Cujus una stilla salvum Totum mundum quit ab Oro fiat illud quod tam Ut te revelata cernens facie Amen. I see not the wounds, as Thomas did; yet do I confess thee to be my God. Oh! grant that I may ever believe in thee, more and more, and put my hope in thee, and love thee. O memorial of my Lord's death! O living Bread, that givest life to man! Grant, that my soul may ever live on thee, and may ever relish thy sweetness. O loving Pelican; Jesu Lord! cleanse me, an unclean sinner, with thy Blood, one drop whereof could save the whole world from all its guilt. O Jesus, whom I now see beneath a veil! I beseech thee, let that be done, for which I do so thirst: that I may see thine unveiled face, and be happy in the vision of thy glory. Amen. The devout Ratpert, Monk of St. Gall, friend of Notker, and, like him, a writer of liturgical compositions, shall provide us with an appropriate conclusion to this our Octave of Corpus Christi, in the following devout hymn, which he composed for the Faithful of his own times, the 9th Century. AD EUCHARISTIAM SUMENDAM. Laudes, Omnipotens, ferimus tibi, dona colentes Corporis immensi, Sanguinis atque tui. Tangimus ecce tuam, Rec We offer thee our praises, O Almighty Lord, honouring the gifts bestowed upon us of the adorable Body and Blood. Lo! we are approaching thy table, O most holy Guide! have mercy on us thy servants, though unworthy ones. Here is repeated: We offer thee. Have mercy, O loving Lord! compassionately forgive us our sins: That our approaching these triumphant sacred Mysteries may be to our profit. Here is repeated: Bestowed upon us. May there descend upon us, from the high heavens, the holy Angel, who will lovingly cleanse both our body and soul. We offer thee. May this powerful remedy lead us to the heavenly abode, giving us meanwhile, here on earth, the restoring power Bestowed upon us. O merciful Lord! look down upon us frail ones, who are honouring thy Majesty; O best of shepherds, protect us thy sheep, now feeding on it! We offer thee. Protect them whom thou refreshest, lest the enemy may crush us; for ever strengthen us by the gift Bestowed upon us. For we are unworthy that thou shouldst honour us with such a gift: Do thou, in thine own mercy, O King, rule thine own soldiers! We offer thee. O Almighty Father, in thy clemency, grant us our prayer, together with Christ and the all-powerful Spirit, the perfect Three and One giver of the gifts Bestowed upon us. Here is repeated: Corporis immensi. Angelus æthereis sanctus descendat ab astris, Purificans corpus, cor pariterque pius. Laudes, Omnipotens. Hæc medicina potens cœli nos ducat in arces, Interea terris dans medicamen opis Corporis immensi. Quod colimus fragiles, respice clemens, Summeque pascentes protege Pastor oves. Laudes, Omnipotens. Protege quas recreas, hostis ne proterat illas, Consolidans dono nos sine fine tuo Tu Corporis immensi. Nam sumus indigni quos ornes munere tali: pietate tua, Rex, rege castra tua. Laudes, Omnipotens. Spiritus atque potens, trinus FRIDAY AFTER THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI. THE FEAST OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. A NEW ray of light shines to-day in the heaven of holy Church, and its light brings warmth. The divine Master given to us by our Redeemer, that is, the Paraclete Spirit, who has come down into this world, continues his teachings to us, in the sacred Liturgy. The earliest of these his divine teachings was the mystery of the Trinity; and we have worshipped the Blessed Three: we have been taught who God is, we know him in his own nature, we have been admitted, by faith, into the sanctuary of the infinite Essence. Then, this Spirit, the mighty wind of Pentecost,1 opened to our souls new aspects of the truth, which it is his mission to make the world remember: 2 and his revelation left us prostrate before the sacred Host, the Memorial which God himself has left us of all his wonderful works.3 To-day, it is the sacred Heart of the Word made flesh that this Holy Spirit puts before us, that we may know and love and adore it. There is a mysterious connexion between these three Feasts, of Trinity, Corpus Christi, and the Sacred Heart. The aim of the Holy Ghost, in all three, is this, to initiate us more and more into that knowledge of God by faith, which is to fit us for the face-to-face Vision in heaven. We have already seen how God being made known to us, by the first, in himself, mani 1 1 Acts, ii. 2. 2 St. John, xiv. 26. 3 Ps. cx. 3. fests himself to us, by the second, in his outward works, for the holy Eucharist is the memorial, here below, in which he has brought together, and with all possible perfection, all those his wondrous works. But, by what law can we pass, so rapidly, so almost abruptly, from one Feast, which is all directly regarding God, to another, which celebrates his works, done by him to and for us? Then again: how came the divine thought, how came, that is, eternal Wisdom, from the infinite repose of the eternally blessed Trinity, to the external activity of a love for us poor creatures, which has produced what we call the Mysteries of our Redemption? The Heart of the Man-God is the solution of these difficulties; it answers all such questions, and explains to us the whole divine plan. We knew that the sovereign happiness which is in God, we knew that the life eternal communicated from the Father to the Son, and from these two to the Holy Ghost, in light and love,—was to be given by the will of these Three Divine Persons, to created beings; not only to those which were purely spiritual, but, likewise, to that creature whose nature is the union of spirit and matter, that is, to Man. We are of this lower nature; and a pledge of this life eternal was given to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It is by the Eucharist that Man, who has already been made a partaker of the divine nature by the grace of the sanctifying Spirit, is united to the divine Word, and is made a true member of this Only Begotten Son of the Father. Yes: though it hath not yet appeared what we shall be, says St, John, still we are now the sons of God; we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like to him, for we are called to live, as the Word himself does, in the society of that eternal Father of his, for ever and ever.3 2 But the infinite love of the sacred Trinity, which thus called us frail creatures to a participation in its 12 St. Pet. i. 4. * 1 St. John, iii. 2, 1 St. John, i. 3, own blessed life, would accomplish this merciful design by the help and means of another love, a love more like what we ourselves can feel; that is, the created love of a human soul, evinced by the beatings of a Heart of flesh like our own. The Angel of the great Counsel, who is sent to make known to the world the merciful designs of the Ancient of days, took to himself, in order to fulfil his divine mission, a created, a human form; and this would enable men to see with their eyes, yea, and even touch with their hands, the Word of life, that life eternal which was with the Father, but appeared even unto us. This human nature, which the Son of God took into personal union with himself, from the womb of the Virgin-Mother, was the docile instrument of infinite love, but it was not absorbed into, or lost in, the Godhead; it retained its own substance, its special faculties, its distinct will, which Will ruled, under the influence of the divine Word, the acts and movements of his most holy Soul and adorable Body. From the very first instant of its existence, the human Soul of Christ was inundated, more directly than was any other creature, with that true light of the Word, which enlighteneth every man who cometh into this world; it enjoyed the face-to-face vision of the divine essence; and, therefore, took in, at a single glance, the absolute beauty of the sovereign Being, and the wisdom of the divine decree, which called finite beings into a participation of infinite bliss. It understood its sublime mission, and conceived an immense love for man and for God. This love began simultaneously with life, and filled not only his soul, but impressed, in its own way, the Body too,-the Body which was formed from the substance of the Virgin-Mother, by the operation of the Holy Ghost. The effect of his love told, consequently, upon his Heart of true human flesh; it set in motion those beatings, which made the Blood of redemption circulate in his sacred veins. 11 St. John, i. 2. 2 St. John, i, 9. |