things let us approve ourselves as the ministers of GOD; in much patience. That. Glory. That. THIRD NOCTURN. Lesson of the Holy Gospel according AT that time: JESUS was led up of A Homily of S. Gregory the Pope. not the Jews who persecuted CHRIST, and the soldiers who crucified Him, members of the devil? Is it then strange that He should allow Himself to be led into a mountain by him, whose members He suffered to crucify Him? Indeed it was not unworthy of our REDEEMER that He Who had come to be slain should allow Himself to be tempted. It was truly a righteous thing that He should thus overcome even as He came to conquer our death our temptations by His temptations, by His own Death. Ry. Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the poor and the wanderers Homily xvi on the Gospels. to thine house: then shall thy light Some are wont to be uncertain as to break forth as the morning, and thy which spirit it was by which JESUS was righteousness shall go before thy face. led into the wilderness, because of. When thou seest the naked, cover what cometh afterwards: The devil him, and hide not thyself from thine taketh Him up into the Holy City; own flesh. Then. and again, The devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain. But without doubt we may so interpret this passage, as to believe that He was led up by the HOLY SPIRIT into the wilderness, that His own Spirit might lead Him thither, where the malicious spirit might find Him to tempt Him. But behold, when GOD-Man is said to have been taken by the devil into a high mountain, or into the holy city, the mind refuses to believe it, the ears of men shudder at hearing it. However, these things will not seem incredible to us if we call to mind other things which were done unto Him. Ry. Rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your GoD: * For He is gracious and merciful. V. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him. For. Lesson VIII. VERILY the devil is the head of all the ungodly, and all the ungodly are members of this head. Was not Pilate a member of the devil? Were Lesson IX. BUT we ought to know that temptation worketh three ways; by suggestion, by delectation, and by consent. And when we are tempted we oftentimes give way to the delectation or even to consent: because we bear about in ourselves the wickedness wherein we were shapen, whence we endure continual fightings. But GoD, Who was made flesh in the Virgin's womb, came into the world without sin, there was no opposing principle in Him; He could, therefore, be tempted by suggestion, but the delectation of sin never gnawed His mind. And, therefore, all that temptation of the devil was without, and was not within. Ry. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways: * they shall bear thee in their hands, that thou hurt not thy foot against a stone. y. Thou shalt go upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet. They. Glory. They. On weekdays, in place of this R7., is said: Ry. Hide alms in the bosom of the poor, and it shall plead for you to the LORD: * For as water will quench flame, so alms maketh an atonement for sins. . Give alms, and behold all things are clean unto you. For. Glory. For. MONDAY. Inv. of the Psalter. Hymn, Ex more, p. cxx. Ants. and Pss. of the Psalter. And so is said the Office on ensuing ferias till Passion Sunday. Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to S. Matthew. Lesson I. Chap. xxv. AT that time: JESUS said unto His disciples: When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the Lesson II. WH have omitted to do works of mercy, go into everlasting fire, and will they not go who have taken away other men's goods, and by corrupting the Temple of GOD within them, have been unmerciful towards themselves? As if works of mercy were of any profit without love, whereas the Apostle says: If I distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Loveth any man his neighbour as himself, who loveth not himself? For whoso loveth iniquity hateth his own soul. Ry. In all things. p. cxxi. NOR will that allow of being here said, wherein some deceive themselves, saying, that the fire is said to be everlasting, not the punishment itself everlasting: insomuch as they judge that through fire, which is everlasting, they will pass, unto whom, holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations. And that which follows. A Homily of S. Augustine the Bishop. Book of faith and works, c. 15. If without keeping the command-on account of a dead faith, they ments, one could enter into life by faith alone, which without works is dead, in what manner is that true which He will say to them whom He places on the left hand, Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels? Whom He rebukes, not because they have not believed in Him, but because they have not done good works. For assuredly, in order that no man may promise himself eternal