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THE LITURGICAL PRESS
COLLEGEVILLE, MINNESOTA



POPULAR LITURGICAL LIBRARY
Series i No. 3

“MY SACRIFICE

AND YOURS”

VIRGIL MICHEL, O.S.B.

St. John’s Abbey

Second Edition

1927

THE LITURGICAL PRESS

COLLEGEVILLE, MINNESOTA



IMPRIMI POTEST

^ALCUIN DEUTSCH, O.S.B.

Abbot

NIHIL OBSTAT

ALEXIUS HOFFMANN, O.S.B.

Censor Deputatus

IMPRIMATUR

^JOSEPH F. BUSCH

Bishop of St. Cloud

Jan. 6, 1927.

Copyright 1927

The Order of St. Benedict, Inc.

Collegeville, Minn.



FOREWORD

The present pamphlet has been put together from material

gathered for a series of sermons on the Mass delivered in St.

Benedict’s Church, New York City, during the summer

months of 1926. The response to these sermons led the writer

to believe that the present pamphlet might form a welcome ad-

dition to the Vopular Liturgical Library . Anyone seeking a more

detailed explanation of the subject as here treated, can profit-

ably refer to two books that have recently appeared in this

country: Kramp-Miller, The Sacrifice of the New Law (Herder

Co.), and Kramp-Busch, Eucharistia (Lohmann Co.).

Recent European books that treat of the Mass from

the standpoint of popular participation are: Stephan, "Tuet

dies” oder "Macht was ihr wollt?” (Marklissa, Schlesien)

;

Caronti, II Sacrificio Cristiano (Berruti, Sismondie Co., Torino)

;

Vandeur, La Sainte Messe (Maredsous, Belgium). A brief but

admirable treatment is the chapter on the sacrifice contained in

the compendious volume by the monks of Maria-Laach: Die

Betende Kirche (Sankt Augustinus Verlag, Berlin).

The author wishes to express his special indebtedness to

the Reverend Richard E. Power of Springfield, Mass., for his

kindness in reading the manuscript, and for his many valuable

suggestions. There is hardly a page that has not benefited from

the latter. Moreover, the excellent English version of the text

of the Mass quoted in these pages, the result of careful study, is

exclusively the work of Father Power.
1

The design on the cover

is the gift of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, O’Fallon, Mo.

V. M.

Octave of the Epiphany, 192/

1
Father Power’s complete translation of the ordinary of the Mass of the

Faithful is to be found in the latest edition of Dom Cuthlert Goeb’s Offeramus
(Popular Liturgical Library, Series II, No. 1. See inside page of fly-leaf of

present book). Offeramus is recommended as a good introductory book for

praying the Mass. It contains all the ordinary prayers of the Mass in Latin

and English, with many simple explanations and practical directions.

iii



CONTENTS

Chapter I. Participation in the Mass 5

Chapter II. The Mass and the Cross 11

Chapter III. The Action of Sacrifice 17

Chapter IV. The Offertory of the Mass 24

Chapter V. The Canon: Before the Conse-

cration 34

Chapter VI. The Canon: After the Conse-

cration 41

Chapter VII. The Eucharistic Repast 47

Chapter VIII. After the Communion 54

Chapter IX. The Mass of the Catechumens.... 5 8

iv



Chapter I

PARTICIPATION IN THE MASS

There is no doubt that some persons attend Mass

on Sundays only because the command of the Church

binds them to it under pain of mortal sin. It is not

too much to claim that for many of these the whole

meaning of the Mass is simply this: Mass is something

that must be attended to once a week. Others may

connect the obligation of attending Mass with the

wider one of keeping holy the Sunday. Mass is then

for them a special act of religion, of prayer and devo-

tion, or an occasion for reciting special prayers, ad-

dressing special petitions, to God.

Many Catholics really do use the Mass as an oc-

casion for reciting private prayers, carrying on some

private devotion of their own, as a casual observation

on any Sunday in almost any Catholic church will

show. The mention of this fact is in no way meant

to discredit the piety of these people, or to question

their good faith. On the contrary, only firm convic-
tion and a deep sense of duty can produce the crowds

that swarm to our churches every Sunday. It is with

a mind bent on paying the homage of adoration to

God, bent on asking for needed graces and favors,

especially such as are spiritual in nature, on giving due

thanks and praise to the Lord their God, that those

who flock to the Sunday Masses recite one, two, or

three rosaries while attending Mass, read litanies and

other prayers from their books, recite the Angelus

and the morning prayers, or even follow the devo-

—5—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

tional prayers set down in their books for recitation

during Mass. In the latter case, however, as often as

not, the prayers are not read parallel with the prayers

and actions of the priest at Mass. The devotions read

may be too short in parts, or too long, so that the

well-meaning soul may during the Mass of the priest

even recite two whole sets of Mass prayers, or again

only part of one.

Should these constitute the best and most ap-

proved methods of attending holy Mass? Can Mass

be properly attended, or best attended, in mental sep-

aration, even isolation, from the progress of the

priest’s actions and prayers at the altar? Our answer

is at present conditional. If the priest is simply going

through a prescribed form of prayer, the general ben-

efits of which are to be passively received by, exter-

nally bestowed upon, the faithful that are present

and in good disposition, then any sort of devotional

attitude at holy Mass may be reckoned not only

proper, but as good as the best. If, however, the

priest is in any way acting as the spokesman, the lead-

er, of the people, if the action of the Mass also im-

plies co-operation, in any form, by the people, then

there can be only one best way of attending Mass,

namely a way that will really be an assisting at the

action of the Mass.

