jesus entering into a boat, passed over the water and came into his own city. And behold they brought to him one sick of the palsy, lying on a bed. And Jesus seeing their faith, said to the man sick of the palsy: Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee. And behold some of the scribes said within themselves; He blasphemeth. And Jesus seeing their thoughts, said; Why do you think evil in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say : Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say : Arise and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then said he to the man sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house. And he arose and went into his house. And the multitude seeing it, feared and glorified God that gave such power to men.
In the thirteenth century, in many Churches of the west, the Gospel for to-day was that wherein our Lord speaks of the scribes and pharisees as seated on the chair of Moses.[22] The Abbot Rupert, who gives us this detail in his book on the Divine Offices, shows how admirably this Gospel harmonized with the Offertory, which is the one we still have, and which alludes to Moses. ‘This Sunday’s Office,’ says he, ‘eloquently points out, to him who presides over the house of the Lord and has received charge of souls, the manner in which he should comport himself in the high rank, where the divine call has placed him. Let him not imitate those men, who unworthily sat on the chair of Moses; but let him follow the example of Moses himself, who, in the Offertory and its verses, presents the heads of the Church with such a model of perfection. Pastors of souls ought, on no account, to be ignorant of the reason why they are placed higher than other men: it is not so much that they may govern others, as that they may serve them.’[23] Our Lord, speaking of the Jewish doctors, said: ‘All whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do; but according to their works, do ye not: for they say, and do not.'[24] Contrariwise to these unworthy guardians of the Law, they that are seated on the chair of doctrine ‘should teach, and act conformably to their teaching,' as the same Abbot Rupert adds. ‘Or, rather,' says he, ‘let them first do what it is their duty to do, that they may afterwards teach with authority; let them not seek after honours and titles, but make this their one object, to bear on themselves the sins of the people, and to merit to avert the wrath of God from those who are confided to their care. Such, we are told in the Offertory, is the example given them by Moses.'[25] The Gospel which speaks of the scribes and pharisees who were seated on the chair of Moses has now been appointed for the Tuesday of the second week of Lent. But the one which is at present given for this Sunday equally directs our thoughts to the consideration of the superhuman powers of the priesthood, which are the common boon of regenerated humanity. The faithful, whose attention used formerly, on this Sunday, to be fixed on the right of teaching which is confided to the pastors of the Church, are now invited to meditate upon the prerogative which these same men have of forgiving sins and healing souls. Even if their conduct be in opposition to their teaching, it in nowise interferes with the authority of the sacred chair, from which, for the Church and in her name, they dispense the bread of doctrine to her children. Moreover, whatever unworthiness may happen to be in the soul of a priest, it does not in the least lessen the power of the keys which have been put into his hands to open heaven and to shut hell. For it is the Son of Man, Jesus, who, by the priest, be he a saint, or be he a sinner, rids of their sins His brethren and His creatures, whose miseries He has taken upon Himself, and whose crimes He has atoned for by His Blood.[26]
The miracle of the cure of the paralytic, which gave an occasion to Jesus of declaring His power of forgiving sinsinasmuch as he was Son of Man, has always been especially dear to the Church. Besides the narration she gives us of it from St. Matthew in to-day’s Gospel, she again, on the Ember Friday of Whitsuntide, relates it in the words of St. Luke.[27] The Catacomb frescoes, which have been preserved to the present day, equally attest the predilection for this subject, wherewith she inspired the Christian artists of the first centuries. From the very beginning of Christianity, heretics had risen up denying that the Church had the power, which her divine Head gave her, of remitting sin. Such false teaching would irretrievably condemn to spiritual death an immense number of Christians, who, unhappily, had fallen after their Baptism, but who, according to Catholic dogma, might be restored to grace by the sacrament of Penance. With what energy, then, would our mother the Church defend the remedy which gives life to her children! She uttered her anathemas upon, and drove from her communion, those pharisees of the new law, who, like their Jewish predecessors, refused to acknowledge the infinite mercy and universality of the great mystery of the Redemption.
