kept on the 25th day of December. On this day of glad tidings, the Church recalls to our minds the happy moment when God's greatest prodigy of goodness and mercy was accomplished,-the ever memorable hour on which our Saviour Jesus Christ was born of the blessed Virgin, in a poor stable, near the little town of Bethlehem. Surely, there is no day which we ought to celebrate with more devotion and holy joy, for on this day a Saviour was born to us, and the angels sang the heavenly song: "Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will." On this day the heavens rained down the Just One,-the earth opened and brought forth the Saviour. Man had sinned, and sentence of death was pronounced against him; but behold, the Son of God comes into the world, assumes our nature,—takes upon himself our iniquities,all of which He will expiate upon the cross, dying upon it for us : He comes into the world to redeem the world. On this joyous day of Christmas, the priest offers up three times the adorable Victim on the altar of the Lord, in honor of the three births of God made man. We are not obliged to assist at more than one of these three Masses; but let us, if possible, assist at all; let us assist at the first, in honor of the temporal birth of Jesus, whose festival the Church commemorates on this day; let us assist at the second, in honor of the birth of Jesus in the hearts of the just,-the birth of divine grace in the soul; and let us be present at the third, in honor of His eternal birth in the bosom of His Father. This divine Saviour comes not merely to redeem the world, but also to present to the world a perfect model of virtue. Let us then on this day remember the immeasurable gratitude which we ought unceasingly to testify to our good Redeemer, and let us give Him proofs of it by loving Him, by obeying His holy voice, and by walking along the path of virtue which He has pointed out to us by word and example.

When Christmas falls on Friday, there is no obligation to abstain from meat; but the eve of this great festival is always a day of fast and abstinence. Those Christians become guilty of mortal sin, and render themselves unworthy of the graces which Jesus comes to bestow upon them, who, on the vigil of this happy festival, violate the law of the Church, and fear not to eat flesh meat in those assemblies which, in place of being meetings for devotion and prayer, are but too often occasions of sin and scandal.

The festival of the Ascension, established by the Apostles themselves, commemorates the great day when our divine Saviour, Jesus Christ, went with His Apostles to the mountain of Olives, whence He ascended into heaven, and took His seat at the right hand of His Father, accompanied by all the holy souls whom He had delivered from Limbo. On this solemn day, let us elevate our minds and hearts to heaven; let us remember that there is our true country; let us detach our hearts from the false joys and deceitful pleasures of this world, and let us take the firm resolution to labor during our whole life to merit the place which our divine Saviour has gone to prepare for us in the abode of His Eternal Father.

The Assumption is the first and most important festival established in honor of the Mother of God. It reminds us of that day of triumph and of glory, when Mary was received into heaven as the well-beloved daughter of the Eternal Father, as the august Mother of the Incarnate Word, and as the immaculate Spouse of the Holy Ghost; of that day when she was declared Queen of heaven and earth; when God, in a manner, bestowed upon her His own power, according to the expression of the holy fathers; of that day when she became the channel of His graces,—the mediatrix of mankind all these prodigies are the consequences of her quality as Mother of God and the recompense of her admirable virtues. To celebrate this festival worthily, we should be careful to thank God for the great favors which He has bestowed on the most holy Virgin. It is just, right and proper that we should do so, my Brethren; for these favors,-these graces regard ourselves, and God had us in view when He granted them to Mary. The greater her power, the greater and more abundant will be the graces which she will obtain for her children; it ought then to be to us a great source of consolation, confidence and joy, to consider the immense glory to which the Mother of God is elevated in heaven.

The festival of All Saints, which is celebrated on the first day of November, has been instituted to honor and commemorate, by one and the same solemnity, the memory of all the saints who are in heaven. To celebrate in a proper and holy manner the feast of the glorified citizens of heaven, let us honor in them the benefits, the mercies, and the infinite perfections of God, who has crowned them in His kingdom, who has made them powerful with His own