Imagine a group of men who have decided to in-

terview the governor of their state in a body, in order

to present their congratulations and good wishes on

the occasion of some work recently brought to a

successful issue, or to seek his services in furthering

a certain proposal. The members of the group choose

a spokesman, who is to talk and act for them. They

—6—



PARTICIPATION IN THE MASS

go to the governor’s office and are admitted to a wait-

ing room. When the governor enters, the spokesman

announces the purpose of the interview and in well-

chosen words expresses the sentiments and good wish-

es of the group, or presents their request. The speaker,

no doubt, emphasizes the fact that his sentiments are

shared by the entire group. What then would any-

one think, if he saw one of the group sitting in a chair

asleep, another reading a paper, another figuring out

accounts and making entries in a note-book, and still

another examining a painting on the wall? What

would the governor think if he saw these things?

The picture, in fact, seems too ludicrous to be thought

possible.

But that is precisely what many persons attend-

ing Mass are doing; that is, if the priest in celebrating

the Mass is in any way supposed to speak and act in

the name of those present. If he is really the leader

in a collective act that should be performed also by

the people, then such persons are, as it were, privately

reading a newspaper or figuring their accounts while

the appointed spokesman is acting for them. Were

it not for their good intentions, their actions might

even be a mockery of the holy action being enacted

in their presence. In order, now, to convince our-

selves that the Mass is meant to be such a collective

action, we need only examine the official text that

the priest himself must follow in celebrating the Mass.

At various times the priest enters upon prayers

of the Mass with the exhortation: "Oremus—Let us
pray!” This exhortation is addressed to the people,

who are thereby invited to join heart and mind in the

prayer which the priest recites. No wonder, then,
—

7
—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

that the priest recites this prayer in the plural. He

uses the pronouns we and us and our, and is speaking

not only for himself but also for the people assembled

at the Mass. At the end of certain of these prayers,

the server answers "Amen.” This is a Hebrew word

meaning "So be it;” and it is intended to express the

approval of the people, their full accord with the sen-

timents uttered for them by the priest. The server

is answering the Amen in the name of the people,
who in former times themselves gave this answer aloud

in a body. Before some of the prayers the priest turns

to the people, spreads his hands to include the as-

sembled congregation, and says "Dominus vobiscum

—The Lord be with you.” The server answers, again
in the name of the people: ”Et cum spiritu tuo—
And with thy spirit.” This is but one of the forms,

the one occurring most frequently in the Mass, of

several prayers that are recited alternately by priest

and server. Always does the latter answer in the name

of the people, and in all of these cases the answering

prayers were formerly recited by the whole assembled

community.

Twice in the course of the Mass the priest men-

tions the circumstantes, those present at the Mass, al-

ways indicating that the action of the Mass is also

participated in by them, that the action is also theirs.

There are many passages in the text of the Mass in-

dicating the collective nature of the sacrifice. One

more example will suffice here. When the first offer-

ing of the bread and wine has been made, and the

more solemn action of the Mass is about to begin, the

priest again turns to the people with the words:

"Orate Fratres—Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice
•8—



PARTICIPATION IN THE MASS

and yours may become acceptable to God the Father

almighty.” To this the server answers in the name

of the people: "May the Lord accept the sacrifice

at thy hands, unto the praise and glory of His name,

for our advantage, and that of all His holy Church.”

Here we have the distinct declaration by the priest

that the sacrifice is his and the people’s; and the of-

ficially prescribed declaration of the people acquiesc-

ing in his words.

The text of the Mass, therefore, calls for the ac-

tive co-operation of the people in the action of the

Mass. The priest is not only acting for them, but to

a great extent also acting with them, although in

practice today the public co-operation with the priest

is generally left entirely to the server, whose answers

to the priest are often purely mechanical. Although

the people today generally know nothing of this ac-

tive mental and verbal co-operation with the priest,

and the Church has tolerated attendance at Mass by

means of reciting private prayers of any kind, such a

way of hearing Mass cannot be considered in full ac-

cord with the intention of the Church as this reveals

itself in the very text of the prayers. Moreover, his-

tory tells us that this is not at all the way in which the

Christians in the fervor of the early days of the

Church, and in the great days of Christian faith, as-

sisted at Mass. And so it can hardly be the real in-

tention of the Church at present, that such should

be the way to assist at Mass. In fact, the Vicars of

Christ have spoken on the matter. "You should

not pray during the Mass, but pray the Mass,” said

the saintly Pius X. And he instituted a movement

towards a return to the active participation of the

—9—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

people in the Mass, which has received the approval

of all his successors in the chair of Peter.

Since this is the case, should not every devoted

Catholic try to the utmost of his power to participate

actively in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, to follow

the priest in mind and heart, to pray with him and

act with him? Should not every Catholic for this

reason try to the utmost of his power to understand

what the Mass really is, how its action is built up, and

especially just what the action means for each indi-

vidual present at the Mass? It will be the purpose of

the following pages to aid those who will towards a

better understanding of the internal structure of

the Mass, of the spiritual action taking place therein,

and thus to indicate to them how they may best en-

ter into the spirit of this most holy action, and de-

rive the greatest fruits therefrom.

