Mary in the Epistles by Thomas Stiverd Livius. Comments on the Epistles part 9

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF S. PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS. CHAPTER I.

4 I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus.

5 That in all things you are made rich in him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;

6 As the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,

7 So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace, waiting for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

8 Who also will confirm you unto the end without crime, in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 God is faithful: by whom you are called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

To encourage the Corinthian converts, the Apostle reminds them of God's faithfulness : that He who had been pleased to call them to the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ, would assuredly not fail to confirm them by His grace, and enable them to persevere to the end in their Christian vocation. For whenever God calls anyone to a particular state or office, He gives at the same time graces proportioned thereto ; whereby he who is thus called may duly carry out his vocation and worthily fulfil its duties. So did God deal with Mary. He was faithful to her. In choosing Mary not alone for fellowship with Jesus Christ, but for the divine Maternity, He bestowed upon her the fulness of grace ; and in all things she was made rich in Him, so that nothing was wanting to her in any grace that might befit her to be the worthy Mother of His Son. He continued as He began. He confirmed her unto the end ; and the glory of her Assumption corresponded to the grace of her Immaculate Conception.

24 But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men ; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26 For see your vocation, brethren, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble :

27 But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong.

28 And the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible hath God chosen, and things that are not, that he might bring to nought things that are :

29 That no flesh should glory in his sight.

30 But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption :

31 That, as it is written : He that glorieth, may glory in the Lord.

Mary is the ideal type of Divine vocation and election. In God's choice of the humble maiden of Nazareth to be the Mother of His Only-begotten Son, is perfectly exemplified all the Apostle here says, even according to her own words: "Ecce ancilla Domini. Respexit humilitatem ancillae suae. Fecit mihi magna qui potens est. Fecit potentiam in brachio suo. Dispersit superbos mente cordis sui. Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles."

"The more illustrious Mary and Joseph were by true and perfect nobility of birth, the more were they gentle, meek, mild, and humble. , . . The Apostle is here speaking especially of the preachers, by whom the world was to be converted to the Faith : and it was fitting that these should be plebeian and uneducated, lest to their own power and wisdom or dignity might be ascribed what God Himself wrought by His grace, and through their ministry, and thus 'the Cross of Christ should be made void.' But it was not fitting that in His domestic service the King of kings should be nurtured by the ignoble in mind or body : nor was it meet, that He, to whom myriads of angels minister, should select for His reputed father, one who was ignoble ; nor that He who chose out a Virgin—whom the sun and moon, and all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem admire—for His Mother, should suffer her to be espoused to a man of mean origin. It, moreover, became Christ the Lord to exalt the Blessed Virgin as much as He was able, and she herself was capable, and to ennoble and magnify her, since it was unfitting that He should expose His own Mother to reproach of lack of nobility." [Morales, L. ii. Tr. 9.]

"The sacerdotal line," says S. Austin, "differed from the royal line, which had its origin in one of David's sons, who, according to the custom, married a wife from the sacerdotal line. Hence Mary belonged to both tribes, and had her descent in the royal and sacerdotal lines." [De divert. Qucest. 61, n. 2.] " Christ was born, " says the Saint again, " of a Mother, who—although she conceived in perfect purity, and ever remained inviolate, a Virgin conceiving, a Virgin giving birth, a Virgin at death—yet was espoused to a carpenter, and thus extinguished in herself all pride of noble birth." [De catechisand. rudib. n. 22.] If Jesus Christ has come to be, by so many titles, the glory of all Christians (see v.v. 24, 31), what has He not become to His own most blessed Mother ?

The Little Office Of Our Lady – At Sext: The Sixth Hour, pt 4. By E. L. Taunton.

LITTLE CHAPTER [Eccle. xxiv. 2.],

And I took root in an honourable people, and in the
Lot of the Lord was my inheritance; and my staying 
in the fulness of the saints.

Thanks be to God.

Blessed art thou amongst women.

And blessed is the Fruit of thy womb.

The sense of confidence and firmness which pervades the Psalms finds its echo in the Little Chapter. Here we get it concentrated, as it were, upon one object, our ever dear and blessed Lady. As the day goes on (it is now the office for midday) and worldly trials are surrounding us, and the noonday devil [Ps. xc. 6.] is roaring, we need a renewal of confidence ; and the " valiant woman," Mary, that Mount Sion girt about with such mountains of grace, she who escaped from the snare of the fowler who sought to bring all under sin, she the Handmaid of the Lord who always kept her eyes fixed on Him, she, we are told, is a ground for sure confidence. For she has taken root, and is in the peaceful enjoyment of her heritage, and abides in heaven. All these are ideas of fixity. So confidence in her is reasonable ; for she trusts in the Lord and is therefore immovable. Her special heritage is in the Lot of the Lord, that is, in those souls who have chosen Him for their part of the heritage and their cup. They are specially dear to her and feel above all others her protection. On this Little Chapter let us hear the author of the Myroure : "Christian people are honoured above all people in knowledge of right belief and in the sacrament of holy Church. And therefore in them our Lady is rooted by spiritual help and favour, namely, in such as seek their chief heritage in heaven and not on earth. Also, our Lady abideth in the fulness of saints, for there never was a saint on earth nor angel in heaven that was or is so full of virtues and graces, but that our Lady had and hath them all in more fulness and perfection than they. And therefore, says St. Bernard : Verily her abiding is in the fulness of saints, for she failed not in the faith of patriarchs, nor in the spirit of prophets, nor in the zeal of the apostles, nor in the steadfastness of martyrs, nor in the soberness of confessors, nor in the chastity of virgins, nor in the plenteousness of the wedded, nor in the purity of angels " [p. 149.].

These thoughts lend a peculiar significance to the Deo gratias and to the praise we give her as " Blessed among women."

COLLECT.

Grant 0 merciful God help to our weakness : that we who
venerate the Holy Mother of God, may, by the help of her
intercession, rise up from our sins. Through the same Jesus Christ, &c.

The prayer sums up the thoughts of the whole Office. We ask of God that we may in very truth feel the protection of her in whom we have been led to trust. Her protection serves only to one end, that we may rise out of sin. All is based on that. At the Marriage Feast of Cana she took pity on the temporal need of her hosts and interceded with her Son ; but it was on the condition that Whatsoever He tells you to do, that do ye [John ii: 5.]. So it is with us. She helps us in all things, but for one end only : to get us to do the Divine Will and avoid sin.

During Advent.

The Antiphon and Collect is from Lauds according to the season ; the Versicle is as above.

LITTLE CHAPTER [Luke i. 32, 33.].

The Lord God shall give Him the throne of David His father, 
and He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever :
and of His Kingdom there shall be no end.

The spirit of confidence which runs through the Psalms is strengthened here by the thought of the everlasting Kingship of Him Who comes to strengthen us and in Whose grace we can do all things. The last words, used in the Credo at Mass, are a promise of the Eternal Glory of the Kingdom we are invited to share. St. Teresa never heard these words either in the Office or the Mass without a special thrill of exultation. And in that Eternal Kingdom who is it that stands at the side of the King but the Queen, the "cause of our joy" and "our hope ? " So the thought of our Lord, Who alone is our refuge and confidence, does not take away our trust in Mary ; for she is but His instrument and the dealer of His good gifts to men.

During Christmas-tide.

The Antiphon and Prayer are from Lauds; the Little Chapter and Versicle is the Common.

From - The Little Office of Our Lady; a treatise theoretical, practical, and exegetical - Taunton, Ethelred L. (Ethelred Luke), 1857-1907

The Little Office Of Our Lady – At Sext: The Sixth Hour, pt 3. By E. L. Taunton.

PSALM CXXVI.

Title. —A Song of Degrees.

Argument.

Tomasi : That Christ may defend us with His help lest the rod, that is, the tyranny of sin, should be upon us. The voice of the Church. This is the sixth step of them that hold out and are unmoved amidst their suffering, and in whom, stretching not out their hands to unrighteousness, the peace of Israel will abide.

Venerable Bede : In the sixth step the Prophet cries to us to put our trust in the Lord lest we labour in vain. He first makes the firm assertion that they who trust in the Lord can in no wise be moved; he then prays that prosperity may come to the good and vengeance to the bad.

