sin, and, [by boring His Feet,] to draw our feet out of the snares of death.

Fifth Responsory.

'Many dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet they have told all my bones.

Verse. One shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands?

Answer. They pierced my hands and my feet they have told all my bones. Sixth Lesson.

THAN the Cleft in that Side, and the

Wounds in those Hands and Feet what is there holier? What is there more life-giving?-out of Them floweth salvation, and in Them the souls of believers may for ever find health. The Lance and Nails heretofore mentioned, and other instruments employed in the life-giving Sufferings of Christ, are everywhere to be held in reverence of all His faithful people, and solemn Offices concerning His Sufferings themselves are held and kept in the Church; but We, nevertheless, hold it meet and convenient that a special Festal Office should be held and kept concerning these things in particular, especially in those places where the instruments themselves are asserted to be still preserved; and We desire by these Offices and Indulgences more particularly to provoke the earnestness in godliness of such of the faithful as please themselves with the belief that they have any such Relique in their possession.

Sixth Responsory.

One shall say unto him: What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer: Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

Verse. Except I shall see in His Hands the print of the nails, I will not believe.

Answer. Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Verse. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

Answer. Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

THIRD NOCTURN.

First Antiphon. They pierced my

1 Ps. xxi. 17.

hands and my feet: they have told all my bones.

Ps. xcv. O sing unto the LORD, &c., (p. 72.)

Second Antiphon. Except I shall see in His Hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His Side, I will not believe.

Ps. xcvi. The LORD reigneth, &c., (p. 73.)

Third Antiphon. Reach hither thy finger, and behold My Hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My Side.

Ps. xcvii. O sing unto the LORD, &c., (p. 74.)

Verse. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him.

Answer. And with His stripes we are healed.

Seventh Lesson.

The Lesson is taken from the Holy Gospel according to John (xix. 28.)

AT

T that time: JESUS, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith I thirst. And so on.

Homily by St. Austin, Bishop [of Hippo.] (120th Tract upon John.)

"One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His Side, and forthwith came thereout Blood and Water." The Evangelist speaketh carefully. He saith not that he smote the Side, nor yet that he wounded It, nor yet anything else, but "pierced"-"pierced" It, to fling wide the entrance unto life, whence flow the Sacraments of the Church, those Sacraments without which there is no entrance into the life which is life indeed. That Blood, Which was shed there, was shed for the remission of sins, that Water is the Water that mantleth in the cup of salvation. Therein are we washed, and thereof do we drink. Of this was it a type when it was said unto Noah: "The door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof.... and of every living thing of all flesh shalt thou bring into the ark to keep them alive." (Gen. vi. 16, 19.) A figure this of the Church.

2 John xx. 25.

Antiphon at the Song of Zacharias. 'His Visage was so marred more than any man, and His Form more than the sons of men. So shall He sprinkle many nations.

Prayer throughout the Office.
GOD, Who didst take our weak na-

ture upon Thee, and, inasmuch as Thou didst will it, didst work salvation for the world by being crucified with Nails and pierced with a Spear, mercifully grant unto all of us who now on

earth are making solemn memorial of

the same Nails and Spear, that hereafter in heaven we may be made glad for ever by the fruits of that glorious victory whereof Thy piercing was the mean. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

A Commemoration is made of the Week-day, (p. 368.)

Answer. They pierced my hands and my feet.

Verse. They persecute him whom Thou hast smitten.

Answer. And they embitter the pain of my wounds.

SEXT.

Antiphon. There are three, &c. (Third Antiphon at Lauds.)

Chapter. (1 Pet. ii. 21.) BRETHREN, Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His Mouth.

Short Responsory.

SECOND VESPERS.

All as the First, except the following.
Last Psalm.

Ps. cxv., I believed, &c., (p. 153.) Antiphon at the Song of the Blessed Virgin. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

A Commemoration is made of the Week-day, (p. 380.)

Third Friday in Lent.

Office in Memory of the Enshroudment of our Lord JESUS Christ in His Most Holy Winding-Sheet.

Greater Double.

All as on Sundays, except the following.

FIRST VESPERS.

Antiphons, Chapter, and Prayer from Lauds.

Last Psalm.

Ps. cxvi. O praise the Lord, &c., (p. 154.)

Hymn.

JESUS! when on Thy fatal day

Thy people turn their awe-struck eyes, Thy latest vesture's history dread

Distinct before their memory lies.

Thy Suffering o'er, from Hands and Feet They drew the nails who loved Thee well

Into the linen's spotless folds

Thy Soul-less Body gently fell.
O Word of God! the conquest won,
Thy trophies still around Thee lay-
Clothed in a vesture dipped in Blood

Thou restedst Victor from the fray.

