have authoritatively settled. Some three months ago I attended the opening of that devotion in the church of my friend, Father O'Rourke, over in Lewisville, in our neighboring State. As all the scaffolding, erected for the frescoing of his church's ceiling, had not been removed, he dispensed with the Procession which normally follows the Mass of Exposition. I recognized the reasonableness of that omission, but I doubted the lawfulness of his also omitting the singing of the Pange Lingua. When I spoke to him about it, he justified the elimination of the hymn on the ground that the sole purpose of the Pange Lingua in the ceremony was to occupy the time taken up by the Procession, and that the absence of the latter made the hymn superfluous. Was he right or wrong?

Fr. Downey. Wrong, most decidedly. At the Mass of Exposition, as at that of Reposition, the Pange Lingua should be sung, Procession or no Procession.

Fr. Temple. When the Forty Hours are being observed during Paschal Time, should the Paschal Candle be lit at Solemn Mass?

Fr. Downey. Not unless such lighting be a timehonored custom. Even in that case it should not be lighted during the Mass Pro Pace, or, according to a ruling of the Sacred Congregation, at any other time when the color of the Mass is violet. The assigned reason is that the lighted Paschal Candle is a symbol of joy, inap

propriate to a feast whose color is that of mourning, as is violet.

Fr. Moriarty. Am I wrong in thinking that, when the opening of the Forty Hours takes place at the late Mass on Sunday, those who have gone to Holy Communion at an earlier Mass, that morning, may gain the indulgences?

Fr. Downey. No; you are quite right. For that matter, even if they went to Confession and Communion on the day before, Saturday, they could gain the indulgences, provided they made the requisite visits to the Blessed Sacrament during the exposition.

Fr. Higgins. When a priest gives the blessing after Communion administered outside of Mass, does he kiss the altar?

Fr. Doyle. No; when he replaces the ciborium in the tabernacle, he raises his eyes, extends and joins his hands, saying Benedictio Dei, etc., and at the word Patris he turns to the congregation and makes the sign of the cross.

Fr. Crossway. Is the blessing always to be given when Communion is distributed outside of Mass?

Fr. Doyle. Yes, except when the distribution takes

place just before or just after a Requiem Mass. Fr. Ferguson. Is there not another exception, Father Doyle? If I give Communion before Mass in a convent chapel to Sisters who, I know, are to remain throughout the Mass, may I not omit the blessing? They are sure to receive the regular blessing before the last Gospel. Fr. Doyle. Most rubricists, I believe, say that you

may omit it in that case; but the exception I mentioned—just before or after a Mass for the dead-is the only one made by the Sacred Congregation in its answer to a query propounded on the subject in 1892. Fr. Browning. My bashful young friend here, Father Mullin, wants me to inquire whether it is ever permitted at a Solemn Mass to have a chasuble of one color and dalmatics of a different color. I've told him that the answer is a foregone conclusion, that of course the mixing of colors is not permitted; but he insists on my getting my opinion corroborated.

Fr. Downey. Possibly, Father George, he is merely insisting that you change your opinion, for it needs changing. I know of one case, some twenty odd years ago, where a Pontifical Mass was celebrated with a red chasuble (red being the color of the day) and white dalmatics. The bishop who permitted this deviation from the normal usage afterwards consulted a rubrical authority about the licitness of the act, and was told that the Sacred Congregation, being asked about a case substantially the same, replied that the decision in such a matter was left to the prudence of the ordinary.

Fr. Ferguson. May I suggest that our own very prudent ordinary, were he here this afternoon, would admit that our present session has been sufficiently long?

Dean Patterson. That means of course, Father Dan, that you want a smoke. Well, possibly we all deserve one; so perhaps we had better

adjourn. Before doing so, however, I want to express the great satisfaction I have experienced throughout this conference. I have found it most interesting, as well as most instructive; and I feel that I am speaking for all of you when I thank the members of our Bureau for the thorough efficiency they have displayed in answering the heterogeneous inquiries with which they have been beset. And now, the Sub tuum.

PRIESTLY MORTIFICATION

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its vices and concupiscences.-Gal.: v, 24.

Whoever makes little account of exterior mortifications, alleging that the interior are more perfect, shows clearly that he is not mortified at all, either exteriorly or interiorly.-St. Vincent de Paul.

Be on your guard when you begin to mortify your body by abstinence and fasting, lest you imagine yourself to be perfect and a saint; for perfection does not consist in this virtue. It is only a help; a disposition; a means, though a fitting one, for the attainment of true perfection.—St. Jerome.

WHILE

WHILE it is a commonplace that human nature is much the same in all ages as in all climes, it is nevertheless a fact that specific instances of such identity or homogeneity are often looked upon, not as mere matters of course, but as occurrences really surprising. The precepts of the Gospel and the counsels of perfection were obviously laid down for the Christians of all time, and are consequently as applicable to us of the twentieth century as they were to any previous generation of the faithful that heard them preached and expounded; yet we regard the asceticism of some of those generations as altogether out of place in our scheme of Christian life to-day. That St. Vincent de Paul, for instance, in the seventeenth century, should treat his body with great austerity-chastising it with haircloth, iron chains, and leather belts armed with sharp points this we accept as natural enough; but that