VD Fe sath mto hean:: Whis and can go forth y noting. mt by aver mi fassing Wnie Fe eaches his mosties. n what way he worss of devis might expeilet. e rains is al or life, hat va may mow that he mightiest emmations if unclean muris or if ne vercome by assing mut myer: and hat he mger of the Lond. vien is# indled against is unke vangaTUT i mr sins, can be messet by us excellent amely Now fasting # $ generai vari; and signifies mætients.. miy from food, but from al 10 allurements.. mi sisu seifcastraint from every End of ions La ke nummer driver in Jason general, unsiste not my n the wvoris in which we invoke God's mercy, but in every ring wine ve to. in the fevotion of ir, serve our Maker R. Fear not.. p. cit. Of the Book of Tebit THEN Toon caLed his son Tobias, Thy dangles that they thonit CERE A DIR, and they could act he facisly tenses the Apostles; whereas and sand unto him, My son, see the impossibilisg of cure is somemmes that the man have his wages, which not to be referred to the wetness of went with thee, and thou must give the healers, sus to the faith of them him more. And Tectas said unto that are to be healed, according to him. O father, it is no harm to me to that saying of the Loxo: According to give him half of those things which I your fain be it unto you. Bes He have brought: for he hath brought me *****ed and said unto them: 0 again to thee in safety, and made faith.ess and perverse generation, how whole my wife, and brought me the kong shall I be with you? how long money, and likewise healed thee. shall I eller you? Not that He was Ry. If it please. p. ciii. overcome by weariness, that meek and gentle One Who, as a sheep before her seaters is dumb, so He opened not His month, nor brake out into worx A wrath: but that after the a physician, who should see Lesson II. THEN the old man said. It is due unto him. So he called the angel, and he said unto him, Take half of all that ye have brought, and go away in safety. Then he took EMBER FRIDAY. them both apart, and said unto them, Lesson of the Holy Gospel according Bless GoD, praise him, and magnify him, and praise him for the things which he hath done unto you in the to S. Luke. Lesson I. Chap. vii. sight of all that live. It is good to AT that time: One of the Pharisees desired JESUS that He would eat praise God, and exalt his name, and with him. And He went into the honourably to shew forth the works of GOD; therefore be not slack to praise Pharisee's house, and sat down to him. It is good to keep close the meat. And that which follows. secret of a king, but it is honourable A Homily of S. Gregory the Great. to reveal the works of God. Do that which is good, and no evil shall touch you. Prayer is good with fasting and alms and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with unrighteousness. It is better to give alms than to lay up gold: for alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin. Those that exercise alms and righteousness shall be filled with life; but they that sin are enemies to their own life. Ry. Bless the LORD. p. ciii. Lesson III. SURELY I will keep close nothing from you. For I said, It was good to keep close the secret of a king, but that it was honourable to reveal the works of God. Now therefore, when thou didst pray, and Sara thy daughter-in-law, I did bring the remembrance of your prayers before the Holy One: and when thou didst bury the dead, I was with thee likewise. And when thou didst not delay to rise up, and leave thy dinner, to go and cover the dead, thy good deed was not hid from me: but I was with thee. And now God hath sent me to heal thee and Sara thy daughter-in-law. I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One. Then they were both troubled, and fell upon their faces for they feared. But he said unto them, Fear not, for it shall go well with you; praise God therefore. Ry. Fear not. p. ciii. Homily 33 on the Gospels. Whom does the Pharisee denote, presuming on his false righteousness, save the Jewish people? Whom does the sinful woman, that sat and wept at the LORD's feet, denote, save the converted Gentiles? She came with her alabaster box, she poured out her ointment, she stood behind the LORD'S feet, she washed them with her tears, she wiped them with the hairs of her head, and she ceased not to kiss the feet which she had anointed and wiped. It is then ourselves whom that woman typifies; ourselves, if, after sin, we return to the LORD with our whole heart, and imitate the sorrow of her penitence. For what is set forth by ointment, save the savour of good belief? Whence also Paul saith: We are the sweet savour of CHRIST to GOD in every place. Ry. That which. p. civ. IF then we do good works, by which we fill the Church with the savour of our good belief, what do we, but pour ointment upon the LORD's Body? But the woman stood