THE OLD TESTAMENT 
IN THE MASS 

By 
REV. CORNELIUS J. CARR, S.J. 

T H E P A U L I S T P R E S S 
4 0 1 W E S T 59TH STREET 

N E W YORK 19, N . Y . 



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New York, June 1, 1951. 

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A cknowledgment 
The writer wishes to express his gratitude 
to the Rev. Frederick L. Moriarty, S.J., 
professor of Old Testament at Weston Col-
lege, for his kind encouragement and many 
helpful suggestions, both doctrinal and tex-
tual, during the writing of this pamphlet. 
Hearty thanks are also due to Rev. Joseph 
F. Donahue, S.J., who read the manuscript 
and suggested changes which make for easier 
reading. 
Acknowledgment should also be made of a 
heavy reliance on Gihr's The Holy Sacrifice 
of the Mass which has proved to be, for the 
writer's purposes, a mainstay of liturgical 
orthodoxy. 





The Old Testament in the Mass 
Introduction 

Ours is an ancient liturgy, more ancient even than the 
Christian era. In his book on Liturgical Prayer, when speak-
ing of the antiphons and psalms used in the Church's ritual, 
Dom Cabrol remarks: 

These reminiscences of the patriarchs and the people of 
God, so frequently met with in Catholic liturgy, point to 
its true origin; it goes back in an unbroken line to a time 
beyond that of our Lord Jesus Christ, beyond the prophets, 
beyond the patriarchs, even to the very beginning of the 
world. Christ is indeed connected through Mary and 
Joseph, through one generation after another, with him who 
was of David, who was of Noe, who was of Henos, who was 
of Adam, who was of God. 1 

If that be so, we who have inherited the richness of Catholic 
liturgical life ought to become aware of the ancient origins 
of our prayers, and particularly of our great collective prayer, 
the Mass. An understanding of the historical context in which 
these prayers were first uttered, will endow them with a rich-
ness and significance which they would otherwise lack. In the 
following pages, then, let us unearth these ancient origins, much 
as archeologists have recently unearthed vestiges of ancient 
Jewish culture and worship. However, since it would be an 
almost interminable task to rummage through all of Catholic 
liturgy in search of these signposts of Old Testament worship, 
we shall limit ourselves to the Ordinary of the Mass, and se-
lect such prayers and phrases as have a clear Old Testament 
origin or reference. These we shall try to explain in their his-
torical context, and then briefly reflect on the aptness of the 
phrase or prayer as found in the Mass. 

1 Cabrol, Liturgical Prayer, p. 209. Cf. Luke iii. 31, 36, 38. 
[ 5 ] 



Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from the na-
tion that is not holy: deliver me from the unjust and deceitful 
man. For thou, O God, art my strength: why hast thou cast 
me off? And why go I sorrowful, whilst the enemy afflicteth 
me? Send forth thy light and thy truth: they have led me, and 
brought me unto thy holy hill, and into thy tabernacles. And 
I will go in unto the altar of God; unto God who giveth joy 
to my youth. I will praise thee upon the harp, O God, my God; 
why art thou sad, 0 my soul, and why dost thou disquiet me? 
Hope in God, for I will yet praise him, who is the salvation of 
my countenance, and my God. 

This prayer, which is surely older than 586 B. C., 2 is a 
passionate plea for deliverance from enemies and restoration 
to the privileges of the Temple worship at Jerusalem. The 
psalmist, possibly David, 3 is in exile amid a heathen people, 
where his faith has been sorely tried by the mockings of his 
captors who jeer at him for believing in a God Who has quite 
obviously deserted him. However, his confidence in eventual 
rescue overcomes his grief, and excites joy and happiness in 
his soul. If, as some hold, the psalmist is a priest of the 
Temple, 4 we see a man whose love for the Jewish ritual is en-
thusiastic, and for whom separation from the Temple is exile's 
greatest affliction. He begs God to send him His light and His 
truth to guide him, like ministering angels, back to the holy 
mountain, to the City of David, Jerusalem, and the great Tem-
ple of Yahweh. He yearns to enter once again into the close 
communion with God which the Temple services afford, as he 
was privileged to do in his youth. There he will sing the praises 
of God the rest of his days. Buoyed by this thought, he re-
bukes himself for his loss of hope and confidence in God, his 
Saviour. 

How fitting it is that the Church should select this Psalm 
2 Boylan, The Psalms, Vol. I, p. 149, on Psalm xlii. The English version of the psalm and of the other prayers of the Mass quoted in this booklet, is taken from Cabrol, op. cit., unless otherwise indicated. 
3 Gihr, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, p. 353. 
4 Kirkpatrick, The Psalms, p. 226. 

f 6 1 



to begin the sacred mysteries of the Mass, becomes clear from 
a look at several phrases therein: 

From the nation that is not holy—As one of a chosen gen-
eration and a prince in the holy nation which is God's kingdom 
on earth, the priest is set apart from the "nation that is not 
holy" and is ordained a spokesman for the people of God, "thy 
holy people," as the Canon expresses it. Hence he here begs 
God to look upon him as disassociated from the world and its 
wickedness for which Christ Himself in His special prayer 
would not pray. 6 

From the unjust and deceitful man—Most probably this 
phrase originally referred to the leader of the heathens among 
whom the psalmist was captive, 6 but here in the Mass the 
meaning has been adapted to refer to what St. Paul calls the 
"old man": "As regards your former manner of life, you are 
to put off the old man which is being corrupted through its de-
ceptive lusts." 7 Hence the priest prays for deliverance from 
sin, concupiscence, and overpowering temptations, that he might 
put on the new man "according to the image of his Creator," 8 
and thus be more worthy to appear before God as the inter-
cessor for His people. 

Why hast thou cast me off?—To the psalmist in exile, his 
faith in God seems to be thwarted by the facts of his daily ex-
perience. So, too, the priest, chosen by God to assist in a 
marvelous way in the work of redemption, finds that his own 
faults, sinful inclinations and passions, seems to thwart and 
obstruct the very work for which he was ordained. He often 
comes close to despairing of ever doing God's work as it should 
be done, and in such moments of spiritual darkness and dry-
ness, it seems that God has deserted him. Then, weighed down 
by his sorrow, he cries out, "Why hast thou cast me off?"— 
even as Christ Himself did on the Cross. "Why go I sorrowful, 
whilst the enemy afflicteth me?" 

B John xvii 9. 
6 Kirkpatrick, op. cit., p. 233. 
7 Rphesians iv. 22. 
8 Colossians iii. 10. 

f 7 1 



Unto thy holy hill—God was always conceived by the Jew-
ish mind as dwelling in a high place, and hence their altars and 
temple were always on an elevation, a mountain or hill. "I will 
betake myself to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of 
frankincense," cried Solomon, 9 and Isaias prophecied, "It will 
come to pass in the days to come that the mountain of the 
Lord's house will be established as the highest mountain, and 
elevated above the hills." 1 0 To Ezechiel the Lord said, "The 
whole territory around the top of the mountain shall be most 
sacred." 1 1 It was on a hill top that the Temple at Jerusalem 
was located. Although there were other places of worship 
throughout the nation in which the Jewish people gathered for 
prayer, yet the Temple at Jerusalem was the only place of sacri-
fice, and this by Mosaic ordinance. 1 2 It is to this place of 
sacrifice, not merely of prayer, that the psalmist longs to re-
turn. The priest, reciting the prayer of an exile, now prepares 
to ascend his mountain of prayer, and, in the person of Christ 
Who Himself often "went away to the mountain to pray," 1 3 to 
offer the Sacrifice of the Mass. 

Into thy tabernacles—A tabernacle is a dwelling, more pre-
cisely a tent. The word "tabernacle" is rich in significance 
for us Catholics since it is the place wherein is kept the Holy 
Eucharist, Christ dwelling among us. But to the Jews, too, it 
had deep significance. From the earliest days of recorded 
Jewish history, the tabernacle was a conspicuous element in 
their worship of God. Through the long years of the exodus 
(about 1300 B. C.), the Jews carried with them a place of 
worship and sacrifice made according to specifications dic-
tated by God Himself to Moses, "so that I may dwell among 
them." 1 4 They were not to have the continual real, physical 
presence of God living among them as we Catholics are priv-
ileged to enjoy today. This tabernacle was a sort of meeting 
place between heaven and earth where God often spoke to His 

9 Canticle of Canticles iv. 6. 
1 0 Isaias ii. 2. 
1 1 Ezechiel xx. 40. 
1 2 Deuteronomy xii. 11. 
1 3 Mark vi. 46. 
1 4 Exodus xxv. 8. 

f 8 1 



prophets, and thus directed the fortunes of His people, Israel. 
Thus God fulfilled His promise made to Moses on Sinai: "I 
will set my dwelling in your midst and never shall my love 
cast you off, but I will move about among you and be your 
God while you shall be my people." 1 8 But this manner of 
dwelling was only a preparation. The complete fruition of 
that promise had to wait until the Last Supper and the institu-
tion of the Sacrament of Love, the Eucharist. Now truly we 
have a "tabernacle which the Lord has erected and not man." 1 6 
As the priest mounts the steps of the altar, led on by the light 
and truth of God, as by two ministering angels, he approaches 
not merely the place of sacrifice, but the dwelling of the Son 
of God, the "Light that shineth in the darkness," "full of 
grace and truth," Who, as St. John says, "has pitched His 
tent among us." 1 7 

I will go in unto the altar of God—11 How lovely is thy 
dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts!" 1 8 Refreshed in spirit and 
buoyed by hope of deliverance, the psalmist imagines himself 
once again participating in the Temple services which so de-
lighted him in his youth. For the Catholic this Psalm ac-
quires new meaning when he recalls that in the early Church 
it was a song of Baptism, sung by the Catechumens imme-
diately after Baptism as they marched in procession to partic-
ipate in the Mass and receive Holy Communion for the first 
time. They had just been made children of God. 1 9 When 
they sang, "To God who giveth joy to my youth," youth for 
them meant their young life of grace which would now be made 
more vigorous and joyful through their participation in the 
Mass. At the altar of God, the priest will receive from the 
Holy Eucharist refreshment for his youth, just .as will all the 
faithful, a youth which is spiritual and interior, ever strength-
ened and made joyful through grace. God imparts this joy 

1 5 Leviticus xxvi. 11-12. 
1 6 Hebrews viii. 2. 
1 7 John i. 14. 
1 8 Psalm lxxxiii. 2. 
1 9 Bussard-Kirsch, The Meaning of the Mass, p. 20. 

