Thy Feast ends to-day, and we come before thee to pay thee a last tribute of our devotion, O glorious Champion of the Liberty of the Church! who standest near the Crib of our Emmanuel, as the representative of the combats he would have to fight in the future of his Church. The whole of Christendom implores thine intercession; but England claims thy special protection. Thou art one of her grandest glories, and neither heresy, which has laid waste the land, nor impiety, which has covered her with sacrilege, have made her forgetful of her great Martyr of Canterbury. She is now in the first years of a new period, which is fraught with promise of a bright future-and thy dear name is honoured with a love, which is worthy of the devotion shown thee in times now long passed away. Churches are being built in thy honour, on that very soil, where it was once made obligatory by law to hate thee. Each year is adding to the number of the members of the true Church; and they, whose conversion thus gladdens the Angels of God, are men, whose early training taught them to look on contempt for Thomas à Beckett as a sign of patriotism and refinement. Each year, as thy Feast comes round, the day is kept with greater solemnity; thy merits are better understood, and the increase of faith sets men's hearts on thanking their God for having given thee to his Church as the type of a Bishop. Bless, then, O holy Pontiff! this flock of thine own land, which is so fast increasing. Pray for them who are still wavering, that they may have light to see the light granted them by God. Three centuries of error and revolt!-oh! terrible but just chastisement of our dearest country! Pray that it may be taken away from her, and show, by thy loving intercession, that thou art still the good Shepherd and the affectionate Father. At the bidding of the successor of Eleutherius and Gregory the Great, the Episcopal Hierarchy has reappeared in this beautiful Isle of ours, where thou wast once the Primate, vested with the sacred Pallium. Oh! protect the Bishops who are now so zealously governing the vineyard over which thou didst once preside, and for which thou didst shed thy blood. Ask our Lord to increase the number of his Priests; for the harvest is great, and the labourers are few. May they be endued, by the Master of the Vineyard, with the spirit of patience and courage; may they be powerful in word and work, and may their name, as thine is, be held in blessing by future generations! THE SAME DAY. THE VIGIL OF THE EPIPHANY. WITH A COMMEMORATION OF SAINT TELESPHORUS, POPE AND MARTYR. THE Feast of Christmas is over; the five Octaves are closed; and we are on the Eve of the Solemnity of our Lord's Epiphany. We must spend this fifth of January in preparing ourselves for the Manifestation which Jesus, the Angel of the Great Counsel, is about to make to us of his glory. A few more hours, and the Star will stand still in the heavens, and the Magi will be seeking for admission into the stable at Bethlehem. This Vigil is not like that of Christmas, a day of penance. The Child, whose coming we were then awaiting, in the fervour of our humble desires, is now among us, preparing to bestow fresh favours upon us. This eve of to-morrow's Solemnity is a day of joy, like those that have preceded it; and therefore, we do not fast, nor does the Church put on the vestments of mourning, even in those churches where the Octave Day of St. Thomas of Canterbury is not observed. If the Office of the Vigil be the one of to-day, the colour used is White. This is the Twelfth day since the Birth of our Emmanuel. If the Vigil of the Epiphany fall on a Sunday, it shares, with Christmas Eve, the privilege of not being anticipated, as all other Vigils are, on the Saturday: it is kept on the Sunday, has all the privileges of a Sunday, and the Mass is that of the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas Day. Let us, therefore, celebrate this Vigil in great joy of heart, and prepare our souls for to-morrow's graces. The Greek Church keeps this a fasting-day, in memory of the preparation for Baptism, which used formerly to be administered, especially in the East, on the night preceding the feast of the Epiphany. She still solemnly blesses the Water on this Feast. We will, in our next volume, speak of this ceremony, of which some vestiges still remain in the Western Church. The holy Church of Rome commemorates to-day the holy Pope and Martyr, St. Telesphorus. This Pontiff began his reign in the year 127; and among his decrees, we find that of his prescribing the holy sacrifice of the Mass to be offered up on Christmas Night, in order to honour the hour when our Saviour was born: he also ordered that the Angelic Hymn Gloria in excelsis should be said, on most days, at the beginning of Mass. This devotion of the holy Pope towards the great Mystery which we are now celebrating, renders his commemoration at this season of the year doubly dear to us. Telesphorus suffered a glorious martyrdom, as St. Ireneus expresses it, and was crowned with eternal glory in the year 138. MASS. The Mass of the Vigil of the Epiphany is that of the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, except the Commemoration of St. Telesphorus and the Gospel. INTROIT. Dum medium silentium, page 375. COLLECT. Omnipotens, sempiterne Deus, page 376. Commemoration of St. Telesphorus. OREMUS. Deus qui nos beati Telesphori, Martyris tui atque Pontificis, annua solemnitate lætificas: concede propitius; ut cujus natalitia colimus, de ejusdem etiam protectione gaudeamus. LET US PRAY. O God, who by the yearly solemnity of blessed Telesphorus, thy Martyr and Bishop, rejoicest the hearts of the faithful; mercifully grant that we who celebrate his martyrdom may enjoy his protection. Commemoration of the Blessed Virgin. |