—10—



Chapter II

THE MASS AND THE CROSS

We cannot understand the holy sacrifice of the
Mass without understanding something of the true

meaning of the great sacrifice which was enacted on

Calvary, and which was consummated by the death

of our Lord. Christ had come upon this earth to

bring a sacrifice that would again restore man to a

position of favor with God. The friendship between

God and man had been broken by man’s wilful dis-

obedience. It was an outrage against the infinite

majesty of God, and therefore an offense of infinite

wickedness. Man could of himself do nothing to

atone for it. Christ, ;the Second Person of the divine

Trinity, came upon earth out of love for man and in

obedience to the will of His Father, whose command

likewise issued from His great fatherly love for man.
1

From all eternity it had been decreed that the Son,

true God like His Father, should undergo the sac-

rifice of His life, after taking upon Himself weak

human nature.” "God so loved the world, as to give

his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in

him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting”

(John 3, 16).

1
In speaking of the things of God, human words are almost hopelessly

inadequate. Christ Himself speaks of doing the will of His Father. This

does not mean that Christ as God is inferior to the Father, much less that

He is not together with the Father and the Holy Ghost one God, one divine

Substance. The work of the redemption is the work of God, decreed, as we

say, from all eternity; and the love prompting it is the love of God; there-

fore of all the three divine Persons as co-equally the triune God.

•11—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

That the sacrifice of the Son might be the more

evidently made in our stead, Christ took upon Him-

self a nature like ours and thus entered the ranks of

the descendants of Adam. By the union of the divine

nature and the human nature in Him, Christ, as the

natural Head of the race, concentrated in His own

person all the weakness and the guilt of mankind, and

took upon Himself all the wrath that was man’s due

because of sin. Thus laden, Christ went willingly

to His bitter suffering and death. At different times

before His passion, the Jews tried to stone Him, to

lay hands upon Him that they might kill Him. But
Christ’s time had not yet come and they could do

nothing. When, however, His time had come, He

delivered Himself to His persecutors, but not before

instituting the perpetual sacrament of His Body and

Blood. Having gone through the passion unto the

bitter end, He died on the cross, surrendering His life

into the hands of the Father as the one acceptable

offering which could again restore man to the divine

pleasure. In this great sacrifice, Christ as God-man

was both the offering priest, and the victim offered.

Only a divine Victim could span the infinite abyss

separating man from God, and only a divine Priest

could of His own power offer such a victim.

This sacrifice of redemption was enacted during

our Lord’s sojourn on earth; it was a personal sac-

rifice of atonement on His part, consummated before

His ascension into heaven. And the possibility of

eternal bliss for us was thereby completely realized.

Man was again the adopted child of God, and could

with the fullest assurance look upon his heavenly

home as his rightful inheritance, bought for him by

—12—



THE MASS AND THE CROSS

his brother through the Incarnation, Christ Jesus.

But man, after this great event, remained as before a

creature endowed with intelligence and deliberate

choice. He had been created to give to his God a

voluntary service and worship according with the

dignity of human nature. Each individual had still

to prove himself personally and show himself worthy

of the redeeming action of Christ. As he could still

use his free will to sin, so he had, in accordance with

his position as a rational creature of God, to use his

free will in order to render due service to God by ac-

knowledging God’s absolute dominion over him.

Only the free actions of man being worthy of ra-

tional human nature, each man was still to choose

for himself the lot that he was to have in the world

to come; he was still to make his own choice in ac-

cepting or rejecting the fruits of the redemption

merited by Christ. Christ by His sacrifice had made

salvation possible for all men. But the fruits of this

redemption were still to be applied to all men one by

one.

Now not all men were capable of being present
at the sacrifice of Calvary, and of there choosing to

accept or reject the blessings of Christ’s sacrifice. This

sacrifice was enacted within the space of a few days;

while the human race was to continue throughout all

time. There were to be generations and generations

of men who were to choose for themselves whether

or not they were to be included in the sacrifice of

Christ, and become acceptable to God by offering

themselves with Christ to the heavenly Father.

Through Baptism, individual souls are given a per-

sonal right to the merits of Christ. The official

—13—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

means, however, by which the coming generations

were to unite themselves fully to the great sacrifice

of Christ, is the holy sacrifice of the Mass. For this

purpose was the Mass instituted, and for this was it

to be offered up in all places for all ages to come.

The Eucharist was instituted by Christ at the begin-

ning of the passion which led to His death. It was,

as it were, the last will of the dying Savior, His of-

ficial testament, by which He delivered to His Apos-

tles and their successors all His divine treasures. The

institution of this sacrifice was prompted by the same

love that inspired Elis descent to earth, and His death.

"With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you”

(Luke 22, 15), he told the Apostles just before the

institution. It was then that He consecrated the

bread into His body, and the wine into His blood,

which was to be shed for the sins of many. And it

was then that He gave the Apostles the command:

"Do this for a commemoration of me.” The Mass is

thus the continuation both of the Eucharistic Supper

and the Sacrifice of the Cross, a renewal in an un-

bloody manner, of what was done on Calvary in a

bloody manner.

In the Mass, after the offering of the bread and

the wine, the official prayer reads: "Accept, most

holy Trinity, this offering which we are making to

Thee in remembrance of the passion, resurrection, and

ascension of Jesus Christ, our Lord . . . ;” and

immediately after the Consecration: "Wherefore, we

Thy servants, and likewise Thy holy people, calling

to mind not only the blessed passion of the same

Christ, Thy Son, but also His resurrection from the

—14—



THE MASS AND THE CROSS

dead, and finally His glorious ascension into heaven.”