[ 9 ] 



as long as He is served with a joyful and fervent heart. 2 0 This 
verse, repeated three times during the prayers at the foot of 
the altar, transforms the Psalm into a song of joy and happi-
ness in God. As such it was sung in ancient days by the 
psalmist in exile. 

Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and 
earth. 

This brief verse is frequently found in the liturgy of the 
Church, accompanied usually by the sign of the Cross. The 
Psalm from which it is taken is a song of thanksgiving. 2 1 
Israel gives thanks for deliverance from a great danger, likened 
to a raging monster and a great flood. But Yahweh rescued 
His people as "a bird is delivered from the snare of the fowler." 
In the final verse, the one used in the Mass, the psalmist 
attributes the rescue to Yahweh alone Who has employed His 
omnipotence in favor of the Jewish nation. His people had 
called upon Him, and He had set them free—He Whose power 
had created heaven and earth. 

Just what catastrophe the Jews were delivered from is 
not certain. Most probably it was the Babylonian exile. The 
Psalm, therefore, was perhaps written about 537 B. C. We 
know from the Hebrew text of this Psalm that the word used 
for "God" was "Yahweh," the most sublime and awesome desig-
nation applied to God in Jewish worship. It was the Covenant-
name of the God of Israel, revealed to Moses for the first time 
on Sinai when God said to Moses: "I am Yahweh. I appeared 
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the name God Almighty, but 
my name Yahweh I did not show them." 2 2 The use of this 
name was supposed to remind God of his Covenant-love for 
His people. As Father Boylan puts it in his Commentary 
on the Psalms, "the loud crying of the name in the presence 
of the heathen would also put pressure, as it were, on Yahweh 
to carry out all that His name implied." 2 3 

20 Gihr, p. 3S1, note. 
2 1 Psalm cxxiii. 
2 2 Exodus vi. 2-3. 
2 3 Boylan, op. tit., Vol. II, p. 293. 

[ 10] 



The priest, about to ascend the altar, and conscious of 
his own misery as his foregoing prayers have shown, invokes the 
powerful name of the Lord to assist him in worthily discharging 
this sublime function of the Holy Sacrifice. At the same time 
he makes the sign of the Cross, as if to remind God that the 
sacrifice of Calvary has guaranteed His loving assistance. 
Therefore, we ask Him to grant us all that is implied in the 
new Covenant of Calvary. 2 4 

Thou shalt turn again, O God, and quicken us, and thy 
people shall rejoice in thee. Show unto us, O Lord, thy mercy, 
and grant us thy salvation. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let 
my cry come unto thee. 

After the Confiteor, a thoroughly Christian prayer, the 
priest prepares at last to ascend the steps of the altar. In so 
doing, he reverts again to an ancient prayer of the Jews which 
best expresses his interior dispositions of the moment. 2 5 

When the Israelites were delivered from their exile in 
Babylon by the power of God, they had hoped to settle once 
again in their homeland, and there to enjoy the favor of God 
and domestic peace. But when they returned and found a 
ruined city and an impoverished land, and efforts to restore the 
Davidic kingship proved fruitless, the chosen people seemed 
still to be a victim of the anger of God which had banished 
them from home years before. Around them they saw only the 
wreckage of their world. They had been filled with joy at 
their liberation, but their homeland promised only years of 
reconstruction, social unrest, and hardship. Had not God's 
anger been sufficiently appeased by the sufferings in exile? 
Would Israel never again regain its greatness among the na-
tions? Would God continue His scourge? Nay! "Thou 
shalt turn again, O God, and quicken us, and thy people shall 
rejoice in thee. Show unto us, O Lord, thy mercy, and grant 
us thy salvation!" 

These are the words which the priest says when he has 
24Z,oc. cit. 
2 3 Psalm Ixxxiv. 7-8. 

1 11 1 



completed his great act of sorrow for sin. He prays that the 
true repentance and acknowledgement of his guilt which he 
has expressed in the Confiteor, may turn God back to him once 
again as a dispenser of mercy and grace. This grace, as the 
life of the soul, will, in turn, revivify his spirit sagging under 
the burden of sin. It is an act of trust and confidence in the 
mercy of God. Then, borrowing and transforming another 
prayer from the lips of the suffering Jews crying for help from 
their place of exile, the priest begs God to hear his own cries 
for help: "O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come unto 
thee." 2 6 

2 6 Psalm ci. 2. 

I 12 1 



THE MASS OF THE LEARNERS 
The Lord be with you! And with thy spirit! 
The priest now salutes the faithful for the first time. 2 7 This 

salutation was common among the Jews centuries before the 
coming of Christ. "The Jews were very particular," says 
Father O'Brien in his book on the history of the Mass, "about 
having the name of God in all their salutations, or at least an 
allusion to some one of God's good gifts." 2 8 One need not 
search far in the Old Testament to see that this is true. We 
recall that when Ruth, the Gentile woman and grandmother 
of David, went out into the fields to glean the corn, the owner 
later appeared and greeted his workers with "The Lord be with 
thee!" They replied, "The Lord bless t h e e ! " 2 9 We remem-
ber, too, that Raguel blessed his daughter's marriage with "the 
God of Jacob be with thee!" 3 0 

Originally, "The Lord be with thee!" bore the meaning, 
"May the Lord be with you as your helper!" This we see 
from some of the earliest books of the Old Testament. In this 
sense God used the expression on Sinai, when Moses pleaded his 
incompetence as a leader of the Hebrew people. Allay your 
fears, said God, for "I will be with you." 3 1 And later when 
Jeremias protested that he was unfit, to be a messenger of God, 
the Lord said, "Be not afraid . . . for I am with thee." 3 2 In 
the psalms also, the phrase has the same meaning: "For though 
I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear 
no evils for thou art with me." 3 3 Our Lord Himself used the 
expression in His last address to the Apostles before ascending 

2 7 The prayers up to this point have been of a private nature ^ O Bnen, The History of the Mass, p. 208 
2 » Ruth ii. 4. 
3 0 Tobias vii. IS. 
3 1 Exodus iii. 12. 
3 2 Jeremias i. 18. 
3 3 Psalm xxii. 4. 

r 1 1 



into heaven: "Behold I am with you all days" 3 4-=-you will 
succeed in the mission I have entrusted to you, because I shall 
be helping you. 

The priest now salutes the faithful with "The Lord be 
with you!" Before acting as their interpreter, he presents 
himself to them, begging God to be present in them through 
His grace. The people reply that they wish God to be with 
the priest also, helping him to offer their sacrifice worthily. 
Seven more times will the priest and faithful exchange this 
greeting, to beg the grace of God for each other as they progress 
together through the sacred mysteries of the Mass. 

Take away jrom us our iniquities, we beseech thee, O Lord, 
that we may be worthy to enter with clean minds into the 
holy of holies. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. 

After inviting the faithful to join him in prayer, the priest 
begins his climb up the holy mountain to the altar of God. 
During his ascent, he continues to pray for deliverance from 
sin, not for himself alone now, but for all who with him are 
about to offer the sacrifice of the New Law. A prayer for 
cleanliness in the sight of God also preceded the sacrifices 
in the Old Law. God had commanded through the lips of 
His prophet Isaias, "Keep yourselves pure, you who bear the 
vessels of the L o r d ! " 8 5 Consequently, when the high priest 
entered into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, he 
had first to spend much time in prayer and in performing the 
purifications required by law. 3 6 So the priest who is now 
approaching the Holy of Holies, continues to purify his soul 
of all that would make him unworthy in the sight of God. 

The phrase "Holy of Holies" carries us far back to the 
days of Solomon's Temple, conceived by his father David, and 
completed in 961 B. C. S 7 The designation was applied to the 
inmost room of the Temple, thirty feet square, which housed 
the Ark of the Covenant. It was a place of the utmost sanc-

3 4 Matthew xxviii. 20. 
3 5 Isaias lii. 11. 36 O'Brien, op. cit., p. 191. 
3 7 Dyson-Jones. The Kingdom of Promise, p. 52, note. 

[14] 



tity, and it was considered sacrilegious even to gaze into this 
hallowed spot. A thick veil separated it from the rest of the 
building, and it was drawn aside by the high priest only on the 
Day of Atonement. It was while Zachary was in the Holy 
that the angel Gabriel announced to him that his wife would 
conceive and bear a son, whose name would be called John. 3 8 
The sacredness of the Christian altar and of the repository of 
the Holy Eucharist would naturally suggest to the early Chris-
tians the august place of sanctuary and sacrifice which was so 
prominent in their Jewish religious heritage. With these great 
and solemn reminiscences, the priest refers to his place of 
sacrifice as the Holy of Holies, the one spot on earth where 
man stands nearest to God. 

Be thou blessed by Him in Whose honor thou wilt be con-sumed.39 

As we have already seen, the altar, in Catholic as well as 
in Jewish rites, is a sacred element in worship. It is only 
proper, therefore, that it receive some veneration before the 
sacrifice is begun. The priest, in a solemn Mass, after mount-
ing the steps and kissing the altar stone, places incense on a 
burning coal as he stands before the tabernacle, and recites 
the words of blessing. 

As the server raises the censer to receive the several grains 
of incense, we may easily let our thoughts fly back through 
time to Solomon, the son of David, who had ordered censers 
to be made of "most pure gold" 4 0 for use in the Temple. But 
long before Solomon incense had been used in the Temple 
ritual. As far back as the time of Moses (about 1300 B. C.), 
God had commanded that for His worship, "thou shalt make' 
also an altar to burn incense," 4 1 which must be set directly in 
front of His tabernacle, the Holy of Holies. That God 
esteemed this mark of adoration and worship, we can gather 
from His direction to overlay the altar with the purest gold, 

3 8 Luke i. 11-21. 
3 9 Translation from Gihr, op. cit., p. 376 
4 0 3 Kings vii. SO. 
4 1 Exodus xxx. 1. 