behind the feet of the LORD; and we took our stand opposite the LORD's feet, when, set in our sins, we resisted his ways. But if, after sin, we are converted to true repentance, we then stand behind His feet, because we follow the footsteps of Him, against Whom we were fighting. The woman washed His feet with her tears; which we do in truth, whenever, by kindly compassion, we are drawn to the poor members of our LORD, and sympathize with His saints in their tribulations, if we count their the barren fig-tree, and of the woman sorrow to be ours. Ry. Bless God. p. civ. Lesson III. that was bowed down: and lovingkindness was bestowed on both. He spoke of the one by way of a similitude. He dealt with the other by WE wipe, then, the feet of the way of a manifestation. The barren LORD with our hair, when we shew mercy out of our own superfluities to the saints whom we compassionate in charity: if the mind feels such pain of sympathy, that the bountiful hand proves the keenness of the pang. He washes the feet of the Redeemer with tears, but does not wipe them with his hair, who after a sort pities the distresses of his neighbour, but shews him no mercy of his superfluities. He weeps, but wipes not, who gives words of regret, but by no means allays the sting of pain, because he does not supply what is lacking. The woman kisses the feet she anoints, which we also do fully, if we heartily love those whom we support with our bounty. Lest our neighbour's need be a burden to us, let not his very want which we supply become a weariness: lest, while our hand gives him necessaries, our mind should grow slack in good will. Ry. I go up. p. civ. EMBER SATURDAY. Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to S. Luke. Lesson I. Chap. xiii. AT that time: JESUS spake this parable to the multitude: A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. And that which follows. A Homily of S. Gregory the Great. Homily 31 on the Gospels. Our LORD and Redeemer speaks by His Gospel, sometimes in words, sometimes in deeds; sometimes one thing in words, and another in deeds; sometimes the same thing in words and deeds. Ye have heard two things, brethren, from the Gospel; of fig-tree signifies the same thing as the infirm woman, and the fig-tree spared, the same as the woman made straight. Ry. We have heard. p. civ. For WHAT does the fig-tree signify, Ry. Bless the LORD. p. ciii. HE came before the law, because by natural intellect it was known to man, what he ought to do, after GOD'S example, and how he should act He came towards his neighbour. under the law, because He taught by His commandments. He came after the law by grace, because He openly shewed His loving Presence. But, nevertheless He complains that in three years He found no fruit, because there are some evil minds, which neither does the law inspired by nature correct, nor do the commandments instruct, nor do the miracles of the Incarnation convert. What further is denoted by the dresser of the vineyard, save the order of rulers? for while they govern the Church, they doubtless have the care of the LORD's vineyard. Ry. Fear not. p. ciii. FOURTH SUNDAY IN SEPTEMBER. Here beginneth the Book of Judith. Lesson I. Chaps. i. and ii. IN the days of Arphaxad, which reigned over the Medes in Ecbatane, and built in Ecbatane walls round about of stones hewn three cubits broad and six cubits long, and made the height of the wall seventy cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits and set the towers thereof upon the gates of it, an hundred cubits high, and the breadth thereof in the foundation threescore cubits: and he made the gates thereof, even gates that were raised to the height of seventy cubits, and the breadth of them was forty cubits, for the going forth of his mighty armies, and for the setting in array of his foot men. R. O LORD, Thou art great and glorious, Who gavest salvation by the hand of a woman: * hear the prayers of Thy servants. y. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Who forsakest not them that trust in Thee, and humblest them that trust in their own strength. Hear. Lesson II. EVEN in those days king Nabuchodonosor made war with king Arphaxad in the great plain, which is the plain in the borders of Ragau. And there came unto him all they that dwelt in the hill country, and all that dwelt by Euphrates, and Tigris, and Hydaspes, and the plain of Arioch the king of the Elymeans, and very many nations of the sons of Chelod, assembled themselves to the battle. Then Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians sent unto all that dwelt in Persia, and to all that dwelt westward, and to those that dwelt in Cilicia, and Damascus, and Libanus, and Antilibanus, and to all that dwelt upon the sea coast, and to those among the nations that were of Carmel, and Galaad, and the higher