The Mass is not a commemoration only of the

passion and death of Christ. It is a commemoration

also of the resurrection and the ascension, which

events have made impossible a repetition of the sac-

rifice of Christ in a bloody manner. Christ sacrificed

Himself once for all in a bloody manner, was accepted

by God the Father, and taken into the everlasting

state of glorified humanity. He can not suffer in a

bloody manner a second time. But the Mass is nev-

ertheless a real sacrifice, and the same sacrifice as

Calvary. For the Mass is the sacrifice of the same

victim, Jesus Christ, and the priest offering the sac-

rifice is the same, namely Jesus Christ. The ordained

priest acts only by the divine power of Jesus Christ,

transmitted to him in the sacrament of Holy Orders,

by a successor of the Apostles. And in the solemn

moment of the consecration, the words are distinctly

those of Christ, and are through the priest pronounced

by Christ Himself, with all the divine efficacy of the

word of Christ, true God and true man. The Mass

and the Cross of Calvary, therefore, are in a real and

true sense the sacrifice of Christ by Himself; and

the Mass is a true continuation of the sacrifice of the

cross.

But why this continuation of the sacrifice of the

cross? The need is not on the part of God, but on

the part of man. As we have seen, all men have to

choose for themselves whether they shall actively as-

sociate themselves with the sacrificing humanity of

Christ, by actively entering into his sacrificial act.

It is precisely in the Mass that each of us has the op-

portunity of coming in contact with Christ Himself

—15—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

and with Christ performing His sacrifice, therefore

the opportunity of performing the one acceptable

sacrifice for the good of man together with Him.

In the Mass Christ continues to offer Himself for each

of us in a particular manner, in so far as He there
reaches out to us a hand that we can grasp. The

Mass has been instituted particularly to enable us all

to enter actively into the sacrifice of Christ. It is

our ever recurring opportunity of uniting ourselves

with Christ in His official act of rendering an accept-

able offering to His Father, and of uniting ourselves

with Christ by becoming ourselves an acceptable of-

fering to God. In the Mass we have a special op-

portunity of applying to ourselves the fruits of the

redemption that was wrought once for all on Cal-

vary. We see, then, that the Mass is the most pre-
cious treasure that can be thought of, because in it

the Author of all good is placed within our reach,

in order that we may with His aid enact a sacrifice

which truly honors God and sanctifies ourselves. This

conception of the Mass springs out of the purpose

of the Mass, out of the very notion of sacrifice as

contained in the Mass.

From this standpoint it should be evident, how

necessary a proper understanding of the Mass is for

all of us,—an understanding, not only of the gen-
eral significance of the Mass, but of the very action

of the Mass into which we must enter with conscious

intention if we are to obtain the fruits of the Mass

in their fulness. For such an understanding of the

Mass, a notion of the nature of sacrifice in general is

indispensable.

—16—



Chapter III

THE ACTION OF SACRIFICE

If the Mass is properly called a sacrifice, we should

be able to find in it the different characteristics that

mark off a sacrificial action from any other kind of

action. In general, sacrifice is as widespread as re-

ligion. Very few real religions can be found that

have no sacrifice whatever. Especially have all the

great religions of historic civilizations had a sacrifice

of some kind as the central act of their religious wor-

ship. Hence it was that the early Christians were

so often tried by their enemies just on the matter of

sacrifice. Had the Christians conformed even exter-

nally to the heathen sacrifice, they would have con-

sidered themselves apostates. Participation in the

act of sacrifice of any religion was considered equal

to the profession of that religion; refusal to take part

in the sacrifice was considered equal to a rejection

of that religion.

In all sacrifice there is the offering of a gift to the

Supreme Being. A great variety of gifts have been
offered in different religious sacrifices in the history

of man. The exact nature of the gift is not so im-

portant for the general notion of sacrifice. What is

more important is the fact that something is offered,

and is offered to a higher power. The very nature

of the action is meant to imply the acknowledgment

of a higher dominion or power existing above man,

to whom man is subservient, to whom he owes alle-
giance and homage, from whom he can expect to

—17—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

receive good or bad. The sacrifice is thus essentially

a religious act directed to a higher power for the pur-

pose of expressing or acknowledging human depend-

ence on that power, for the sake of thanking him

for favors received, asking him for future favors,

appeasing his wrath, averting the recurrence of past

evils, etc.

All these purposes are so many different ways of

expressing the dependence of man upon the Supreme

Being. Hence sacrifice may be considered the essen-

tial religious act by which man expresses his absolute

dependence upon God, and God’s supreme dominion

over him. In this we find our explanation for the

universal existence of sacrifice in all religions; and

in this we find our explanation for the meaning of

the presentation of a gift in the sacrificial action.

The gift offered in the sacrifice is almost invariably

something that is useful or valuable to man, something

related to life, like food, of which man deprives him-

self in the action of offering it to God. It was more-

over, except in the case of the first fruits, almost

always something on which man had expended labor

and care, e. g., domestic animals, oil, wine, bread,

e. a. Again, the ceremonial of the sacrificial action

tends to indicate that the object is not to serve its

ordinary purpose in the ordinary way, but is consid-

ered to be set aside for a holier purpose, and in the

process is sanctified. Frequently it is then consumed

after the sacrifice to denote a participation of the

consumers in the holiness of the offering, or in the

power of the being to whom it is sacrificed. In all

cases man performs an action that is outside the or-

—18—



THE ACTION OF SACRIFICE

dinary routine of his life, in order to show deference

to a higher Being.

