Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

now a fairer green; a new light seemed to dawn, and they saw further into the deep glades; the flowers gave a sweeter smell, the pastures seemed richer and more inviting; the very air was balmier and more serene, and the song of the birds of the air fell with greater depth into their hearts. Joyfully they entered and sported in the goodly pleasaunce,―heedful were they to the voice of their mother,-gentle and mild the one to the other; and as they sang sweet wood notes, they felt that they indeed went on rejoicing.

[ocr errors]

Could it be otherwise, where all was blissful,—where all echoed but joy, where all their wants were provided, and nothing but the breath of heaven was sweetly breathing upon them? Where they had bowering shades above, and green turf beneath,-where they had such a mother to lead them by the hand, to call their eyes now to this, and now to that fair light, who discoursed with them as they walked along, and told them how they might find good in all, and how from the very barren places they might find precious rubies, as the bright diamond is dug up from the dark mine, and the purest gold from the inmost recesses of the earth. For virtue, she said, was not to be won without toil, neither was goodness to be kept without watching; and therefore it behoved them to cherish the virtues they possessed, and to dig up new ones from the inmost recesses of the heart; that being polished, and the refuse and dross thrown away, they might shine with becoming lustre; for, as she said, this was the way to prove their love to her, and to secure to themselves the continual happiness of ever going on, rejoicing.

CHAPTER IV.

And when she spoke these words of cheer, the children clung closer to their mother, it is true, and entered within the gates with awe, but not with dread,-with that reverence which is very comely to the grey head, but which in youth and childhood is surpassingly beautiful. For the spirit of reverence is better than wealth and lineage, and happy is he who possesses it; for all around is a mystery, and we cannot tell how a simple flower is painted in the meadow, nor how the bird floats through the air,; far less can we dive into the secrets of that Fatherly Hand which holds all, as it were, in a balance,-whose breath hath breathed into our nostrils the breath of life,—and who sustains us while we walk blindfold, with but one pulse of our heart between life

and death, time and eternity. How needful then the spirit of reverence, how kindred it is, yea as a parent, to devotion. And when the mother of these children perceived their awe, she drew them closer to herself, for it told her that their love was true and assured, and therefore she knew that they would walk worthy of her, and as her Holy Spouse desired.

Now when she had washed them in that clear fountain, she saw in the eye of her beloved little ones that they were indeed cleansed ;-for the eye is, as it were, the window of the heart, and whether that be good or evil, it is sure to reflect what is written within; dark hearts, where the inward thoughts are like troubled and poisonous fountains, send forth through these chrystal conduits their troubled or their poisonous streams; and the side glance, unfixed and restless gaze, the muddy and darksome scowl, the bright but fiery glance, show what is hidden within, and which, though shut up in its dark and unrevealed recesses, for ever unseen to the ken of man, must needs be very dark and noisome, when it can change the aspect of beautiful jewels, that were made to be fairer in man than the diamond; for in them were to be writ, as in spiritual letters, on a substantial surface, all that was beautiful without, reflected by the soul, and raised as an offering to Him who made external things but as a palpable book, wherein the soul might study His perfections, and ever draw therefrom new motives of love, holy happiness, and purification both to the soul and body.

And such was the effect of those waters on these happy children, and their mother saw it and was glad; for she knew that their hearts were right, and the brilliant lustre of their eyes told her that they were cleansed within, and made meet for the end for which man had been originally created. She saw that the soul was calm, for it shone in their eyes serene as those of the dove; and as the fire of love and earnest devotion arose within, so did they sparkle like the bright stone, in which, as was fabled of old, a good and bright spirit was constrained for awhile to dwell. But with them it was no fable, for a Good and a Bright Spirit did truly dwell within them, and it was this that lit up those lamps of the soul, and made them sparkle with a lustre that was at once beautiful in itself, but showed that the Baptismal Purity which begat it was itself far fairer.

"The placid look and eye serene

Tells where the SPIRIT of GOD has been;

The sunny glance of Hope is there,

All rainbow-like, in promise fair;

The gaze of Trust declares full well,

That Faith within that heart doth dwell;
Affection's glances, beaming prove,

How deep the soul is set in Love,

And every look so fair and bright

Gives proof within of HOLY LIGHT,

For which the soul was made, and now

Receives it in BAPTISMAL VOw."

