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Compare the petition in the Roman and Ambrosian Liturgies: Supplices Te rogamus, omnipotens Deus, jube haec proferri per manus sancti Angeli Tui in sublime altare Tuum in conspectu divinae Majestatis Tuae, ut quotquot ex hac altaris participatione sacrosanctum Filii Tui corpus et sanguinem sumpserimus, omni benedictione caelesti et gratia repleamur. Postea vero lapis, qui mensa altaris dicitur, super altare adaptatur, per quam perfectionem et soliditatem notitiae Dei possumus intelligere, quae non propter duritiam sed propter soliditatem fidei lapidea esse debet. Ale 10.111. quoted by Durandus, Rationale , 1.7, 25. The chapters of Durandus on the Altar (c. 2) and the consecration of the Altar (c. 7) give a most interesting summary of mediaeval thought upon the ideas of the Altar. The thought is preserved in the words of the prayer before Holy Communion attributed to Ambrose: Summe Sacerdos...qui Te obtulisti Deo Patri hostiam puram et immaculatam in ara crucis pro nobis....
Little is said in the Epistle of the relation of Nature to man in regard to the fulness of his hope (Rom. 8:18 f.), but the ‘parables of nature’ in Heb. 6:7 f., pointing to Gen. 1:11 f., 3:17 f., indicate the connexion between man and his realm.


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