[ I S ] 



and to burn incense there morning and evening. 4 2 "Most holy 
shall this incense be to you. You shall not make such a com-
position for your own uses, because it is holy to the Lord.' 4 3 
To burn incense was a function reserved to the priest alone: 
"Aaron was separated to minister in the Holy of Holies, he 
and his sons forever, and to burn incense before the Lord, ac-
cording to his ceremonies, and to bless His name forever." 4 4 

Apart from being an act of adoration, the burning of in-
cense had a propitiatory value in the sight of God. Let us 
recall that frightening scene from the Book of Numbers in 
which the anger of God was appeased by the burning of in-
cense. When Moses and Aaron were being threatened by their 
rebellious brethren, they fled to the tabernacle and prostrated 
themselves before the Lord. Once they were within, the great 
cloud, which always indicated the presence of God, covered 
it over, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Get you out 
from the midst of this multitude; this moment will I destroy 
them." 4 0 Quickly Moses turned to Aaron and told him to take 
a burning coal from the altar of incense, put it in the censer, 
cover it with incense, and rush out into the midst of the people 
and pray for them. As he ran into their midst, a fire had come 
out from the Lord and was already consuming the multitude. 
But Aaron "offered the incense, and standing between the dead 
and the living he prayed for the people, and the plague 
ceased." 4 6 Since God looked with such favor on this divinely-
appointed rite of incensation, it is easy to understand why 
Solomon fashioned his "censers of the purest gold." 4 7 

At the time of Our Lord, the priests were still offering 
incense, true to God's command. It was while Zachary was 
offering incense before the Holy of Holies that Gabriel ap-
peared to him "standing on the right side of the altar of in-
cense." 4 8 

42 Exodus^txx. 3, 7-8. 
4 3 Exodus*xx. 36-7. 
4 4 1 Paralipomenon xxiii. 13. Cf. also 1 Kings ii. 28. 
4 5 Numbers xvi. 45. 
4® Numbers xvi. 47-8. Cf. also Wisdom xviii. 21. 
4 ? 3 Kings vii. 50. 
4 8 Luke i. 11. 

[ 16] 



As Cardinal Gasquet says, "there can be no manner of 
doubt that the Christians adopted from the Jews the practice 
of using incense in the celebration of the Liturgy." 4 9 What 
meaning the Church attaches to this rite can be gathered from 
her prayer at a later incensation in the Mass: "Let my prayer 
be directed as incense in thy sight, O Lord." 5 0 Incense is a 
symbol of prayer. It was in this symbolic significance that St. 
John saw it in his remarkable vision: "And another angel came 
and stood before the altar, having a golden censer; and there 
was given to him much incense that he should offer of the 
prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which is before 
the throne of God. And the smoke of the incense of the 
prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of 
the angel." 5 1 

Incense is also a symbol of sacrifice. In the Old Law it 
was more than a symbol: it was a real sacrifice. The spices 
which composed the incense were offered to God as a gift, the 
dedication of which was consummated by burning it in whole 
or in part. In the New Law, however, the burning of incense 
is but a symbol. There is only one sacrifice now, consummated 
on Calvary and repeated in an unbloody fashion in every Mass 
—the immolation of the Son of God. As "incense exhales and 
breathes forth its inmost soul when it is consumed in the fire 
and dissolved in fragrant clouds of smoke that rise heaven-
ward," so man, in a spirit of sacrifice, "consumes himself with 
all his faculties in the fire of love for the honor and service of 
God.'? 3 2 

In the Mass, all who are incensed are drawn into a "sancti-
fied atmosphere" 6 3 such as befits all persons and objects con-
nected with the Holy Sacrifice. At this particular incensation, 
just before the priest begins the Introit, it is the altar which 
is venerated. The incensing calls to mind that the altar is a 
sacred place representing Christ Himself. Before it, as before 
the Holy of Holies in ancient days, clouds of incense now rise 

4 9 Gasquet, Sacramentáis and Some Catholic Practices, p. 63. 
5 0 Psalm cxl. 2. 
5 1 Apocalypse viii. 3-4. 
5 2 Gihr, op. cit., pp. 372-73. 
5 3 Ibid., p. 375. 

f 17 1 



to heaven as a symbol of the prayer and sacrifice about to rise 
from the hearts and minds of the faithful. As the clouds of 
smoke hover aloft in the sanctuary and surround the altar of 
God, they may well remind us of the cloud which enveloped 
the tabernacle so often during the exodus of the Jews from 
Egypt, as a manifestation of the presence and glory of the 
Lord. "The cloud covered the tabernacle and the glory of the 
Lord appeared." 5 4 

THEINTROIT 

The prayers at the foot of the altar were originally said by 
the priest in private, before entering the church. Now, although 
said in the sanctuary before the altar, they are still of a private 
nature, and not a part of the Mass proper. The introduction 
to the Mass was the Introit prayer. It is the first prayer which 
the priest now reads at the altar, and it differs from day to 
day. In the early days of Christianity, the choir chanted the 
Introit as the priest entered the church and made his way to 
the sanctuary. The prayer is almost always taken from the 
psalms, the ancient prayer-songs of the Hebrews, which, be-
cause of their rhythm and balance, could be so beautifully 
adapted to liturgical chant. 

Since the contribution of the Mosaic liturgy to Christian 
liturgy is largely contained in the various psalms used through-
out the Mass, it will not be out of place to insert a word about 
the psalms into our considerations of the Mass. 

David, as we know, reigned over the Jewish people in the 
golden age of their history, about 1000 B. C. He was a great 
warrior and an able administrator, but before all else, he was 
a man of God. It was to David that God made the great dy-
nastic promise: his kingdom would last forever. "And thy 
house shall be faithful, and thy kingdom forever before thy 
face, and thy throne shall be firm forever." 5 5 It was as "son 
of David" that our Lord was often hailed by His people. 5 6 
Yet David's greatness did not rest on his kingship alone. He 

5 4 Numbers xvi. 43. Cf. also Exodus xl. 32-36; 2 Paralipomenon v. 13; Leviticus xvi. 2. 
6 8 2 Kings vii. 16. 
s e Cf. Matthew ix. 27; xx. 30; xv. 22; Mark x. 47. 

[ 18] 



was a musician and poet, and he united these talents in the 
composition of songs to be sung in the service of God either 
by the priests alone, or by all the people together. David ap-
pointed special ministers for the Temple service whose duty 
it was to make the liturgy as solemn as possible by accom-
panying it with music and song. 6 7 When he had prepared a 
place for the Ark of the Covenant in his city of Jerusalem, 
"David spoke to the chiefs of the Levites to appoint some of 
their brethren to be singers with musical instruments . . . that 
the joyful noise might resound on high . . . And all Israel 
brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord with joyful 
shouting, and sounding with the sound of the cornet, and with 
trumpets, and cymbals, and psalteries, and harps." 5 8 

As Father Heinisch remarks, in these songs of David and 
his followers, "the individual could express his immolation of 
self to God. These songs filled his heart with joy and trust 
in God; these songs inspired him with strength in time of need, 
comforted him in misfortune, misery and persecution, imbued 
him with trust in God's mercy as he recalled his sins, and 
taught him to bear patiently the visitations sent from 
heaven." 5 9 

"Christians inherited this gift of prayer from the Jews," 
writes Dom Cabrol. "Never did any people pray as did the 
chosen people of God. Sometimes their prayer took the form 
of petition or of praise; sometimes it was the communion of 
soul with God, expressing its love, its fears, its dread of His 
judgments, its horror of sin and evil; or, again, its theme was 
the anguish of a sinner trembling before his God, yet never 
losing unlimited confidence in the mercy of his Judge. It could 
find words in which to show forth its hatred against the enemies 
of God, or its admiration of His works, or its consciousness of 
the creature's weakness in comparison with the divine omnipo-
tence." 6 0 What prayers the Christians composed were infused 
with the same spirit of dependence, adoration and hope, to 
which were added the love, confidence and joy that were the 

5 7 1 Paralipomenon vi. 31-2. 
5 8 Ibid., xv. 16, 28. 
5 9 Heinisch, The Theology of the Old Testament, p. 38. 
6 0 Cabrol, op. cit., p. 5. 

f 19 1 



fruits of the Christian revelation. These sentiments of the Old 
Law the Christian liturgy has, as it were, baptised, and the 
Church, with her profound sense of continuity, begins her 
greatest prayer—the Sacrifice of the Mass—with those ancient 
hymns which form so precious a part of our heritage from 
Israel. 

Lord, have mercy on us; Christ, have mercy on us; Lord, 
have mercy on us! 

The Kyrie eleison, a vestige of the earliest Christian liturgy 
which was entirely Greek till at least the end of the second 
century, 6 1 has a profoundly Trinitarian (and hence Christian) 
significance as found in the Mass. It has, however, Jewish 
overtones. These words were on the lips of many who ap-
proached Our Lord during His public life. The Gospels of 
St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, each have instances of 
its use: "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on u s ! " 6 2 "Jesus, 
Son of David, have mercy on me!" 6 3 "Jesus, Master, have pity 
on us!" 8 4 The frequency and spontaneity of this cry of sup-
plication, coming as it did from devout Jews, lead us to suspect 
that it must have been a traditional, familiar ejaculation in 
Jewish religious life. 

And this suspicion is verified when we turn to the Old 
Testament and discover that it was the classic supplication of 
the ancient Jews. The phrase occurs most frequently in the 
psalms, which, as we have seen, are themselves the outpourings 
of a prayerful heart offering unaffected adoration to God. 
"Have mercy on me," cried David, "and hear my prayer!" 6 5 
"Have mercy on me, O Lord!" 6 6 "Redeem me and have mercy 
on m e ! " 6 7 "O Lord, be thou merciful to me; heal my soul, 

6 1 Croegaert, Les Rites et les Prieres du Saint Sacrifice de la Messe, Vol. I, p. 133. 
6 2 Matthew xx. 30. 
8 3 Mark x. 47. 
6 4 Luke xvii. 13. 
0 5 Psalm iv. 2. 
««Psalm ix. 14. . 
6 7 Psalm xxv. 11. 

f 20 1 



for I have sinned against t h e e ! " 6 8 "Have mercy on us, O 
Lord, have mercy on us!" 6 9 And elsewhere in the Old Testa-
ment, the same plea is found. As Isaias so beautifully prayed: 
" 0 Lord, have mercy on us: for we have waited for thee; be 
thou our arm in the morning, and our salvation in the time of 
trouble." 7 0 "Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for thou art a 
merciful G o d ! " 7 1 

When we raise our voice with that of the priest as he cries, 
"Lord, have mercy on us!", we are praying in the company 
of all these holy men of the Old Law, crying for mercy to the 
same God Whom they worshiped. 

