remember thee, Peter, and I am astonished. I think of thee, Paul, and it exceeds the powers of my mind, and I am choked with tears. For I know not what I shall say or what I shall speak, in contemplating your afflictions. How many prisons have ye sanctified? How many chains have ye adorned? How many torments have ye sustained? How many curses milk on the tunic of him who struck thee? which, supernaturally softening his cruel soul, made him and his companions faithful? May that sword be for a crown, and the nails of Peter for gems fixed in the diadem. Ry. Peter, lovest thou Me? p. xliii. have ye endured? How have ye borne Lesson of the Holy Gospel according Christ? How have ye made the Church joyful by your preaching? Your tongues are blessed instruments: your limbs are sprinkled with blood for the sake of the Church. Ye have imitated Christ in all things. Your sound is gone out into all the earth, and your words unto the ends of the world. Ry. Thou art Peter. p. xlii. Lesson V. REJOICE, O Peter, to whom it was given to die upon the wood of the Cross of Christ. And thou didst desire to be crucified like thy Master, not in exactly the same position as Christ the Lord, but with thy head turned to the ground, as if thou wast making thy journey from earth to heaven. Blessed were the nails which pierced those holy limbs. Thou, with all confidence, didst give up thy soul into the hands of the Lord, for thou, the most faithful of all the Apostles, didst diligently serve the Lord and His Spouse the Church, and didst love Him with fervent spirit. Ry. Thou art shepherd. p. xliii. Lesson VI. REJOICE thou also, blessed Paul, whose head was cut off with a sword, whose virtues cannot be expressed by any words. What sword was that which passed through thy sacred throat, that instrument, I say, of the Lord, which is had in admiration in heaven, and is regarded with reverence on earth? What place received thy blood, which appeared like to S. Matthew. Lesson VII. Chap. xiv. AT that time: Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a ship, and to go before Him unto the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And that which follows. A Homily of S. Jerome the Priest. The Lord commanded His disciples to cross the sea, and constrained them to get into the ship. By this expression it is shewn that they departed from the Lord unwillingly, because, from their great love of their Master, they were unwilling to be separated from Him even for a moment. And, having dismissed the multitude, He went up into a mountain alone to pray. If His disciples, Peter and James and John, who saw His glory when He was transfigured, had been with Him, they would, perhaps, have gone up with Him into the mountain but the multitudes could not follow Him to the heights, although He had taught them on the shore by the sea, and fed them in the desert. Ry. Whom do men say. p. xliv. Lesson VIII. BUT do not ascribe His going up into the mountain alone to Him Who satisfied five thousand men, b sides women and children, with five loaves, but to Him, Who, when He heard of the death of John, departed into a desert place: not that we should divide the Person of the Lord, but by fitness of words. What is this fruit of the womb, save that whereof it is written: Lo, children and the fruit of the womb are an heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord? That is, those children are the heritage of the Lord, who are the gift of that fruit which proceeded from the womb of Mary. He is the true fruit of the womb the flower of the root, of whom Isaiah well prophesied, saying, There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a flower shall grow forth from his root. Ry. Behold, He cometh. p. li. Lesson V. OR the root is the house of the Jews, the rod is Mary, the flower of Mary is Christ, Who, like the fruit of a good tree, now flowers for our advantage, now bears fruit within us, now shall restore us in the resurrection of the body. And whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me? She speaks not as being ignorant. For she knows that it is by the grace and operation of the Holy Spirit, that the mother of the prophet, for the advantage of her child, is saluted by the Mother of the Lord. But, as acknowledging this to be not of human merit, but the gift of heavenly grace, she saith, Whence In the First Nocturn, Lessons of the is this to me? that is, through what occurrent Scripture. righteousness? what acts? for what merits? Ry. Rejoice. p. li. Lesson VI. UNWONTED are such good offices among women, as that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me. I feel a miracle, I perceive a mystery; the mother of the Lord having conceived the Word, is filled with God. For when the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed. Rz. Blessed. p. lii. VISITATION. In the First Nocturn, Lessons of the occurrent Scripture. SECOND NOCTURN. He hath put down the mighty from SEVENTH DAY IN THE OCTAVE OF THE their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek. In the first place, the rulers of the darkness of this world, who were mighty in bringing evil to pass. And again, in another sense, by the humiliation and penitence of mighty kings: as when the king of Nineveh came down from his throne, and humbled himself in sackcloth and ashes. And to this day He continueth to put down the proud: some to eternal punishment, some to the kingdom of humility. Ry. From Thee. p. lii. E Lesson VIII. A Homily by an Unnamed Writer. Lesson IV. IT hath seemed right and fitting to the most holy Church militant, which so greatly needs the grace of visitation in its tribulations, to celebrate that gracious visitation wherein the Mother of God saluted Elisabeth. He hath filled the hungry with good This great festival was very joyful in : things. First He humbles, then He feeds. Hungry, and yet filled as the Angels, who always behold the Face of the Father, and have hunger in satiety, and satiety