If we ask ourselves what is the place of the liturgy in a Christian life, we can only find an answer by going back to the origins of both. The origin of the liturgy is to be found in the Last Supper. Whether or not this was strictly a Paschal meal, as it would appear to be, there is no doubt that it was one of those sacred ceremonial meals which were customary among the Jews, at which certain ritual blessings were given, a ritual offering was made, and prayers and hymns were sung. We have here clearly all the elements of a liturgy. If we want to see what was the place of this liturgy in the early Church we cannot do better than turn to the Acts of the Apostles, where we read that after Pentecost, the disciples ‘occupied themselves continually with the Apostles ’teaching. their fellowship in the breaking of bread and the fixed Ries of prayer’ (Acts, 2, 42). So Mgr Knox: but another reading of the Greek gives an even better sense.

The last part of a book that an author writes is the Introduction, and usually it is read to the best advantage at the end of the text. A well-known Professor of Serif ture in Rome used to advise his audience to study Biblical Introduction after one had acquired a working knowledge of the Biblical text itself.

Not by their own choosing but by force of circumstances ove the last fifty years Professors of Scripture have had to concentrate on Biblical Introduction. Rationalists and Modernists were attacking the very nature of the Bible as the Word of God, afl. the Higher Critics were elaborating theories about the origins of movements among the Israelites and about the origin of the particular Books of the Bible, and the Church had to give guidance. This has not always had its desired affect; for good people went away with the impression that the less they had to do with the Bible the safer they would be, and those whose calling demand study of the Bible used to remark that they learned a great deal about Wellhausen and the Documentary Theory but knew very little about the text of the Pentateuch, and apparently were not eager to make up the deficiency.

Acritic suggested that Dom Gregory Dix in his monumental The Shape of the Liturgy had some brilliant liturgical intuitions, even though he was not always accurate or Profound in his details. This criticism may or may not be justified of the book as a whole; but there was surely a brilliancy of intuition in Fr Dix's treatment of St Cyril of Jerusalem and his relation to the development of the liturgy in the West as well as in the East. The realisation that St Cyril introduced a new type of symbolism into the universal prayer of the Church was surely something of a discovery and all its implications may not have been fully appreciated even by Fr Dix himself. At all events, it may be useful to summarise his discovery for the benefit of those unacquainted with this book, and to point to one important implication which bears upon the whole question of the way Christian men express themselves in prayer together.

A total view of Scripture shows that Genesis tells of the emanation of all, of the Fall and the Promise; the apostolic writings speak of Redemptive Incarnation as relevant to all; now there remains the Apocalypse to throw light on the return of all, as it now is, and as it will be, fulfilled. Too often the prophecy is inadequately appreciated, precisely because of its apocalyptic character and the difficulty of its imagery. The difficulty of the book is lessened by a triumph of Catholic exegesis; its inner lessons are indispensable. Despite its utterly judaistic dress and a riot of oriental imagery, it is intensely realist in its deep doctrinal content, which is no less than Jésus-Christ vu et écouté dans sa gloire. It is a fifth gospel.

'…Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God in the blooo out of every tribe and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us to our God a kingdom and priests, and we shall reign on earth.’

David was a man after God's own heart. The saying is founded on certain qualities in the psalmist, prophet, king, conqueror, which mark him out as distinct from all the other saints and heroes of either Testament. Among these qualities was this: that he was, if not an ‘ordinary’ man, a norm among men. He was extraordinary only by not being in the striking mode of most holy men, extraordinary. He worked no miracle like Moses, suffered no crushing humiliation like Job, saw no vision like Isaias, had not to hope against hope like Abranam. He was, to ordinary men, an ordinary man, and his greatness lies therein. He had strong human desires and enjoyments, but did not permit anything human to interfere with his service to his God; and that he sometimes lapsed, and once lapsed gravely, adds to his normality and even, in the long run, to his sanctity. He was intensely alive and intensely human in his desires, his ambitions, and his affections, yet free from base self-love and the sophistication which corrupts the purity of a man's character.

As the hart yearneth to the wells of waters, so my soul yearneth to thee, God.

This psalm is of all perfect men that are burning widi the flame of Goo S love, and pass into contemplative life. And therefore it is sung in the office for die dead; for then have they that they yearned [for], that Is the sight of God. Therefore saith he, as the hart that has eaten the adder, greatly yearns to come to the wells of waters for to drink and wax young again, so when vices and uncleanness are destroyed in me, my soul desires with burning yearning to come to thee, God.