(1) They that put their trust in the Lord shall be as Mount 

Sion : he shall not be moved who dwelleth in Jerusalem.

(2) The mountains gird it round about: and the Lord is in the

midst of His people from this time forth and for ever.

They who trust in the Lord, says St. Bruno of Aste, shall be as Mount Sion, that is, they shall have for their own use all the grace and strength stored up in the Church of God. Most of the commentators here go beyond the usual interpretation and take Sion to mean not so much the Church as the Divine Head thereof. So, those who trust in the Lord shall share in the strength of the Rock, which is Christ. While he who dwelleth in Jerusalem, or as St. Paul says, whose conversation is in heaven [Phil. iii. 20.], shall never be moved ; for the Church prays in one of the Collects "that where true joys are there may our hearts be fixed " (Fourth Sunday after Easter).

The hills are round about them. This they interpret as the Angels watching and defending as guardians the Sion of waiting souls on earth, compassing about the Heavenly City with their shining ranks. But, says St. Augustine, while these Angels of the Lord have the charge of those who put their trust in Him because they fear Him, as it is written : The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him [Ps. xxxiii. 7.] ; a stronger defender, a more blessed gift, is for them who truly dwell in Jerusalem, submitting themselves to all its laws, for the Lord is round about His people.

(3) For the Lord shall not leave the rod of the ungodly over the

lot of the righteous : lest the righteous put their hands to iniquity.

For the rod we are to understand the sceptre of authority and power. Says St. Hilary : The Lord does not leave this rod in the hands of the ungodly; troubles come, but they do not last; persecutions come, but they do not continue ; they may have mastery over the body, but never over our conscience. The rod of the ungodly is not left upon us if we turn to Him when we have been conquered and stretched forth our hands to sin ; for God is faithful and will not suffer us to be tried above our strength [I Cor. x. 13.]. Our suffering at the hands of God's adversaries is brief and wins the reward of victory, albeit it involves no long toil of battle.

The lot of the righteous is the Church, which He does not permit to be continually afflicted, however He may chastise it for a time.

(4) Do well 0 Lord unto the good : and to the true of heart.

Good refers to external and godly behaviour ; true of heart, to internal holiness. The conjunction and implies that real external goodness (such as will merit supernatural reward) cannot be found without internal sanctity, for the outward is only the expression of the inward. Deeds that seem good may be performed for worldly motives. But these God is not asked to reward, for He says : Amen, I say to you they have their reward [Math. vi. 2.] in the approval of men. But those deeds, really good because they are done by the righteous in heart, we do ask God to reward ; and the reward He gives is grace here, and glory hereafter ; or, in other words, Himself [Gen. xv. i.], the reward exceeding great.

(5) Such as turn aside unto bonds the Lord shall 

lead forth with the workers of iniquity : but peace shall be upon Israel.

Turn aside, such as go out of the King's Highway and cease to obey; bonds, the sins in which they become entangled. Those who, under the pressure of the rod of the ungodly, stretch forth their hands to iniquity are here spoken of; that have put their conscience under bonds and have turned away from its dictates, and yet know the judgment of God, that who commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but consort with them that do the same [Rom. i. 32.] ; their lot is with the workers of iniquity. But to Israel, to those who see God with unclouded conscience, there shall be peace ; for a ruler, the Prince of Peace [Isaias ix. 6.] is set over us. There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse [Isaias xi. I.] ; and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel [Num. xxiv., 17.] ; and with this rod He shall feed His people Israel, the flock of His heritage ; for He is our Peace who hath made but one [Ephesians ii. 14.], Jews and Gentiles alike, unto one Israel, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus St. Hilary.

GLORIA PATRI.

Glory be to the Father, the Lord Who is in the midst of His people. Glory to the Son the Peace upon Israel. Glory to the Holy Ghost Who doth well to the good and right of heart.

From - The Little Office of Our Lady; a treatise theoretical, practical, and exegetical - Taunton, Ethelred L. (Ethelred Luke), 1857-1907

The Little Office Of Our Lady – At Sext: The Sixth Hour, pt 2. By E. L. Taunton.

PSALM CXXIII.

Title.—A Song of Degrees.

Argument.

Tomasi: That Christ, breaking the snare of death, delivered us by the help of His Name. The voice of the Apostles and of all believers. Here is the fifth step. The voice of the Apostles concerning the ungodly Jew and unbelievers who walk in sin.

Venerable Bede : The fifth step is gratitude. The saints, remembering how many perils like a rushing torrent they have escaped through the Mercy of God at the very begining, confess their deliverance ever the work of God. They then give thanks that they have not been deceived by their persecutors but have been rescued from their broken snares.

(1) Unless the Lord had been in us, now may Israel say : unless the Lord had been in us.

(2) When men arose against us : perchance they would have swallowed us up.

In us. This is something more than being at our side : Thou, 0 Lord, art in us . . . . forsake us not 0 Lord our God, says Jeremias [xiv. 9.]. When God is the possessor and inhabitant of our heart, then, and then only, are we safe from any foe. In us as a Pilot of a storm-tossed ship ; in us as a Captain of an army in battle; in us as Head and Heart to the body, directing its thoughts and affections. And it is said in us and not in me; because as the pilgrims go up they sing at times one by one, and at other times in chorus ; because the many are one, since Christ is one, and the members of Christ are one in Him.

They had swallowed us up alive, that is, although wicked men can destroy the life of the body, the soul passes alive and scathless through the torments on to the reward.

(3) When their fury kindled against us : perchance the water had drowned us.

(4) Our soul hath passed through the torrent: perchance our soul would have had to pass through water unbearable.

In the midst of the danger God is with us, even when the torrent threatens destruction, according to the words of the Prophet : When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee : and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee [Is. xliii. 2.]. As used in Scripture waters stand for nations which pass away ; but the Rock in the midst remains unmoved. As it was with the persecutions the nations raised against the Church, so it was with the persecutors. And though the torrent submerged many, yet the Church emerged safely, and therefore it follows :—

(5) Blessed be the Lord: Who hath not given us over for a prey to their teeth.

The devil, the roaring lion seeking whom he may devour [i Pet. v. 8.], has allies and instruments among men, of whom it is written : There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men [Prov. xxx. 14.]. These bite and devour one another [Gal. v. 15.], and the saints, too, with slander and detraction ; and endeavour to make their prey as evil as themselves by incorporating them with their own body. Thus St. Bruno.

(6) Our soul is escaped as a sparrow : out of the fowler's net.

(7) The snare is broken: and we are delivered.

A snare, says St. Augustine, needs to be baited ; and the devil's bait for the souls of men is usually the pleasure of life. He hides it, says the Carmelite, in some unsuspected place ; not on the highway, where it soon may be detected and destroyed, but in some place near to it. He masks it carefully, and puts ease, wealth, self-indulgence, over it to tempt us. God cries aloud to us with His warnings and threats, lest we should give way to the tempter. If we do not listen, but fall into the snare, how can we save ourselves ? What is more helpless than a bird once entangled in the net ? It it said : The snare is broken. When ? When Christ broke the power of Satan. Why fearest thou ? Knowest thou not Who is thy Helper ? Yes, answer Christ's true soldiers, we know well. It is not our own strength or skill which has saved us; we have not broken the snare ourselves. Thus St. Ambrose.

(8) Our help is in the Name of the Lord: Who hath made both heaven and earth.

He hath made the earth whereon the snare is set : so that of right He can destroy that snare as laid unlawfully in His domain. He hath made the heaven for the souls He has delivered; so that they may fly upward, rejoicing. He Himself came down to earth that He might break the snare ; He returned to heaven that we might fly as doves to their windows [Is. lx. 8.], following where He showed the way.

GLORIA PATRI.

Glory be to the Father Maker of heaven and earth ; Glory to the Son the Breaker of the snare ; Glory to the Holy Ghost our abiding Guest.

From - The Little Office of Our Lady; a treatise theoretical, practical, and exegetical - Taunton, Ethelred L. (Ethelred Luke), 1857-1907

The Little Office Of Our Lady – At Sext: The Sixth Hour, pt 1. By E. L. Taunton.

 

After the same introductory Prayers, Hymn and Antiphon (the third of Lauds according to the season), the Psalmody begins and three more of the Gradual Psalms are said.

PSALM CXXII.

Title. —A Song of Degrees.