Galilee, and the great plain of Esdrelom. And to all that were in Samaria and the cities thereof, and beyond Jordan unto Jerusalem, and Betane, and Chellus, and Kades, and the river of Egypt, and Taphnes, and Ramesse, and all the land of Gesem, until ye come beyond Tanis and Memphis, and to all the inhabitants of Egypt, until ye come to the borders of Ethiopia. Ry. We have heard. p. civ. Lesson III. BUT all the inhabitants of the land made light of the commandment of Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians, neither went they with him to the battle; for they were not afraid of him: yea, he was before them as one man, and they sent away his ambassadors from them without effect, and with disgrace. Therefore Nabuchodonosor was very angry with all his country, and sware by his throne and kingdom, that he would surely be avenged upon all those coasts. And in the eighteenth year, the two and twentieth day of the first month, there was talk in the house of Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians, that he should, as he said, avenge himself on all the earth. So he called unto him all his officers, and all his nobles, and communicated with them his secret counsel, and concluded the afflicting of the whole earth out of his own mouth. Ry. Blessed be Thou, O our GOD, Which hath this day brought to nought the enemies of Thy people; for this Thy confidence shall not depart from the heart of men. y. Blessed be the LORD GOD, Which hath created the heavens and the earth. For. Glory. For. 1 SECOND NOCTURN. From the Book of S. Ambrose, Bp. on Chap. 9. MIGHTY men are forbidden to drink wine, lest, if they should drink it, they might forget wisdom. And again mighty men drank wine in drunkenness, who were eager to give themselves up to Holofernes, the captain of the armies of the king of Assyria. But Judith, a woman, fasting, drank not, all the days of her widowhood, except on the solemnities of festivals. Fenced with these arms, she went forth, and outwitted all the hosts of the Assyrians. By the might of sober counsel she took the head of Holofernes from him, she preserved her honour, and brought victory back with her. Ry. We know no other God save the LORD in Whom we hope: therefore we trust that He will not despise us, nor any of our nation. V. Let us wait for salvation of Him, and call upon Him to help us. GIR Lesson V. Therefore. IRT with this fast, she went forth into the camp of the aliens : while their captain lay sunk in wine, so that he could not feel the stroke of his wound; and thus the fact of one woman laid low the countless armies of the Assyrians. Esther, also, was made fairer by her fast: for the LORD increased the grace of her sober mind. She delivered all her people, that is, all the nation of the Jews, from bitter persecution, so as to make the king himself her subject. * Ry. I pray Thee, I pray Thee, O GOD of my father, LORD of the heavens and the earth, Creator of the waters. King of every creature: hear Thou the prayer of Thy servants. y. Thou art a GOD of the afflicted, an helper of the oppressed, an upholder of the weak, a protector of the forlorn, a Saviour of them that are without hope. Hear. Lesson VI. THEREFORE she, who fasted continuously for three days, and washed her body with water, pleased him more, and obtained vengeance; but Haman, while he boasts of the royal banquet, pays the penalty of his drunkenness amidst his very cups. Fasting is therefore the sacrifice of reconciliation, the increase of virtue, which has made even women stronger by the increase of grace. Fasting knows no money-lender, knows not the interest-table; the meals of fasters smell not of usury, nay, fasting makes banquets pleasant; because meals which cause distaste by repetition, and are little esteemed by reason of long recurrence, are made sweeter by hunger. Fasting is the sauce of food, and the keener the appetite, the pleasanter is the fare. * battles, lift up Thine arm upon the Rz. O LORD GOD, that breakest the heathen that have devised evil against hand be glorified in us. y. Throw Thy servants: and let Thy right down their strength in Thy power, and bring down their force in Thy wrath. And. Glory. And. Ry. vii. Strengthen me, O King, chief among the saints; * Give me eloquent speech in my wrath. y. O King of the nations, and LORD of all power, turn their device upon themselves. Give. Ry. viii. Two Seraphim. p. xxviii. Of the Book of Judith. NOW the children of Israel, that dwelt in Judea, heard all that Holofernes the chief captain of Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians had done to the nations, and after what manner he had spoiled all their temples, and brought them to nought. Therefore they were exceedingly afraid of him, and were troubled for Jerusalem, and for the temple of the LORD their GOD: therefore they sent |