ordination receives from the Bishop a chalice and consecrated patena, and from the Archdeacon, cruits filled with wine and water, and a basin and towel for washing and drying the hands, to remind him that he is to serve the Deacon. These ceremonies the bishop accompanies with this solemn admonition:
" SEE WHAT SORT OF MINISTRY IS CONFIDED TO YOU: I ADMONISH YOU THEREFORE SO TO COMPORT YOURSELVES AS TO BE PLEAS ING IN THE SIGHT OF GOD." Additional prayers are then recited, and when, finally, the bishop has clothed the Sub-deacon with the sacred vestments, on putting on each of which he makes use of appropriate words and ceremonies, he then hands him the book of the Epistles, saying: " RECEIVE THE BOOK OF THE EPISTLES, AND HAVE POWER TO READ THEM IN THE CHURCH OF GOD, BOTH FOR THE LIVING AND THE DEAD." [1]
The second amongst the Holy Orders is that of Deacon: his Deacon, ministry is more comprehensive, and has been always deemed more holy: to him it belongs constantly to accompany the bishop, to attend him when preaching, to assist him and the priest also during the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, and at the administration of the Sacraments, and to read the Gospel at the Sacrifice of the Mass. In the primitive ages of the Church, he not unfrequently exhorted the faithful to attend to the divine worship, and administered the chalice in those Churches, in which the faithful received the Holy Eucharist under both kinds In order to administer to the wants of the necessitous, to him was also committed the distribution of the goods of the Church. To the Deacon also, as the eye of the bishop, it belongs to in quire and ascertain who within his diocese lead lives of piety and edification, and who do not; who attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the instructions of their pastors, and who do noti that thus the bishop, made acquainted by him with these matters, may be enabled to admonish each offender privately, or, should he deem it more conducive to their reformation, to rebuke and correct them publicly. He also calls over the names of catechumens, and presents to the bishop those who are to be promoted to orders. In the absence of the bishop and priest, he is also authorized to expound the Gospel to the people, not however from an elevated place, to make it under stood that this is not one of his ordinary functions. That the greatest care should be taken, that no unworthy person be advanced to the office of Deacon, is evinced by the emphasis with which the Apostle, writing to Timothy, dwells on the morals, the virtue, the integrity which should mark the lives of those who are invested with this sacred character. [2] The rites and ceremonies used at his ordination also sufficiently convey the same lesson of instruction. The prayers used at the ordination
- ↑ De Subdiaconis prater auctores supra citatos vide Cypr. epist 24. et epist. 42. dist. 17. c. presbyteris, Can. Apost. can. 25. Cone. Carthag. 4. can. 5. Arelat. 2. can. 2. Aurel. 3. cap. 2. Eliber. can. 33. Leo I. Epist. 82. item apud Baron. Annal. Eccl. an 44 num. 79. et 80. an. 253. num. 72. num, 97. an. 239. num. 21. an. 324. num. 128. an. 588. num. 48. an. 589. num. 6. an. 1057. num. 32.
- ↑ 1 Tim. iii. 8.