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of 
good will. We praise thee, we bless thee, we adore thee, we 
glorify thee, we give thee thanks for thy great glory. O Lord 
God, heavenly King, God the Father almighty. O Lord Jesus 
Christ, the only-begotten Son. O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son 
of the Father, who takest away the sins of the world, have 
mercy on us. Who takest away the sins of the world, receive 
our prayer. Who sittest at the right hand of the Father, have 
mercy on us. For thou only art holy. Thou only art Lord. 
Thou only, 0 Jesus Christ, art most high, together with the 
Holy Ghost, in the glory of God the Father. Amen. 

Just as the Kyrie was rich in Old Testament overtones, 
although profoundly Christian in significance, the Gloria, 
though Christian in origin, derives much of its fragrance from 
a pre-Christian past. In the early assemblies in which the 
Christians gathered to worship God, much was left to personal 
initiative. There were no prayer books nor hymn cards 
stamped with an Imprimatur for the use of the faithful. Much 
of their song was improvised, a spontaneous outpouring of a 
joyful and unrestrained spirit. We read in the Epistles of St. 
Paul how often the Holy Spirit inspired these new-born Chris-
tians, just recently come to the altar of God, to give free rein 

«8 Psalm xl. 5. 
6 9 Psalm cxxii. 3. 
7 0 Isaias xxxiii. 2. Baruch iii. 2 

f 21 1 



to their enthusiasm, which welled up in prayer and song, mag-
nifying the glory of God. To quote Father Cabrol, "The Gloria 
in excelsis is almost the only composition of this remote period 
which has come down to us in its entirety; it is a liturgical 
treasure, a precious relic of those early times when prayer 
must have been so eloquent." 7 2 This spontaneous, impro-
vised chant quite naturally fell into the mold of the prayer-
songs which the Christians had known before their conversion. 
It was the psalms especially which formed the model and sup-
plied the structural foundation for the early Christian hymns. 

Let us glance, then, at a few of the hymns which were well 
known to these early Christians, and which afforded them a 
model when they came to proclaim the glory of God. It would 
be too great a task here to examine the Gloria phrase by phrase, 
and then to find its counterpart in Old Testament literature. 
Nor could this be done without forcing the Christian revela-
tion on the Old Testament. For although many of the concepts 
of God which are contained in the Gloria are found also in the 
Old Testament, yet much of the Gloria is exclusively Christian 
in sentiment. The Jews, for example, had little or no notion of 
the Trinity. The Trinitarian notion of God was at best only 
adumbrated in the Old Testament, and hence the acclamations 
in honor of God (called "doxologies") which we find in the 
Old Testament are unitarian in concept, while the Christian 
doxologies are Trinitarian. These differences are obvious. Our 
purpose is to see very briefly and in a general way how rich 
in Old Testament ideas is this thoroughly Christian hymn of 
praise. A few Old Testament selections will reveal this to us. 

The psalms furnish us with our first examples: "Blessed 
be the Lord the God of Israel from eternity to eternity." 7 3 
"Thou wilt bless the just: Lord, thou hast crowned us as with 
a shield of thy good will." 7 4 Great is the Lord and greatly to 
be praised: and of his greatness there is no end!" 7 5 "O Lord, 
our Lord, how admirable is thy name in all the earth!" 7 ( i 

7 2 Cabrol, op. tit., p. 100. 
7 3 Psalm xl. 14. 
7 4 Psalm v. 13. 
7 5 Psalm cxliv. 3. 
7 6 Psalm viii. 10. 

I 22 ] 



"Bring to the Lord glory to his name; adore ye the Lord in his 
holy court ." 7 7 "Praising I will call upon the L o r d ! " 7 8 "Let 
all thy works, 0 Lord, praise thee, and let thy saints bless 
thee!" 7 9 "Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise ye him 
in the high places." 8 0 "Come, let us praise the Lord with joy: 
let us joyfully sing to God our Saviour; let us come before 
his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to 
him with psalms!" 8 1 

From another part of the Old Testament comes a beautiful 
doxology which should not be passed over, one sung by David 
himself, the master of song and model for generations of Jewish 
prayer. David has just completed his plans for the great 
Temple at Jerusalem, and the Jewish people have just brought 
their beloved king all their treasures to make beautiful the 
house of the Lord. In his joy, David stands before his people, 
lifts his arms to heaven, and prays: "Blessed art thou, O Lord, 
the God of Israel, our father from eternity to eternity. Thine, 
O Lord, is magnificence, and power and glory and victory; 
and to thee is praise; for all that is in heaven and in earth is 
thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art above all 
princes. Thine are riches, and thine is glory, thou hast do-
minion over all, in thy hand is power and might: in thy hand 
greatness, and the empire of all things. Now, therefore, our 
God, we give thanks to thee, and we praise thy glorious 
name!" 8 2 Gloria in excelsis Deo! 

Let us pray! 
After completing the Gloria, the priest kisses the altar, turns 

and greets the people with "The Lord be with you," and moves 
to the Epistle side to begin the Collect. This prayer, unfor-
tunately, is not within the range of our study, but we cannot 
pass it by without recommending it to the meditation and study 
of the faithful. Its extraordinary simplicity, coupled with its 

7 7 Psalm xxviii. 2. 
7 8 Psalm xvii. 4. 
7 9 Psalm cxliv. 10. 
8 0 Psalm cxlviii. 1. 81 Psalm xciv. 1-2. 
S 2 1 Paralipomenon xxix. 10-13 

[ 2 3 ] 



great dignity and deep theological perception, make it "the 
most solemn form of prayer." 8 3 The presence of this prayer 
affords us the opportunity to comment on the invitation which 
precedes it, and on the posture assumed by the priest during 
the course of the prayer. 

First, the Oremus. It is an invitation, quite obviously to 
common prayer, collective prayer. The Christians pray con-
scious of their unity in one society, the Church, and hence their 
prayer is social. When God long ago made His Covenant with 
Moses on Sinai, He made it not with Moses alone or with any 
other individuals, but with the Israelite nation,84 Often God 
speaks of "my people Israel," and when, through the prophets 
and leaders whom He had raised up among them, He admon-
ished wrongdoing, it was the nation He admonished; the people 
suffered His wrath. His anger with kings and priests was ex-
plained in terms of a misled people; and it was as father of the 
nation, the God of Israel, that His people prayed to Him in 
moments of danger, public or personal. At such times, in the 
face of disaster, they would often invoke Him by His Cov-
enant name, Yahweh, to remind Him of His promises to His 
people. This relationship of God to His people as a nation is 
reflected in many of His Old Testament titles. 

This bond of unity in prayer was a real bond, yet indeed 
only a shadow of that mystical union of all Christians with 
Christ, Who called Himself the Vine, and us the branches. 8 5 
But it is important, at least, to realize that collective prayer 
has always been high in God's favor, and that the cry "let us 
pray!" had rung out over the plains and valleys of Juda for 
centuries before the Christian era. 

Let us now notice the priest's posture during this prayer. 
For those of us who have attended Mass all our lives kneeling 
in the pews, the natural position for prayer is kneeling with 
hands folded. However, our spokesman before God, offering 
our collective prayer at this moment, is standing with hands 
spread apart! It is not a question of one method being wrong 
and the other right; the priest is merely using a more ancient 

8 3 Cabrol, op. cit., p. 38. 
8 4 Deuteronomy xxvi. 18. 
8 B John xv. 5. 

f 24 1 



posture for prayer. The Roman catacombs have revealed 
carvings of the early Christians using this posture. Scripture 
tells us that it was the common position for prayer in Jewish 
worship. In one of his psalms, David cries, "Let the lifting up 
of my hands [that is, my prayer] be as the evening sacri-
fice." 8 6 And we are all acquainted from Bible History days 
with the story of Amalek's war against Israel. During the 
battle, Moses went up on a hill to pray. "And when Moses 
lifted up his hands, Israel was victorious, but if he let them 
down a little, Amalek was victor." 8 7 Many years later, Solo-
mon stood before the Temple altar and "spread forth his hands 
toward heaven." 8 8 The priest's posture, therefore, during the 
Collect and several other prayers of the Mass, is a reminiscence 
of pre-Christian days, when Israel prayed to God with up-
lifted hands. 

THE EPISTLE 

The Jewish synagogue service, as distinct from the sacri-
ficial service of the Temple at Jerusalem, consisted mainly in 
the reading and expounding of the sacred books of scripture. 
That element of Jewish worship is retained in our Christian 
liturgy: the scriptures are still read (Epistle and Gospel) and 
expounded (the sermon). The Church, in choosing the selec-
tions from scripture which it uses for its Epistles, naturally 
has a predilection for the New Testament rather than for the 
Old. But the author of both Old and New Testaments is the 
same, God Himself, and His word is eternally true. There-
fore, although the Old Law was imperfect and found its ful-
fillment in the New, yet, as Father Gihr says, "the Old Testa-
ment is a great divine testimony to Christ and to His kingdom; 
everything in it is prophetical of Christ and of the Church 
Now the Church loves to apply typically (spiritually) the Old 
Testament. Whenever she found in it some striking prophecy 
of a New Testament mystery or event, she incorporated it if 
possible as an Epistle in the Mass, as a supplement and ex-

8 6 Psalm cxl. 2. 
8 7 Exodus xvii. 11. 
S X J Kings viii. 22. 

f 25 ] 



planation of the Gospel." 8 9 Furthermore, some of the psalms 
and lamentations, expressing the timeless religious sentiment 
of the human soul, are used to awaken in us a penitential spirit 
during the sombre days of Lent. 
ALLELUJA! 