The meaning of sacrifice is by no means exhaust-

ed by the external action taken by itself. It is not

the external action of giving or setting aside an ob-

ject that expresses fully the relation between man and

his God. This relation is an internal one, and must

be expressed by an internal act accompanying the ex-

ternal oblation. The external oblation is little more

than the sign of an internal act. This is the more

evident since man did not in the sacrificial action come

into external contact with God’s person, did not visi-

bly give the gift to Him. The gift remains in the

possession of man, or is manifestly destroyed by hu-

man action. It is the internal act accompanying the

oblation that forms the essence of the sacrifice. The

nature of this internal act has already been hinted at.

It is the expression of man’s dependence on God,

therefore of God’s dominion over man. But the very

act of acknowledging this allegiance on the part of

man is equal to his putting himself, humanly speak-

ing, into the hands of God, of offering himself to God.

In this we come to the essential internal meaning of

sacrifice. By means of the external gift, which man

offers in sacrifice, he intends to offer himself to God,

to unite himself to God. The gift, closely associated

with man’s daily life as a rule, is merely a symbol of

the giver’s own self; just as in daily human life, the

gift of a person is taken to represent the person him-

self, and a gift is treasured because it has come from

a friend. In the offering of the sacrificial gift, then,

the person offering desires to unite himself to the

Supreme Being. The external act of offering is there-

—19—

'



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

fore incomplete unless it is accompanied by the in-

ternal oblation of self, by internal acts of mind ex-

pressive of the homage, allegiance, gratitude, sub-

mission, that man owes to God.

In the conjunction of the external with the in-

ternal action we have the full substance or meaning

of the sacrifice. But the external act is there not

merely for the purpose of expressing, on the part

of one individual, the internal acts of his religious

homage. Sacrificial acts in all religions have been

performed also, even mainly, as public, collective

acts. The one external act signifies the internal of-

fering of as many as are present at it, or have asso-

ciated themselves by proxy with the performance of

the external act. In such cases the external act is per-

formed by some official representative of a group

or community for the entire community. His ex-

ternal act, by reason of the explicit or tacit delega-

tion by the other members of the community, is taken

to be officially the action of the entire community.

In that way all can offer their internal homage

through one and the same external act. For all who

are present, the visible performance of the external

act becomes an indication of the progress of the in-

ternal act; and by watching and following the prog-

ress of the sacrificial action, all can present their

internal acts in unison, that is, as one act.

We have now a more complete conception of the
sacrificial act in religion. It is an external act, per-

formed by someone delegated to act for many, and

expressive of the internal acts of worship of all who

feel themselves represented by the delegate, and es-

pecially of all who by active assistance associate them-

—20—



THE ACTION OF SACRIFICE

selves with the actions of the delegate. In the Cath-

olic Encyclopedia the following definition is given:

"The external oblation to God by an authorized min-

ister of a sense-perceptible object, either through its

destruction or at least its real transformation, in ac-

knowledgment of God’s supreme dominion and for

the appeasing of His wrath.”

We can now readily see how the notion of sac-
rifice finds its realization in the sacrifice of Christ

on Calvary. By coming upon earth and taking to

Himself a human nature, Christ indicated to us most

clearly that he was acting for all mankind. For this

purpose He was sent by the Father, the Creator of

all things. Christ’s delegation was therefore of the

highest kind, since it was at the instance of the divine

Author and Lord of mankind that Christ assumed

the role of representing the entire human race. In

offering Himself to the Father as an acceptable victim,

Christ by the best right possible offered also all man-

kind to the Father. And the total oblation thus of-

fered to the Father was the most precious possible

since it included the divine nature of Christ, true God

like His Father in Heaven. Because of this oblation,

the sacrifice of Calvary was the best possible. It was

that also for another reason. The offerer of the sac-

rifice likewise was Christ Himself, Second Person of

the Trinity. Priest and victim, the offerer and the

oblation offered, were in the sacrifice of Calvary

identical. The sacrifice was therefore also most per-

fect from the standpoint of the harmony between

internal and external action, both of which were per-

formed by one and the same all-perfect Person.

Never was an external action more perfectly the ex-

—21—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

ecution of an internal one, since the natural instru-

ment for externally expressing the internal act of this

sacrifice was the very object that was also sacrified.

In Christ’s action on Calvary, therefore, not only the

essential characteristics of a sacrifice were present,

but they were present in a super-eminent degree. As

we have indicated, the person offering, the substance

of the offering, and the act of offering were each and

all of infinite excellence. And the delegation of the

Offerer came from God Himself, while the conscious-

ness of the purpose and of the character of the sac-

rificial oblation was supremely actual: This is my
Blood which shall be shed for you and for many for

the remission of sins.

Now if the sacrifice of the Mass is a renewal by
continuation of the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, the

elements of sacrifice must also be found in the Mass.

