Oh adorable Face, troubled and weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, have pity on us.

Yesterday, oh my God, I meditated upon the smile and the benediction of the Holy Face bestowed on little children, and to-day I am going to contemplate the tears which thou didst shed over a tomb, the tomb of thy friend Lazarus. Is not that also one of the most touching scenes in the Gospel, and does it not recall to me that joy and sorrow, sadness and consolation are sisters here below? Do thou thyself dispose my spirit to holy thoughts, and my poor heart to some sentiments of gratitude and love.

1st POINT. — DEATH OF LAZARUS.

On a certain day, when the divine Master was, according to his custom, surrounded by a crowd, a man panting for breath and all covered with dust, rushes towards him, and says to him— “Lord, behold him whom thou lovest is sick(1).” And by these words every one knew that he spoke of Lazarus. “Now,” says the Gospel, “Jesus loved Mary and her sister Martha, and Lazarus.” What happiness to be loved, by Jesus, and what will not Jesus do for those whom he loves? “This sickness is not unto death,” he immediately says, “but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” And he remained two days in the place where he was, and daring those two days Lazarus died. Couldst thou not have prevented him from being ill, oh Lord, couldst thou not have prevented him from dying?

Listen, oh my soul, and meditate upon the answer of the Master — “It is needful that God should be glorified.” It is needful that God should be glorified by the sufferings of those whom he loves; it is needful that he should be glorified by their death. What a fearful mystery is this law of suffering and death! And yet, though terrible, it is just. “The disciple is not above his master,” and the master willed to suffer, and he died.

I understand and I accept, oh my God, and when it shall please thee to cause the hour of the supreme trial to strike, I will fix my eyes upon thy Holy Face, disfigured by grief, I will allow sickness to fasten itself on my limbs, and death to turn them cold upon my funeral couch, whilst awaiting the word and the divine look which shall be the signal of my resurrection to a better life.

2nd POINT. — THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS.

Jesus loved Lazarus, and God must be glorified. Love and zeal for the salvation of souls made the Savior brave the danger to which he was exposed by the Jews, who had but just tried to stone him in Judea. Together with the twelve he takes once more the road to Bethany. Now Lazarus had been already three days in the grave. Martha, approaching Jesus, said to him— “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” “Thy brother will rise again,” Jesus answered. “I know, Lord, that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” “Ego sum resurrectio et vita,” continues the master, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live, and every one that liveth and believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live.” And when he drew nigh to the tomb, he wept: Lacrymatus est Jesus: and the Jews said— “Behold how he loved him(2).”

Oh tears of Jesus, tears of the Holy Face, how you show me the love of my Savior, and how dear and precious you are to me! How many poor Lazarus are there upon earth, oh my God! How many poor souls dead of a more cruel death, the death of sin! How many poor Marthas and Marys are weeping over the tomb of a soul! Come, oh Lord Jesus, come and see. Command that the stone which closes up the tomb shall be removed. May thy divine look penetrate to the corruption in the midst of which they are buried, and the new Lazarus shall rise again, and the Marthas and Marys shall cast themselves at thy feet that they may kiss them with gratitude and love, and that they may say to thee— “Remain with us henceforth, oh our Master, that our brother may not die again through sin.”

SPIRITUAL BOUQUET

Et lacrymatus est Jesus.

And the eyes of Jesus shed tears. (John, XI.)

THE ARCHCONFRATERNITY.

Our Lord, after having demanded an association of reparatory prayers, states still more clearly his intentions; he desires that an archconfraternity should be established forming a center towards which many similar confraternities, established in all the different parts of the world, should converge. “In the same way,” said Sister Saint-Pierre,” that Mary has adopted the archconfraternity for the conversion of sinners, he will adopt that of the reparation; the two must act together in harmony to repair the outrages offered to God.” This association, demanded by Our Lord, was to have two objects: 1st the reparation of blasphemies uttered against God; 2dly the sanctification of Sunday. Blasphemy and the violation of Sunday are the principal sins which specially provoke the anger of God.

This association was to be placed to under the patronage of St Martin, of St Louis and of St Michael; and each associate was every day to recite a Pater, an Awe and a Gloria, and to wear a cross on which was to be engraved on one side— Sit nomen Domini benedictum, and on the obverse— Vade retro, Satana.

Serious difficulties, which lasted a long time, were destined to impede the designs of Our Lord and of the Sister. Several attempts were made. Mgr. Morlot, Archbishop of Tours, wished to institute an association for the reparation of blasphemies at Notre-Dame-la- Riche. He himself had the leaflets of the reparatory prayers printed; but the association was, nevertheless, not established in conformity with what Our Lord desired.

Later on Mgr. Parisis, Bishop of Langres, instituted a confraternity of reparation for blasphemy and for the profanation of Sunday. A principal point had however been omitted: there was no mention of the devotion to the sorrowful Face of Our Lord, indicated by Sister Saint-Pierre as a sensible means of reparation. Therefore the pious Carmelite was only half satisfied.

It was reserved for Leo XIII to establish at Tours, the seat and cradle of the work, a real Archconfraternity under the title of the Holy Face, by apostolical briefs dated the 9th December 1884 and the 1st October 1885. This Archconfraternity, established at the Oratory of the same name, in the former drawing-room of M. Dupont, where since 1852 a special worship had been paid to the miraculous picture before which the servant of God prayed during twenty-five years, has the power of affiliating confraternities to it in all parishes, with the exception of the holy city of Rome. It now sheds its rays over the whole earth, and the desire of Sister Saint-Pierre has been granted.

INVOCATION.

Oh Savior Jesus, who didst will that the reparation should be as public and universal as had been the offence, penetrate us with the true spirit of reparation. Give us grace to love thy divine Face, to make it known and loved by the whole world, in order that it may be to us a source of light and a means of salvation.

(1) Ecce quem ama infirmatur. (Joan. xi,3.)

(2) Luke, xi, 36.