life because he hath faith, which without works is dead therefore said He that He will separate all nations, which, mingled together, had fed in the same pastures: that it may be evident that they will say unto Him, LORD, when saw we Thee suffering such and such things, and ministered not unto Thee? who had believed on Him, but had not been careful to maintain good works, as if of their very dead faith they should attain unto eternal life. Ry. Behold, now. p. cxxi. promise salvation through fire: evidently that the fire itself shall be everlasting, but that their burning, that is, the operation of the fire upon the LORD, foreseeing this also, thus them, be not everlasting: whereas ended His sentence, saying, Thus they shall go into everlasting burning, Therefore the burning will be everbut the righteous into life everlasting. lasting, in like manner as the fire; and the Truth hath said that into it they shall go, whom He declared to be wanting, not in faith, but in good works. Ry. With fasting and weeping. p. cxxi. A Homily of Venerable Bede. Homily 7 on Lent. That which the LORD did in a figure by cursing the barren fig tree, He soon showed more openly, by casting out the wicked from the temple. For the tree which had no fruit for the hungering LORD sinned in no wise, because the time of figs was not yet; but the priests did sin, who carried on secular business in the LORD's House, and forbore to bear that fruit of piety which befitted them, and which the LORD hungered after in them. The LORD dried up the tree with a curse, that men, seeing or hearing that thing, might understand how much more they will be condemned by Divine judgment, if, without the fruit of works they deceive themselves by a fair show of pious words only, like the sound or the shade of a mass of green foliage. Ry. Let us amend. p. cxxii. Lesson II. BUT because they understood not, He inflicted on them the severity of a well deserved vengeance; and cast out worldly traffic from that house in which it had been commanded that sacred things alone should be done, oblations and prayers offered to GOD, the word of GOD read, heard, and sung. We may well believe that He found those things only being bought and sold in the temple which were necessary for the service thereof, as we read that on another occasion it was so: entering the same temple He found therein those who sold and bought sheep and oxen and doves; for certainly we may suppose those who came from afar obtained these things from the inhabitants only for the purpose of offering them in the house of the LORD. Ry. Let the wicked. p. cxxii. IF therefore the LORD would not suffer those things to be sold and bought in the temple, which He never theless permitted to be offered in the temple, because, in truth, of the which is the besetting sin of merchantdanger of covetousness and cheating, men: with what severity, thinkest thou, would He have chastised any, had He found them there idling away their time in laughter or idle talk, or given up to any other wickedness? For if the LORD would not allow worldly business, which may indeed be freely carried on elsewhere, to be transacted in His House: of how much larger a measure of heavenly wrath shall those deeds be thought worthy which ought indeed to be done nowhere, if they shall be committed in GOD's sacred temples? But because the HOLY GHOST appeared upon the LORD in the form of a dove, we may rightly conclude that by doves the gifts of the HOLY GHOST are signified. And who are they who at the present time sell doves in the temple of GoD except those in the Church, who take fees for the imposition of hands, by which imposition the HOLY GHOST is in truth given from above? Ry. The time of fasting. p. cxxii. deed, whose kingdom is undivided, | knew, but in order that they might and composed of divers and distant nations rising up into one body. Ry. Rend your hearts. p. cxxiii. Lesson II. THIS therefore is a great mystery of CHRIST, and the Church. Yet the latter is greater, because that which came first was in a figure, but now hath the mystery come fully in its truth. There Solomon was the type, here is CHRIST in His own Body. By these two things therefore the Church standeth; by ignorance of sin, or by forsaking of sin. Penitence blotteth out transgression, wisdom avoideth it. Ry. Deal thy bread. p. cxxiii. Lesson III. THE other sign of Jonas, being a type of the LORD's Passion, witnesseth also to the grave sins committed by the Jews. Observe at once the prophecy of majesty, and the mark of pity. For by the example of the Ninevites the punishment is denounced, and the remedy is shown. Whence even the Jews ought not to despair of indulgence, if they would do works of penitence. Ry. Hide alms. p. cxxiv. THURSDAY. know, therefore they believed. For we believe in order to know, not know in order to believe. The things we are to know, eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man. For