that the receiving this sacrament may forward our eternal redemption. Thro'.

Let us pray. Bow down your heads to God.

PRAYER. Deus innocentiæ.-O God, the restorer and lover of innocence, draw to thyself the hearts of thy servants, that being inflamed by thy holy Spirit, they may be constant in faith, and zealous in good works. Thro'.

THURSDAY.

INTROIT. Ps. lxix.

God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me: let my enemies be confounded and ashamed that seek my soul. Ps. Let them be turned backwards, and blush for shame that desire evils to me. V. Glory.

COLLECT. Præsta.-Grant us, we beseech thee, O Lord, the assistance of thy grace: that whilst we duly apply ourselves to fasting and prayer, we may be delivered from all enemies both of soul and body.

Thro.'

LESSON. Jer. xvii. 5. 10.—Thus saith the Lord: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like tamarick in the desart, and he shall not see when good shall come: but he shall dwell in dryness in the desart, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed be the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence. And he shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters, and spreadeth out its roots towards moisture: and it shall not fear when the heat cometh. And the leaf thereof shall be green, and in the time of drought it shall not be solicitous, neither shall it cease at any time to bring forth fruit. The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can know it? I am the Lord that search the heart, prove the reins; who give to every one accord

and

ing to his way, and according to the fruit of his devices, saith the Lord Almighty.

GRAD. Ps. lxxviii.-Forgive us, O Lord, our offences, lest the Gentiles say: Where is now their God? V. Help us, O God our Saviour, and for the glory of thy name, O Lord, deliver us.

GOSPEL.

Luke xvi. 19. 31.-At that time: Jesus said to the Pharisees: There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen: and . feasted sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and no one did ́ give him, moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died, and he was buried in ' hell. And lifting up his eyes, when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom: And he cried, and said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. And Abraham said to him: Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy life-time, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is fixed a great chaos: so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot, nor from thence come hither. And he said: Then father, I beseech thee that thou wouldst send him to my father's house. For I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torments. And Abraham said to him:" They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear them. But he said: No, father Abraham, but if any one went to them from the dead, they will do penance. And he said to him: If they hear not

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Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead.

OFFERT. Exod. xxxii.-Moses prayed in the presence of the Lord his God, and said: Why, O Lord, art thou angry with thy people? Let the wrath of thy soul be appeased: remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom thou didst swear to give a land flowing with milk and honey. And the Lord was appeased and did not the evil with which he threatened his people.

SECRET. May the fast consecrated to thy name, O Lord, sanctify us by this preseut sacrifice, that we may experience inwardly the effects of what we outwardly profess by our fast. Thro'.

COMM. John vi.-He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him, saith the Lord.

P. COMM. Gratia.-May thy grace, O Lord, we beseech thee, never abandon us, but ever make us intent on thy holy service, and always procure us thy help. `Thro’.

Let us pray. Bow down your heads to God.

PRAYER. Adesto.-Be favourable, O Lord, to thy servants, and hear their prayers in the grant of everlasting mercy; that glorying in thee their Creator and Governor, they may have all things perfected and perpetuated to them. Thro'.

FRIDAY.

INTROIT. Ps. xvi.

BUT I will appear before thy sight in justice: I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear. Ps. Hear, O Lord, my justice: attend to my supplication. V. Glory.

COLLECT. Da quæsumus.-Grant, O Almighty God, that, being purified by this fast, we may come to the approaching solemnity with clean hearts,

Thro'.

LESSON. Gen. xxxvii. 6. 22.-In those days: Joseph said to his brethren: Hear my dream which I have dreamed: I thought we were binding sheaves in the field and my sheaf arose as it were, and stood, and your sheaves standing about bowed down before my sheaf. His brethren answered: Shalt thou be our king? or shall we be subject to thy dominion? Therefore this matter of his dreams and words ministered nourishment to their envy and hatred. He dreamed also another dream, which he told his brethren, saying: I saw in a dream, as it were the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars, worshipping me. And when he had told this to his father, and brethren, his father rebuked him, and said: What meaneth this dream that thou hast dreamed? shall I and thy mother, and thy brethren, worship thee upon the earth? His brethren therefore envied him: but his father considered the thing with himself. And when his brethren abode in Sichem, feeding their father's flocks, Israel said to him: Thy brethren feed the sheep in Sichem : come, I will send thee to them. And when he answered: I am ready: he said to him: Go, and see if all things be well with thy brethren, and the cattle and bring me word again what is doing. So being sent from the vale of Hebron, he came to Sichem. And a man found him there wandering in the field, and asked him what he sought. But he answered: I seek my brethren: tell me where they feed their flocks. And the man said to him: They are departed from this place: for I heard them say: let us go to Dothain. And Joseph went forward after his brethren, and found them in Dothain. And when they saw him afar off, before he came nigh them, they thought to kill him: and said one to another, Behold the dreamer cometh, come let us kill him, and cast him into some old pit; and we will say: some evil beast hath devoured him; and

then it shall appear what his dreams avail him. And Ruben hearing this, endeavoured to deliver him out of their hands, and said: Do not take away his life, nor shed his blood: but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and keep your hands harmless: now he said this, being desirous to deliver him out of their hands and restore him to his father.

GRAD. Ps. cxix.-In my trouble I cried to the Lord, and he heard me. V. O Lord, Deliver my soul from wicked lips, and a deceitful tongue.

*TRACT. Ps. cii.-Deal not, p. 117.

GOSPEL. Matt. xxi. 33. 46.--At that time Jesus spoke to the multitude of the Jews, and to the chief priests this parable: There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and made a hedge round about it, and dug in it a press, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen: and went into a strange country. And when the time of the fruits drew nigh, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits thereof. And the husbandmen laying hands on his servants, beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants more than the former: and they did to them in like manner. And last of all he sent them his Son, saying: They will reverence my Son: But when the husbandmen seeing the Son, they said among themselves: This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance. And taking him they cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those husbandmen? They say to him: He will bring those evil men to an evil and: and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, that shall render him the fruit in due Beason. Jesus saith to them: Have you never read in the Scriptures: "The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?