In the Mass, too, Christ is the victim offered to the

heavenly Father. And in the Mass the power offering

the sacrifice is that of the official priesthood of the

Church, exercised in the actions of her officially or-

dained priests, and received by her from Christ Him-

self. The manner of the offering is likewise the one

instituted and commanded by Christ Himself when

He told the Apostles at the Last Supper: "Do this

for a commemoration of Me.” The one difference

we have mentioned between the sacrifice of Calvary

and that of the Mass is this: that on Calvary Christ

in person alone offered the sacrifice and in a bloody

manner, and mankind had no opportunity of actively

associating itself with Him. In the innumerable con-

tinuations of the sacrifice through the Mass, mankind

has precisely this opportunity of joining in the action

-22—



THE ACTION OF SACRIFICE

of the priest, therefore in the action of Christ. It

is the Mass that gives the members of the Church of

God their opportunity of associating themselves with

the sacrifice of the Church, through her priest, that

is, with the sacrifice of Christ as He commanded it to

be performed for all time.

This, then, is the full meaning of the Mass as a

sacrifice. Our next step will be, to examine the Mass

itself more in detail, in its action as unfolded in the

words and gestures of the priest, and as expressed in

its very text. The purpose of this examination will

be to see just how the faithful can best by their own

internal acts associate themselves with the action of

the Mass, and thus obtain the full fruits of the re-

demption of Christ distributed to men through their

participation in this great eternal sacrifice.



Chapter IV

THE OFFERTORY OF THE MASS

The Mass is the great sacrifice of the Church of

Christ, in which the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary

is perpetuated. It must, therefore, as a sacrifice, show

the general characteristics of a sacrificial action, such

as we have analyzed in the previous chapter. At the

same time the Mass, as the perpetuation of the re-

deeming work of Christ, must bring us into posses-

sion of the fruits of Christ’s redemption. In other

words, by means of the Mass we must come into

intimate contact with Christ, and through Him un-
dergo that transformation by which we are made

acceptable children of God, a transformation made

possible for all mankind through the sacrifice of

Christ on Calvary. While therefore containing all

the general features of a sacrifice by which we offer

ourselves to God, the Mass must also be the means of

distributing the fruits of the Redemption to the souls

of men.

The Mass is liturgy at its zenith. It proceeds step

by step in the development of its action. Only by

degrees do we arrive at the full accomplishment of

the sacrificial action and its completion in us. In the

Mass many actions are performed and words uttered

by the official priest of the Church, so that the minds

of the faithful may without difficulty follow him in

the offering of the sacrifice, and may by following

his action unite themselves heart and soul with it.

Through this gradual collective action of priest and

—24—



THE OFFERTORY OF THE MASS

people, the dispositions, mind and heart, of all en-

gaged in the sacrifice are lifted up to a higher spiritual

level, a state in which the holy act of homage to God

may be performed with more perfection and with

greater fruits of soul for all that participate in it.

The Mass is ordinarily divided into two parts:

The Mass of the Catechumens, which ends just be-

fore the offering of bread and wine, called the Of-

fertory; and the Mass of the Faithful, which extends

from the Offertory to the end .
1

The Mass of the

Catechumens consists of a series of prayers and read-

ings that are meant to prepare the priest and the

faithful for a better accomplishment of the sacrificial

action itself. The latter is effected and brought to

completion in the Mass of the Faithful. The Mass of

the Faithful accordingly falls into two distinct parts:

The act of oblation proper, and the more perfect

completion of this act. The latter, the more perfect

completion of the act of sacrifice, centers around the

Communion, since the act of oblation is perfected

and consummated by the union of God and the faith-

ful in the sacramental reception of Christ in the Eu-

charist. This part of the Mass, therefore, beginning

with the Pater Noster, includes some of the action

that immediately precedes the Communion of the

Mass and all that follows. From the Offertory to

the Pater Noster, on the other hand, we have the act

of offering typical of all sacrifice. It is therefore the

real performance of the sacrificial oblation or offer-

ing.

As we shall see in the course of the following

pages, this act of offering in turn unfolds itself in

^ee Chapter IX, first paragraph.

—25—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

three separate stages. The first of these is concerned

with the preliminary offering of bread and wine. In

it we indicate that we are setting apart these gifts

of ours for a holy purpose, that we are thereby dedi-

cating them to the service of God. Bread and wine,

used in the Mass, are excellent gifts for us to offer.

They have always formed the staple food of many

peoples, especially those living around the Mediter-

ranean, where stood the cradle of Christianity. In

offering bread and wine, we are therefore offering

that which represents our own life, and which would

naturally be converted into the substance of our own

flesh and blood. We are depriving ourselves of these
objects and offering them to God, in order to indi-

cate the giving of ourselves to God. We are doing
it also, as was said before, to reap the full fruits of

the redemption of Christ. It will soon become evi-

dent that the very texts of the Mass indicate this most

clearly. The purpose of the sacrifice, which is the

glory of God and our salvation, is mentioned in them

time and again. This was also the purpose of the en-

tire mission of Christ and His redemption. In per-

forming the action for the sake of fulfilling the re-

demption of Christ in us, our minds naturally expand

to the broad sympathy of Christ Himself. We can
not have sentiments contrary to His mission, which

was for all mankind; on the contrary, we enter into

that mission in all its fulness. Our sacrifice there-

fore, being performed by the official priest of the

Church, with whom we join ourselves, becomes the
sacrifice of the entire Church; and we in turn offer

it up for all mankind as did Christ, thus in spirit

approaching to a more perfect assimilation with Him.

