Page:Prayerbookforrel00lasa 0.djvu/608

 months following  one  another  without  a  single  break. By the way,  why  nine — not  fewer  and  not  more? Was that  particular number  honored  by  Our  Lord's  choice  for  this  purpose in  memory  of  the  first  nine  months  of  His  human  life?

But "The  Three  Thursdays"  is  only  a  name  by  which three special  days  of  the  year  are  perhaps  now  for  the  first time linked  together  on  account  of  certain  Eucharistic associations which  I  am  going  to  explain — Holy  Thursday Ascension Thursday,  and  the  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi. These are  the  only  religious  solemnities  that  are  attached to the  fifth  day  of  the  week  as  such;  and  they  all  three — two of  them  expressly,  and  one  (as  we  shall  presently see)  indirectly  and  by  suggestion — are  special  reminders and memorials  of  the  Blessed  Eucharist. Perhaps some devout souls  who  are  eager  to  seize  on  any  excuse  or  device for renewing  their  fervor  will  reproach  themselves  with having too  completely  overlooked  the  Eucharistic  claims of Thursday,  and  with  having  scarcely  heeded  the  invitation which its  associations  address  to  the  pious  faithful  to  extend practically to  all  the  Thursdays  of  the  year  the  liturgical title of  Thursday  in  Holy  Week — Feria  quinta  in  coena  Domini, Thursday  of  the  Lord's  Supper.

The first,  then,  of  the  Three  Thursdays  is  Maundy  Thursday, for  which  the  faithful  have,  with  good  reason,  invented for themselves  the  name  of  Holy  Thursday,  though  it  is not  called  so  in  the  Missal,  as  Holy  Saturday  is. This solemn day  was  not  chosen  arbitrarily  to  do  honor  to  the Blessed Eucharist,  but  because  it  was  on  this  day  that  Our Lord Jesus  Christ  fulfilled  His  promise  and  instituted  this memorial of  His  love,  on  the  night  before  He  suffered,  on the  eve  of  Good  Friday.

So, too,  the  Feast  of  the  Ascension  is  not  an  arbitrary feast in  the  calendar,  but  is  kept  on  one  fixed  and  determinate Thursday  for  this  reason :  because  Our  Saviour,  after His Resurrection,  fingered  on  for  another  forty  days  in  the desert of  this  world,  as  He  had  spent  forty  days  in  the  desert at the  beginning  of  His  public  life;  and  in  these  forty  days after Easter  Sunday  we  reach  exactly  the  Thursday  of  the sixth week  of  Paschal  time,  which  is,  therefore,  the  anniversary of  Our  Lord's  Ascension  from  Mount  Olivet,  and which we  therefore  call  Ascension  Thursday.

The particular  date,  however,  of  Corpus  Christi,  the  third of these  Three  Thursdays  that  I  am  linking  together,  was not thus  fixed  beforehand  by  the  circumstances  of  the event that  it  commemorates;  but  it  was  chosen  deliberately for the  following  excellent  reasons. This great  feast  of the  Blessed  Sacrament  was  intended  to  make  amends  to