ablution (abloshon)

[ duty on certain occasions, or in preparation for some religious act, as a sign of moral purification, and sometimes in token of innocence of, or absence of responsibility for, some particular crime or charge (whence the expre ion "to wash one's hands of anything"). Mohammedan law requires ablution before each of the five daily prayers, and permits it to be performed with sand when water cannot be procured, as in the desert. There is a natural analogy between the ablution of the body and the purification of the soul. Jer . Taylor , Worthy Communicant. (b) In the Rom. Cath. Ch.: (1) The washing of the feet of the poor (John xiii. 14) on Maundy or Holy Thursday, called mandatum. (2) The washing of the celebrant's hands before and after communion. (c) In the Eastern Church, the purification of the newly baptized on the eighth day after baptism. 14 abnegare, refuse, deny, The government which could not, without abne gating its own very nature, take the lead in making rebellion an excuse for revolution. Lowell, Study Windows, p. 167.