—26—



THE OFFERTORY OF THE MASS

In commencing the Offertory, the priest turns to

the people with the customary greeting: “The Lord

be with you”; and having received the answer, “And

with thy spirit,” he exhorts them to join in his prayer:

"Oremus—Let us pray.” The priest then recites the
so-called Offertory antiphon. This is a verse taken

from some Psalm. In former times the whole Psalm

was sung at this juncture, and during its singing all

the assembled people went up in procession to the

altar to hand their special offerings to the priest.

Some gave oil, others vegetables; most of them, how-

ever, gave bread and wine. In this way the action of

offering was really participated in by the people also

externally. Some of the bread and wine was laid on

the sacrificial altar by the ministers in order to be used

in the sacrifice of the Mass. The rest of the obla-

tion was set aside in order to be distributed to the

poor. The bread and the wine offered in the Mass

were then truly the gifts of the people themselves.

This old custom of the offertory procession has

been out of vogue for many centuries. A distant
echo of it, however, remains in the practice of the

Sunday collection. This collection is most appropri-

ately taken up at the Offertory of the Mass. While

the object offered is money, we must remember that

money is now the common means of exchange. It

stands for all types of possessions, for with it man can

procure any material thing that he wishes to have

for any purpose whatsoever. The money offered in

the Mass is given by the faithful to the parish church

for the needs of the church. It represents a denial of

self as much as did the offerings of old; and just as

much as these, it is a setting aside of some personal

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MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

profane thing for purposes of God. This is true in

particular also of the stipend offered by the person

according to whose special intentions the Mass is to be

offered. The bread and wine are therefore today

still the gift of the people of the parish, and repre-

sent as much as ever the personal oblation to God

of the members of the parish, of all attending the

Mass. This intimate union of the people with the

offering of the gifts is well illustrated in the texts of

the prayers accompanying the offering.

The priest offers the host of bread on the paten

with the words: "Accept, O holy Father, almighty
and eternal God, this host for the all-holy sacrifice,

which I, Thy unworthy servant, offer unto Thee,

my living and true God, to atone for my numberless
sins of wilfulness and neglect; on behalf of all here

present, and likewise for all faithful Christians, liv-

ing and dead, that it may profit me and them as a

means of salvation unto life everlasting. Amen.”

We see in these words that the priest prays not only
for himself, but for all present at the Mass, and then

also for all Christians, living and dead. Thus the

sympathy and love of priest and people, as was said

above, must be as wide as that of the Church and of

Christ, if they wish to offer up a sacrifice pleasing to

the Father. The purpose of the sacrifice is here ex-

pressed as being expiation for past sins and offenses,

so that it may bring eternal salvation to all the faith-

ful, especially to those present at the sacrifice. The

prayer is not offered to Christ, but to the heavenly

Father. Christ is to be ovir co-operator in our sac-

rifice. As on Calvary, our sacrifice is finally to be

offered by Christ to His Father in heaven, and is at

—28—



THE OFFERTORY OF THE MASS

the same time to be an offering of Christ to the Father.

The next prayer is said while the priest mixes

wine and water. It tells us that the wine represents

Christ, and that we are represented by the water.

The mixing of the two shows that we must unite

ourselves with Christ now, just as Christ at one time

united Himself with human nature when He de-

scended in person upon this earth. "Grant that

through the mystery of this water and wine, we may

be made partakers of His divinity, who has deigned

to become partaker of our humanity.” Indeed, if

our sacrifice is to be a continuation of that of Cal-

vary, we must unite ourselves intimately with Christ.

—The wine is now offered up to the Father. In the
prayer, the priest, praying for all, asks that "it may

arise before the face of Thy divine majesty, with a

pleasing fragrance, for our salvation and that of all

mankind.” Again is the offering made for our sal-

vation, as on Calvary. And it is offered for all the

faithful. By thus joining our intention with that

of Christ, who died for all, we are preparing our

minds more and more for the intimate union with

Him that is necessary if our sacrifice is to be that of
Christ also.

Further prayers of offering follow. They form a

progressive action of oblation, in connection with the

above two. Their purpose can not be to indicate to

God what He already knows, namely, that we are
making an offering, but is rather the increasing de-

velopment in us of those sentiments of heart which

make our sacrifice more holy and efficacious. "In a

spirit of humility and with a contrite heart,” reads

the next prayer, "may we be accepted by Thee, O
—29—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

Lord, and may our sacrifice be so offered in Thy sight

this day as to please Thee, O Lord God.” Making
the sign of the cross over the oblations, the priest asks

the special blessing of God upon them. Thereupon

he washes his hands while reciting some verses of a

Psalm. We may take the action of washing of hands
to indicate that we wish to cleanse our minds of all

faults before continuing with the sacrifice, and as an

indication that the sacred action of the Mass is about

to proceed with increasing solemn dignity. His-

torically, some say, the washing may have arisen from

the handling of the many gifts formerly brought up

by the people in the offertory procession.