Argument.

Tomasi: That Christ having pity on us may deliver us from the contempt of the proud. The voice of Christ to the Father, or of the Church to Christ. The first step is faith, the second hope, and the third charity ; and now here the fourth declares the perseverance of him that prayeth.

Venerable Bede : He who previously lifted his eyes to the hills now raiseth his heart to the Lord Himself. He first engages in persevering prayers that he may retain the gifts he has acquired by the Royal bounty. In the second he makes supplication.

(1) Unto Thee I lift up mine eyes : O Thou that dwellest in the heavens.

There is a great advance made in this Psalm, says St. Hilary, since, from merely lifting up the eyes unto the hills, the singer raises them to God Himself Who is to be found everywhere. The Carmelite tells us that the eyes are the contemplative and the active life ; the first to learn His will, the second to do it. As the heavens are above the earth so is the success we seek from God above anything this earth can give.

(2) Behold, even as the eyes of servants : look unto the hands of their masters.

(3) As the eyes of a maiden unto the hands of her mistress: even so our eyes wait on the Lord God until He have mercy on us.

Servants look for the slightest gesture which indicates their master's will; they also look to their master's hand for reward and punishment. Why are men-servants and women-servants mentioned ? That the share of both sexes in the duties and rewards of faithful service may be asserted ; then to teach that the strong and the weak are alike called to bring forth good works. And servants are spoken of in the plural, and handmaiden in the singular. The reason of this, says Cardinal Hugo, is to teach us that all the various mighty nations of the world, with all their masculine vigour, are to be united in that one Church which is the maiden before being the Bride of the Lamb.

Until He have mercy on us. This does not mean that we are to cease looking unto Him when He has shown us His pity. If we always keep our look upon His Face we will see His image there and we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him as He is, and behold our own likeness in His glorious Face [I John iii. 2.]. Even here on earth we may look to His hand, by seeking to know His Will through careful and assiduous study of the Holy Scriptures He has given for our learning, that guiding our conduct thereby we may please Him and obtain His mercy. Thus St. Gregory the Great.

(4) Have mercy upon us O Lord, have mercy upon us ; for we are filled exceedingly with scorn.

(5) Our soul is exceeding filled : opprobrium from the rich and despitefulness from the proud.

The Apostles after the triumph of the Resurrection looked for a speedy restoration of the kingdom of Israel; yet almost their first experience after Pentecost was the imprisonment and scourging of two of their number, and their later history one of them describes as being made a spectacle unto the. world and Angels, made as the refuse of the world, and the off-scouring of all, even until now [Cor. iv. 13.]. And in the Church to-day Holy Poverty meets with the scornful rebuke of the rich, and Obedience with the contempt of the proud. It is when the world treats our lives as folly that we turn with greater confidence to our Master Whose bounteous hand is never closed to us, Whose aid is always nigh.

GLORIA PATRI.

Glory be to the Father Who dwelleth in heaven ; Glory to the Son the Hand of the Lord ; Glory to the Holy Ghost Who comforts the despised.

From - The Little Office of Our Lady; a treatise theoretical, practical, and exegetical - Taunton, Ethelred L. (Ethelred Luke), 1857-1907

The Little Office Of Our Lady – At Terce: The Third Hour, pt 3. By E. L. Taunton.

PSALM CXXI.

Title. —A Song of Degrees.

Argument.

Tomasi : That Christ sitteth and makes seats for sitting in judgment. The voice of the Church to the Apostles. The voice of Christ to the Church.

Venerable Bede : Another step higher up. The Prophet is lifted to the third degree, reaching higher than the second, and is declared to have made a beginning of the Psalm in his very gladness. He rejoices that he has been counselled to come to the heavenly Jerusalem, where the saints abide ever now in sure prosperity and shall judge together with the Lord. He then speaks to the citizens of Jerusalem concerning their abundant peace.

(1) I rejoiced in those things which were said unto me: we will go into the House of the Lord.

Who have said these things ? The Prophets who foretold the return from Captivity, and in that figure, the return to the heavenly Jerusalem. And again, who are the we who speak ? The Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity speaking to us by the Prophets and Apostles, and saying not Go, but We will go and be your Guides and Companions on the road to that House which admits the righteous only. In that They say it to me, the unity of the Church, the individuality of the promises, is denoted. In that it is added, we will go —the multitude of them that are of one heart and mind is shown forth. There are four Houses of God into which the faithful soul goes. First, the Church Militant ; then the inner House of Conscience ; then the House of Suffering ; and lastly, the House of Heaven in which there are many mansions. How are we to go ? On the two feet of charity, answers a saint, Love of God and Love of our neighbour. Richard of St. Victor takes this verse in an allegorical sense as referring to our first parents rejoicing in the hopes of regaining Paradise. It is said we will go because neither the hand alone nor the heart suffice for that journey. Adam does not desire to enter without Eve, for Knowledge without Love is unprofitable; it is altogether impossible for Eve to enter without Adam, for if we knew nothing of Divine things we shall not love them at all. And lastly, it is taken of the gladness of the saints at entering into their rest through the gate of Death.

(2) Our feet were standing: in Jerusalem. thy courts 0 Jerusalem.

The Carthusian says : The very sign and cause of our hope that we shall go into the House of the Lord is that our feet are even now standing within the gates of Jerusalem, that is, in God's Holy Church where our desires and contemplations are fixed and set on the mansions above, because our conversation is in heaven [Phil. iii. 20.]. He stands there who delights himself in God : and he whose delight is in himself cannot stand, but must, as Lucifer, fall through his pride. Thus St. Augustine. The oratory, the choir, are the very courts of Jerusalem ; for there we gain that peace of which that City is the Vision.

(3) Jerusalem which is built as a city : which is at unity with itself.

St. Hilary points out that the Psalmist, referring to the temporal city, does not say that it is a city, but only that it is built as a city; because it is, at the best, but a faint and shadowy type of the true Jerusalem, the City Eternal made without hands. This heavenly City is being built now, of living stones ; and it is a true City, for its inhabitants are united together and share in unity with Him Who is no other than Jesus Christ, by Whose merits they become citizens of heaven, and Whose Headship they all acknowledge. The heavenly Jerusalem has points of resemblance to an earthly city ; its many mansions [John xiv. 2.] ; its unity of law, love ; its one king, Jesus ; its fountain, Mary ; its twelve gates, the Apostles [Apoc. xxi. 12.] ; its citizens, the angels and saints ; its walls and bulwarks, salvation.

(4) For thither the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord : the testimony unto Israel to praise the Name of the Lord.

In the Law it was ordered that all males three times a year should present themselves before the Lord [Exod. xxiii. 17.] to attest their loyalty to Him and to claim the privilege of the Covenant [Deut. xvi. 16.]. It is not said the tribes of Israel but the tribes of the Lord; that is, the Gentiles ; those who have come into the Church, not by inheritance. They are often by their earnestness and devotion, a testimony unto Israel. They go up to Israel ', for out of Sion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem [Is. ii. 3.]. Their presence in Jerusalem is a witness of their obedience and an example given to others.

(5) For there they have set thrones of judgment, thrones over the house of David.

Here is the third glory of Jerusalem, says St. John Chrysostom. It is not merely stately and strong in beauty, the gathering-place of all the tribes, but it is also the seat of kingly power and justice. Thrones : for all manner of causes come before the judges, even the judging of the world. Ye shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel [Matt. xix. 28.]. The apostolic thrones are over the house of David; for his throne was an earthly one; and theirs are set to judge angels [I Cor. vi. 3.] as well as men.

(6) O pray for the peace of Jerusalem : and plenteousness to them that love thee.

(7) Peace be within thy strength: and plenteousness within thy towers.

Jerusalem is not only a type of heaven ; it also, being the Vision of Peace and at unity with itself, is a type of the Church. In this verse a prayer is made for peace in our days. For although the Church must always be prepared for battle, and lives in an armed truce, peace is necessary for her development and for the legitimate exercise of her influence. Peace is secured by attending to the strength of the walls and to the abundance of provisions for its citizens. The first secures it from without; and the second from want within. The Church's walls are Faith, Hope, and Charity; and in her sacraments she has provision enough for all the children of men. And that the faithful may enjoy to the full these benefits, she wants peace. St. Bernard takes the strength to be the Passion of our Lord ; and the towers the height of heavenly grace and glory attained by those who love Him.

