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have a pledge of the Church s solicitude to bring us
help. In the Introit, we hear the accents of a people
discouraged, because God seems to sleep. Yet, this
people have confidence in His awakening.
The Gradual
proclaims before all nations the omnipotence of the Most
High.
The Tract extols the divine intervention which
is ever efficacious. For, to assure the deliverance of His
own, God can make the earth to move, to tremble. It
is this same God who sustains th,e steps and assures the
salvation of those who hope in Him . (OFFERTORY) Near
unto His altar we shall regain the joy of our youth
(COMMUNION).
In the Collect of the Mass, the Church, in our name,
implores, as a support for our weakness, the protection
of Saint Paul, the Apostle of the nations, and then in
the Epistle, she exposes, at length, the tribulations
which the great Apostle suffered in order to establish
the kingdom of God on earth and to rescue souls from
the bondage of the devil. In the Gospel appointed
for this Sunday, the Church sets before us the parable
of the seed which falls on different kinds of ground ; on
the bad ground where it cannot germinate or grow, on
the good ground where it bears fruit. These various
kinds of ground represent the different kinds of souls
which receive the Word of God. Only those souls that,
by assiduous and persevering labour, are sufficiently
prepared, profit by the preaching of the Gospel.
In the Prayers of the Secret and Postcommunion
we are taught that the holy Sacrifice which is offered
on our altars, strengthens us and protects us (SECRET),
and is the food which sustains us and enables us to serve
God faithfully (POSTCOMMUNION). .
As the preceding week recalled to us the origin of
the human race and its sad history, so this week of