Like to her divine Master, who had worked under the eyes of the scribes, His contradictors, the Church, too, in proof of her consoling doctrine, had worked an undeniable and visible miracle in the presence of the false teachers; and yet she had failed to convince them of the reality of the miracle of sanctification and grace invisibly wrought by her words of remission and pardon. The outward cure of the paralytic was both the image and the proof of the cure of his soul, which previously bad been in a state of moral paralysis; but he himself represented another sufferer, viz., the human race, which for ages had been a victim to the palsy of sin. Our Lord had already left the earth, when the faith of the apostles achieved this, their first prodigy, of bringing to the Church the world grown old in its infirmity. Finding that the human race was docile to the teaching of the divine messengers, and was already an imitator of their faith, the Church spoke as a mother, and said: Be of good heart, son! thy sins are forgiven thee! At once, to the astonishment of the philosophers and sceptics, and to the confusion of hell, the world rose up from its long and deep humiliation; and, to prove how thoroughly his strength had been restored to him, he was seen carrying on his shoulders, by the labour of penance and the mastery over his passions, the bed of his old exhaustion and feebleness, on which pride, lust, and covetousness had so long held him. From that time forward, complying with the word of Jesus, which was also said to him by the Church, he has been going on towards his house, which is heaven, where eternal joy awaits him! And the angels, beholding such a spectacle of conversion and holiness,[28] are in amazement, and sing glory to God, who gave such power to men.
Let us also give thanks to Jesus, whose marvellous dower, which is the Blood He shed for His bride, suffices to satisfy, through all ages, the claims of eternal justice. It was at Easter time that we saw our Lord instituting, the great Sacrament, which thus in one instant restores the sinner to life and strength.[29] But how doubly wonderful does its power seem, when we see it working in these times of effeminacy and of well-nigh universal ruin! Iniquity abounds; crimes are multiplied; and yet, the life-restoring pool, kept full by the sacred stream which flows from the open side of our crucified Lord, is ever absorbing and removing, as often as we permit it, and without leaving one single vestige of them, those mountains of sins, those hideous treasures of iniquity which had been amassed, during long years, by the united agency of the devil, the world, and man himself.
The Offertory speaks to us of the figurative altar, which was set up by Moses for the reception of the oblations of the figurative Law, which oblations, foreshadowed the great and only true sacrifice, at which we are now present. After the anthem which is still in use, we will append the verses which were anciently added. Moses is there represented as the type of those faithful prophets mentioned in the Introit; he is shown to us as the model of those true leaders of God’s people, who devote themselves in order to procure mercy and peace for those whom they guide.[30] God sometimes seems to resist them, but He always suffers Himself to be overcome; and in return for their fidelity, He admits them into the most intimate manifestations of His light and His love. The first verse shows us the priest in his public life of intercession and devotedness for others; the second reveals to us his private life, of which prayer and contemplation are the main occupation. We shall not be surprised at the length of these verses—the singing of which would far exceed the time for offering the Host and chalice, such as is now the custom—if we remember how it was the ancient usage that the whole assembly of the faithful present at the holy Sacrifice took part in the oblation of the bread and wine needed for the liturgy. So likewise the Communion, which at present consists of only a few lines, was originally nothing but the antiphon to an entire psalm, which in the ancient antiphonaries was appointed for each day, when it was not the same as the Introit-psalm; the psalm was sung, repeating the antiphon after each verse, until all had communicated.
Offertory
Sanctificavit Moyses altare Domino, offerens super illud holocausta, et immolans victimas : fecit sacrificium vespertinum in odorem suavitatis Domino Deo, in conspectu filiorum Israel.
V. I. Locutus est Dominus ad Moysen dicens : Ascende ad me in montem Sina, et stabis super cacumen ejus. Surgens Moyses, ascendit in montem, ubi constituit ei Deus; et descendit ad eum Dominus in nube, et adstitit ante faciem ejus. Videns Moyses, procidens adoravit, dicens: Obsecro, Domine, dimitte peccata populi tui. Et dixit ad eum Dominus: Faciam secundum verbum tuum.
Tunc Moyses fecit sacrificium vespertinum.V. II. Oravit Moyses Dominum, et dixit : Si inveni gratiam in conspectu tuo, ostende mihi teipsum manifeste, ut videam te. Et locutua est ad eum Dominusdicends : Non enim videbit me homo, et vivere potest : sed esto super altitudinem lapidis, et protegat te dextera mea donec pertranseam: dum pertransiero, auferam manum meam, et turnc videbis gloriam meam : facies autem mea non videbitur tibi quia ego sum Deusostendens mirabilia in terra.
Tunc Moyses fecit.
Moses consecrated an altar unto the Lord, offering wholeburnt offerings thereon, and slaying victims: he made an evening sacrifice for a sweet odour unto the Lord God, in the sight of the children of Israel.
V. I. The Lord spake unto Moses saying: Come up unto me, upon mount Sina,and thou shalt stand on the top thereof. Moses rising up, went up the mountain, where the Lord had appointed him : and the Lord came down unto him in a cloud, and stood before his face. Which Moses seeing,fell down and adored, saying: I beseech thee, O Lord, forgive the sins of thy people. And the Lord said unto him: I will do according to thy word.
