f. This ancient practice remained universal for the first
1,500 years after Christ in all Churches, and is now quite common.

Morning Prayer.--The name given to the Church's Daily Office of
prayer offered in the morning. In the {191} first Prayer Book of 1549
both the Morning Service and that for evening began with the Lord's
Prayer and ended with the third Collect. In 1552, the Sentences,
Exhortation, Confession and Absolution were prefixed to Morning
Prayer, but not to the Order for Evening Prayer. In 1661, they were
prefixed to Evening Prayer also; and both Morning and Evening Prayer
were then lengthened at the end by the addition of all that follows
the third Collect. (See DAILY PRAYER; also MATINS.)

Morse.--The clasp used to fasten the cope in front is so called. It
is frequently made of precious metal and set with jewels. From the
Latin _morsus_, meaning a _bite_, hence a clasp.

Mothering Sunday.--A popular name used in England for the Fourth
Sunday in Lent. It is supposed to have derived this name from the
Epistle for the Day in which occur the words "Jerusalem which is
above is free, which is the Mother of us all." This no doubt gave
rise to the custom in England of making pilgrimages to the Mother
Church of the Diocese, _i.e._, the Cathedral. This Sunday also
became a holiday on which young persons in service were permitted
to visit their mothers in their homes. (See FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT;
also LENT, SUNDAYS IN.)

Movable Feasts and Fasts.--Those Feasts and Fasts which are not
observed on a fixed date, but are variable being dependent on the
time Easter is kept. Easter Day is always the first Sunday after
the full moon which happens upon or next after the Twenty-first day
of March; and if the full moon happen upon a Sunday, Easter Day is
the Sunday after. The {192} _Movable Feasts_ are the following:
Advent Sunday which is always the nearest Sunday to the Feast of St.
Andrew (Nov. 30) whether before or after; the three remaining
Sundays in Advent; Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima
Sundays; the Six Sundays in Lent; Rogation Sunday; Ascension Day,
Whitsun Day and Trinity Sunday; Monday and Tuesday in Easter Week;
Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun Week; also the number of Sundays
during the Epiphany and Trinity Seasons is variable, these Seasons
being longer or shorter according to the time Easter is kept. The
_Movable Fasts_ are the Forty Days of Lent, including Ash Wednesday,
Good Friday, Easter Even