The Gradual prayer following the Epistle is usually com-
posed of selections from the psalms. Sometimes selections from 
other books of the Old Testament are used. Ordinarily this 
brief prayer is followed by an alleluja, a word familiar to us 
because of its prominence in the ceremonies of Easter. The 
word is a Hebrew word which figured prominently in the divine 
worship of the Old Testament. Its original meaning is "God-
be-praised," and it is in this sense that we find it, for example, 
in the psalms. "Give glory to the Lord [alleluja] and call upon 
his name!" 9 0 "Praise the Lord, all ye nations!" 9 1 The Apos-
tles adopted the word, 9 2 and eventually it slipped into the lit-
urgy in its native Hebraic form, so dear was it to the early 
Christians, and so perfectly did it express their joy. And since 
the joy of the Christians was greatest when they were commem-
orating the resurrection of Christ, it occurs more frequently 
in our liturgy at the Paschal season than at any other time. 

There is another Hebrew word which is often on the lips 
of the faithful attending Mass—Amen. Because of its brevity, 
plus the fact that Our Lord Himself used it frequently and 
hence sanctified i t , 9 3 the Church has retained its Hebrew form. 
It is sometimes used as a confirmation: let it be—as at the 
end of the Gloria; sometimes as the expression of a desire: 
so may it be—as at the end of a petition like the Collect; some-
times, finally, as the expression of a consent: it is so—as at 
the end of the Creed. These various uses we also find in the 
Old Testament, where the word occurs in almost every book. 
For example, after Moses had received the Covenant for the 
Jewish people, he commanded them to obey the laws of God, 

8 9 Gihr, op. at., pp. 440-41. »<• Psalm civ. 1. 
9 1 Psalm cxvi. 1. 
9 2 Apocalypse xix. 1. 
9 3 Drexel, Liturgia Sacra, p. 30. 

[26] 



and after each command the people replied, "Amen." 9 4 David 
sang, "Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel from eternity to 
eternity. So be it. So be it." 9 5 And when Esdras "blessed the 
Lord the great God . . . all the people answered Amen, 
Amen." 9 6 Frequent in synagogue services of the day, it was 
only natural for the new Christians to adapt the word to their 
own liturgy. 

Cleanse my heart and my lips, O Almighty God, who didst 
cleanse the lips of the prophet Isaias with a burning coal: 
vouchsafe so to cleanse me by thy gracious mercy, that I may 
be able worthily to proclaim Thy holy Gospel. Through Christ 
our Lord. Amen. 

Returning to the center of the altar, the priest bows pro-
foundly and begs God to make him fit to announce His holy 
Gospel. He professes again his own unworthiness, and asks 
purity of heart and lips in order that he might properly feed 
the flock of Christ with the words of Christ. 

In the prayer above, we have a direct reference to one of 
the most striking incidents in all Old Testament literature, one 
which has never ceased to be an inspiration for artists and 
writers. It is the story of the C3.ll of Isziicis to the prophetic 
office. A prophet is "one-who-is-called-by-God." He becomes 
the mouthpiece of God, His mediator with the Hebrew people, 
standing by virtue of his call between God and the nation. To 
him is revealed the Word of God and the command to proclaim 
it fearlessly. In times of national prosperity, these men of God 
spoke out fiercely against their own people, warning them to 
remain loyal to the God of Israel, and not to be turned from 
Him by their wealth and pleasures. In time of distress, they 
were the reluctant bearers of bitter tidings, foretelling defeat 
and exile, but balancing this message of doom with the promise 
of a remnant which should return. For these solemn respon-
sibilities, God directly commissioned His prophets. Unlike the 
priesthood or kingship which were conferred on a family or 

9 4 Deuteronomy xxvii. IS sqq. 
9 5 Psalm xl. 14. 
9 6 2 Esdras viii. 6. 

f 27 1 



tribe of Israel, the prophetic office was conferred directly on 
an individual. In view of the solemnity and importance of the 
office, it is no wonder that some who were called protested their 
unworthiness, and balked at the beckoning of God. Such was 
the case with Isaias, the greatest of the prophets. 

Isaias describes for us his call by God. Since he was a 
citizen of Jerusalem and perhaps a member of the nobility, 
we may well believe that he wandered often into the Temple of 
Solomon to pray. One day God rewarded his prayers, and gave 
direction to his whole subsequent life. The year was 742 B. C. 
Isaias had gone far into the Temple, and now was standing in 
prayer before the great veil which blocked the Holy of Holies 
from the gaze of the multitude. Suddenly the veil seemed to 
fade away, and Isaias found himself looking into the Holy of 
Holies, not at the Ark of the Covenant, but at the very throne 
of God! 

"I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated, 
and His train filled the Temple. Upon it stood the seraphims, 
the one had six wings and the other had six wings; with two 
they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and 
with two they flew. And they cried one to another, and said, 
'Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full 
of His glory.' And the lintels of the door were moved at the 
voice of Him who cried, and the house was filled with 
smoke." 9 7 

We have already seen that the smoke or cloud which used 
to settle on the tabernacle which the Jews bore with them 
during their long trek out of Egypt, was a symbol of the pres-
ence and majesty of God.®8 So now at God's coming the cloud 
envelopes the Holy of Holies, and fear seizes Isaias. Besides 
a deep consciousness of his own sinfulness in the presence of 
Sanctity Itself, he knew well that no man can look upon the 
face of God and live." Hence he cries, "I am lost!" 

"And I said, 'Woe is me because I have held my peace; 
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst 

| | Isaias vi. 1-4. 
98 Cf. Numbers xvi. 43. 
9 9 Exodus xxxiii. 20. 

f 28 1 



of a people that hath unclean lips, and I have seen with my 
eyes the King the Lord of hosts.' And one of the seraphims 
flew to me and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken 
with the tongs off the altar. And he touched my mouth, and 
said: 'Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities 
shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed.' And I 
heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall 1 send, and 
who shall go for us?' And I said, 'Lo, here I am, send me.' " ' o u 

The priest, about to read the Gospel, feels in himself a kin-
ship with Isaias which is not unfounded. He, too, has been 
summoned to transmit the Word of God to His chosen people, 
"a holy nation, a purchased people." 1 0 1 As he prepares to 
announce to them the good tidings of the Gospel, he protests 
his own unworthiness as did Isaias, and begs that God make 
chaste his heart and his lips as He did those of His holy prophet 
through the ministry of an angel. 
THE GOSPEL 

The focal point and culmination of the Mass of the Cate-
chumens—that part of the Mass which we have been consid-
ering—lies in the reading of the Gospel. Its importance is in-
dicated in part by the fact that it is read from the right side 
of the altar (the left side as the congregation faces it), which 
is the side of honor, and from the fact that the faithful stand 
during its reading. The readings which have preceded, taken 
often from the Old Testament, are all preparatory to this scrip-
tural reading from one of the four Gospels. As the Gospel is 
read at Low Mass, there is little about the ceremony that is 
reminiscent of the Old Testament. However, the Old Testa-
ment is partly responsible for the awkward, oblique stance of 
the priest as he reads the Gospel at the corner of the altar, 
facing slightly away from the altar itself. 

In olden days, Mass was said facing the East, whence, 
from the Roman and Greek viewpoint, came Christ the Light 
of the world. 1 0 2 Hence, by facing to the left, the priest would 
be facing north. The Old Testament gives us the reason why 

1 0 0 Isaias vi. S-8. J» 1 1 Peter ii. 9. 
1 0 2 John i. 4, S, 9. Cf. Malachias iv. 2. 

f 29 1 



the Gospel should be announced to that region, for there we 
.find the north pictured as a land of desolation, cold, forbidding, 
barren. There was the haunt of Lucifer, who said, "I will 
establish my seat in the north . . . and will be like the Most 
High." 1 0 3 Against him, the world and the flesh, did Christ 
preach His message. Isaias again warns us against the north 
when he says: "A smoke shall come from the north, and no 
one shall escape his troop." 1 0 4 And through Jeremias, His 
prophet, God warns His people: "I bring evil from the north, 
and great destruction." 1 0 5 Such a land is in dire need of the 
warmth of Christ's personality, and the salutary power of His 
word. For that reason the priest is still preaching the Gospel 
to the nations of the north. 

The procession and incensing of the Gospel book in a sol-
emn High Mass is a reminder of the great reverence for the 
sacred writings which the Jews displayed in their worship. 
Sacred scrolls, we remember, were enclosed in the Ark of the 
Covenant. But liturgists see a greater Old Testament allusion 
in the simple action of the deacon when he lifts the book of 
Gospels from the altar, and carries it to the edge of the sanctu-
ary. As Father O'Brien remarks, "The taking of the Book of 
the Gospels from the altar is intended to remind us, according 
to Pope Innocent III, that the law has come forth from Sion, 
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, not so much the 
law of Moses, but the law of the New Covenant . . . Then 
again, this taking of the book from the altar and reading it 
aloud in the hearing of the people, forcibly recalls to mind 
what Moses did of old on Sinai, whence he brought down the 
tables of the law and read them before the chosen people at the 
mountain's edge." 1 0 6 

The faithful show their great reverence and respect for the 
sacred writings by standing during the reading of the Gospel. 
The Jewish reverence for their sacred books was shown in a 
similar fashion. When Esdras brought the book of the law of 
Moses before the people on 'the feast of Tabernacles, he "stood 

103 Isaias xiv. 13-14. 
1 0 4 Isaias xiv. 31. 
1 0 5 Jeremias iv. 6. Cf. Drexel, op. cit., p. 141. 106 O'Brien, op. cit., pp. 236-37. 

f 30 1 



upon a step of wood, which he had made to speak on . . . And 
Esdras opened the book before all the people . . . and when he 
had opened it, all the people stood." 1 0 7 We read, too, in the 
Book of Numbers, that when Balaam had heard the word of 
the Lord, "Balac said to him: What hath the Lord spoken? 
But he taking up his parable, said: Stand, O Balac, and give 
ear." 1 0 8 

For the Catholic, to stand at the Gospel is a mark of rev-
erence for the message of Christ, and a sign of readiness to do 
as He commands. 