(8) For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will speak peace of thee.

There are two senses in which we may take this verse : because all thy citizens are my brethren, or because my brethren now in exile are to be brought home. One, for it gives us the rejoicing sense of fellowship in the communion of saints ; the other, the eager yearning of all devout souls for those who have gone astray. Some commentators take these words as those of Christ Himself promising present blessings and future glory to the Church on earth, for both He that sanctified and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren [Heb. ii. 11.],

(9) Yea, because of the House of the Lord our God, I have sought good things to thee.

We must carry good-will with action ; first that of earnest prayer that God may grant His City all desirable blessings, and next diligently seeking out all good things to increase the power and wealth of that City. Good things; all that can tend to the increase of God's Church. Souls, above all; for they are the future citizens of heaven : virtue and merit in our own soul; for that increases the wealth and attractiveness of the Church. We should have put the last first; for the surest way of converting others is first of all to convert oneself. A man who is set upon self-conversion will do far greater work in secretly influencing souls in a practical, healthy way, than one who deliberately sets himself out to gain converts. The real work is done by example, not by word.

GLORIA PATRI.

Glory be to the Father the Builder of the heavenly Jerusalem. Glory to the Son in Whom the citizens are all at unity. Glory to the Holy Ghost Who has told us that we shall go into the House of the Lord.

LITTLE CHAPTER [Eccle. xxiv. 2.].

And so was I strengthened and likewise in the holy City did I rest, and in Jerusalem was my power.

Thanks be to God.

Grace is poured forth on thy lips.

Therefore hath God blessed thee for ever.

The words of the Little Chapter direct our minds to Mary, of whom all these Psalms speak. She who was so peaceful and yet suffered ; who dwelt so high on the holy mountain, and watched over Israel's God ; She who was the New Jerusalem in which the King dwelt and whose unity was in Him ; She is given a place in the Church which is strong like the Rock on which it is built. She has been set as the Mother of the Church ; through her cometh the help we look for from the Lord; for in heaven, where her power is, she reigns as Queen of Angels and Saints. The thought of the powerful advocate we have makes us say a fervent thanksgiving to God Who has so blessed her on account of the grace that is in her. The Myroure says on this Little Chapter : " These words are read both of our Lord Jesus Christ and also of our Lady; for by her we have Him. Here are named three places : Sion, City, and Jerusalem. By Sion, that is as much as to say ' beholding,' is understood souls that are given to contemplation wherein our Lord Jesus Christ is surely stablished, for they are not troubled about many things as others are. By the hallowed City is understood souls given to active life wherein our Lord Jesus Christ resteth by charity that they have to their fellow-Christians. For City is as much as to say one body of citizens, and it is said ' hallowed' by the pureness of intention that they offer to God in all their works. By Jerusalem is understood prelates and governors that have power and care upon both contemplative and active life; and therefore their life is called the mixed life, as being a mean between action and contemplation, having part with both. For they ought to see that both be kept in peace, according to their calling ; and therefore they are understood by Jerusalem, that is as much as to say, the ' sight of peace'; for they ought to have sight of wisdom and of discretion to know how to keep peace with all parties. And to that end He hath shared with them His own power ; and therefore He saith : And in Jerusalem is my power [ Pp. 147-8. ]."

For a fuller treatment of the Versicle and Response see the first Psalm of the Second Nocturn, third verse.

COLLECT.

O God Who by the Fruitful Virginity of the blessed virgin hath given to the human race the rewards of eternal salvation: grant we beseech Thee that we may experience the intercession of her through whom we merited to receive the Author of Life, our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son : &c.

As usual, the Collect sums up all the thoughts of the whole hour and unites those of Jesus and Mary in the full expression of them all. The Author of Life of Whom speak the Psalms ; His Mother, the type of the Christian soul. We get all the goods of eternal life through her divine Motherhood ; for in giving us Jesus she has given us Life itself.

During Advent.

The Antiphon (second), Little Chapter, and Prayer are the same as are said at Lauds during this season ; the Versicle as above.

During Christmas-tide.

The Antiphon (second), and Prayer are as at Lauds during this season ; the Little Chapter and Versicle as above. The thought of the Mother by the side of the Crib gives another turning to the idea of the Little Chapter.

From - The Little Office of Our Lady; a treatise theoretical, practical, and exegetical - Taunton, Ethelred L. (Ethelred Luke), 1857-1907

The Little Office Of Our Lady – At Terce: The Third Hour, pt 2. By E. L. Taunton.

PSALM  CXX.

Title. —A Song of Degrees.

Argument.

Tomasi : That Christ unsleeping overshadows and guards Jerusalem. The voice of the Church to the Apostles. The voice of the Church to Christ concerning the Prophets or the peoples.

Venerable Bede : At the first step (of the Gradual Psalms) the Prophet, yet in trouble, sought that he might be delivered from unrighteous lips and a deceitful tongue. But now taking breath on the second step he lifted up his eyes unto the hills, that is, to the interceding saints, by whose prayers he hoped to attain heavenly gifts. The Prophet ascending to the heavenly Jerusalem in the first clause says he has lifted up his eyes to the merits of the saints, that he might be helped by their prayers, lest his soul should give way to the attack of the enemy. In the second place he promises himself what he knows to be asked for fittingly, teaching us that the good we pray for with a steady heart we are to believe without doubt will be given us.

(1) I have lifted mine eyes to the mountains : whence cometh help to me.

(2) My help is from the Lord: Who made heaven and earth.

This Psalm, as already noted, is a song for the pilgrims to Jerusalem, as they lift their eyes from the plains of Babylon to the mountain ranges which gird their native land, and to that Mount Sion, the holy spot where dwelt the Presence of the Lord. What are these mountains ? The mountains in which the Lord is pleased to dwell [Ps. Ixvii. 17.] ; the fat mountains, the curdled mountains [Ibid. 16.], which are the saints. They are our intercessors ; but the help that comes in answer to our prayers is a help from the Lord. Our hope in the saints is only a hope of intercession. The Lord, Himself, is the Mountain of mountains, from Whom alone comes the light which shines on those lofty summits, dark without Him, the true Light enlightening every man that cometh into the world. St. Hilary says that the mountains are the two Testaments with their lofty and difficult secrets admirably fitted to raise the soul from earth, and full of rich veins of spiritual wealth. St. Augustine takes the mountains as the Apostles, and explains that by means of their preaching of the word of God help did come from them on whom the light of heaven shone forth to those in the valley below. He made those Apostles heavens themselves whence the refreshing rains of doctrine came down upon the parched and sterile earth of the Gentile world below, as St. Bruno remarks.

(3) He will not suffer thy foot to be moved : and He that keepeth thee will not sleep.

(4) Behold He that watches over Israel: slumbers not, nor sleeps.

As the foot is that member of the body which carries it about to the scenes of its actions, so its spiritual meaning is the motion and advances of the mind. Pride was the motion of the soul which drove Lucifer from heaven and Man from Paradise. God keeps the foot of His saints safe from this, but gives them the motion of love ; that instead of falling, they may walk, advance, and go up in the right way. Thus St. Augustine. The Carmelite points out that He so kept the foot of His Apostles that no toils or terrors might daunt them from preaching the Gospel in all lands.

He that keepeth thee will not sleep. This probably in the literal sense refers to the night-watch round about the pilgrims on their way to the Holy City. In the mystical sense God does not slumber as one fatigued, nor sleep as needing repose. It is necessary, says St. Bernard, that He Who keepeth Israel should neither slumber nor sleep, for he who assails Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. And as the first seeks our safety, so the other desires to slay and destroy us, and his only care is that the man once turned aside may never come back. There is, remarks the Carthusian, a stress on Israel, to whom alone this unceasing ward is given ; teaching us thereby that it is he who sees God, and wrestles with Him in prayer, who may surely look for His protection. Other commentators, in a beautiful sense, take the verse of the Resurrection. Jesus, the true Keeper of Israel, did indeed sleep in the grave, according to His human nature. But the ever-wakeful Godhead slumbered not, but kept the watch over Israel, which, in those hours of desolation, was only to be found in Mary's heart. Others take this verse of the religious orders who, by the Office, never cease, as a body, their watch over the Christian Israel, according to the words of Isaias : I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, who shall never hold their peace day and night [Ixii. 6.].

