Original

i8o
fered. We know that the law of the Gospel makes the
love of one s neighbour the distinctive mark of the true
disciples of Jesus Christ. In the Gospel we hear the
words of our Lord reproving the pharisees who had so
strangely distorted the law. He restores their real
meaning to the external prescriptions. They must be
neither exaggerated nor contemned. The pharisees
had multiplied them beyond all measure. Nevertheless,
in a spirit of obedience, we must observe the fasts and
abstinence which the Church prescribes in the name of
God. In the Prayers of this Mass we beg
of God that
our fasts may help us to avoid sin, and may render the
Lord more propitious to us (COLLECT) ; that the offering
on the altar may remove from us all dangers (SECRET).
In the Postcommunion we pray that in our participa
tion of the Sacrament of the Eucharist we may find the
remedy for all our errors. In the Oratio super populum
the Church asks that being protected by the Lord,
we may be delivered from all our misfortunes and serve
Him in peace and tranquility.
1 The sung parts of the Mass confirm the teachings of
the Lessons. In the Introit we see that our support
and our joy is in the compassion of the Lord for those
who are humble ; in the Gradual we learn that in all
our maladies and extreme affliction God is our physi
cian ; in the Offertory that in the excess of His goodness
God Himself will be our deliverer. In the Communion,
we learn that He indeed wills to make known to us His
law, and that if He but deign to cast upon us one glance
we shall be filled with joy.