1 0 7 2 Esdras viii. 4-5. 
1 0 8 Numbers xxiii. 17, 18. 

I I I 



THE MASS OF THE FAITHFUL 
Receive, 0 holy Father, almighty, eternal God, this spot-

less host, which I, thine unworthy servant, do offer unto thee, 
my God, living and true, for mine own countless sins, trans-
gressions, and failings, and for all here present; as also for all 
faithful Christians, living or dead; that it may avail both me 
and them unto health for life everlasting. Amen. 

We find ourselves now in the second part of the Mass, the 
Mass of the Faithful. From this part of the Christian liturgy 
the non-baptized were excluded. Had they remained, they 
would have recognized little with which they were familiar, 
for this was the Christian prayer par excellence, the supreme 
act of worship, of which all Jewish sacrificial worship was but 
the shadow. What, then, can be said of the Old Testament 
flavor of this distinctively Christian section of the Mass? Very 
little in fact, at least compared to what has been said by cen-
turies of ecclesiastical writers, scholars, and theologians, about 
the profound theology and mysticism of its Christian sacri-
ficial aspect. Let us remember, however, that Christ Himself 
was a Jew, and that the first Mass was said during the cele-
bration of a great traditional Jewish feast. For these reasons 
the Mass could hardly have escaped some Old Testament col-
oring. It is this "coloring" that we shall content ourselves with 
in the remaining pages, realizing all the while that the picture 
we draw of the Holy Sacrifice will lack the substantial form 
and the darker, richer hues which only a more theological 
study could add. 

While the priest says the opening prayer of the Offertory, 
let us see what the significance of sacrifice was in the Old Tes-
tament. 

It is entirely natural for man to express his worship of God 
externally. As Pius XII says, "Every impulse of the human 
heart . . . expresses itself naturally through the senses; and 
the worship of God, being the concern not merely of individ-

[ 3 2 ] 



uals but of the whole community of mankind, must therefore 
be social as well. This obviously cannot be unless religious 
activity is also organized and manifested outwardly." 1 0 9 From 
the beginning of recorded history, as we know from Genesis, 
man has expressed his worship in sacrifice. 1 1 0 Whether God 
originally demanded that sacrifices be offered to Him, we do 
not know. We do know, however, that from the time of Abel 
He accepted them most graciously when they were offered in 
the proper spirit. God's great Covenant with Israel was sealed 
with a sacrifice, 1 1 1 and who of us can forget God's vindication 
of His prophet during that dramatic contest of fire and faith 
on Mount Carmel when Elias, in the presence of the pagan 
priests of Baal, laid his bullock on the altar, and called upon 
God to send fire on his offering as a proof to the heathen peo-
ple that He was their God. 1 1 2 There were countless other oc-
casions on which God showed His good pleasure at the offering 
of sacrifice. 

Old Testament sacrifices were effective in keeping before 
the Jewish nation the fact of its complete dependence on God, 
the God Who, as He liked to remind them, led the chosen peo-
ple out of the land of bondage.1,*? They benefited the offerers 
in so far as they awakened in them a consciousness of sin and 
a desire for forgiveness and amendment. They had no power, 
however, to blot out the sin itself. At most, they appeased God 
and staved off the punishment due to sin, and in this sense only 
did they atone for s in . 1 1 4 That God was appeased at all was 
only in view of a later sacrifice on Calvary which would be 
offered in atonement for the sins of men of all times, past, 
present, and to come. All the sacrifices of the Old Law looked 
to that later one as to their fulfillment and completion. They 
were imperfect, the sacrifice of Calvary was perfect; and all 
the sacrifices offered previously derived whatever efficacy they 
had in anticipation of Christ's death on the Cross. 

1 0 9 Mediator Dei. 
1 1 0 Genesis iv. 4. 
1 1 1 Exodus xxiv. S. 
112 3 Kings xviii. 20-39. 
113 Cf. Exodus xx. 2; Micheas vi. 4. 
114 Leviticus ix. 7. 

f 33 1 



The Mass is the continuation of the sacrifice of Calvary, 
which put mankind back in the good graces of his heavenly 
Father whence he had fallen through the sin of Adam. The 
sacrifice of the Mass, then, is expiatory, a sacrifice of atone-
ment. This we can see from the prayer quoted above wherein 
the priest offers the host "for mine own countless sins, trans-
gressions, and failings, and for all here present." Taken from 
articles used for our daily sustenance, the bread and wine, like 
the Old Testament offerings, signify a giving of ourselves to 
God. By his prayer, the Christian priest, like the Jewish priest 
of old, removes the offerings from their common use, conse-
crates them to the worship of God, and thereby sanctifies them. 
The Israelite prayed thus over his offerings which were the gifts 
for the sacrifice; the Christian priest prays thus over the bread 
and wine, not because they are themselves the gifts, but in 
order to prepare them for their sublime destiny—that of being 
changed by the power of God into the Christian sacrificial gift, 
the Body and Blood of Christ. 

Let my prayer, 0 Lord, be set forth as incense in thy sight; 
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Set a 
watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and a door round my lips; 
lest my heart incline to evil words to seek excuses in sin. 

Once again the censer with its burning coals is brought to 
the priest, who sprinkles grains of incense over them and blesses 
them. The bread and wine which have just been offered are 
incensed. Then, while incensing the cross and altar, the priest 
prays in the words just quoted, taken from the Book of 
Psalms. 1 1 5 

This prayer fell, most probably, from the lips of David, 
and hence it is quite likely some 3,000 years old. If we were 
to read the entire psalm, we would see that the psalmist and 
his friends were suffering the taunts of their countrymen who 
had deserted the camp of Yahweh and succumbed to the blan-
dishments of heathenism. These temptations which enticed the 
faithful Jews were probably to a less strict observance of the 

1 1 5 Psalm cxl. 2-4. 
. [ 3 4 ] 



Mosaic Law. The devil always strives to lead us by small 
steps. Whatever they were, the psalmist cries to the Lord for 
a strengthening of his faith, and for divine help to resist the 
allurements of paganism. He begs that his plea be heard, that 
it be as acceptable in the eyes of the Lord as the evening burn-
ing of incense which the Lord Himself had commanded. 1 1 6 May 
his prayer rise as the smoke of incense before the throne of 
God—incense, the symbol of prayer. May the raising of his 
hands (the traditional gesture of prayer) be as pleasing to God 
as the evening holocaust with its accompanying incense—in-
cense, the symbol of sacrifice. 

Thus the prayer of the psalmist is a plea that God ward 
off the temptations besetting him, and keep him clean of sin. 
In the figurative tongue of the Hebrews, he prays that he may 
not utter evil words, words that might indicate his sympathy 
for the heathen cause, nor seek excuses for engaging in evil 
actions. 

The priest begs God that the Holy Sacrifice, mingled with 
his prayers and those of the faithful, may be acceptable to 
Him, and rise to His holy throne as the clouds of incense now 
rise above the altar and fill the entire sanctuary. Then in the 
picturesque words of the psalmist, he prays, as he has fre-
quently done since the beginning of the Mass, that his prayers 
might rise from a heart entirely dedicated to the praise and 
service of God, as the clouds of incense used once to rise from 
an altar "overlayed with pure gold," 1 1 7 and consecrated to the 
Holy One of Israel. 

I will wash my hands among the innocent; and will com-
pass thine altar, O Lord. That I may hear the voice of praise, 
and tell of all thy wondrous works. 0 Lord, I have loved the 
beauty of thy house, and the place where thy glory dwelleth. 
Take not away my soul with the wicked, nor my life with men 
of blood. In whose hands are iniquities: their right hand is 
filled with gifts. But I have walked in mine innocence: redeem 
me and have mercy on me. My foot hath stood in the right 
way: in the churches I will bless thee, 0 Lord. 

H Exodus xxx. 7-8. 
1 1 7 Exodus xxx. 3. 

t H ] 



In the early Christian era, the faithful who attended the 
Mass brought with them the bread and wine for the sacrifice. 
During the Offertory, the priest would receive these gifts, and 
hence it was necessary for him to wash his hands before pro-
ceeding to the most august part of the Holy Sacrifice. Out 
of respect for the Blessed Sacrament, he moves away from the 
tabernacle, and goes to the Epistle corner of the altar for this 
rite. The verses of the psalm which he recites during this 
purification, 1 1 8 express clearly the deeper meaning of the wash-
ing. The priest prays for a great purity of heart as he ap-
proaches nearer to the moment of sacrifice. 

The Mosaic liturgy prescribed a purification of hands and 
feet before the priest approached the altar of sacrifice. God 
had commanded Moses, "Thou shalt make also a brazen laver 
with its foot, to wash in, and thou shalt set it between the tab-
ernacle of the testimony and the altar. And water being put 
into it, Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and feet in 
it, when they are going into the tabernacle of the testimony, 
and when they are to come to the altar, to offer on it incense 
to the Lord, lest perhaps they die." 1 1 9 This washing was sym-
bolic of an interior cleansing of heart, a purity of soul that 
would find favor in God's sight. Pilate, when he washed his 
hands and proclaimed himself "innocent of the blood of this 
just man," 1 2 0 used a rite which the Jews knew well to be sym-
bolic of innocence. The psalmist, prohably David, pictures 
himself as approaching the altar, not alone, but in company 
with the whole Jewish nation. For this is a communal psalm, 1 2 1 
and is meant to be sung by all the people. The "I," therefore, 
is meant to refer to the faithful as a group. It is a song of 
thanksgiving for God's wondrous mercy toward the people of 
Israel, who have been protected from the godlessness of the 
pagan peoples about them, and favored with Gods special 
predilection. It is a song of intense joy, too, at being able to 
share in the services of the Temple "Where thy glory dwelleth." 

1 1 8 Psalm xxv. 6-12. 
1 1 9 Exodus xxx. 18-21. 
1 2 0 Matthew xxvii. 24. 
1 2 1 Boylan, op. tit., Vol. I, p. 92. 

f 36 1 



But aware, as we all must be, that there is always the danger 
of a "falling out" with God, he begs that God preserve him in 
love and loyalty to the mandates of Yahweh, and keep him 
from suffering the fate of the wicked. As in the past, so in the 
future will he walk in the way of the Lord and join in the 
praises of God. 

