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Show HOLY YEAR. Tomorrow night at the hour of midnight mid-night the entire Catholic world in all known countries will commence the celebration , of the Holy Year, which has been decreed by' the Holy Father. The following document is self-explanatory: "It is most becoming that we who are about to celebrate the commencement of the Holy Year, happily proclaimed by our Holy Father Leo XIII, should, in the depth of night, rise to greet the Author of time, and, prostrate before His altars, to offer the most acceptable Victim, who is the Immaculate Lamb, assisting at the sacred banquet, so that at this most opportune time we may find the assistance of His grace and mercy; for our salvation is, nearer. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, be-hold, now is the day of salvation. And if the kingdom of heaven, which is the Church on earth, is likened to the ten virgins going forth in the night to meet the Bridegroom, each one of us may, on the occasion of this solemn festival, consider more attentively these sacred words: "Trim your lamps; for behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him.' ' ' "Since, moreover, at midnight of the last day of December of the coming year the present century will come to an ena, ana a new one Degin, it is very appropriate that thanks be given to God by some piou3;and solemn ceremony cere-mony for the benefits received-during the course of the present century, and owing to the urgent necesGities of the times, that greater favors be implored in order to begin auspiciously the new era. . , . "Therefore, in order that the approaching ap-proaching year. 1200, may begin happily hap-pily through the' supplication of the assistance of God and His Only Begotten Begot-ten Son, our Redeemer, and that it may end, after a prosperous course, by ushering in a still more happy century, as it is right for uk'to expect, .Our Most Holy Father, Leo XIII, graciously concedes con-cedes that, with the, prudent consent of the ordinary of every place, at midnight mid-night on the 31s; day of December, both of the closing and of the coming year, in all churcaes- and chapels where the most blessed sacrament is right- fully kept, the sane most august sacra- i ment may be exposed to adoration; and permission is-given to read or to sing at the same i hour Coram Sanc-tissimo, Sanc-tissimo, one mass of the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord and the octave oc-tave of the Nativity; and' permission is given, by special favor, to the faithful to receive holy communion, either during dur-ing the mass or after it; all necessary conditions to be observed. "All things to the contrary notwithstanding, notwith-standing, 13th day of November, 1899. (Signed) - "C. Bishoo of Praeneste Card. Maz- zella, Prefect. Sacred Congregation of Rites. "D. PANICI, Secretary." . -- Jl . . |