in hunger; but such satiety as is without disgust, and such hunger as is without pain. And even here in their journey, though not as in their Country, the servants of God hunger and thirst after righteous the house of Zacharias. And it ought Ry. Behold, He cometh. p. li. WITH lips dropping as the honey- Saints, the holy Mother of God, was thus made fair and pleasant in delights to the aged Elisabeth. A mountain of myrrh, a hill of frankincense, whose righteousness stood fast as the mountains of God, with her bodily frame she ascended mountains, and not less with her soul did she descend. Ry. Rejoice. p. li. Lesson VI. CERTAINLY she intended no vain curiosity nor idle talk; but mingled pious meditations with action, and devout prayers with the exercise of all virtues, like a heavenly confection; so that she rose up ever before the face of the Lord like pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense. Whereas it is said that she went with haste, her activity is here to be noted, her circumspect prudence, her virgin bashfulness. She had the gift of fortitude when she hasted to ascend the craggy mountains. We notice her circumspect prudence, in her not wandering from place to place, but sedulously carrying out the work seemed to have forgotten to be gracious, because He delayed to send His Son until the latter days of the world. But He hath remembered that which He had never forgotten, that we may always bear His mercy in mind, and be setting it forth to all eternity. Ry. From Thee. p. lii. Lesson VIII. TSRAEL. As long as he was called Jacob, he was in hard labour. He served faithfully in that which was another man's; but when he was returning with riches, to see his father's face, then he obtained another name, which was Israel. As He promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever. This is the last verse of this decalogue; the last curtain of the ten which couple this tabernacle. In it the verity of God, and the truth of both Testaments, and the unity of the faithful, are set forth. Ry. And Miriam. p. lii. Lesson IX. she had begun; and her virgin bash. GOD spake once, Who created all fulness appears in this, that she would not much be seen in public. Ry. Blessed. p. lii. THIRD NOCTURN. things; but that which was decreed by Him from all eternity, once for all, was set forth at sundry times, and in divers manners, to us. Yet He spake obscurely, so that but few perceived, until in these last days He Lesson of the Holy Gospel according spake to us by His Son. And even to S. Luke. now we see through a glass darkly. But at length He shall be fully known by His elect among the splendours of His Saints. In the beginning, then, He spake that unto our fathers, which in the end of the world He began to declare that one and the same Stone might bind together His former and latter children in the unity of one faith and love, and that they might be one Dove, and one Fair One, the Church which believed in a coming, and received a manifested, Saviour. Ry. A Virgin. p. liii. Te Deum. p. 15. JULY 9. OCTAVE OF THE VISITATION. about to become mothers, met together; when the child-prophet exultantly revealed the Presence of the Lord of the prophets, Whom as yet he could not In the First Nocturn, Lessons of the attain to preach with his voice. And occurrent Scripture. SECOND NOCTURN. A Homily by an Unnamed Writer. Sarum Breviary. Lesson IV. THE Roman pontiff Urban VI., being piously desirous to amplify the praise and glory of the Holy Mother of God, decreed that to her former festivals a new solemnity should be added, in order to celebrate the memory of her Visitation; wherein, after the Conception of the Divine Word, she humbly saluted her cousin Elisabeth. And he fixed the day of this feast for the sixth of the nones of July in every the mother of the child, filled with the Holy Ghost, with prophetic praise acknowledged Mary to be the Mother of God: devoutly blessing the flower with the Fruit. Let us exult therefore, in this day, offering due veneration, for such and so great pledges of our faith. The coming of Christ in the flesh is declared to men; the exulting child begins his office after a new fashion; and in the holy woman Elisabeth grace is confirmed. O Mary, gentlest Virgin, who can worthily speak thy praises? Ry. Blessed. p. lii. THIRD NOCTURN. year, and commanded that it should Lesson of the Holy Gospel according be kept with an octave. Ry. Behold, He cometh. p. li. Lesson V. HOLY and devout men are attracted to the celebration of this festival, both by faith in the Gospel, and by the concurrence of miracles. Whereby the subject of so great a solemnity is proved to be the more certain, and a more fitting matter for praise. For the Evangelist declares how straightway after the Angelical salutation the Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elisabeth in person, and tenderly saluted her. Inestimable and singular humility, which clave firmly to the soul of Mary, and caused her virgin lips to break forth with that word: Behold the handmaid of the Lord! Ry. Rejoice. p. li. Lesson VI. to S. Luke. Lesson VII. Chap. i. AT T that time: Mary arose, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda. And that which follows. A Homily of S. Ambrose the Bishop. Book 2 on S. Luke 1. Thou beholdest that Mary doubted not, but believed, and thus received the fruit of faith. Blessed, she saith, is she that believed. But ye likewise are blessed, who hear and believe. For whosoever shall believe with his heart, both conceives and generates the Word of God, and shews forth His works. And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord. Let the soul of Mary be in each one, that he may magnify the Lord. Let the spirit of Mary be in AND then a copious flood of miracles each one, that he may rejoice in God was poured forth, when the holy | his Saviour. For although, according Virgin and the barren woman, both to the flesh, one only is Mother of |