The psalm, therefore, is a protestation of innocence and 
loyalty which the priest at the altar attributes to the grace of 
God, and a declaration of his confidence that God's bounty 
toward him will not be exhausted. 
THE PREFACE 

The Jewish overtones in this prayer, which comes to us 
from the time of the Apostles, have faded during the course of 
the centuries, but it will aid our devotion if we try to revive 
them. 

The early Prefaces of the primitive Christian era were 
adaptations of a psalm which the Talmud required the head 
of the family to say before all partook of the Paschal feast. 
The psalm recounts the favors which God has bestowed on His 
chosen people through their long history, from Adam down to 
their final settlement in the Promised Land. In the early Chris-
tian Prefaces of the Mass, the celebrant thanked God for the 
benefits and glories of the ancient Covenant, but then pointed 
out emphatically that he was celebrating the true Pasch, not 
the symbolic one of the Old Law. He then enumerated the 
benefits of the new Covenant, the Incarnation, Redemption, 
and Eucharist. Unfortunately, the Preface as we read it today 
is somewhat altered. Rather than a litany of God's favors to 
man, each of the thirteen Prefaces found 'in the Roman Missal 
today mentions but one of those benefits, a different one in 
each Preface. Each is a prayer of thanksgiving, and it is truly 
meet and just that it should be, for Our Lord Himself gave 
thanks just before He changed the bread and wine of the Last 
Supper into His Body and Blood. 1 2 2 

The exultant cries at the end of the Preface announce the 
proximity of the Consecration, at which moment Christ Him-

122 Mark xiv. 23. 
f 37 1 



self will become present on the altar. The shout, "Holy, holy, 
holy!" is taken from the sublime vision of God which Isaias 
had in the Temple at Jerusalem, when he received his divine 
vocation as a prophet in Israel. He saw the seraphim hovering 
about the throne of God, and crying to one another, "Holy, 
holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of His 
glory." 1 2 3 By "hosts" were meant the angelic choirs which fill 
the heavenly court, and which the Old Testament mentions 
frequently—as, for example, in the vision of Micheas: "I saw 
the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the army of heaven 
standing by Him on the right hand and on the left." 1 2 4 With 
the choirs of angels, the priest unites himself in singing the 
praise of God. 

The phrase, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the 
Lord," is from a psalm which was arranged to be sung on a 
great feast of thanksgiving, the feast of Tabernacles. As the 
long procession wound its way through the city, the people 
chanted the first part of the psalm, giving voice to their pride 
and joy over the good fortune which Yahweh had granted to 
His people. As the procession entered the Temple gates, the 
priests within took up the chant as they received the proces-
sion. Then all together offered a prayer for the continuance of 
Yahweh's manifest providence over Israel, after which the High 
Priest imparted his solemn blessing. The formula he used is 
the formula now used by the priest at the altar: "Blessed is 
he that cometh in the name of the Lord." 1 2 6 The Christian 
liturgy refers to the advent of Christ on the altar so soon to 
occur. Then in the words of the people who so joyously greeted 
Our Lord on His triumphal entry into Jerusalem that first 
Palm Sunday, the priest cries, "Hosanna in the h ighes t !" 1 2 6 

THE CANON 

As the bells in the sanctuary ring, the faithful fall to their 
knees in expectancy of the coming of their Christ. A great 
silence descends over the church as all present become ab-

1 2 3 Isaias vi. 3. 
1 2 4 3 Kings xxii. 19. Cf. also Psalm cxlviii. 2; Josue v. 14. 
125 P s a l m cxv i i . 26 . 
1 2 6 Matthew xxi. 9. 

f 38 1 



sorbed in profound meditation on the great mystery about to 
ensue. At this point we make the words of Cardinal Wiseman 
our own: "Here we must pause; because the subject becomes 
too sacred for our pen; the ground upon which we are about 
to tread is holy, and the shoes must be loosed from the feet 
of him who will venture upon it." 1 2 7 

The Canon has no roots in the Old Testament, although in 
general form it follows closely the Jewish Paschal ritual. But 
it is the uniquely Christian part of the Mass, culminating in 
the uniquely Christian sacrifice. The most we can hope to do 
in the following few pages is to skip lightly, though reverently, 
over its surface, and select a few phrases which may be better 
understood if they are viewed against an Old Testament back-
ground. 

We therefore beseech thee, O Lord, to be appeased, and to 
receive this offering which we, thy servants, and thy whole 
household do make unto thee; order our days in thy peace; 
grant that we be rescued from eternal damnation and counted 
within the fold of thine elect. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. 

The first specifically Old Testament reference which we 
meet in the Canon occurs in this prayer. The phrase "this 
offering which we; thy servants" is more strictly translated 
from the Latin as "oblation of our service." It indicates that 
the offering we make to God is made in recognition of His 
supreme dominion over mankind, and of our utter dependence 
on Him at every level of our being. This was the most profound 
theological significance of all Old Testament sacrifices, and was 
the lesson which the prophets continually sought to impress 
upon the Jewish mind. 1 2 8 The absolute transcendence of God 
over all men is now a dogma of our Catholic fa i th. 1 2 9 

The action of the priest during this prayer has an evident 
Jewish liturgical antecedent. In sacrifices of the Old Testa-
ment, before the animal was slain, the offerer would lay his 

1 2 7 Quoted by Gihr, op. cit., p. S78. 
1 2 8 Cf., for example, Osee i.-ii. 
1 2 9 Cf. Denzinger-Bannwart, Enchiridion Symbolorum, n. 1782. 

[39 J 



hands on the sacrificial gift. This gesture accompanied, ac-
cording to the prescriptions of Leviticus, all sacrifices of ex-
piation. "He shall put his hand on the head of the victim, and 
it shall be acceptable, and help to its expiation." 1 3 0 The sins 
of the ones making the sacrifice were thus laid upon the victim 
symbolically. As Father Heinisch says, "By sin man had de-
served death, but out of mercy God allowed Himself to be 
appeased with an animal's life and blood." 1 3 1 Concerning the 
priest, God spoke to Moses in these words: "Let him offer the 
living goat, and putting both hands upon his head, let him con-
fess all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their 
offenses and sins; and praying that they may light on his head, 
he shall turn him out, by a man ready for it, into the 
desert." 1 3 2 By his action during the Mass, the priest signifies 
that it is an expiatory sacrifice which is to be offered. By an-
ticipation, since the Lamb of God, the Divine Victim, is not 
yet present on the altar, the priest lays on the offerings before 
him his sins and those of the faithful. 

Vouchsafe to look upon them with a countenance merciful 
and kind, and to receive them as thou wast pleased to receive 
the gifts of thy just servant Abel, and the sacrifice of our fa-
ther Abraham, and that which Melchisedech thy high-priest 
offered up to thee, a holy sacrifice and spotless victim. 

With a reverential awe at the power which God has be-
stowed on His priests, we pass by the solemn prayers of Con-
secration, and consider now the presence of Christ on the altar, 
under the appearances of bread and wine. It is no animal that 
we offer to God—an offering which in Jewish worship was most 
acceptable—but the Son of God Himself. His sacrificial Blood 
is now in the chalice before us as the priest raises it above his 
head for our adoration. The sacrifice has been accomplished. 
The Blood shed for the remission of our sins, poured out once 
for all on Calvary in atonement for the sins of all mankind, 

1 3 0 Leviticus i. 4. 
1 3 1 Heinisch, op. cit., p. 207. 
1 3 a Leviticus xvi. 20-1. 

f 40 1 



is offered once again on the altar. In Jewish sacrifice, the 
pouring-out of blood was the real sacrificial act, the essence of 
the bloody sacrifice. The blood of the victim was the means 
of expiation, since, as St. Paul tells us, echoing the Old Testa-
ment, "without the shedding of blood there is no forgive-
ness." 1 3 3 Speaking to Moses, God had said, "The life of the 
flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you that you may 
make atonement with it upon the altar for your souls, and the 
blood may be for an expiation of the soul." 1 3 4 

We have already seen that there was no true expiation, no 
blotting out of sin, by virtue of the sacrifices in the Old Testa-
ment. They appeased God only in view of the sacrificial Blood 
that would be poured out by Christ on Calvary^the Blood in 
the chalice on our altar. It is the most perfect sacrifice con-
ceivable, thoroughly effective, and eminently acceptable to God 
the Father, not only because of the Victim offered, but also 
because of the principal offerer, Christ Himself. He is both 
Victim and Priest. The sacrifice is offered by Christ in the 
person of the priest, and, in a correct sense, by the faithful 
united with the priest. Speaking in his own name and that of 
the people, the priest asks God to accept this oblation in the 
same favorable way in which He received sacrifices offered 
through the course of history by other weak humans. 

He recalls the sacrifice of Abel, devout, simple, full of 
faith, and reminds God that He "took notice of Abel and his 
offering." 1 3 5 And there was the sacrifice of Abraham, "the 
father of all who . . . believe," 1 3 6 whom God had commanded 
to sacrifice his only son. Unquestioningly, he took the boy in-
to a high mountain, bound him, laid him upon a pile of faggots, 
and had raised his sword to slay him when an angel stayed his 
arm. God had had sufficient proof of his heroic obedience and 
faith. Instead, a ram was given him as an offering in place of 
his» son. The dispositions of Abraham and Abel must also be 
ours as we join with Christ Himself in offering His Body and 
Blood in atonement for the sins of the world. They were dis-

1 3 3 Hebrews ix. 22. 
1 3 4 Leviticus xvii. 11. 
1 8 6 Genesis iv. 4. 
1 3 8 Romans iv. 11. 

f 41 1 



positions which, in the past, had evoked the favorable accept-
ance of God. 

