a Hymn of the Greek Liturgy: they allude to the mysteries we have been explaining. HYMN. (In Parasceve.) On this day, Judas leaves his Master, and takes the devil for his guide. The love of money blinds him. He fell from the light, he became darkened; for how could he be said to see, who sold the Light for thirty pieces of silver? But to us he has risen, he that suffered for the world let us thus cry out unto him: Glory be to thee, that didst endure thy Passion, and hadst compassion, for mankind! What was it, O Judas! that led thee to betray Jesus? Had he cut thee off from the number of his Apostles? Had he deprived thee of the gift of healing the sick? When he supped with his Apostles, did he drive thee from table? When he washed their feet, did he pass thee by? And yet, thou wast unmindful of these great favours! Thy ungrateful plot has branded thee with infamy but his incomparable patience and great mercy are worthy of praise. Say, O ye unjust ones! what is it ye have heard from our Saviour? Did he not expound unto you the Law and the Prophets? Why, therefore, have ye plotted how to Hodie Judas Magistrum derelinquit, et diabolum assumit: obcæcatur passione amoris pecuniæ ; decidit a lumine, obscuratus est ille. Quomodo namque videre poterat ille qui Luminare vendidit triginta argenteis? Sed nobis exortus est ille, qui passus est pro mundo. Ad quem clamemus: Qui passus, et compassus es hominibus, gloria tibi. Quænam te ratio, Juda, Salvatoris proditorem effecit? Numquid ille ab Apostolorum te choro segregavit? Numquid sanitatum te gratia privavit? Numquid cum cœnaret una cum illis, a mensa te expulit? Numquid aliorum cum lavisset, pedes tuos neglexit? O quantorum factus es immemor beneficiorum! et tuum sane consilium ingratum infamia notatur: illius autem prædicatur incomparabilis patientia et misericordia magna. Dicite iniqui quidnam a Salvatore nostro audistis? Nonne Legem ac documenta Prophetarum exposuit? Quomodo ergo Verbum quod ex Deo est, et nos tras animas redimit, Pilato deliver up to Pilate the Word tradere cogitastis? Crucifigatur, clamabant ii qui tuis semper muneribus fuerant delectati; petebantque ut malefactorem acciperent pro benefactore interfectores illi justorum. Sed tacebas, Christe, eorum proterviam sustinens: volens pati, nosque salvare, ut hominum amans. Loquendi libertatem non habemus propter multa peccata nostra ; tu ex te genitum exora, Virgo Deipara multum enim valet deprecatio Matris apud clementiam Domini. Ne despicias peccatorum supplicationes, o castissima; quia misericors est et potens ad salvandum, is qui pro nobis etiam pati sustinuit. that is from God, and that came to redeem our souls? They that had enjoyed thy unceasing gifts cried out: Let him be crucified! These murderers of such as were innocent, sought thee, that they might treat thee, their benefactor, as an evil-doer. But thou, O Christ! didst bear their wickedness with silence, for thou being the lover of mankind, didst desire to suffer for and save us. We are prevented from speaking by the multitude of our sins: do thou, O VirginMother of God! pray for us to Him that was born of thee, for the Mother's prayer avails much with the mercy of our Lord._Despise_not, O most pure Virgin! the prayers of sinners, for he that refused not even to suffer for us, is merciful, and is able to save us. We subjoin the following beautiful Preface from the Ambrosian Missal: it expresses, in a most touching manner, the sentiments which a Christian should have within him on this vigil of our Lord's Supper. PREFACE. Dignum et justum est, æquum et salutare, nos tibi semper hic et ubique gratias agere, Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, æterne Deus, per Christum Dominum nostrum, qui innocens pro impiis voluit pati, et pro sceleratis indebite con It is meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should ever, here and in all places, give thanks to thee, O Holy Lord, Almighty Father, Eternal God, through Christ our Lord: who, being innocent, willed to suffer for sinners, and be unjustly con demned for the guilty. His Death wiped away our crimes, and his Resurrection opened for us the gates of heaven. Through him we beseech thy clemency, that, to-day, thou cleanse us from our sins, and, to-morrow, feed us on the banquet of the venerable Supper; that, to-day, thou receive the confession of our faults, and, to-morrow, grant us the increase of spiritual gifts; that, to-day, thou receive the offering of our fasts, but, to-morrow, introduce us to the feast of the most holy Supper. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. demnari. Cujus mors delicta nostra detersit, et resurrectio Paradisi fores nobis reseravit. Per quem tuam pietatem suppliciter exoramus; ut nos hodie a peccatis emacules; cras vero venerabilis Cœnæ dapibus saties; hodie acceptes nostrorum confessionem delictorum: cras vero tribuas spiritualium incrementa donorum; hodie jejuniorum nostrorum vota suscipias; cras vero nos ad sanctissimæ Coenæ convivium introducas. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen. MAUNDY THURSDAY. THE NIGHT OFFICE. THE Office of Matins and Lauds, for the last three days of Holy Week, differs, in many things, from that of the rest of the year, All is sad and mournful, as though it were a funeral-service: nothing could more emphatically express the grief that now weighs down the heart of our holy mother the Church. Throughout all the Office of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, she forbids herself the use of those formulas of joy and hope, wherewith, on all other days, she begins her praise of God. The Domine, labia mea aperies (O Lord, thou shalt open my lips): the Deus, in adjutorium meum intende (Incline unto mine aid, O God): the Gloria Patri, at the end of the Psalms, Canticles, and Responsories-all are taken away. So likewise are those soul-stirring additions, which have been gradually made, in the different ages; and nothing is left, but what is essential to the form of the Divine Office:Psalms, Lessons, and Chants expressive of grief. Each Canonical Hour ends with the Psalm Miserere, and with a commemoration of the Death and Cross of our Redeemer. The name of Tenebræ has been given to the Matins and Lauds of the last three days of Holy Week, because this Office used formerly to be cele brated during the night: and even when the hour was anticipated, the name of Tenebrae was kept up for another reason; namely, that it began with daylight, but ended after the sun had set. There is an impressive ceremony, peculiar to this Office, which tends to perpetuate its name. There is placed in the Sanctuary, near the Altar, a large triangular candlestick, holding fifteen candles. These candles, and the six that are on the Altar, are of yellow wax, as in the Office for the Dead. At the end of each Psalm or Canticle, one of these fifteen candles is extinguished; but the one, which is placed at the top of the Triangle, is left lighted. During the singing of the Benedictus, at Lauds, the Six candles on the Altar are also put out. Then the Master of Ceremonies takes the lighted candle from the Triangle, and holds it upon the Altar, whilst the Choir repeats the antiphon after the Canticle: after which, he hides it behind the Altar during the recitation of the Miserere and the Prayer, which follows the Psalm. As soon as this Prayer is finished, a noise is made with the seats of the stalls in the choir, which continues until the candle is brought from behind the Altar, and shows, by its light, that the Office of Tenebræ is over. Let us now study the meaning of these ceremonies. The glory of the Son of God was obscured, and, so to say, eclipsed, by the ignominies he endured during his Passion. He, the Light of the world, powerful in word and work, who, but a few days ago, was proclaimed King by the citizens of Jerusalem, is now robbed of all his honours; he is, says Isaias, the Man of sorrows,-a leper; he is, says the Royal Prophet, a worm of the earth, and no man; he is, as he says of himself, an object of shame even to his own Disciples, for they are all scandalised in him,3 1 Is. liii. 3, 4. 2 Ps. xxi. 7. St. Mark, xiv. 27. X |