The fifty days between Easter and Pentecost have ever been considered by the Church as most holy. The first week, which is more expressly devoted to celebrating our Lord's Resurrection, is kept up as one continued Feast; but the remainder of the fifty days is also marked with special honours. To say nothing of the joy, which is the characteristic of this period of the year, and of which the Alleluia is the expression,-christian tradition has assigned to Eastertide two practices, which distinguish it from every other Season. The first is, that Fasting is not permitted during the entire interval: it is an extension of the ancient precept of never fasting on a Sunday, and the whole of Eastertide is considered as one long Sunday. This practice, which would seem to have come down from the time of the Apostles, was accepted by the Religious Rules of both East and West, even by the severest. The second consists in not kneeling at the Divine Office, from Easter to Pentecost. The Eastern Churches have faithfully kept up the practice, even to this day. It was observed for many ages by the Western Churches also; but now, it is little more than a remnant. The Latin Church has long since admitted genuflexions in the Mass during Easter time. The few vestiges of the ancient discipline in this regard, which still exist, are not noticed by the Faithful, inasmuch as they seldom assist at the Canonical Hours.

Eastertide, then, is like one continued Feast. It is the remark made by Tertullian, in the 3rd Century. He is reproaching those Christians who regretted having renounced, by their Baptism, the festivities of the Pagan Year; and he thus addresses them: "If you love Feasts, you will find plenty among us Christians; not merely Feasts, that last only for a "day, but such as continue for several days together. "The Pagans keep each of their Feasts once in the year; but you have to keep each of yours many

"" times over, for you have the eight days of its celebra"tion. Put all the Feasts of the Gentiles together, and

they do not amount to our fifty days of Pentecost."1 St. Ambrose speaking on the same subject, says: "If "the Jews are not satisfied with the Sabbath of each "week, but keep also one which lasts a whole month, "and another which lasts a whole year;-how much "more ought not we to honour our Lord's Resurrection? Hence, our ancestors have taught us to "celebrate the fifty days of Pentecost as a continuation of Easter. They are seven weeks, and the "Feast of Pentecost commences the eighth. "During these fifty days, the Church observes no fast, as neither does she on any Sunday, for it is "the Day, on which our Lord rose: and all these fifty days are like so many Sundays."2

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1 De Idololatria, cap. xiv.

2 In Lucam, lib. viii. cap. xxv.

CHAPTER THE SECOND.

THE MYSTERY OF PASCHAL TIME.

Of all the Seasons of the Liturgical Year, Eastertide is, by far, the richest in mystery. We might even say, that Easter is the summit of the Mystery of the sacred Liturgy. The Christian who is happy enough to enter, with his whole mind and heart, into the knowledge and the love of the Paschal Mystery, has reached the very centre of the supernatural life. Hence it is, that the Church uses every effort in order to effect this: what she has hitherto done, was all intended as a preparation for Easter. The holy longings of Advent, the sweet joys of Christmas, the severe truths of Septuagesima, the contrition and penance of Lent, the heart-rending sight of the Passion,-all were given us as preliminaries, as paths, to the sublime and glorious Pasch, which is now ours.

And that we might be convinced of the supreme importance of this Solemnity, God willed that the Christian Easter and Pentecost should be prepared by those of the Jewish Law:-a thousand five hundred years of typical beauty prefigured the reality: and that reality is ours!

During these days, then, we have brought before us the two great manifestations of God's goodness towards mankind: the Pasch of Israel, and the Christian Pasch; the Pentecost of Sinai, and the Pentecost of the Church. We shall have occasion to show how the ancient figures were fulfilled in the realities of the new Easter and Pentecost, and how the twilight of the Mosaic Law made way for the full day of the Gospel: but we cannot resist the feeling

of holy reverence, at the bare thought that the Solemnities we have now to celebrate are more than three thousand years old, and that they are to be renewed every year from this till the voice of the Angel shall be heard proclaiming: Time shall be no more! The gates of Eternity will then be thrown

open.

Eternity in Heaven is the true Pasch: hence, our Pasch, here on earth, is the Feast of feasts, the Solemnity of solemnities. The human race was dead; it was the victim of that sentence, whereby it was condemned to lie mere dust in the tomb; the gates of Life were shut against it. But see! the Son of God rises from his grave, and takes possession of eternal Life. Nor is he the only one that is to die no more, for, as the Apostle teaches us, he is the firstborn from the dead.2 The Church would, therefore, have us consider ourselves as having already risen with our Jesus, and as having already got possession of eternal Life. The holy Fathers bid us look on these fifty days of Easter, as the image of our eternal happiness. They are days that are devoted exclusively to joy; every sort of sadness is forbidden; and the Church cannot speak to her Divine Spouse without joining to her words that glorious cry of heaven, the Alleluia, wherewith, as the holy Liturgy says, the streets and squares of the heavenly Jerusalem resound without ceasing. We have been forbidden the use of this joyous word during the past nine weeks; it behoved us to die with Christ:--but now that we have risen, together with him, from the Tomb, and that we are resolved to die no more that death, which kills the soul, and caused our Redeemer to die on the Cross, we have a right to our Alleluia.

3

1 Apoc. x. 6.

3 Pontificale Rom. In Dedicat. Eccles.

2 Coloss. i. 18.

The Providence of God, who has established harmony between the visible world and the supernatural work of grace, willed that the Resurrection of our Lord should take place at that particular season of the Year, when even nature herself seems to rise from the grave. The meadows give forth their verdure, the trees resume their foliage, the birds fill the air with their songs, and the sun, the type of our Triumphant Jesus, pours out his floods of light on our earth made new by lovely Spring. At Christmas, the sun had little power, and his stay with us was short; it harmonised with the humble birth of our Emmanuel, who came among us in the midst of night, and shrouded in swaddling clothes: but now, he is as a giant that runs his way, and there is no one that can hide himself from his heat.1 Speaking, in the Canticle, to the faithful soul, and inviting her to take her part in this new life, which he is now imparting to every creature, our Lord himself says: Arise, my dove, and come! Winter is now past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in our land. The voice of the turtle is heard. The fig-tree hath put forth her green figs. The vines, in flower, yield their sweet smell. Arise thou, and

come !2

In the preceding chapter, we explained why our Saviour chose the Sunday for his Resurrection, whereby he conquered death and proclaimed Life to the world. It was on this favoured Day of the week, that he had, four thousand years previously, created the Light; by selecting it now for the commencement of the New Life he graciously imparts to man, he would show us that Easter is the renewal of the entire creation. Not only is the anniversary of his glorious Resurrection to be, henceforward, the greatest of days, but every Sunday throughout the year is to

1 Ps. xviii. 6, 7.

PASCH: TIME. I.

2 Cant. ii. 10-13.

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