The place of the officiating Priest, in reading the Psalms and Lesson, is not specified. Sometimes it is the custom to stand at the feet of the corpse (when it is placed near the Chancel), so that the congregation may be in front of the Priest, but usually he would occupy 'the accustomed place.' The 90th Psalm seems the most appropriate for burial of an aged person. 270. Then shall follow the Lesson taken out of the fifteenth Chapter of the former Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians. 271. When they come to the Grave, while the Corpse is made ready to be laid into the earth, the Priest shall say, or the Priest and Clerks shall sing: Man that is born, &c. In the Prayer-Book of 1549 the casting the earth upon the body was directed to be done by the Priest, with the words, 'I commend thy soul to God the Father Almighty.' This action was transferred from the Priest to 'some standing by,' when those words were omitted in 1552. The present rubric seems to direct that any one else is to perform the act. If done, as it usually is, by the Parish Clerk, or other inferior Church official, there is more dignity in it than if done by an unofficial person. If there is a celebration of Holy Communion at the time of a burial, it is a separate service, and the celebrant must remember that the use of any Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, except the one for the day, is very difficult to justify as being in accordance with the rubrics of either service. See Rubric 6. 272. Then, while the earth shall be cast upon the Body by some standing by, the Priest shall say, Forasmuch as it hath, &c. 273. Then shall be said or sung, I heard a voice, &c. 274. Then the Priest shall say. Lord, have mercy, &c. THE THANKSGIVING OF WOMEN AFTER CHILD-BIRTH, COMMONLY CALLED, THE CHURCHING OF WOMEN. 275. The Woman, at the usual time after her Delivery, shall come into the Church decently apparelled, and there shall kneel down in some convenient place, as hath been accustomed, or as the Ordinary shall direct: And then the Priest shall say unto her, Forasmuch, &c. By the direction that the woman should be decently apparelled, it was originally meant that she should be veiled. This was part of the general practice of her being (in the words of the Bishops at the Savoy Conference), 'perspicuous to the whole congregation.' And although the custom of veiling cannot be revived, yet its principle of marking the individual should be borne in mind in the arrangement of the Service, as e.g. placing the woman in a special place.