We offer our readers, to-day, the following Sequence, composed by the pious Notker, in the 9th century, for the Abbey of Saint Gall. SEQUENCE. May Christ our Lord grant to all Christians, who love him, that this day may be to them a happy one! O Christ Jesus! Son of God! thou unitest in thyself the two natures of God and Man. Thou, the Eternal God, didst visit our earth; thou, the new Man, didst ascend into heaven. The Angels and the Clouds pay the homage of their service to thee, when thou returnedst to thy Father; And need we wonder at it, when we remember how, when thou wast a Babe at thy Mother's breast, a Star united with the Angels in serving thee? Thou, O Lord, this day, gavest to the inhabitants of earth a new and sweet sentiment -the hope of heaven, By placing our nature,which thou, O King of kings, hadst truly assumed,-above the highest stars. O what joy filled the hearts of thine Apostles, whom thou permittedst to see thee mounting up to heaven! How joyfully did not the nine choirs of Angels go forth to meet thee as thou enteredst heaven, Carrying on thy shoulders Christus hunc diem jucundum Cunctis concedat esse christianis, Amatoribus suis. Christe Jesu, Fili Dei, Mediator nostræ naturæ Ac Divinæ. Terras Deus visitasti æternus, Ethera novus homo Transvolans. Officiis te Angeli atque nubes Stipant, ad Patrem Reversurum. Sed quid mirum, Cum lactanti adhuc Stella tibi serviret Et Angeli ? Tu hodie terrestribus Rem novam et dulcem Dedisti, Domine, Sperandi cœlesti. Regum Domine. Te cœlos pergere. In humeris portanti These two eloquent Prayers from the Mozarabic Breviary may also be made part of our evening devotions. PRAYER. Domine Jesu Christe, creator astrorum, qui inclinasti capita nubium, dum te humiliasti in conversatione mortalium: ut in eo corpore, quo pro nobis probra sustinuisti impiorum, in ipso ascenderes super omnes cœlos cœlorum, et laudes sumeres Angelorum; exaudi nos propitius, et hoc nobis concede placatus, ut, absoluti criminibus, illuc te nunc prævium sequamur corde, quo tu ascendisti glorificatus in homine; ut te etiam tunc contemplari possimus conditorem et Dominum æternum in Majestate, quem nunc verum Deum præstolamur et judicem. Amen. O Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of the stars! who bowedst down the heads of the lofty clouds when thou humbly camest to live among men ; and who, in that same body, wherein, for our sake, thou sufferedst insult from the wicked, didst ascend above the heaven of heavens and receive the praises of Angels : graciously hear our prayer, and mercifully grant, that, being freed from sin, we may follow thee in desire to the region whither thou hast ascended in thy glorified Humanity; that thus we may, one day, see thee in thy Majesty, our Creator and eternal Lord, whom we now await as our God and Judge. Amen. PRAYER. Domine Jesu Christe, qui ascendisti super cœlos cœlorum ad Orientem, occasum devincens; quos in te suscepisti redimendos, in te O Lord Jesus Christ! who ascendedst above the heaven of heavens to the East, after triumphing over thine own setting in the West; complete the work of our redemption, by raising us to the courts above. Thou, our Head, hast preceded us in glory; oh! draw thither, after thee, the whole body of thy Church, thy members whom thou callest to share in thine honour. Leave not, we beseech thee, in the inglorious West of this world, those whom thou, the triumphant Conqueror, hast raised, by thine own Ascension, to the everlasting East. perfice ad excelsa tollendos: ut ubi caput præcessit glorificatum, illuc totum corpus adtrahas honorandum : nec in occiduum mundi relinquas, quos ad orientem perpetuum versus triumphator exaltas. WEDNESDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE ASCENSION. O rex gloriæ, Domine virtutum, qui triumphator hodie super omnes cœlos ascendisti, ne derelinquas nos orphanos; sed mitte promissum Patris in nos Spiritum veritatis, alleluia. O King of glory, Lord of hosts, who didst this day ascend in triumph above all the heavens, leave us not orphans, but send upon us the Spirit of truth, promised by the Father, alleluia. LET us now look upon the earth, for our eyes have hitherto been riveted upon the heaven into which our Jesus has entered. Let us see what effects the mystery of the Ascension has produced on this land of our exile. These effects are of the most extraordinary nature. This Jesus, who ascended into heaven without the City of Jerusalem's even knowing it, and whose departure, when it was known, excited no regret or joy among the men of that generation,this Jesus, we say, now, eighteen hundred years after his departure from us, finds the whole earth celebrating the anniversary of his glorious Ascension. Our age is far from being one of earnest faith; and yet, there is not a single country on the face of the globe where, if there be a Church or Chapel or even a Catholic home, the Feast of Jesus' Ascension is not being now kept and loved. He lived for three and thirty years on our earth. He, the eternal Son of our God, dwelt among his creatures, and there was only one people that knew it. That one favoured people crucified him. As to the Gentiles, they would have thought him beneath their notice. True, this beautiful Light shone in the darkness; but the darkness did not comprehend it he came unto his own, and his own received him not.2 He preached to his chosen people; but his word was that seed which falls on stony ground, and takes no root, or is cast among thorns and is choked; it could with difficulty find a plot of good ground, wherein to bring forth fruit. If, thanks to his infinite patience and goodness, he succeeded in keeping a few Disciples around him, their faith was weak, hesitating, and gave way when temptation came. And yet, ever since the preaching of these same Apostles, the name and glory of Jesus are everywhere; in every language, and in every clime, he is proclaimed the Incarnate Son of God; the most civilised, as well as the most barbarous, nations have submitted to his sweet yoke; in every part of the universe men celebrate his Birth in the stable of Bethlehem, his Death on the Cross whereby he ransomed a guilty world, his Resurrection whereby he strengthened the work he came to do, and his Ascension, which gives Him, the Man-God, to sit at the right hand of his Father. The great voice of the Church carries to the uttermost bounds of the earth the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, which he came to reveal to mankind. This holy Church, founded by him, teaches the truths of faith to all nations, and in every nation there are souls who are docile to her teaching. How was this marvellous change brought about? What is it that has given it stability during these eighteen hundred years? Our Saviour himself explains it to us, by the words he spoke to his Apostles after the Last Supper: It is, said he, expedient to 1 St. John, i. 5. 21d. ibid. 11. 3 St. Matth. xiii. |