MASS The Introit, which is taken from the Book of Exodus, is addressed to the Church's new-born children. It reminds them of the milk and honey which were given to them on the night of Saturday last, after they had received holy Communion. They are true Israelites, brought into the Promised Land. Let them, therefore, praise the Lord, who has chosen them from the pagan world, that He might make them His favoured people. INTROIT Introduxit vos Dominus The Lord hath brought you in terram fluentem lac et mel, alleluia: et ut lex Domini semper sit in ore vestro. Alleluia, alleluia. Ps. Confitemini Domino et invocate nomen ejus: annuntiate inter gentes opera ejus. V. Gloria Patri. Introduxit. into a land flowing with milk and honey, alleluia: let then the law of the Lord be ever in your mouth. Alleluia, alleluia. Ps Praise the Lord, and call upon his name: publish his works among the Gentiles. V. Glory, &c. The Lord, &c. At the sight of Jesus, her Spouse, now freed from the bonds of death, holy Church prays God, that we, the members of this divine Head, may come to that perfect liberty of which the Resurrection is the type. Our long slavery to sin should have taught us the worth of that liberty of the children of God, which our Pasch has restored to us. COLLECT Deus, qui solemnitate paschali, mundo remedia contulisti: populum tuum quæsumus, cœlesti dono prosequere: ut et perfectam libertatem consequi merea O God, who by the mystery of the Paschal solemnity, hast bestowed remedies on the world; continue, we beseech thee, thy heavenly blessings on thy people, that they may tur, et ad vitam proficiat sempiternam. Per Domi num. Lectio Actuum Apostolo rum. Cap. X. deserve to obtain perfect liberty, and advance towards eternal life. Through, &c. EPISTLE In diebus illis: Stans Petrus in medio plebis, dixit: Viri fratres, vos scitis quod factum est verbum per universam Judæam: incipiens enim a Galilæa post baptismum, quod prædicavit Joannes, Jesum a Nazareth: quomodo unxit eum Deus Spiritu Sancto, et virtute, qui pertransiit benefaciendo, et sanando omnes oppressos a diabolo, quoniam Deus erat cum illo. Et nos testes sumus 0mnium, quæ fecit in regione Judæorum et Jerusalem, quem occiderunt suspendentes in ligno. Hunc Deus suscitavit tertia die, et dedit eum manifestum fieri, non omni populo, sed testibus præordinatis a Deo: nobis, qui manducavimus et bibi mus cum illo, postquam resurrexit a mortuis. Et præcepit nobis prædicare populo, et testificari, quia ipse est, qui constitutus est a Deo judex vivorum et mortuorum. Huic omnes prophetæ testimonium perhibent, remissionem peccatorum accipere per nomen ejus omnes, qui credunt in eum. PASCH TIME. I. Lesson from the Acts of the In those days: Peter standing up in the midst of the people, said: You know the word that hath been published through all Judea: for it began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached, Jesus of Nazareth: how God anointed him with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things that he did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed hanging him upon a tree. Him God raised up the third day, and gave him to be made manifest, not to all the people, but to witnesses preordained by God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose again from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is he who was appointed by God to be judge of the living and of the dead. To him all the prophets give testimony, that through his name all receive remission of sins, who believe in him. St. Peter spoke these words to Cornelius, the centurion, and to the household and friends of this Gentile, who had called them together to receive the Apostle whom God had sent to him. He had come to prepare them for Baptism, and thus make them the first-fruits of the Gentile world, for, up to this time, the Gospel had been preached only to the Jews. Let us take notice how it is St. Peter, and not any other of the Apostles, who throws open to us Gentiles the door of the Church, which Christ has built upon him, as upon the impregnable rock. This passage from the Acts of the Apostles is an appropriate Lesson for this day, whose Station is in the basilica of St. Peter: it is read near the Confession of the great Apostle, and in presence of the neophytes, who have been converted from the worship of false gods to the true faith. Let us observe, too, the method used by the Apostle in the conversion of Cornelius and the other Gentilés. He begins by speaking to them concerning Jesus. He tells them of the miracles He wrought; then, having related how He died the ignominious death of the cross, he insists on the fact of the Resurrection as the sure guarantee of His being truly God. He then instructs them on the mission of the Apostles, whose testimony must be received, a testimony which carries persuasion with it, seeing it was most disinterested, and availed them nothing save persecution. He, therefore, that believes in the Son of God made Flesh, who went about doing good, working all kinds of miracles; who died upon the cross, rose again from the dead, and entrusted to certain men, chosen by Himself, the mission of continuing on earth the ministry He had begun ;-he that confesses all this, is worthy to receive, by holy Baptism, the remission of his sins. Such is the happy lot of Cornelius and his companions; such has been that of our neophytes. Then is sung the Gradual, which repeats the expression of Paschal joy. The Verse, however, is different from yesterday's, and will vary every day till Friday. The Alleluia-Verse describes the Angel coming down from heaven, that he may open the empty sepulchre, and manifest the self-gained victory of the Redeemer. GRADUAL Hæc dies, quam fecit Dominus: exsultemus, et lætemur in ea. . Dicat nunc Israel, quoniam bonus: quoniam in sæculum misericordia ejus. Alleluia, alleluia. . Angelus Domini descendit de cœlo: et accedens revolvit lapidem, et sedebat super eum. This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us be glad and rejoice therein. . Let Israel now say, that the Lord is good: that his mercy endureth for ever. Alleluia, alleluia. V. An Angel of the Lord descended from heaven; and coming he rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. The Sequence, Victimæ Paschali, page 164. tenebantur ne eum agnoscerent. Et ait ad illos: Qui sunt hi sermones, quos confertis ad invicem ambulantes, et estis tristes? Et respondens unus, cui nomen Cleophas, dixit ei: Tu solus peregrinus es in Jerusalem, et non cognovisti quæ facta sunt in illa his diebus? Quibus ille dixit: Quæ? Et dixerunt: De Jesu Nazareno, qui fuit vir propheta, potens in opere et sermone, coram Deo et omni populo: et quomodo eum tradiderunt summi sacerdotes, et principes nostri in damnationem mortis, et crucifixerunt eum. Nos autem sperabamus quia ipse esset redempturus Israel: et nunc super hæc omnia, tertia dies est hodie quod hæc facta sunt. Sed et mulieres quædam ex nostris terruerunt nos, quæ ante lucem fuerunt ad monumentum, et non invento corpore ejus, venerunt, dicentes se etiam visionem Angelorum vidisse, qui dicunt eum vivere. Et abierunt quidam ex nostris ad monumentum, et ita invenerunt, sicut mulieres dixerunt; ipsum vero non invenerunt. Et ipse dixit ad eos: O stulti, et tardi corde ad credendum in omnibus, quæ locuti sunt prophetæ! Nonne hæc oportuit pati Christum, et ita intrare in gloriam suam? Et incipiens a Moyse, et omnibus prophe they should not know him. And he said to them: What are these discourses that you hold one with another as you walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleophas, answering said to him: Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that have been done there in these days? To whom he said: What things? And they said: Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people. And how our chief priests and princes delivered him to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we hoped that it was he that should have redeemed Israel: and now besides all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done. Yea and certain women also of our company, affrighted us, who before it was light were at the sepulchre. And not finding his body, came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who say that he is alive. And some of our people went to the sepulchre: and found it so as the women had said, but him they found not. Then he said to them: O foolish, and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory? And begin |