an ecstasy of praise for the inestimable favour
bestowed by God on the Virgin, for the mercies shown to Israel, and for
the fulfilment of the promises made to Abraham and the patriarchs" (Dr.
Henry, _loc. cit_.).

It is found universally in the ancient liturgies and affords a proof of
the apostolic and universal praise of the Blessed Virgin. Durandus
(thirteenth century) gives some reasons for the assignment of the
Magnificat to Vespers. Because Vespers is the grandest liturgical Hour;
because Mary probably arrived at the house of Elizabeth in the evening;
because it was in the moral evening of the world that Mary consented to
be the Mother of God; because she is the star of the sea, etc. The
following interesting reason for the use of the Magnificat at Vespers is
given by St. Bede (works 5, 306). "It comes to pass, by the bounty of
the Lord, that if we were at all times to meditate upon the acts and
sayings of the Blessed Virgin, the observance of chastity and the works
of virtue will always continue with us. For, the excellent and salutary
custom has grown up in Holy Church that all shall sing her hymn (the
Magnificat) every day with the Vesper Psalms, in order that the
recalling of the Lord's incarnation, by this means, may the oftener
incite the souls of the faithful to devotion and that the consideration
of the example set by His Mother may confirm them in the stability of
virtue. And it is meet that this should be done at Vespers, so that the
mind wearied in the course of the day, and distracted by various
opinions, may, at the approach of the season of quiet, collect itself in
oneness of meditation and through the wholesome reminder may hasten to
cleanse itself, by the prayers and tears of the night, from everything
useless or harmful which it had contracted by the business of the day."

_Suffrages of the Saints_. (Title XXXV.) In Sec.2 of rubrics of the new
Breviary we read, "Deinceps, quando facienda erunt suffragia sanctorum,
unum fiet suffragium, juxta formulam propositam in Ordinario novi
Psalterii." Thus were abolished the old formulae of suffrages and a new
one inserted.

Antiphon Beata Dei Genitrix.... V. Mitificavit .... R. Et exaudivit....
Oremus, A cunctis....

This will be said at Lauds and Vespers outside Paschal time (1) on all
Sundays and ferias, (2) on semi-doubles and simples, except (_a_) in
Advent and Passiontide, (_b_) when there is a commemoration of a double,
a day within an octave. In P