(5) The Lord guards thee, the Lord is thy protection : upon thy right hand.

(6) The sun shall not burn thee by day : nor the moon by night.

Right hand means, according to the geographical sense of the term in the Old Testament, the south, the quarter from which the burning rays of the mid-day sun pour forth their pitiless heat and glare. In the mystical sense St. Hilary takes the words to refer to God's strengthening our power of action, and therefore of resistance in spiritual combat; or, with St. Augustine, we may take them as meaning the gift of eternal life denoted by the right hand; while the left hand holds only temporal bounties. The obvious literal sense of the reference to the sun and moon is that of sunstroke and moonstroke to which the pilgrims were exposed. But St. Augustine tells us that the Sun is Christ's Godhead ; the Moon the Church, deriving all its light from Him and waxing and waning here ; while the night is the Flesh of Christ wherein the Sun is hid and the moon shines, because faith in the Incarnation is the very life and meaning of the Church. The contemplation of these mysteries shall not burn us away with their awful glory, but rather strengthen and quicken us to live in accordance with God's gracious mercy towards us.

(7) The Lord shall guard thee from all evil: the Lord shall guard thy soul.

It is no promise, says St. Hilary, of warding off the common evil of the body, for these are no real evils. It is the soul the Lord will guard, that the moth of evil may not enter in, the thief creep not upon it, the wolf not tear it, the bear not rage against it, the leopard not spring upon it, the tiger not fly at it, the lion not destroy it. For all these in this life are instruments of the evil one who employs cruel beasts to eat away the soul with sin, to creep upon it with flattery, to tear it with allurements, to spring upon it with ambition, to fly upon it with lusts, to destroy it with all his power. It is against such evils as these that we can look to God for protection. Thus it was, as St. Augustine says, God kept the souls of His martyrs safe while suffering their bodies to be the prey of the persecutor. God's ways of keeping are fourfold : as a Watchman seeing that no enemies approach the city He guards ; as a Defender standing on the right hand; as a Porter opening the gates of mercy ; as a Physician tending and binding up the wounds of a sufferer. Thus Cardinal Hugo.

(8) May the Lord preserve thy coming in and thy going out: from this time forth and forever.

God keeps the goings out from sin of His servants and also keeps their comings in to the Land of Promise. Taking these words as they are in the verse, St. Augustine tells us that coming in is entering into the Church Militant, going ou1 returning from it into the Church Triumphant : and God keeps our coming in when He takes care that we are not exposed to temptations too powerful for us to overcome ; and our going out by granting us perseverance and means of escape. Or, He keeps the first beginnings of our yet weak faith when we are entering into a knowledge of Him ; and preserves it to its close, that at our going out we may die as true subjects of His in the confession of His Name. Thus St. Bruno.

GLORIA PATRI.

Glory be to the Father Who made heaven and earth. Glory to the Son, the Watcher Who slumbers not nor sleeps.

Glory to the Holy Ghost from Whom is all our help.

From - The Little Office of Our Lady; a treatise theoretical, practical, and exegetical - Taunton, Ethelred L. (Ethelred Luke), 1857-1907

The Little Office Of Our Lady – At Terce: The Third Hour, pt 1. By E. L. Taunton.

The introductory Prayers and Hymns are the same as at Prime. The Antiphon is taken from Lauds (the second) according to the season.

PSALM CVIX.

Title. —A Song of Degrees [This Psalm begins what are called the "Gradual Psalms" or "Songs of Degrees." One ancient Jewish view is that they were intended to be liturgically used in processions to the Temple, one upon each of the fifteen steps leading up to the great portal. But the most ancient Christian tradition, without being inconsistent with this one, is more probable, viz., that they are originally pilgrim songs for going up to Jerusalem. These Psalms were said daily before Matins in the reforms begun by St. Benedict of Aniane. At present they are said, in choirs, on Wednesdays in Lent, and are divided into three sets, each with its own Versicles and Collect: the first for the dead, the second for sinners, the third for all Christian folk. The recitation of the fifteen "Gradual Psalms" was a favourite private devotion of our catholic forefathers.].

Argument.

Tomasi : That Christ may bestow on us a dart wherewith to confound unrighteous tongues. The voice of Christ in the Passion. The voice of Christ to the Father touching the Jews. The Songs of Degrees are the progresses of souls, whereby, ascending from the desire of a holy life to better things, they are perfectly delivered in heaven from trouble and perils of this present life.

Venerable Bede : " Songs of Degrees " are songs of Ascensions, whence the more significant Greek name is Songs of goings up, because they lead only towards heavenly things ; as though one had fallen into a pit and a ladder were set that he might be able to ascend. So when the people of Israel were come to the pit of captivity, and in their trouble called upon the Lord, they were heard and brought back to their country. After this example, whosoever falls into the pit of sin has degrees of humility whereby he may return above. Throughout the Psalm the Prophet speaks.

(1) When I was in trouble I called upon the Lord: and He heard me.

Says St. John Chrysostom : Seest thou the gain of affliction, seest thou the readiness of mercy ? The gain of affliction, in that it brings men to pour forth holy prayers ; the readiness of mercy, granted at once when they call. Therefore Christ declares those blessed who mourn [Matt. v. 4.]. If, then, thou wouldest ascend these steps, cut away whatever is luxurious and relaxed in thy life, gird thyself with diligent conduct, and withdraw from earthly things. This is the first going-up. Even one step upwards is leaving earth ; and lowly as the place is, it is not the less the first elevation. Note the admirable order of the words. First comes trouble, then a cry, lastly a hearing ; to make us know that the prayers of the faithful reach the Lord in an appointed order. The trouble against which the saints call on God is not such as the world fears, but the snares of sin in all its forms, lest they should subdue our weak natures and drag us down to the depths of evil. And all true prayer for deliverance must unite in itself the three marks of this one ; necessity, when I was in trouble; devotion, I called; direction in the right way, upon the Lord. Thus St. Hilary and Cardinal Hugo.

(2) Deliver my soul, 0 Lord, from unrighteous lips: and from a deceitful tongue.

St. Basil says, the moment a man begins to go up, that is, to think of advancing in spiritual things and of despising the world that he may cling to God alone, he begins to suffer from the tongues of adversaries, and, what is more grievous, from those who try to turn him away from salvation. He who does not suffer opposition may know that he is not even trying to advance.

Unrighteous lips. Such as are shameless, open in daring and execution. A deceitful tongue is treacherous and mischievous, by reason of dissembling, because it aims at overthrowing religion under the name of religion, and bends down to death with the hope of life. . . .' . We find them both in the history of our first parents. Unrighteous lips said, Eat. Then the deceitful tongue added, Ye shall be as gods, ye shall not surely die [Gen. iii. 4, 5.]. The Carmelite adds, it is not only from the wicked lips and tongues of others that the disciple of Christ needs to be delivered, but from his own ; from all boastfulness, spiritual pride and glorying in his own merits.

(3) What shall be given to thee, or what shall be added to thee : unto the deceitful tongue ?

(4) The sharp arrows of the Mighty, with desolating coals.

St. Hilary explains this verse as, What weapons of defence shall be given to thee against evil speakers ? In which case the next verse supplies the answer : the Word of God, sharp as an arrow in the hands of a strong man and consuming as red-hot coals. St. Augustine takes the coals as denoting the examples of those sinners, once cold and black, but now converted to God and glowing with His love. But other commentators, dwelling on the word desolating, think it is an awful warning against the destruction that attends the deeds of sinners and awaits themselves. Others take coals as fervent prayer in reference to the touching of Isaias' lips with a coal from the altar [Is. vi 6.]. Another commentator notes that arrows at most take away life, and may be the cause of glory, as with martyrs ; but coals brand where they touch and add dishonour to death. Another explanation takes arrows as the sting of conscience and coals as the punishment of a deceitful tongue.

(5) Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged ; I have dwelt with the dwellers of Cedar: my soul hath been long a sojourner.