power, glorious with His own glory, and happy with His own happiness. The honor therefore which we render them must be referred to God; their glory being the work of God ought to revert to God. Let us invoke them as powerful intercessors before God. My Brethren, God hears the prayers which the saints address to Him to obtain His graces and assistance for us. Let us pray to them with all confidence, for they love us. But above all, let us imitate their example. The chief devotion to the saints, the summary of their veneration and our piety, consists in imitating what we revere in them: pray therefore as they prayed; despise, like them, the vanities of this world, and like them, think of the infinite importance of the things of eternity. Aided by their powerful intercession, we will be enabled to live and die as they lived and died, and like them, we will obtain the crown of immortality and of glory. Christians, you desire, no doubt, to celebrate properly these great festivals established by the Church and approved by God. Refrain then, during these holy days, from all sin; for, though we should always avoid sin, we ought to fear and shun it with more care on the days consecrated by the Church to the worship of God and the veneration of His friends, the saints, because, says a holy father of the Church, he who sins on these days, makes them feasts of the devil, and not festivals of the Lord. On the vigils of those days, purify your hearts by an humble confession of your sins, that you may, on the festival, worthily receive the sacred body of Jesus, and open for yourselves an abundant source of graces and blessings. Assist piously at all the religious exercises of your parish Church,-at the High Mass, and at Vespers; perform some special work of charity to honor God and imitate the saints. Sanctify, in this manner, all the festivals of the Church, you will work out your salvation, and, by the mercy of God, you also will arrive at the glorious abode of the saints in heaven.—AMEN.

SERMON LXIV.

SECOND PRECEPT OF THE CHURCH.

EXCELLENCE AND END OF THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS.

"From the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation."-MALACHIAS, i: 11.

It was the custom of the primitive Christians, even in the lifetime of the Apostles, to assemble on Sundays to assist at the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and partake of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Because, assisting at Mass being the holiest action, that by which we can contribute most to the glory of God and the salvation of our souls, it is especially by it that we must sanctify the holy days consecrated to the service of the Lord. This is the reason why the Church commands us "to hear Mass on Sundays and holidays of obligation." I doubt not, my Brethren, that you will be disposed to comply with this precept when you shall have learned the excellence of the august sacrifice of our altars.

The Mass is the sacrifice of the new law, in which Jesus Christ, by the ministry of priests, offers himself under the appearance of bread and wine, to God, to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross, and to apply to us its merits.

There is nothing more sacred, more venerable, more worthy of the majesty and grandeur of God, than the Sacrifice of the Mass, whether we consider it in its essence, or view it in the effects which it produces.

He to whom it is offered is a God; He who is offered is himself God; He who makes the offering is equally a God.

"In every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a clean oblation," says the Lord. In truth, from one end of the

universe to the other, in every place and on every day, the adorable sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ is offered to God, and is offered to God alone; for the charge that we offer this sacrifice to the saints is a false and wicked calumny of sectarians. Who was ever allowed to say, remarks St. Augustine,-I offer this sacrifice to you, Peter; to you, Paul; to you, Cyprian?

The Victim that is immolated to God alone is no other than God himself, the Eternal Word,-the Son of the Most High, become the spotless Lamb, whose blood is so precious that it can be compared to that of no other victim, according to these words of the Psalmist: "Burnt-offering and sin-offering Thou didst not require : then said I: Behold I come."* Yes, my Brethren, the Victim sacrificed to God is Jesus, the Son of the Most High, God of God, the Lord of lords, born of the Virgin Mary, He who died on the cross for our salvation, and to whom be all glory and all honor forever and ever. He obeys the words of the priest, descends from heaven, dwells upon our altars and becomes a holocaust for our sanctification and happiness. In fine, the Victim, who is God, has as sacrificing priest, a God; for the Apostle tells us, that Christ who is offered and who offers himself, is the Eternal Priest, "that He is the High Priest, innocent, holy, without spot, and separated from sinners." We can then say that He is the sole priest, for the other priests are but His servants and His ministers.

There can be no sacrifice more holy and more august than the adorable Sacrifice of the Mass. There is no other by which we can more worthily honor and more devoutly adore the Lord our God; for on the altar at Mass, Jesus Christ, who is coëqual in glory and dignity with His eternal Father, and before whom all grandeur is abased, comes himself to humble and annihilate himself before God. He who is adored and is worthy of being so, prostrates himself and offers adoration to His Eternal Father. God can not give more glory to himself, than that which He receives in the august sacrifice of our altars, since in it is renewed the infinite honor which Jesus, the God made man, and become like us, and our brother, rendered to His Father, wher. He immolated himself on the cross. "A single Mass," says St. Alphonsus de Liguori, "gives more

* Psalms, xxxix: 7, 8.