He will be with us still. May we not give this meaning to the warning of the white-robed angels: Hic Jesus qui assumptus est veniet? He will come: He will Himself be the greatest of the gifts that He gave to men when ascending on high. Dedit dona hominibus.
A holy man,[1] whose writings are marked by great sobriety of thought and the absence of all extravagance, has written: "The presence of Our Lord in the tabernacle may be said to be the very chief of all the mercies of God to us in our present state; more precious than the guardianship of the angels of which we think so little, or the practical benefits which flow from our membership of the Church, or from the prayers and protection of the saints, or even from the mightiness and power and vigilant tenderness of the motherly care of Mary herself "
St. Paul's argument about the Incarnation applies with overwhelming force to this special phase or development of the Incarnation, in which the Word that was made flesh in order to dwell amongst us visibly has disguised that vesture of flesh under another form in order to dwell amongst us still, corporally and yet invisibly. St. Paul asks: "He that spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not also with Him given us all things?" (Rom. viii., 32). And now we too may ask: since Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, has deigned to give Himself to us in so close a union, and to dwell night and day in our midst that He may come often into our hearts, what greater proof of His love can there be left for Him to give? And ought not our gratitude and our love to be as unceasing and, in our poor finite measure, as intense as His infinite love and bounty? (Father Russell's "Communion Day.")
DEVOUT EXERCISES FOR ALL THE THURSDAYS IN THE YEAR, AND ESPECIALLY FOR HOLY THURSDAY AND THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI.
THE Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VII., on Feb. 14, 1815, and April 6, 1816, granted : a plenary indulgence to all those who shall perform for one hour, in public or in private, on Holy Thursday, any devout exercise in honor of the institution of the Blessed Sacrament, provided that they be truly penitent, and approach the sacraments of confession and communion on that day, or on any day during, the following week.
A plenary indulgence, on the same conditions, on the
- ↑ Henry James Coleridge, S.J.