St. Hilary explains the verse in this manner : The saints long to be dissolved and to be with Christ [Phil. i. 2.]. The body is the dark tent (Cedar meaning black) in which the soul is imprisoned. He also lays stress on the word with (the dwellers of Cedar), as being something different from in their company. This denotes that although the saints live in the flesh, yet the arms of their warfare, not being carnal, they do not dwell in the tents of Cedar, but only beside them, and are not in the flesh but in the spirit [Rom. viii. 9.]. Says St. Augustine, sojourning is a pilgrimage. He who dwells in a foreign land, not in his own country, is called a sojourner. St. Paul tells us the same : Here we have no abiding city, but seek one to come [Heb. xiii. 14.]. Heaven, says Bellarmine, is our true fatherland, and unhappy are they who are away from it ; for the stateliest palaces of earthly monarchs, in comparison with the Golden City, are but as the rough tents of the wandering Arabs. Long a sojourner. And yet three-score and ten is no very long sojourn as time goes ; but it is very long, and very weary, and full of sorrow to those who regard themselves, and sigh after the Life without end given us in our Fatherland [Qui vitam sine termino Nobis donet in Patria. St. Thomas Aquinas.].

(6) With them that hate peace I was peaceful : when I spoke unto them that assailed me me without cause.

St. Augustine observes that we have here the voice of the Church protesting against any unwise attempts to narrow her limits, to break her unity, to rend her fellowship, on the ground that within her pale are found many whose lives are in contradiction to her teaching. Says St. Prosper : It is a part of Christian perfection to be peaceful, even with them that hate peace, in the hope of amending them, not through assent to their evil ways. The deepest sense is, with the Carmelite, to take these words of our Divine Lord. For three and thirty years He was in the midst of men who hated Peace. He is the Prince of Peace; and when He spoke to carnal Israel, as man never spoke before, they tried to cast Him headlong, then to stone Him, and at last cried out : Away with Him I Away with Him I Crucify Him ! [John xix. 15.] Not less does the earlier part tell us of Him Who cried out to His Father all night in prayer, and in the Garden, and on the Cross; and Who was heard and raised again and exalted.

GLORIA PATRI.

Glory be to the Father Who hears us in the day of trouble. Glory to the Son Who is Peace. Glory to the Holy Ghost Who comforts us in our sojourning with Cedar.

From - The Little Office of Our Lady; a treatise theoretical, practical, and exegetical - Taunton, Ethelred L. (Ethelred Luke), 1857-1907

The Little Office Of Our Lady – At Prime, pt 3. By E. L. Taunton.

PSALM CXVI.

Title. —Alleluia.

Argument.

Tomasi : That Christ by the Coming of the Holy Ghost hath stablished His Mercy upon us. The voice of the Apostles to the Gentiles. A speech of the Prophet concerning God's praise.

Venerable Bede : There are but two verses; yet words, however few, in praise of the Lord are always most full. We should apply this Psalm also to the person of the martyrs who now, having as it were achieved their glorious passion, arouse all other nations to the praises of the Lord Who hath done such things for His servants that they too may be the rather imbued with His example.

(1) O praise the Lord all ye heathen : 0 praise ye Him all ye nations.

This Psalm, says a Jewish commentator, consists but of two verses and refers to the days of the Messias. And by making it consist of only two verses, the Psalmist implies that all nations shall be put into two classes—Israel and the Gentiles. As these latter form the more numerous and more zealous portion, says Lorin, they are placed before the Jews in the order of the verse. St. Paul cites this verse when arguing for the union of Jew and Gentile in one church [Rom. xv. 4.]. An old commentator bids us note that the first part of the injunction began to be fulfilled when the Wise Men came with the gifts to Bethlehem, and the latter when the inscription in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew was set up over the Cross. The Carmelite says it is fulfilled continually in three classes of worshippers— devout pilgrims here on earth, souls in purgatory, and the blessed in heaven ; all of whom join in the chorus of praise to God.

(2) For His mercy is confirmed upon us : and the Truth of the Lord abideth for ever.

The Jews dwelt on the word us; and St. Paul allows this saying : Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the Truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers [Rom. xv. 8.]. But he goes on to show that the word us is used in a wider and more loving sense, which identifies Jew and Gentile as one new people; for he continues : And that the Gentile should glorify God for His Mercy.

And the Truth of the Lord abideth for ever. That Truth is the Eternal Word, Who said : I am the Way, the Truth and the Life [John xiv, 6.]. The Gospel, the truth that came by Jesus, abideth for ever : Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Words shall not pass away [Matt. xxiv. 35.]. And the Mercy, when He said, It is finished; for then, having tasted of the sharpness of death, He opened the gates of heaven to all believers. Bellarmine remarks that the Apostle, when he says the Gentiles are to praise God for His Mercy and that Truth belongs to the Jews because God confirmed to them the promises made to the fathers, does not mean that the Jews have no part in the Mercy ; but that Mercy alone is shown to the Gentiles, to whom God had made no promises whatever; whereas in sending the Messias to the Jews He gave them both Truth and Mercy. His Mercy and Truth will abide for ever in yet another sense : in the enduring result of the sentence at the Doom, when He will save or condemn according to their deserts all who stand before His Judgment Seat.

GLORIA PATRI.

Glory be to the Father the Lord God of all. Glory to the Son, Whose Mercy is confirmed upon us. Glory to the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, Who abides ever with the Church.

LITTLE CHAPTER [Cant. vi. 10.].

Who is she that cometh forth, as the rising morn, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army in battle array ?

Thanks be to God.

As the material sun is rising in the skies at the hour of Prime it reminds us of our ever dear and blessed Lady who, by her rising in all the beauty of the Immaculate Conception, put an end to the long night which had overshadowed the world since the Fall. She is fair as the moon, for she shines with a light not her own, but borrowed from the Sun of Righteousness Himself ; she is clear as the sun, for she became clothed with the same Sun of Righteousness, and charity covered her as with a mantle. She is terrible to our enemies ; for enmity has been put between them and her. This last thought encourages us to seek her protection during the coming day, for our enemies are hers. And this thought is carried on in the following versicle.

VERSICLE AND COLLECT.

Grant me grace to praise thee, 0 sacred Virgin. Give me strength against thine enemies.

These words of St. Ephrem were used as the Second Antiphon of the Third Nocturn, to which we refer the reader. Here only will we say they get a new force from the last words of the Little Chapter. We may note we do not ask for strength against our enemies, but against her enemies. For often those we count as our friends our Lady counts as her enemies ; for she sees that they are false friends to us and endanger the salvation of our souls.

The Kyrie eleison with the Versicle follow as at Lauds ; then is said the Prayer :—

O God, Who didst deign to choose the virginal womb of Blessed Mary in which to dwell: grant, we beseech, that guarded by her defence we may gladly take part in her commemoration: Who liveth and reigneth, &c.

We find thoughts which suggest this prayer in the Little Chapter and in the 84th Psalm. There is also the note of warfare, of a struggle against her enemies. When she protects us, with joy and gladness we shall serve her and show our love and gratitude by our devotion. The Office concludes with the same Versicles as at Lauds.

During Advent.

THE LITTLE CHAPTER [Is. vii. 14, 15.].

Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Emmanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to forsake Evil and choose Good.

These prophetic words of Isaias, declaring the Maiden-Motherhood of our Lady, are peculiarly appropriate to the Season of Advent. She was to be a virgin not only in conceiving but in bringing forth; and her Child was to be no ordinary Son, but Emmanuel, which, being interpreted is, God with us. Says the Myroure : " Emmanuel is as much as to say, God with us. For while He is God in His Own Nature, and with us in our Nature, so is He God and Man in one Person. By butter and honey we understand all other meats according to Man, whereby is shown that He was very man and lived, after His body, by man's meat. And He shall know to forsake evil and choose good; for though He were fed as an infant, yet He was as wise as when He came to man's age. They that treat of Nature say that cheese is evil, and the less it have of butter the worse it is. Therefore our Child ate butter that is without cheese, for He took our Nature without sin. He ate also honey, that is, sweet, for He delighted Him to do mercy to sinners and to all that were in disease or in need, the doing of which mercy was to Him sweeter than honey. A bee giveth honey and stingeth. So our sweet bee, Jesus Christ, in His first Coming gave honey of mercy and of pity. But they that will not dispose themselves to receive this honey here shall be stung with the tongue of sharp rigour at His second Coming, when He shall forsake the evil to endless pain and choose the good to everlasting bliss" [pp. 127-8.].