M. A.

THE FASTS AND FESTIVALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

AMONG the many efficient and glorious incentives to devotion by which the Church keeps alive in the hearts of her children the perpetual remembrance of the great mysteries of Christianity, may be numbered the diversity of her fasts and festivals, and the nicety of their adaptation to the feelings of religion and the events of sacred history, of which their annual recurrence revives and perpetuates the memory. Every anniversary, as it successively ensues, is honoured by a celebration peculiar to itself,--the ritual of the service, the various ceremonials employed, the very colours of the sacerdotal vestments, contributing to mark in a particular manner the solemnity of the day. How different in this respect the practice of the English Established Church, of which the long and tedious formularies fall on the ear with unvarying, undeviating monotony, and seem all cast in a mould of utter sameness, whatever be the event to be commemorated,—the Birth, Crucifixion, or Resurrection of Christ, the decollation of king Charles, or the notable bugbear of the Gunpowder treason! In a word, the fasts and feasts of the Catholic Church are either practical exercises of religious austerity, or vivid memorials of the mighty events of other days; while in the Protestant, for either fast or festival, "Nominis Umbra" is the only distinctive

appellation. While taking a prospective view of the Catholic ecclesiastical year, it may not be either uninstructive or unentertaining to contrast its various solemnities with the proceedings or apathy of Protestantism during a similar epoch.

The four weeks immediately preceding the great anniversary of the birth of Christ, aptly designated Advent, in anticipation of our Redeemer's coming, are set apart by the Church as a time of prayer and penitence; while the Protestants take hardly nominal cognizance of any such season. Christmas arrives; and the eve of that great festival having been devoted to fasting and devotion, the Church commences its celebration at the very hour which was hallowed by the birth of her divine founder. Perhaps of all her multiform services, there is none more beautiful than the midnight sacrifice of the mass, which upon the holy vigil of Christmas summons us in spirit to the stable of Bethlehem. How the dead loneliness of the hour contrasts with the joyous canticle of praise, the lighted church, the illumined and decorated altar, the peal of bells, the swelling tone of the organ! And when, after the interval of a bygone year, the exquisite "Adeste Fideles" of Pergolese first bursts upon the ear in the course of that nocturnal solemnity, how vibrates the very soul with holy transport! For her hymns and anthems the Church has her appropriate and exclusive seasons. Thus the rapturous song of Angels above referred to, is only heard during the fortnight that includes the three festivals of Christmas day, the Circumcision, and the Epiphany,-riveting, therefore, the ear in a peculiar manner to its sweet and soothing concords. In the Anglican Church, the same air, with undiscerning indifference adapted to the first doggrel of Sternhold and Hopkins that may chance to suit a parish clerk's caprice, may be heard any Sunday throughout the year, nasally bawled forth by a pack of village urchins in every tuneless and timeless variety!

On New Year's day, the Church commemorates in a solemn manner the circumcision of our Lord, that mystical rite of the old law, typical of the baptism of the new, and on Twelfth Day she dedicates her services to the celebration of what has always appeared to us as one of the most striking and beautiful episodes in the history of our Blessed Saviour. Can there indeed be conceived a situation in sacred history more adapted at once for the indulgence of pious meditation and the triumph of the painter's art, than the midnight visit of the Eastern kings to the cradle of the infant JESUS! What pictorial contrasts are presented to the mind by the hoary visages of the kneeling Magi, with the youthful

and angelic countenance of the Virgin Mother; between the gloom of that humble stable, and the unearthly radiance that streams from the GOD Child; between the splendid offerings of gold and oriental perfumes, and the lowliness of the shrine in which the Divinity deigns to receive the maiden homage of mankind! The feast of the Epiphany piously concludes the joyous season that blends the parting with the coming year, our brethren of the Establishment having confined their devotions on the occasion to keeping Christmas-day like Sunday. Their churches indeed may have been hung with holly and misletoe, but there will not be wanting grudging utilitarians at parochial meetings to cavil at and dispute the items of disbursement which such useless adornment of God's house may have occasioned.

On the 2nd of February, the Church honours the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by a procession with lighted tapers, which have been previously blessed with peculiar forms of prayer. This very

ancient and pious ceremony, mentioned in the writings of Pope Gelasius the First and St. Cyril of Alexandria, and which has given the name of Candlemas to the day on which it takes place, has of course, and in despite of its prescriptive right to observance and respect, been altogether swept away from the cold ritual of Protestantism.

The next festival, in point of chronological order, and invariably occurring during the fast of Lent, is the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, a day upon which, laying aside for a brief interval her penitential trappings, the Church assumes her gayest adornments, and intones her canticles of jubilation, to celebrate that mysterious visit of the angelic messenger to the meek and humble Virgin of Judæa, which heralded forth to a benighted world the blessed advent of a Redeemer ! In Protestant minds, the memory of this holy feast, to which the good old Catholic name of Lady Day still adheres, only identifies itself with the payment of rent, and the letting of tenements.

How appropriately does Ash Wednesday commence a season of penance and humiliation! At every mass, the officiating priest turns to those who have assembled for the purpose at the altar rails, and crossing their foreheads with ashes, delivers to each one this touching admonition, "Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou must return!" Can any sentiment be conceived more adapted to predispose the mind to soberness and reflection, than that with which the Church has thus thought proper to mark the opening day of a time of austerity and prayer? Under stated regulations, and such indulgences from the extreme rigours of abstinence as appear suitable to the infirm23

VOL. II.

« PredošláPokračovať »