To the company of these Old Testament saints is added 
the name of Melchisedech, priest and king. In one of the 
psalms, David tells of an oath of Yahweh spoken to the Mes-
sias, promising that he will not only be a divine king, but an 
eternal priest: 1 3 7 "Thou art a priest forever after the manner 
of Melchisedech," 1 3 8 the mysterious king of Salem who offered 
bread and wine in celebration of Abraham's victory over his 
enemies. 1 3 9 That the Messias would be of the house of David, 
and hence a king, was commonly accepted among the Jews. 
But here the psalmist says he will be more than a king—a 
priest, too, and forever. The Messias, Christ, is still a priest, 
and will be forever, offering Himself daily to the Father in 
the Mass in atonement for sin, and, according to the manner of 
Melchisedech, under the appearances of bread and wine. 
OUR FATHER 

The sacrifices of the Old Testament which were known as 
"peace-offerings" were offered not in atonement for sin, but 
as an act of thanksgiving and praise. The Holy Sacrifice of 
the Mass is also offered in thanksgiving and praise. It is the 
most perfect act of adoration, since the more perfect our sac-
rifice, the more perfectly is God adored and praised. 1 4 0 But 
what sacrifice could be more perfect than that in which the Son 
of God is both priest and victim? That the Mass is also an 
act of thanksgiving is clear from several of the prayers ac-
companying the Holy Sacrifice. 

These peace-offerings of the Old Law had as one of their 
characteristic features a communal sacrificial meal. After the 
food which had been laid on the altar was separated from pro-
fane use and dedicated to God. it was immolated in whole or in 
part as a sacrifice. What remained of it was received by tliose 
offering the sacrifice as a sign of friendship with God, and 

1 3 7 Boylan, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 222. 
1 3 8 Psalm cix. 4. 
1 3 » Genesis xiv. 18-20. 
1 4 0 Gihr, op. cit., p. ISO. 

I 4 : l 



eaten by way of a participation in the Divine repast. God, as 
it were, returned a portion of the sacrificial offering as a token 
of the peace existing between Himself and those who had of-
fered the sacrifice. This participation in the sacrificial banquet 
was not essential to the sacrifice, but was considered an inte-
gral part thereof. 

On the altar is the Holy Eucharist, a sacrificial Food, pres-
ent now by reason of "the unbloody immolation at the words 
of consecration." 1 4 1 Holy Communion gives us the oppor-
tunity to partake of the divine feast in which God gives us 
His Divine Son as our Food. It is par excellence the sign of 
His love for those who have been redeemed through the sacri-
fice of His Son. Pius XII, in his encyclical on the liturgy, 
prays thus: "May God grant that [the faithful] participate 
even every day, if possible, in the divine sacrifice, not only in 
a spiritual manner, but also by reception of the august sacra-
ment, receiving the body of Jesus Christ which has been of-
fered for all to the eternal Father. . . . The Church of Jesus 
Christ needs no other bread than this to satisfy fully our souls' 
wants and desires, and to unite us in the most intimate union 
with Jesus Christ, to make us 'one body,' to get us to live to-
gether as brothers who, breaking the same bread, sit down to 
the same heavenly table, to partake of the elixir of im-
mortality." 1 4 2 

The preparation for this sacrificial banquet begins with the 
Lord's prayer, the Our Father. It is the prayer which Christ 
taught His followers to say, and in so doing gave the world a 
new concept of God. To the Mosaic religious conscience, 
God was an almighty God Who showed Himself in deeds of wis-
dom, anger, and omnipotence. When God promised David that 
his kingdom would last forever, He said in reference to Sol-
omon, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a 
son." 1 4 3 But that seemed to be a special relationship between 
Himself and Solomon. Now Christ has established that rela-
tionship between God and all men. Before His coming, men 

1 4 1 Mediator Dei. 
1 4 2 Ibid. 
1 4 3 2 Kings vii. 14. 

f 43 1 



were the subjects of God; now they are also His sons. "In this 
manner, therefore, shall you pray: Our Father." 1 4 4 

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have 
mercy on us! Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the 
world, have mercy on us! Lamb of God, who takest away the 
sins of the world, give us peace! 

The prayers from the Our Father to the Communion itself 
are preparatory; those following the Communion are prayers 
of thanksgiving. Shortly before receiving the Sacred Host, 
the priest strikes his breast three times, each time repeating 
the prayer above. 

John the Baptist, who stands at the end of the Old Testa-
ment and on the threshold of the New, pointed out Christ to a 
multitude of his followers as the Lamb of God "who takest 
away the sins of the world," when Our Lord first appeared in 
public after His long hidden life at Nazareth. 1 4 5 Strange as 
the phrase may sound to us, it was not foreign to his hearers. 
A lamb was a common sacrificial animal in the Temple. When 
offered, it took away, in a sense, the sins of the offerer who sym-
bolically transferred his sins to the lamb by laying his hands 
upon it. In their scriptures, too, the Jews had read that the 
Saviour of the world, the long-awaited Redeemer, would be in 
some mysterious sense a lamb. "Send forth the Lamb, the 
ruler of the earth!" Isaias had cried, 1 4 6 and in one of his 
servant-songs he had prophecied: "He shall be led as a sheep 
to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his 
shearer." 1 4 7 The sacrificial Lamb, awaited and longed-for by 
centuries of faithful Jews, now lies before the priest on the 
altar, the Lamb who, in no symbolic sense, but in fact has 
taken away the sins of the world. To Him the priest whispers 
his prayer, "have mercy on us, give us peace!" 

144 Matthew vi. 9. 
1 4 5 John i. 29. 
1 4 6 Isaias xvi. 1. i* 7 Isaias liii. 7. 

f 44 I 



What return shall I make to the Lord for all he has given 
to me? I will take the chalice of salvation and call upon the 
name of the Lord, and shall be saved from my enemies. 

After several prayers for peace and mercy, and after a 
declaration of his own unworthiness, the priest consumes the 
Sacred Host. Before consuming the Precious Blood, he re-
cites the verses from the psalms just quoted. 1 4 8 

These verses are taken from a hymn of thanksgiving, the 
occasion of which was the recovery of the psalmist "from a 
dangerous illness, or his rescue from a deadly peril." 1 4 9 It is 
a song of thanks for an escape from death because of the inter-
vention of Yahweh. He lifts his "cup of rescue" as part of 
his thanksgiving offering, and calls the name of Yahweh loudly 
so that all may know that it was Yahweh who had rescued 
him. How appropriate are these verses for the priest as he 
reflects on the liberality and mercy of God in rescuing him 
from death through the sacrifice of His Divine Son! The 
"chalice of salvation" which he grasps contains the sacrificial 
Victim which has wrought his rescue from eternal death. In 
partaking of this cup of the Blood of the Divine Victim, the 
priest attains an intimate union with Christ, and there is 
poured forth in his soul abundant graces—a pledge of the 
eternal union with God in heaven, which is the goal of every 
Christian soul. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with 
God. . . . 

In the last Gospel, too familiar to require a complete cita-
tion, we find our final reflection of the Old Testament in the 
Mass. It lies in St. John's frequent contrast between light and 
darkness. Centuries earlier, in his marvelous Messianic 
prophecy, Isaias had painted the Messianic picture as a picture 
of light: "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great 
light; to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, 

1 4 8 Psalm cxv. 12, 13; xvii. 4. 
1 4 9 Boylan, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 245. 

[45] 



light is risen." 1 5 0 Surely St. John had in mind these words 
of the great prophet whom he so often quotes in his Gospel, 1 5 1 
when he wrote: "In him was life and the life was the light of 
men and the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness 
grasped it not. . . . It was the true light that enlightens every 
man who comes into the world." 1 5 2 

EPILOGUE 

And thus we come to the end of the Mass. 
We have tried to re-discover and examine whatever is 

reminiscent of the Old Testament in the rites and prayers of 
the Mass. We have tried to see the mark left upon our Cath-
olic liturgy by the Mosaic worship which it supplanted. The 
picture we have drawn is an entirely inadequate picture of the 
Mass, since it sketches only in passing the ineffable Christian 
mystery which is the heart of the Holy Sacrifice, and has en-
tirely neglected many of its most beautiful prayers. However, 
if it be true that the more we know about a thing the more we 
appreciate it, then the writer feels that both he and the reader 
have profited from this study of the Mass in the light of the 
Old Testament. We who live in the "fullness of t i m e " 1 5 3 
should strive to deepen our appreciation of the Holy Sacrifice. 
We shall do this not only by knowing the Mass in its tre-
mendous fulfillment, but in its providential preparation in the 
Old Testament as well. 

The following words of Father Lebreton summarize well 
what we have seen in the preceding pages: 

The strong imprint of Jewish tradition on Christian 
prayer the Church will never try to efface; she is conscious 
of being the true Israel; whatever was divine in the Jewish 

. past is now her own; she recognizes in the Old Law the 
preparation for and symbol of what she is, in the prophets 
the distant vision of what she possesses; in the psalms her 
prayer; all that is her heritage, and as mistress she disposes 
of it freely, as Jesus Himself did in the Gospel. 

1 • r , f t Isaias ix. 2. 
1 5 1 Cf., for example, John xii. 38-41. 
1 5 2 John i. 4-5, 9. 
1 5 3 Galatians iv. 4. 

f 46 1 



But if she is the foremost of creatures, older than the 
prophets and the patriarchs, she is also the spouse of Christ, 
as young as He, and capable of rejuvenating and transform-
ing all she touches. She loves to repeat the Jewish 
prayers, the prayers of her cradle, but she gives them new 
meaning. . . . 

Thus the Christians who were born in Judaism or who 
had felt its effects, loved to repeat, in the bosom of the 
Church, some prayers which in many respects were like 
those which the synagogue had taught them to love; but the 
new faith, which had transformed their life, transformed 
also their prayer. It mounted higher and nearer to God 
Who had become their Father, carried there by His be-
loved Son Who had made Himself their High-Priest. 1 5 4 

1 5 4 Quoted by Croegaert, op. tit., Vol. I l l , p. 72. Translation by the writer. 
Texts from the Old Testament throughout the booklet are quoted from the Douay version of the Holy Bible. Texts from the New Testa-ment are quoted from the Confraternity edition of the New Testament. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Boylan, Patrick Canon, The Psalms. St. Louis: B. Herder 

Book Co., 1926. 2 vols. 
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