With our salvation's awful Price,
Still wet upon Thy gaping Side
And mangled Feet, and Hands, and Brow,
The virgin web was redly dyed.

If Blood from Thee, let tears from us
In spirit on Thy grave-clothes fall-
The price was Thine, the debt was ours;
For us, for us, was suffered all.

Thou Who Thine own blest life didst give
A sacrifice for ours to be,

Teach us, O God, in least return

Our Blood-bought lives to give to Thee!

Word of the Self-Existent One,

Word uttered with the Breath Divine, Word clad in vesture dipped in Blood, All praise eternally be Thine! Amen.

Verse. We honour Thy WindingSheet, O Lord.

Answer. We call to mind Thy glorious Sufferings.

Antiphon to the Song of the Blessed Virgin. A man named Joseph, a good man and a just, went to Pilate, and begged the Body of JESUS. [Then Pilate commanded the Body to be delivered.] And when [Joseph] had taken [the Body] he wrapped It in a clean linen cloth.

A Commemoration is made of the Week-day, (p. 379.)

MATTINS.

Invitatory. Christ our Lord, Who recalleth the memory of His Sufferings by the thought of the Holy Shroud, *— Him, O come, let us worship!

A

Hymn.'

WONDROUS mystery this day
Reveals itself before our eyes:
The true Son of the living God
Upon the Cross in torment dies.
To advocate a servant's cause,
He takes that servant's guilty guise;
The Master suffers for the slave,
The just Man for the sinner dies.
The emblems of His cruel death
And triumph redly were impressed
Upon the robe, which with its folds
His mangled Body did invest.

These were the signs of victory won

O'er Death, o'er Hell, and o'er the World; These were the trophies which our Chief Displays triumphantly unfurled.

This gratitude at least we owe

To Him Who brought eternal life, That 'neath this banner we should stand, And fight and conquer in the strife.

Then let us die to all our sin,

And let us rise to life of grace; That by the Cross we may deserve To see the glory of His Face.

Grant this, O Father merciful!

And Thou, His own coequal Son! Grant this, O Spirit! Who dost bear

The sceptre, while the ages run. Amen.

FIRST NOCTURN.

Only three Psalms are said.

First Antiphon. Thou art red in thine apparel, and thy garment like their's that tread in the wine-press.

Ps. iv. When I called, &c., (p. 172.) Second Antiphon. 'Blood hath been sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my raiment.

Ps. xiv. LORD, who shall abide, &c., (p. 10.)

Third Antiphon. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

Ps. xv. Preserve me, &c., (p. 11.)

Verse. We honour Thy WindingSheet, O Lord.

Answer. We call to mind Thy sufferings.

Lessons from Isa. liii. (p. 422.)

First Responsory.

Behold, we saw Him as having no form nor comeliness. There is no beauty in Him. He hath borne our sins, and sorroweth for us. He was wounded for our transgressions, and with His stripes we are healed.

Verse. Surely He hath borne our sins, and carried our sorrows.

Answer. And with His stripes we are healed.

Second Responsory.

"What are these wounds in thine

sufferings. Thou that didst suffer for us, have mercy upon us!

Verse. O that every one who is here gathered this day to praise Thee may find that Thou art indeed salvation for him!

Answer. Thou that didst suffer for us, have mercy upon us!

Verse. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

Answer. Thou that didst suffer for us, have mercy upon us!

SECOND NOCTURN.

First Antiphon. He hid as it were His Face from us; He was despised,and we esteemed Him not.

Ps. xxiii. The earth is the LORD'S, &c., (p. 124.)

Second Antiphon. All they that see Me, laugh Me to scorn; they shoot out the lip, and shake the head.

Ps. xxvi. The LORD is my light, &c., (p. 21.)

Third Antiphon. He hath poured out His soul unto death; [and He was numbered with the transgressors;] and He bare the sin of many.

Ps. cxliv. I will extol Thee, &c., (p. 168.)

Verse. We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee.

Answer. Because that through Thy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

Fourth Lesson.

The Lesson is taken from the Sermons of St. Ambrose, Bishop [of Milan.] (On Luke xxiii.)

with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

Verse. Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow.

Answer. Then he shall answer: Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

Third Responsory.

We honour Thy Winding-Sheet, O Lord; we call to mind Thy glorious

1 Isa. lxiii. 2, 3.

not His Apostles but Joseph, and as saith John, Nicodemus, performed the burial of Christ? The one was a just and bold man, the other a master in Israël. Such it beseemed Christ to have to lay Him in the grave, even He from whom all justice and all rule proceed. Hereby no ground is left for dispute, and the Jews are confuted by witnesses from their own midst. The just man covereth the Body of Christ with linen, the guileless anointeth it with ointment. These distinctions we 3 Zech. xiii. 6, 7.