Chapter XIX.—Of Stations.

Similarly, too, touching the days of Stations,108    The word Statio seems to have been used in more than one sense in the ancient Church. A passage in the Shepherd of Hermas, referred to above (B. iii. Sim. 5), appears to make it ="fast.” most think that they must not be present at the sacrificial prayers, on the ground that the Station must be dissolved by reception of the Lord’s Body. Does, then, the Eucharist cancel a service devoted to God, or bind it more to God?  Will not your Station be more solemn if you have withal stood at God’s altar?109    “Ara,” not “altare.” When the Lord’s Body has been received and reserved110    For receiving at home apparently, when your station is over. each point is secured, both the participation of the sacrifice and the discharge of duty. If the “Station” has received its name from the example of military life—for we withal are God’s military111    See 2 Tim. ii. 1, etc. [See Hermas, Vol. I., p. 33.]—of course no gladness or sadness chanting to the camp abolishes the “stations” of the soldiers: for gladness will carry out discipline more willingly, sadness more carefully.

CAPUT XIX .

Similiter et stationum diebus non putant plerique sacrificiorum orationibus interveniendum, 1182A quod statio solvenda sit, accepto corpore Domini. Ergo devotum Deo obsequium Eucharistia resolvit? An magis Deo obligat? Nonne solemnior erit statio tua, si et ad aram Dei steteris ? Accepto 1183A corpore Domini, et reservato, utrumque salvum est, et participatio sacrificii, et executio officii. Si statio de militari exemplo nomen accipit (nam et militia Dei sumus, II Cor. X, 4; I Tim. I, 18) utique nulla laetitia, sive tristitia obveniens castris, stationes militum rescindit. Nam laetitia libentius, tristitia sollicitius administrabit disciplinam.