The prayer is the same as at Lauds and is said at all the hours during the season.

At Christmas-tide.

The Little Chapter is Quae est ista, as above ; and the Collect is that said at Lauds. The same prayer is said throughout the Office during this season.

The Little Office Of Our Lady – At Prime, pt 2. By E. L. Taunton.

PSALM LXXXIV. [This is one of the Psalms used as a preparation for Mass.]

Title.—Unto the end, for the Sons of Core.

Argument.

Tomasi : That Christ vouchsafed to show us His mercy by coming in the flesh. The voice of the Prophet to the Son. The Apostolic voice to the New People, redeemed by the Lord.

Venerable Bede : This Psalm, about to speak of the Lord's first Coming, is suited to the persons of them who have believed in Him with sincere minds. In the first part the Prophet gives thanks to the Lord, because from the old time of the Jewish nation the people have come to the worship of the Lord. The second treats of God's merciful dealings with His people, and looks for the Coming of Christ. In the third he turns to himself and foretells the Incarnation.

(1) Thou hast blessed, 0 Lord,Thy land : Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob.

The Son of God hath healed all things, filling the earth with blessings through the fertilising stream of His precious Blood. The Lord hath blessed the land, that is, says St. Bruno, the whole of mankind, by taking earth to Himself and making of it His Holy Flesh ; and, as our English mystic, Richard Rolle, says, He has especially blessed one part of it, that garden enclosed, His Own most blessed Maiden-mother, who brought forth the Fruit of Salvation. Cardinal Hugo remarks : He blesses every faithful soul which yields itself to His care ; for the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God [Heb. vi. 7.]. That captivity is the bondage of Original Sin, whereby men lay fettered in the chains of the devil; but now, saith the Lord of Hosts, He shall let go My captives but not for price or reward [Is. xlv. 13.]; for Christ hath turned away the captivity. But, as St. Augustine says, not, however, of all, but only of Jacob ; that is, of the younger people of all who by faith descend from Abraham ; of all who, like Jacob, do not remain in slumber, but rise up and wrestle against their sins. How specially true this is of the Immaculate Conception of our Lady, in which mystery the captivity of Original Sin is turned away, is too clear to need further comment.

(2) Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy people: Thou hast covered all their sins.

This, says St. Augustine, is the true explanation of the previous verse. It teaches us that Sin is the hardest of all captivity, and that God's Law is the most perfect of all freedom. Cassiodorus observes that the word forgiven denotes the bounty of God's grace. He is not spoken of as accepting payment of our debts, but as remitting it freely.

And covered all their sins by plunging them beneath the waters of Baptism and Penance. He does not merely cover them, leaving them still there, He takes them away altogether, as fire covers the blackness of coal when it has once made its way into the substance of the coal, and destroys it in the very act of so doing. So the fire which the Lord came to send upon the earth takes away that sin which causes it to be said of sinners : Their visage is blacker than the coal [Lam. iv. 8.], Thus Albert the Great. This, then, is His tender love, that Charity which covereth a multitude of sins [I Peter iv. 8.]. Lorin takes the forgiveness as applying to Mortal, and the covering as referring to Venial, offences.

(3) Thou hast taken away all Thy displeasure : Thou hast turned away from the anger of Thy wrath.

Mitigated. Haymo says : God in this life punishes us for our sin, but gently, and not beyond our endurance; and that He does not give us everything here, so that we may have somewhat better to look for hereafter. And whereas it is said all Thy displeasure, we are to understand on the one hand God's wrath against both original and actual sin, and on the other His temporal and eternal punishments, on account of the infinite value of the Divine Victim of propitiation, so no penalty will remain in such who make full use of the salvation He offers to all. For, says the Carmelite, He stands before His Father as our High Priest, and pleads on our behalf with an intercession which must prevail, as He says by His Prophet : Remember that I stood before Thee to speak good for them, and to turn away Thy wrath from them [Jer. xviii. 20.]. Albert the Great points out that in these three verses we have six blessings of God set forth in as many words : Thou hast blessed Thy land, Lord Jesus, by Thy birth ; Thou hast turned away the captivity by Thy preaching; Thou hast forgiven our offence by Thy dying ; Thou hast covered all our sins by Thy resurrection ; Thou hast taken away Thy displeasure by sending the Holy Ghost; Thou hast turned away our sins by leading us to heaven and averting the terrors of the Doom.

(4) Turn us,O God, our Saviour ; and turn away Thine anger from us.

These words are used at the beginning of Compline. Cassiodorus understands the Prophet, after giving God thanks for the promised Incarnation, to look forward and see the Rejection and Crucifixion ; and so he here prays that these new sins also may be pardoned.

Turn us, too, says St. Bruno, who have so ill-requited Thy bounty, turn us from captivity to freedom, from cursing to blessing, from sinfulness to forgiveness.

Turn away Thine anger from us. How is it that the weight of God's wrath is kept from falling on the sinful world ? It is the power of the Mass which stays His hand. It is also those hidden lives of sacrifice, of penance, of prayer, which, unknown to the world, are passed in the cloister, and, through the merits of the Reedemer, go far to appease the anger of the Lord.

(5) Wilt Thou be angry with us for ever? And wilt Thou stretch out Thy wrath from one generation to another ?

Not for ever, says St. Augustine, as God's displeasure means the punishment He inflicts upon us here below for our sins. He made us therefore in Adam, mortal and capable of suffering, but renews us in Christ, giving us a share in His immortality and impassibility. He has thus shown that His displeasure will pass away according to that saying : For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive [I Cor. xv. 22.],

From one generation to another. We may feel a doubt as to His entire good-will towards us and fear lest He should visit the sin of the fathers upon the children ; but we have His word spoken by His Prophet : The son shall not bear the iniquity of his father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son [Ezek. xviii. 20.]. From this we learn that the guilt of sin is always personal to him who commits it; and that what we often regard as the punishments of sin are not so in fact. They are but God's way of working out the good He has in view. Again, we may take the two generations to refer to the two great dates in man's spiritual history ; from Adam to Christ, and from Christ to Doom ; the generation of the Law, and the generation of the Gospel. We therefore beseech God not to be angry with us as He was with the former generation, because we, though liable to fall into sin, desire to wash away its stains by the sacraments of reconciliation.

(6) Thou, O God, being turned, wilt quicken us : and Thy people shall rejoice in Thee.

Says the Carmelite: When a man is turned from us we see not his face, and cannot recognise him surely; but when he turns round and shows it, then we know him at once. So before the Incarnation God was, as it were, turned away from men : For no man hath seen God at any time [John i. 18.] ; but He turned His face towards us in that Mystery which is the cause of our justification, whereby we are quickened. Thus when St. Peter fell he continued in his denial till the Lord turned and looked on him [Luke xxii. 6l.], and that one look quickened the hardened heart and brought a flood of penitential tears from the Rock. And thus, too, does He deal with all other sinners who do not keep their faces obstinately averted from Him ; so that, as St. Bruno says, they rejoice at last in Him, no longer in the world and in their sins. He does not confine His mercy to this. But He will turn again and show us Himself in glory at the Last Day, and quicken us in the Resurrection and make us rejoice in immortality and blessedness.

(7) Show us, O Lord, Thy mercy : and grant us Thy Salvation.

These words, together with the preceding verse, are used in the beginning of the Mass. Thy mercy is Jesus. The fathers universally interpret this verse as a prayer for the Coming of Christ Who is the Mercy of God visiting us from on high. The Carthusian explains these words in this way : Show us O Lord Thy mercy, that is, show forth clearly and plenteously in us the working of Thy loving kindness ; and grant us Thy salvation, that is, Thy healing redemption, or even Christ Himself, by giving Him to us daily in the Sacrament of the Altar, and by His spiritual coming to dwell in us, as it is written of Him, under the name of Wisdom : Give me Wisdom that sitteth by Thy Throne [Wisdom ix. 4.]. Give us Thy Christ, says St. Augustine, let us know Thy Christ, let us behold Thy Christ. Not as the Jews beheld Him and crucified Him; but as the Angels behold Him and rejoice. Bellarmine explains the verse of the perfect salvation which is completed in the final Resurrection ; for then God will show us the fulness of His mercy so that we may see it and, as it were, touch it; when He shall crown us with His loving-kindness, and heal all our infirmities, and satisfy our desire with good things, and renew our youth as the eagle [Cf. Ps. civ. 3-5.]. And He will then give us His Salvation for an everlasting possession when He shall manifest Himself to us. We ask first for mercy and then for salvation. The first is the cause, and the second the effect. Mercy is grace, and salvation is glory.

