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none of you keepeth the law. Why seek you to kill me? The multitude answered and said: Thou ast a devil: Who seeketh to kill thee? Jesus answered, and said to them: One work I have done: and you all wonder: therefore Moses gave you circumcision: (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers,) and on the Sabbath-day you circumcise a man. If a man receive circumcision on the Sabbath-day, that the law of Moses may not be broken; are you angry at me, because I have healed the whole man on the Sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance, but judge just judgment. Some therefore of Jerusalem said: Is not this he whom they seek to kill? And behold he speaketh openly, and they say nothing to him. Have the

rulers known for a truth that this is the Christ? But we know this man whence he is; but when the Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is. Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and say-ing: You both know me, and you know whence I am: and I am not come of myself; but he that sent me is true, whom you know not, I know shim, because I am from him, and he hath sent me. They sought therefore to apprehend him: and no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come. But of the people many believed in him,

OFFERT. Ps. xxxix.-With expectation I have waited for the Lord, and he hath looked upon me: and he heard my prayer; and hath put into my mouth a new canticle, a hymn to our God.

SECRET. May this offering, O Lord, we beseech thee, cleanse away our sins: and sanctify both the bodies and souls of thy servants for worthily celebrating this sacrifice. 'Thro'.

COMM. Ps. xix.-We will rejoice in thy salvation: and in the name of the Lord our God we shall be exalted.

P. COMM. Hujus nos. May the receiving of

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this sacrament, O Lord, purify us from sin, and bring us to the kingdom of heaven. Thro'.

Let us pray. Bow down your heads to God. PRAYER. Miserere.-Take compassion, O Lord, on thy people: and mercifully refresh them labouring under continual tribulations. Thro'.

INTROIT.

WEDNESDAY.

Ezech. xxxvi.-When I shall have been sanctified amongst you, I will gather you from all nations: and I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your sins; and I will give you a new spirit. Ps. xxxiii. I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall be always in my mouth. V. Glory.

Immediately after Kyrie eleison, &c. is said: Let us pray. Let us kneel down. R. Stand up again. COLLECT. Deus qui.-O God, who givest to the righteous the reward of their good works, and by fasting, pardon to sinners; have mercy on thy suppliants, that the acknowledgment of onr guilt may procure us the remission of our sins Thro'.

LESSON. Ezech. xxxvi. 23. 28.—Thus saith the Lord God: I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the Gentiles, which you have profaned in the midst of them: that the Gentiles may know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord of Hosts, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the Gentiles, and will gather you together out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols. And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in the midst of you, and I will cause

you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them. And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God, saith the Almighty.

GRAD. Ps. xxxiii.-Come, children, hearken to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. V. Come ye to him, and be enlightened: and your face shall not be confounded.

II. COLLECT. Præsta.-Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that the devotion, which makes us punish ourselves by this yearly fast, may also make us rejoice to the end that, suppressing in ourselves all earthly affections, we may more easily receive thy heavenly inspirations. Thro'.

II. LESSON. Is. 1. 16. 19.-Thus saith the Lord God: Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely, learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. And then come, and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as the scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool. If you be willing, and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land, saith the Lord Almighty.

GRAD. Ps. xxxii.-Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance. V. By the word of the Lord the heavens were established; and all the power of them by the spirit of his mouth.

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

GOSPEL. John ix. 1. 38.-At that time: Jesus passing by, saw a man that was blind from his birth; and his disciples asked him: Rabbi, who hath sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered: Neither hath this->

man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, whilst it is day: the night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had said these things, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and spread the clay upon his eyes, and said to him: Go, wash in the pool of Siloe, which is interpreted, Sent. He went his way therefore, and washed, and he came seeing. The neighbours therefore, and they who had seen him before, that he was a beggar, said: Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he. But others said: No, but he is like him. But he said: I am he. They said therefore to him: How were thine eyes opened? He answered: That man that is called Jesus, made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said to me: Go to the pool of Siloe, and wash. And I went, I washed, and I see. And they said to him: Where is he? He saith: I know not. They bring him that had been blind to the Pharisees. Now it was the Sabbath, when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Again therefore the Pharisees asked him how he had received his sight. But he said to them: He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and I see. Some therefore of the Pharisees said: this man is not of God who keepeth not the Sabbath. But others said: How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. They say therefore to the blind man again: What sayest thou of him that hath opened thy eyes? And he said: He is a prophet. The Jews then did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight, and asked them, saying: Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then doth he now see? His parents answered them, and

said: We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: but how he now seeth we know not: or who hath opened his eyes we know not: ask himself; he is of age; let him speak for himself. These things his parents said, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had already agreed among themselves, that if any man should confess him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore did his parents say: He is of age, ask him. They therefore called the man again that had been blind, and said to him: Give glory to God, We know that this man is a sinner. He said then to them: If he be a sinner, I know not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. Then they said to him: What did he to thee? How did he open thy eyes? He answered them: I have told you already, and you have heard: why would you hear it again: will you also become his disciples? They reviled him, therefore, and said: Be thou his disciple; but we are the disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses: but as to this man, we know not from whence he is. The man answered, and said to them: Why, herein is a wonderful thing, that you know not from whence he is, and he hath opened my eyes. Now we know that

God doth not hear sinners; but if a man be a server of God, and doth his will, him he heareth. From the beginning of the world it hath not been heard, than any man hath opened the eyes of one born blind. Unless this man were of God, he could not do any thing. They answered and said to him: Thou was wholly born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said to him: Dost thou believe in the Son of God? He answered, and said: Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him: Thou hast Loth seen him: and it is he that talketh with thee.

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