Far off let idle visions fly,
      No phantom of the night molest: 
      Curb Thou our raging enemy,
      That we in chaste repose may rest.

      Father of mercies! hear our cry;
      Hear us, O sole-begotten Son! 
      Who, with the Holy Ghost most high,
      Reignest while endless ages run.”

In Passiontide, the Breviary gives us the last verse, Deo Patri, and the translation renders it:—­

     “To Thee, Who dead again dost live,
      All glory, Jesus, ever be,
      Praise to the Father, infinite,
      And Holy Ghost eternally.”

Little Chapter.  This is a beautiful call to our Lord to remind Him, as it were, that we are His own, that we bear His name.  In this invocation we express our confidence in Him and ask Him not to abandon us, but to dwell with us.  “But Thou, O Lord, art among us, and Thy holy name is invoked upon us; forsake us not, O Lord our God”; and for past protection the Church adds to their invocation, taken from the prophet Jeremias, the words of gratitude, “Thanks be to God.”

The Response.  “In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum... nos.”  “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.  Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.  For Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord God of Truth.  I commend my spirit.  Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.  Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.  Keep us, O Lord, as the apple of Thine eye.  Protect us under the shadow of Thy wings.”  No more sublime prayer exists in the liturgy than this response, which the Church orders us to say nightly.  She wishes, in its daily recital, to prepare us for death, by reminding us of the sentiments and words of our dying Lord on the cross, “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit” (Ps. 30, v. 6), and by asking Him Who redeemed us on the bitter tree, to keep us safe as the apple of His eye and to protect us “under the shadow of His wings” (Ps. 40, v, 6).  These solemn words of our dying Saviour have been, in all ages, and in all lands, the death prayer of many of those whom He redeemed, with the great price.  St. Stephen, the proto-martyr, prayed “Lord Jesus receive my spirit.”  “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit,” prayed St. Basil in his death agony.  “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit,” prayed thousands of God’s servants, heroes and heroines, e.g., Savanarola, Columbus, Father Southwell, the martyr Mary, Queen of Scots, and countless other servants of God.

Nunc Dimittis.  The canticle Nunc dimittis is the last in historical sequence of the three great canticles of the New Testament.  It was spoken at the presentation of Christ, by Simeon, “This man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was in him.  And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.  And he came by the spirit into the