(8) I will hear what the Lord God will say in me : For He shall speak peace unto His people.

(9) And unto His saints and unto them who are converted at heart.

In me. The Prophet Habacuc saith : I will watch and see what He will say in me [ii. I.]; and the Apostle : Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me [2 Cor. xiii. 3.]. St. Augustine observes that when Christ speaks in a man, He speaks to him ; and what He speaks on this occasion is that peace which surpasseth all understanding, and which is bestowed on all who render unto God that which is God's, and are truly His saints because they are converted to Him, not feignedly, but from the depths of their heart. The Psalmist says, I will hearken, because the roar and tumult of the world is all around him and he must close his ears to it if he would hear the voice of God. St. Bernard says : When evil thoughts arise within us, we speak ourselves ; when good ones, it is God Who speaks within us : our heart utters the first and hearkens to the second. The Peace which God speaks, the Word He utters, is our Lord Jesus Himself, the Prince of Peace. He spoke this Word to His people and to His saints, that is, to all Jews and to those who believed and loved Him—such as the Apostles.

Unto them who are converted in heart. These form a third class, to wit, the Gentiles. Cardinal Hugo applies the whole verse to Christians. He takes the people as the laity; the saints, the clergy, and those converted at heart, as the religious orders. He likewise remarks that peace is threefold : Peace with God, as it is written : He shall make peace with me [Is. xxvii. 5.] ; Peace with ourselves, according to our Lord's words : These things have I spoken unto you that in Me ye might have peace [John xvi. 33.]; and Peace with our neighbour, as the Apostle says : As much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men [Rom. xii. 18.].

(10) For His salvation is nigh unto them that fear Him : that glory may dwell in our land.

Therefore did He appear first among the Jews where there were some, at least, to fear Him. Yet even, as St. Augustine says, this fear was a carnal one, a dread of temporal punishments and loss. The Jews asked for just the same things as the Pagans did. There was only this difference—they asked of the true God. Nevertheless, even this imperfect knowledge and service was so far rewarded that Glory did dwell in the land. For they had the Patriarchs and Prophets, they had the Temple, the centre of worship; with them dwelt the Maiden who bore Her Lord ; then in their midst was He Himself born and held converse among men, wrought His miracles, founded His Church, and finished our Redemption. His salvation is nigh unto them that fear Him; in that they are careful to watch lest they should fall, that at the end of their trial glory, the glory of immortality, may dwell in that earth of their now mortal bodies. He makes another glory, a good conscience, dwell within His servants, as St. Paul says : For our glory is this, the testimony of our conscience [2 Cor. i. 12.], Again, in the Blessed Eucharist: His salvation is nigh to all that fear Him ; for in this Sacrament of the Altar He has given food to those that fear Him [Ps. cx. 4.]. Wherefore it is written : The Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart [Deut. xxx. 14.]. And lastly, the glory of holiness and good works done by the saints dwells in our land, and so shines before men that they glorify our Father Who is in heaven.

(11) Mercy and Truth are met together : and Justice and Peace have kissed.

Man, says St. Bernard, lost Justice when Eve obeyed the serpent's voice, and Adam the woman's rather than the Divine One. He lost Mercy, in that Eve, to satisfy her desires, spared neither herself, her husband, nor posterity, but bound all alike under the curse : and Adam, in that he exposed the woman, for whom he had sinned, to the Divine Wrath, trying to shun the arrow, as it were, behind her back. Woman and Man lost Truth, the first by perverting the warning, Thou shall surely die [Gen. ii. 17.], into the milder, Lest ye die [Ibid. iii. 3.] ; while Adam offered a vain and false excuse. And lastly, they lost Peace, for saith the Lord : There is no peace to the wicked [Is. xlviii. 22.]. Hence, after the Fall there was, as it were, a serious conflict between the four virtues ; for Truth and Justice were for punishing the wretched sinner, while Peace and Mercy were for sparing him. How these four virtues, parted in the First Man, met again in the Second, we may readily learn. For Christ showed Mercy in healing the sick ; Truth in teaching and speaking; Justice when He reproved sinners, and praised the godly; and Peace in His meekness and gentleness. Further, the Divine Nature of Christ may be called Mercy, for it forgives sins; and His Human Nature Truth, because no guile was found in Him.

They met together, that is, they were united in the Hypo-static Union. Justice also is taken for the Divine Nature; for God alone is the righteous Judge. Peace, on the other hand, stands for the Human Nature, on account of our Lord's noble and innate meekness. Again, Mercy and Truth met together in the Incarnation, because it was Mercy which drew the Lord down to His creatures, that the Truth of the promises might be fulfilled, that Justice might be satisfied by a Divine Victim, and that Peace might be re-established between God and Man. If we lay stress on the words met and kissed, they will denote that the union of persons coming from opposite directions is expressed ; we may therefore take the verses as signifying the reconciliation of God and Man.

God's Mercy encourages man to confess his sins, and so to meet Mercy with Truth. God's Justice in fulfilling His promises gives the comfort of Peace to the conscience of His people.

(12) Truth hath sprung from the earth : and righteousness hath looked down from heaven.

The very Truth, the Son of God, hath sprung out of the earth, being born of His Maiden-mother. Righteousness looked down from heaven when the Eternal Word stooped from His Throne of Glory and united Himself in hypostatic union to the Nature of Man. Thus was fulfilled that prayer : Drop down ye heavens from above, and let the clouds pour down the Righteous One : Let the earth open and let it bring forth a Saviour [Is. xlv. 8.]. There is another sense, says St. Augustine, for these words : Now that man has been brought near to God, he is moved to confession of his sins, so that the truth springs up in frank acknowledgment of transgressions from the sinner who is but earth, and righteousness then looks down from heaven to pardon and wash away the offences.

(13) Yea, the Lord shall show loving-kindness: and our land shall give its Fruit.

The Psalmist proceeds to explain the mystery of the Incarnation, and shows that Truth will spring out of the earth, not in the manner that fruits spring out of the ground ploughed and sown by the labour of man, but as flowers spring up in the open plains without human culture, by the rain from heaven and the sunshine that falls upon them. For, saith he, the Lord shall give His loving-kindness, that is, shall send His Holy Spirit from heaven to overshadow the Maiden ; and so our land, untilled, unsown, and altogether virginal, shall give her Fruit. Wherefore He saith of Himself in the Canticles : I am the Flower of the field and the Lily of the valley [ii. I.] ; or again, the Divine Nature of Christ is the loving-kindness of God ; His Human Nature the Fruit of our land. Thus Bellarmine.

Some of the earlier commentators see, in these words, the result of our Lord's Coming in the fruits of penance and good works put forth by men under the genial rays of the Sun of Righteousness, when the rain of tears poured forth in sorrow for sin has caused the good seed sown in their hearts by the Sower to spring up and yield increase. Thus St. Augustine.

(14) Righteousness shall walk before Him : and He shall set His steps in the way.

That is, righteousness shall go behind Him as well as before, deepening, as it were, His track, that they who follow may not miss it. Observe, says Arnobius [He flourished in France at the latter part of the fifth century, and wrote a Commentary on the whole Psalter.], that where righteousness goes first, God steadily follows. Others take it that when righteousness hath so prepared the way for Christ, then will He Himself set His feet upon the road and come to visit those who have thus made ready for His coming. Says the Carmelite : He makes this road henceforth a way for all those who would follow Him ; and, even in the works of penance, He Who did no sin was not content to be a preacher only, but gave us example of His vigils, fasts, journeyings, and other bodily toils. Again, Righteousness goes before the people of Christ to show them the way to Him, and to set their feet in it that they may not err.

GLORIA PATRI.

Glory be to the Father Who speaketh Peace unto His saints. Glory to the Son in Whom Mercy and Truth are met together. Glory to the Holy Ghost the Loving-kindness of the Lord.

From - The Little Office of Our Lady; a treatise theoretical, practical, and exegetical - Taunton, Ethelred L. (Ethelred Luke), 1857-1907