what is faith but to believe what thou seest not? Faith, then, is what thou seest not to believe; truth is what thou hast believed to see. Ry. I should be troubled if I knew not Thy mercies, O LORD: Thou saidst: I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live: * Who calledst the Canaanite and the Publican to repentance. y. In the multitude of sorrows that I had in my heart, Thy comforts have refreshed my soul. Who. Lesson of the Holy Gospel according Which thing the LORD having in view, to S. John. Lesson I. S. John viii. 31. AT that time: JESUS said to those Jews which believed on Him: If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And that which follows. saith in a certain place: He that loveth Me keepeth My commandments; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My FATHER, and I will love him, and show Myself unto him. Ry. In all things. p. cxxi. YE Lesson III. How? E shall know the truth. What Thou hast said, is not that A Homily of S. Augustine the Bishop. truth? It is truth; only as yet it is Tract xl. on S. John. What promiseth He them that believe, my brethren ? And ye shall know the truth. What? Knew they it not when the LORD spake? If they knew it not, how did they believe? They did not believe because they believed, not seen. If there be a continuing in that which is believed there shall be a coming unto that which may be seen. Thence John the holy Evangelist himself saith in his Epistle: Beloved, saith he, we are sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Already we are, and some- | by the LORD, the Gospels. Therefore thing we shall be. What more shall we be than we are? Hear: It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him. Wherefore? Because we shall see Him, as He is. A mighty promise! but it is the wages of faith. Thou seekest the wages. Let the work go before. Ry. With fasting. p. cxxi. FRIDAY. Ember Day. in that mountain these three appeared: where He shewed Himself in brightness of countenance and raiment unto His disciples; for He appeared between Moses and Elias that the Gospel might, as it were, receive testimony from the Law and the Prophets. Ry. Let us amend. p. cxxii. Lesson II. WHETHER, then, it be under law, prophets, or gospel, still the number forty is commended to us Lesson of the Holy Gospel according in the matter of fasting. To abstain to S. John. Lesson I. Chap. v. from wickedness and from the unlawful pleasures of the world is in AT that time: there was a feast deed a great and universal fast, yea, of the Jews; and JESUS went up to Jerusalem. And that which follows. A Homily of S. Augustine the Bishop. Tract xvii. on S. John. Let us see what He willed to signify in the person of that one, whom He, Himself also preserving the mystery of unity, vouchsafed to heal, the only one out of so many impotent folk. | He found in the years of this man, the number, as one may say, of impotence. He had continued thirty and eight years in his infirmity. In what manner this number pertaineth more to sickness than to health it is needful with somewhat more care to explain. I wish you to be attentive, and the LORD will be nigh that I may fittingly speak, and that ye may profitably hear. The number forty is commended to our notice as having a sacred reference to a kind of perfection. I suppose this is well known to you, beloved: the divine scriptures very frequently bear witness thereto : that fasting is consecrated by this number, ye well know. For Moses fasted forty days, and Elias the same: and our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST Himself fulfilled this number of days in His fast. By Moses the Law is signified, by Elias, the Prophets, a perfect fast; that, denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we may live righteously and godly in this present world. What reward addeth the Apostle to this fast? He goeth on and saith Looking for that blessed hope and manifestation of the glory of the Blessed GOD and our Saviour JESUS CHRIST. In this world, therefore, we keep, as it were, forty days of abstinence, when we live well, when we abstain from wickedness and unlawful pleasures: but because this abstinence will not lose its reward, we look for that blessed hope and revelation of the glory of the great GoD and our Saviour JESUS CHRIST. By that hope, when of hope it is made a reality, we hope to receive our reward, a penny. For that reward is given to the workmen labouring in the vineyard, according to the gospel, as I suppose ye remember: it is not needful to go over the whole as though ye were ignorant and untaught. The penny, then, which taketh its name denarius from the number ten, is given; add this unto forty and it becometh fifty. Hence with travail we celebrate the forty days of Lent before Easter; but we keep fifty days after Easter, with gladness, as though we had received the reward. R. Let the wicked. p. cxxii. |