When Our Lord came down from the mountain, He healed a poor leper.

And when He was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him;

And, behold, a leper coming, adored Him, saying: Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.

And Jesus, stretching forth His hand, touched him, saying: I will, be thou made clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

And Jesus said to him: See thou tell no man: but go, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded for a testimony to them.-(St. Matt. viii.)

About this time, Our Lord added St. Matthew to the four other Apostles who accompanied Him in His labours. He was a publican, or taxgatherer, who were generally men of low character, drunkards, and usurers, who robbed and oppressed the people to enrich themselves. At the very first call, St. Matthew gave up all his riches and the prospects of his office, rose up, and henceforward shared the labours and poverty of Jesus until His Passion.

And after these things He went forth, and saw a publican named Levi, sitting at the custom-house; and He saith to him: Follow Me.

And, leaving all things, he rose up and followed Him.

And Levi made Him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans, and of others, that were at table with them.

But the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying to His disciples: Why do you eat and drink with publicans and

sinners?

And Jesus answering, said to them: They who are in health need not the physician; but they that are sick:

I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance.

And they said to him: Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees in like manner; but thine eat and drink;

And He said to them: Can you make the children of the Bridegroom fast, whilst the Bridegroom is with them?

But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them; then shall they fast in those days.

And He spoke also a similitude to them: That no man putteth a piece from a new garment upon an old garment: otherwise he both rendeth the new, and the piece taken from the new agreeth not with the old.

And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: otherwise the new wine will burst the bottles, and it will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost.

But new wine must be put into new bottles, and both are preserved.

And no man drinking old, hath presently a mind to new: for he saith, The old is better.-(St. Luke v.)

It has been sometimes supposed that the first year of Our Lord's Public Life ended here; and although there is no warrant to assure us that this is a positive fact, we may, for the sake of order, divide the three years of that life into different parts, as a greater help to our memory and the bearing in mind His various journeys and works.

UR Lord now added seven other Apostles to the five He had already chosen. He thus formed the Apostolic College of the Twelve, who went with Him through all His labours, and as He Himself touchingly says to them at His last supper: "Ye are they who have continued with Me in all My temptations."

The Apostle St. Jude is usually called St. Thaddeus. The word Apostle in Greek means one sent."

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And going up into a mountain, He called unto Him whom He would Himself: and they came to Him.

And He made that twelve should be with Him; and that he might send them to preach.

And He gave them power to heal sickness, and to cast out

devils.

And to Simon He gave the name of Peter:

And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, and He named them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:

And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James of Alpheus, and Thaddeus, and Simon Chananeus,

And Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.-(St. Mark iii.) The Scribes and Pharisees were now very angry at Our Lord's success in teaching, and at the way in which the people

followed Him. They began to blaspheme, and to say that He who taught with such divine love and wisdom, was possessed by a devil.

Probably our Lady and His cousins were alarmed at the crowds, and they came to seek Him. Our Lord, by saying: "Who is My mother and My brethren," did not mean to deny her, but to make known more clearly His Divinity, and that He must now attend solely to the work of salvation for which He came down from Heaven.

And they came to a house: and the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.

And when His friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold of Him: for they said: He is become mad.

And the Scribes who were come down from Jerusalem, said: He hath Beelzebub: and by the prince of the devils He casteth out devils.

And after He had called them together, He said to them in parables: How can Satan cast out Satan?

And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

And if Satan be risen up against itself, he is divided, and cannot stand, but hath an end.

No man can enter into the house of a strong man, and rob him of his goods, unless he first bind the strong man, and then shall he plunder his house.

Amen, I say to you, that all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and the blasphemies wherewith they shall blaspheme:

But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, shall never have forgiveness, but shall be guilty of an everlasting sin. Because they said: He hath an unclean spirit.

And His mother and His brethren came; and standing without, sent to Him, calling Him:

And the multitude sat about Him: and they say to Him: Behold, Thy mother and Thy brethren without seek for Thee.

And answering them, He said: Who is My mother and My brethren?

And looking round on them who sat about Him, He saith: Behold My mother and My brethren.

For whosoever shall do the will of God, he is My brother, and My sister, and mother.-(St. Mark iii.)

The time of the second Pasch or Passover of Our Lord's Public Life drawing near, He went up to Jerusalem to attend it. He took the opportunity of working a remarkable miracle at the Pool of Probatica, near the Sheep-gate, where the animals were brought into Jerusalem for the sacrifices in the Temple.

The

The Pool was visited at certain times, some say, once a year, by an Angel, who "troubled" or moved the waters, which afterwards had the power of healing any sick person who washed in them. This miraculous visit had begun about the time of Our Lord's birth, and thus fulfilled the prophecy of Zachary: "In that day there shall be a fountain open to the House of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." waters of Siloam or Siloë, which always symbolized the Kingdom of David and of Christ, flowed into the Pool of Probatica; and on this account it is always looked upon by the Fathers as a type of Baptism. We can now represent to ourselves this clear, deep well or pond, surrounded by a kind of gallery having five porches, in which the lame, and maimed, and sick, were laid by their friends. We can picture the poor bedridden man, who had no friends to help him into the water, and Our Lord, looking upon him with pity, and speaking with him.

After these things, there was a festival day of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now there is at Jerusalem, a pond, called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches.

In these lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, of lame, of withered, waiting for the moving of the water.

And an Angel of the Lord went down at a certain time into the pond: and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond, after the motion of the water, was made whole of whatsoever infirmity he lay under.