SUN., MAY 15. FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. ad. Comm. of St. John Baptist de la Salle. Creed. Preface of Easter. (White.)
COL LECT: " 0 God. from whom all good things do come, generously grant to us Thy suppliants that, through Thine inspiration, we may always think what is right. and, under Thy governing, perform it."
The prayer is so simple that it needs no explanation. Yet we must remember that in all things God comes first. Left to ourselves, what silly, wrong-headed things we are liable to think—if we trouble to think at all! Left to ourselves, how often we see the better thing. but feel." I can't do it!"
We ask, then—and that is the one necessary preliminary: in sonic minimum sense to be "suppliants "—we ask • Him to put right thoughts into our minds, and then 'steer " us towards carrying them out. He will not force us to; we remain free men, able to choose this way or that. But, if we want Him to, He will gently guide us into the right choices—even when we feel we would rather He didn't.
But we must he serious about that : the Epistle this time says gravely: " Be doers of the Word, not hearers only—cheating yourselves!" But we have been almost forgetting " Easter," nor have we been preparing for the Feast of the Ascension. Has not this Feast rather dropped out of our devotion, though we must go to Mass upon it? Does it baffle us ?
A strange event occurred: our Lord " ascended " into the sky; it was over in a moment; it was the finish of His earthly life; a full-stop. No! First, the Collect says we believe that God's Sole Begotten ascended into heaven as our Redeemer. He Himself has triumphed (and we should rejoice for His sake), but that triumph consisted in our Rescue (so we rejoice for ours). Therefore it is the opposite of a " full-stop," whether for Him or for us.
He is enthroned, true Man, in glory; and we ask that " we too" may in our minds (though not yet in body) " inhabit" a heavenly world.
A habit of mind! Our feet may have to trudge through dust, puddles and mud (though also, let us hope, through green and flowery fields—but even so, the grass withereth; the flower fadeth; we are not yet on " the lawns of Thine Paradise for ever green," as the Prayers for the Dying say): but may our minds live in that heavenly world of His—with Him, as we look forward to it only through Him and His redeeming work.
We are not always to he thinking about heaven, but to think things of earth in a heavenly way; i.e., put them in their secondary, subordinate place.
C. C. Martindale, S.J.
MON.. MAY 16. Rogation Day. Mass of St. Ubald. sd. Second prayer from Rogation Mass. Third prayer Concede. Preface of Easter. Last Gospel from Rogation Mass. (White.) (Some dioceses: vfi esetsliSiti.e.Simon Stock.) TUES., MAY 17, Rogation Day. Mass of St. Paschal Baylon. d. Second prayer from Rogation Mass. esetsliSiti.e.Simon Stock.) TUES., MAY 17, Rogation Day. Mass of St. Paschal Baylon. d. Second prayer from Rogation Mass.
WED.. MAY 10. Rogation Day. Vigil of the Ascension. Mass of St. Venantlus. d. Second prayer of the Vigil. third prayer from Rogation Mass. Preface of Easter. Last Gospel of the Vigil. (Red.)
THURS., MAY 19. THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD. (1.1.cl. with octave of the third order. Creed. Preface and Communicantes of the Ascension. t White.) FRI., MAY 20, St. Bernadine of Sienna. sd. Comm. of octave. Third prayer Concede. Creed. Preface and Communicantes of the Ascension. (White.) (Cardiff and Northampton: St. Ethelbert.) SAT., MAY 21. Saturday within the octave of the Ascension. sd. Second prayer Concede. Third prayer Ecclesiae or for the Pope. Creed. Preface and Communicantes of the Ascension. (White.) (Brentwood: BI. John Haile.) SUN.. MAY 22, Sunday within the octave of the Ascension. sd. Comm. of the octave. Creed. Preface and Communicantes of the Ascension. (White.)