SATURDAY EVENING.

HAIL, sweet Jesus! Praise, and honour, and glory be to Thee, O Christ, who didst suffer Thy most holy side to be pierced with the soldier’s lance, and forthwith there flowed out blood and water, wherewith Thou mightest wash and quicken our souls; Thou didst will, O my most beloved one, that Thy sweet heart should be wounded for my sake. O mayest Thou wound my heart with the lance of Thy most piercing love, so that I may have no will but Thine; lead my soul, O Lord, lead it through the wound in Thy side, into the secret recesses of Thy love, into the treasure-house of Thy divinity; that I may with gladness glorify Thee, my God, who wert crucified and diedest for me; and that all ideas of visible things being blotted out from my remembrance, my intention may be fixed in Thee alone. Lo! I salute with all the devotion in my 64power, Thy five principal wounds. Hail! O Hail, ye ruddy glorious and most sweet wounds of my Redeemer and my King! Hail, precious seals of my reconciliation and salvation, I ask to dwell and lie concealed within ye, and thus shall I be secure from all evil.

Hail, sweet Jesus! Praise, and honour, and glory be to Thee, O Christ, who wert taken down from the cross amidst the bitter lamentation of Thy friends, and didst vouchsafe to be anointed with spices and ointments, to be wrapt in a linen cloth, and to be laid in another’s sepulchre. Bury within Thyself, I beseech Thee, all my senses, my strength, my affections, so that being joined to Thee by the power of Thy love, I may become insensible to every thing else, and may care to know and feel nought save Thee, my only Redeemer, Thee, my soul’s only good.

Hail, sweet Jesus! Praise, and honour, and glory be to Thee, O Christ, who, having crushed the power of the devil, didst descend as to Thy soul in might and love to the abodes below, and didst gladden by Thy presence the ancient fathers who were there detained, and didst bring them out into the 65blessed abodes of Paradise, and to the full vision of God. May the virtue of Thy passion and blood descend, I beseech Thee, now into purgatory upon the souls of my parents, relations, friends, and benefactors, and all the faithful departed, that, delivered from punishment, they may be received into the bosom of everlasting peace.

Hail, sweet Jesus! Praise, and honour, and glory be to Thee, O Christ, who camest forth a Conqueror from the closed and sealed tomb, and didst rise in glorious triumph from the dead, and having received again that most bright serenity of countenance, didst pour upon the hearts of Thy friends exceeding gladness. Grant, O Lord, that I may rise from the sins of my former conversation, and may walk in newness of life, that I may seek those things which are above, that I may relish those alone, and nothing which savours of this earth, so that when Thou that art my life shall appear, I may also appear with Thee in glory.

Hail, sweet Jesus! Praise, and honour, and glory be to Thee, O Christ, who when the forty days after Thy resurrection were accomplished, didst ascend all glorious in 66the presence of Thy disciples into heaven, where Thou sittest at the right hand of the Father blessed for ever. O that my soul may ever languish for love of Thee! O may I have no taste for things of this world; but may I, with mine eyes fixed on Thee, sigh and hunger, and thirst after Thee alone! O may nothing affect me, may nothing give me any joy save Thou, my Lord and my God.

Hail, sweet Jesus! Praise, and honour, and glory be to Thee, O Christ, who didst give Thy Holy Spirit to Thy chosen disciples as they were persevering in prayer, and didst send them forth into all the world to teach all nations. Cleanse, I beseech Thee, the inmost of my heart: grant me true purity and steadfastness of soul, that the Comforter may find a fitting abode within my breast, and may enrich me with the abundant treasures of His grace, may console and strengthen me, may fill and govern me, and wholly take possession of me.-

Hail, sweet Jesus! Praise, and honour, and glory be to Thee, O Christ, who at the last day shalt come again as Judge, to render to every man reward or punishment according to his works. O most holy Lord, 67O my God, give me grace tango through the course of this miserable life with such innocence and conformity to Thy will, that when my soul shall quit the prison-house of this body, clad with Thy merits and Thy virtues, it may be mercifully received by Thee into heaven, where, with all Thy saints, it may laud and bless Thy name for ever and ever. Amen,