"_Before the festival day of the pasch, Jesus knowing that
his hour was come, that he should pass out of this world to
the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he
loved them to the end_". John XIII, 1.

[Sidenote: Liturgy of holy-thursday]

During the last three days of holy-week the church celebrates the
funeral obsequies of her Divine Spouse: and hence there are numerous
signs of mourning in her temples, in her liturgy, and in the dress of
her ministers. On thursday however, a passing gleam of heavenly light
irradiates the solemn gloom in which she is enveloped: for on this day
Jesus Christ, having loved his own even unto the end, instituted the
holy sacrament, the staff of our pilgrimage, our solace in affliction,
our strength in temptation, the source of all virtue, and the pledge
of everlasting life. Accordingly the liturgy of holy-thursday bears
the impress both of sorrow and of gladness: it is not unlike a fitful
day of April in our northern climes, when the sun now bursts from the
clouds which had concealed his brilliancy, and now once more the sky
is shrouded in murky gloom--an apt emblem this of the over-changing
state of man, who at one moment quaffs the inebriating cup of earthly
joys, and yet a little, and it is dashed from his grasp; and sickness,
sorrow and death are his portion.

[Sidenote: its ancient form.]

Anciently three masses used to be celebrated at Rome[57] on this day,
as is evident from the sacramentary of pope Gelasius; and at all the
three the Pope himself officiated. At the first the public penitents
were absolved:[58] at the second the oils were blessed; the last (ad