CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER II. Thank-Offering is the interpretation which the Church has given the CHAPTER III. Outline of the Office Preparation for the Eucharist. The Eucharistic Office. Eucharistic Devotions. Helps to Private Devotion. + KALENDAR "I Believe in the Communion of Saints" Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living GOD, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, . . . . and to the spirits of just men made perfect. -HEB. XII., 22, 23. + Ye are all one man in Christ Jesus.—Gal. iii. 28. The Communion of Saints must be realized socially and personally; socially by commemoration, personally by meditation. "Our Kalendar reflects imperfectly the divine history of the Church. The old dispensation finds no representative from among the heroes of faith, lawgiver or prince or prophet, Enoch or Elijah, Moses or David, Samuel or Isaiah. The new dispensation finds no representative from among those who in Christ's name and by Christ's power brought modern life and thought into His service. The kingly type and the prophetic type, the type of the artist and of the poet and of the scholar, have been put aside. And yet we cannot afford to dispense with the widest teaching of consecrated lives." Gifts, labors, thoughts of distinguishable ancestors, go to swell our spiritual patrimony. It may have been by some conspicuous work which was nobly spread over a lifetime; it may have been by some sweet trait which was just seen in a crisis of trial; but here and there they have helped us, and if we are to enjoy the fulness of their service we must solemnly recall it. In doing this we arrogate to ourselves no authority of final judgment by grateful celebration. We recognize a blessing, and so far we acknowledge GOD's love in him by whose ministry it was shown to us." (Adapted from Westcott, Historic Faith," note ix.) 1. Place within the small column of the Kalendar the names of the Saints and heroes of the Jewish or Christian Church who are not already mentioned, especially noting the illustrious of our own branch of Christ's Church, and in the larger space those departed or living who are connected with you by personal ties of natural or spiritual kinship. 2. Place also on the right side such great events as have manifested God's special providential care over our own Church, and those Diocesan, Parochial, or Missionary events for which you have felt thankful. 3. Do not forget the many to whom you are indebted— rulers who have directed or strengthened national life, scholars by whose books you have been helped, artists whose pictures have given you inspiration, musicians whose harmony has cheered you, and those whose counsel, words, and prayers have been given you. 4. It was the practice of the Primitive Church to make all such commemorations at the Eucharist. Make yours at the Eucharist which falls nearest to their date. Remember the departed as well as the living in the Prayer for the Church Militant, the Consecration Prayer, and during the Communion. 5. Do not forget to note God's personal mercies to yourself; e. g., Birth, Baptism, Confirmation, First Communion, Marriage, Ordination, etc., etc. Remember any particular blessing in the Prayer of Consecration, amongst the “ innumerable benefits procured to us by the Precious Death of Christ. |