Homily VIII.
1 John IV. 12-16
"If we love one another, God abideth 1 in us, and His love will be perfected in us. In this know we that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and are witnesses that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour ofthe world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him."
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In Augustin's time and later, it was the usage of the Latin Churches (derived, as St. Gregory relates lib. ix. Ep. 12, from the Church of Jerusalem) to sing the "Alleluia" on Easter Sunday, and during the whole Quinquagesima, or seven weeks from Easter to Whit-sunday. But it was not everywhere restricted to that time: Aug. Epist. (ad Januar.) 55, 32. Ut Alleluia per solos dies quinquaginta cantetur in Ecclesia, non usquequaque observatur: nam et aliis diebus varie cantatur alibi atque alibi: ipsis autem diebus ubique. Comp. ibid 28. Enarr. in Psa. cvi. sec. 1 where this usage is said to rest upon an ancient tradition: in Psa. cxlviii. sec. 1, and xxi. sec. 24, that it is observed throughout the whole world: Serm. ccx. 8; cclii. 9. S. Hieronym. Praef. in Psa. l. and c. Vigilant. 1 (exortus est subito Vigilantius qui dicat nunquam nisi in Pascha Alleluia cantandum: i.e.,Vig. wished it to be sung only on Easter day). ↩