Then Moses made an evening sacrifice.
V. II. Moses prayed to the Lord and said: If I have found favour in thy sight, show me thyself openly, that I may see thee. And the Lord spake unto him, saying: For man shall not see me, and live; but be thou on the height of the rock, and my right hand shall protect thee, till I pass : whilst I pass I will take away my hand, and then shalt thou see my glory : but my face shall not be seen by thee; for I am God, showing wonderful things in the earth.Then Moses made.
The sublime eloquence of the Secret is beyond all comment. Let us be thoroughly imbued with the high teaching here so admirably summed up in a few short words: let us come to understand that our life and conduct should have something divine about them, in response to the mysteries which are revealed to our understanding and incorporated into us by the venerable communication of this Sacrifice.
Secret
Deus, qui nos per hujus sacrificii veneranda commercia, unius summædivinitatis participes effìcis : præsta quæsumus; ut, sicut tuam cognoscimus veritatem, sic eam dignis moribus assequamur. Per Dominum.
O God, who, by the venerable communication of this sacrifice, makest us partakers of the one supreme divine nature : grant, we beseech thee, that as we know thy truth, so we may follow it up by a worthy life. Through, etc.
The other Secrets, as on page 130.
The Communion-anthem is addressed to the priests, and, at the same time, to us all: for if the priest offers the Victim, which is the holiest that can be, we should not think of accompanying him into the court of our God, without bringing up, that they may be united to the divine Host, other victims, that is ourselves. It is God’s injunction : Thou shalt not appear empty before me![31]
Communion
Tollite hostias, et introite in atria ejus: adorate Dominum in aula sanctaejus.
Bring up sacrifices, and come into his courts : adore ye the Lord in his holy court.
Whilst giving thanks in the Postcommunion for the priceless gift of the sacred mysteries, let us beseech our God to perfect within us the grace of always receiving it worthily.
Postcommunion
Gratias tibi referimus, Domine, sacro munere vegetati, tuam misericordiam deprecantes: ut dignos nos ejus participatione perficias. Per Dominum.
Being fed, O Lord, with the sacred gift, we give thee thanks, humbly beseeching thy mercy, that thou wouldst make us worthy of its reception. Through, etc.
The other Postcommunions, as on page 181.
VESPERS
The psalms, capitulum, hymn, and versicle, as above, pages 71-81.
Antiphon of the Magnificat
Tulit ergo paralyticus lectum suum in quo jacebat, magnificans Deum; et omnis plebs, ut vidit, dedit laudem Deo.
Oremus.
Dirigat corda nostra, quæsumus Domine, tuæ miserationis operatio: quia tibi sine te placere non possumus. Per Dominum.
The paralytic took up his bed, on which he had been lying, magnifying God; and all the people, as soon as they saw this, gave praise unto God.
Let us Pray.
May the influence of thy mercy, O Lord, direct our hearts: for, without thy help, we cannot please thee. Through, etc.
[1] Berno Aug., cap. v., etc.
[2] Microlog., cap. xxix.
[3] Advent: Ember Saturday.
[4] Thomasi Opp. Edit. Vezzosi, t. v., p. 148, 149, 309.
[5] Ecclus. xxxvi. 18.
[6] St. Matt. xxiv. 3, 36.
[7] 2 St. Pet. iii. 8.
[8] Hab. ii. 3; Heb. x. 37.
[9] St. Matt. xi. 3; Apoc. i. 8.
[10] St. Matt. xxv. 6.
[11] 1 St. Pet. i. 5, 7, 13.
[12] 2 St. Pet. iii. 3, 4.
[13] Ibid. 15.
[14] Rom. ii. 4.
[15] 2 St. Pet. iii. 9-17.
[16] St. Matt. xxiv. 29.
[17] Ps. xiii. i.
[18] Ps. lvii. 5, 6.
[19] Ps. lvii. 5, 6.
[20] Ps. xiii. 1.
[21] Eph. iv. 13.
[22] St. Matt. xxiii. 1-12.
[23] Rup., Div. Off., xii. 18.
[24] St. Matt. xxiii. 3.
[25] Rup., ubi supra.
[26] Heb. ii 10-18.
[27] St. Luke v. 17-26.
[28] St. Luke v. 26.
[29] Wednesday of the fifth week after Easter.
[30] Rup., ubi supra.
[31] Exod. xxiii. 15.