that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves. And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord. The Priest says: Let us pray. Deacon. Let us bend the knee. OGOD GOD, who dost teach us to celebrate the paschal sacrament in the pages of both testaments of Holy Writ: grant us such knowledge of thy mercy, that receiving these present gifts of grace, we may rest in the sure hope of future blessings. Through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth, &c. THE EIGHTH PROPHECY AND Isaiah 4. in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain. The Tract. Isaiah 5. Y wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: V. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it. V. And he made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. The Priest says: Let us pray. Deacon. Let us bend the knee. GOD, who hast declared by the mouth of thy holy prophets that in every place of thy dominion thou art the sower of good seed and the Husbandman tending the choice branches of thy vine: grant to thy people, who are as it were the vines and fields of grain, that they may root out all thorns and briers, and bring forth abundant fruit worthy of thee. Through our Lord. THE NINTH PROPHECY AND Exodus 12. ND the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord's passover. The Priest says: Let us pray. Deacon. Let us bend the knee. ALMI LMIGHTY, everlasting God, who art wonderful in the ordering of all thy works: grant thy redeemed to know that it was not more wondrous that in the beginning the world should be made than that in the fulness of time Christ our Passover be sacrificed for us who livest and reignest, &c. |