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Vespers.

THE public prayers of the Church, other than those in the great Sacrifice of the Mass, are contained in the Breviary. The whole Office for each day consists of Matins and Lauds; Prime, Tierce, Sext, and None (the prayers for the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours, the old Roman division of the day); Vespers and Compline. This Office was originally chanted daily by the faithful, and is still chanted by some religious Orders, the preservers of primitive tradition and fervor. It is daily recited by the Clergy; and on Sundays and Holydays the Vespers are publicly chanted as part of the solemn worship of the day, to enable the faithful to join in so holy and venerable a form of prayer.

All the parts of the Office consist of Psalms and Canticles from the Holy Scripture, with lessons also from Scripture, or the Holy Fathers, and appropriate to the day.

The Psalms in the Vespers for Sunday are the 109th and the following, including the 113th, although very frequently the 116th is substituted for the last of these. This series of Psalms is most suitable to the ordinary wants of the Church on her weekly Festivals. The first is a kind of commemoration of all the great Mysteries of our Redemption; the second alludes to the praise of God in the congregation; the third commemorates the graces and privileges of the just; the fourth is a Psalm of praise, as is also that substituted occasionally for the fifth; the fifth celebrates the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. All are prophecies of our Lord and of His Immaculate Mother, as well as of the Church. In them we sing the praises of Christ, our Lord, as Priest forever, offering Sacrifice, like Melchisedech, in the form of bread and wine; as Lord of lords, and King of kings; as true to

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