has another signification: "The seventy weeks are shortened," said the angel to Daniel (Dan. ix. 24), and the doctors believe that the time of the incarnation was hastened in the designs of God as a recompense to the prayer of the patriarchs, the prophets, and of Mary above all. During this chant let us not forget the power of prayer; it will abridge for us the bitter days of trial and God's abandonment; for the Church the time of persecution and tears.

The Kyrie is Repeated Nine Times. -Nine times the Church repeats this cry, in memory of the nine heavenly hoirs. While the rebel angels tried to prevent the accomplishment of the divine plan, the good angels implored God for the incarnation with all their strength. They united their prayers to those of earth. God had chosen human nature, but this consideration of a mean jealousy could not affect them. They saw but one thing : the glory of God. God must be glorified; by whom, where, or how? What did it matter to true love? What a lesson and what memories for us in this ninefold repetition of the Kyrie!

4. THE GLORIA IN EXCELSIS, OR THE CHANT OF

BETHLEHEM.

Intonation of the Gloria.—To represent the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem the priest returns to the middle of the altar, while the last Kyrie carries to God the supplications of earth.

Borrowing from the angels the words sung beside the cradle of the infant God, he announces to the world the supreme joy: "Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra paa hominibus bonæ voluntatis."

In solemn Masses the choir continues the celestial chant, for the Gospel says that an angel proclaimed the good news to the shepherds: "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God." (Luke ii. 13.) The hands of the priest raised toward heaven at the word gloria seem to try to return to God all the glory. "Not to us, O Lord, but to Thy name be the glory," sings the psalmist. (Ps. cxiii. 9.) To God be the glory of all our works; to us the humility, but also the peace which is their assured fruit. It is in order to receive this divine peace that the priest again joins his hands at the words: Pax in terra.

During this chant let us represent vividly to our faith Jesus Christ present in the tabernacle, the new stable of His eucharistic life.

The ciborium is His manger; the species of bread and wine His swaddling-bands. He is cold, for it is winter about Him, the winter of forgetfulness and indifference. Let us fall at His feet, with the angels, to praise Him, with the shepherds to glorify Him, with the Magi to adore Him. Let us also offer Him gifts—the gold of a heart that loves Him, the incense of a heart that prays, the myrrh of a heart that is resigned.

The Sign of the Cross.-Persecution quickly attacked the child in the crib, but He escaped the fury of Herod by flight. The sign of the cross at the end of the joyous canticle of Bethlehem should recall to us the massacre of the innocents, the flight into Egypt, the anxieties of exile, and also the blood shed under the knife of the circumcision.

5. THE DOMINUS VOBISCUM, OR THE EFFUSION OF THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST.

The Kiss on the Altar.-The venerable Olier has so well explained this ceremony that we cannot resist the pleasure of quoting him. "It is necessary to remark," he says, "that the priest does not say, 'Dominus vobiscum,' or, 'Oremus,' without first kissing the altar, and even before the Orate fratres he kisses it again, to show that it is from the bosom of God that he draws the spirit of prayer which he wishes to give to the people. It is the same case in the benedictions which he gives the people, or to the host, or to himself; they are often preceded by a kiss upon the altar, to show that he gets from God the blessings for the people and himself, having of himself neither graces nor blessings, except in God, Who has, as St. Paul says, 'blessed us with all benediction in His Son.'"

Meaning of the Dominus Vobiscum.-What touching reminders are in this salutation: The Lord be with you!

One of the greatest joys of Christianity, the greatest surely, is to know that since His birth God has made Himself our Emmanuel, and remains always among us. When He died, He did not leave us, He stayed with His children in the sacrament of His love. The Lord be with you, says the priest before the prayer; let us not fear; let us pray with confidence; He has drawn near us to hear our prayers.

He is with us; may He be also in us, in our hearts. May He unite us all in a common bond of charity. The open and wide-spread arms of the priest give Him to us all; his arms closed tell us why He gives Himself: "that