d, not as of
old Noah may have done, when secure from danger he looked down upon
the waters which overspread the earth; but "He was wounded for our
iniquities, and he was bruised for our sins: and the Lord hath laid on
him the iniquities of us all", He suffered and died for us. The moral
ruins of the world, our sins and their awful consequences, caused all
the pangs and sorrows of Jesus. Come then let us cast ourselves at the
foot of that cross, and cry aloud for mercy with a contrite and humble
heart, which He will never despise. To _Thee_ alone, shall we say,
have we sinned, and have done evil before thee; yet have mercy on
us, O God, according to thy great mercy. And thou, O blessed Virgin
and Mother, who standest in silent anguish beneath the cross of thy
agonising Son[56], would that we could feel love and sorrow like unto
thine.

_Eja mater fons amoris_
_Me sentire vim doloris_
_Fac, ut tecum lugeam._
_Fac, ut ardeat cor meum_
_In amando Christum Deum,_
_Ut sibi complaceam. Amen._

[Footnote 46: See also Palmer's Origines Liturgicae, Vol. 1 Antiq. of
the English ritual c. 1, p. 1. Both writers do not hesitate to admit
that the breviary is the great source of the Church of England's
Morning and Evening prayer.]

[Footnote 47: Our divine Lord sometimes passed the night in prayer;
and the early Christians, as Pliny informs his master Trajan, used to
assemble before the light to sing a hymn to Christ. Lucian as well as
Ammianus Marcellinus complained of their spending the night in singing
hymns. S. Jerome in fine writes to Eustoch. (Ep. 22) that besides the
daily hours of prayers we should rise _twice and thrice at night_.]

[Footnote 48: In the mass and office for the dead several prayers and
ceremonies otherwise prescribed are omitted: so on this occasion, says
Benedict XIV, "the church forgetting all things else thinks only of
bewailing the sins of mankind, and condoling with Christ our Redeemer
in His sufferings". As for the antiquity of this service, Martene
remarks (lib. IV, c. 22) that the order of the _nocturnal_ and diurnal
offices of holy-thursday is found, such as we now observe it, in the
ancient Antiphonarium of the Roman church, and in that of S. Gregory
published by B. Tommasi, so that there has been scarcely any variation
during the last thirteen hundred years.]

[Footnote 49: When the Pope officiates, the eight candles over the
_cancellata_ are lighted: six are lighted for a Cardi