After the washing, the priest again asks for the

acceptance of the gifts "which we are making to

Thee.” This time the prayer is addressed to the Holy

Trinity, in whom the three divine Persons are always
inseparably united. The oblation is said to be made

"in remembrance of the passion, resurrection, and

ascension of Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Our sacrifice

is to be not merely a remembrance of the suffering

and death of Christ. Like Christ, and with Him, we

are to rise from death and ascend into heaven. In

fact, by union with Christ and His Church, we

achieve an anticipation of our final ascension. The

Mass is for all of these together, since it is to give

us the fruits, not only of the passion of Christ, but

of the whole Redemption. In this same prayer we

mention the blessed Virgin Mary, some Apostles, and

"all the saints,” in order to honor them and ask their

intercession. We thus unite the prayers and merits
of the saints with our own sacrifice and prayers. God

will more readily hear them than us. Furthermore,

•30—



THE OFFERTORY OF THE MASS

by uniting ourselves with the saints, who are near and

dear to Christ, we can more readily also unite our-

selves with our divine Mediator. The more closely

we unite with those who are in intimate union with

Christ, the closer do we get to Christ Himself.

The priest now again indicates the collective na-

ture of the offering by turning to the people with the

words: "Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours
may be acceptable to God the Father almighty.” It

is the people’s sacrifice as well as the priest’s; and

they now well understand the nature of the sacrificial

action and its purpose. They answer with the server:

"May the Lord accept the sacrifice at thy hands, unto

the praise and glory of His name, for our advantage,

and that of all His holy Church.” The people thus

formally endorse the priest’s action, and are aware

that he is to act for them.

The priest answers "Amen—So be it” to this
prayer of the people. He then recites a prayer called

the Secret, because said in a subdued voice. But it

is again said for all the people, and always indicates

some of the special graces desired from the offering of

the gifts. At the end of the prayer the choir and

server answer "Amen” for the people.

With this, the first stage of the offering is at an

end. The people have, through the priest, set apart

something of their own as dedicated to God, as given

over to a holy purpose. In this action all the of-

ferers should be mindful of the deeper meaning of

the sacrificial offering. While bread and wine are be-

ing offered, all should consciously offer themselves

along with the gifts which represent their persons.

If anyone has had a special burden to bear, some spe-



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

cial misfortune, some weakness, or on the other hand

has had a special joy—all these should be placed on
the altar with the holy elements. Our joys will be

purified and our sorrows and weaknesses hallowed by

the sacred action. No one should attend Mass with-

out in that way making some very specific offering,

one that is close to the immediate circumstances of

the offerer. Then the external action will be most

perfectly expressive of the internal oblation of mind

and heart through which is attained the real personal

value of the sacrificial action.

Before the second stage of offering, which consti-

tutes the first part of the Canon of the Mass, there is

a prayer of transition. This is the Preface, a solemn

hymn of praise and thanksgiving to God. It should

elevate the mind and prepare for the better perform-

ance of the second offering, which is immediately pre-

paratory to the most holy moment when God Him-

self in the person of Christ descends into our gifts.

After the "Amen” is answered to the Secret, the

priest and people pray in impressive dialog. "The

Lord be with you: And with thy Spirit.—Lift up
your hearts: "We have lifted them up unto the Lord.

—Let us give thanks to the Lord our God: It is fit-
ting and just.” Then the priest continues the Preface

alone. In it he celebrates the glory of God with the

angels in heaven, and in the name of all, joins the

praises of the community to those of the celestial

choirs, ending with: "Holy, holy, holy Lord God

almighty! Heaven and earth are filled with Thy

glory . . . Blessed is He that cometh in the name of

the Lord!—Now all are prepared to enter more prof-
itably upon the holy action of the Canon.

—32*~ j



Chapter V

THE CANON: BEFORE THE CONSECRATION

After the Preface the Canon of the Mass begins.

It is a most holy form of prayer, in which the Con-

secration takes place. The Church indicates the

solemn and holy nature of the action by prescribing

that the words of this part of the Mass should not be

said aloud. Only a deep silence can express the pro-

found sentiments of the soul, with which the mysteri-

ous action should be performed. The Canon begins

with a second stage of the action of offering. In the

previous part the gifts of bread and wine were of-

fered to God, and were thereby set apart for a holy

purpose. In that alone we should already have a

first sacrificial offering quite complete in itself. But

the Christian sacrifice of the New Law is something
infinitely greater than all other sacrifices. In it

Christ Himself plays a part; and so the first offering,

up to the Preface, is only the preliminary for what is

to follow. In the first stage the gifts, our gifts, were

blessed and made holy. In the second offering, which

is now to begin, these gifts are again presented to God,

but for a further purpose; namely, the fuller purpose

of the sacrifice of the Mass. They are now offered to

God for the purpose of their divine consecration into

the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. In this second

offering, the words of the text again mention all the

intentions for which the Mass is offered, and ask the

prayers of the saints in order to help obtain the aid

and protection of God.



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

The first prayer of the Canon offers up the holy

gifts in these words: “And now, O most gracious
Father, we humbly beg of Thee and entreat Thee,

through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, to deem

acceptable and bless these gifts of Thine, now set

apart for the holy and all-perfect sacrifice; which

we offer unto Thee especially for Thy holy catholic

Church, that Thou wouldst deign to keep it in peace

and unity, to protect and sustain it throughout the

world . . The Mass is always offered for the

whole Church. Nothing is more pleasing to God, and

nothing is more like the spirit of Christ Himself, as we

saw above. To emphasize this universal purpose, the

Canon prayer next mentions the reigning pope by

name, and the bishop of the local diocese. They are

our supreme pastors, the direct successors ,of the

Apostles and the visible representatives of Christ here

on earth. We must always pray for them if we have
the universal sympathy of Christ in our hearts; pray-

ing for them is praying for the Church and for the

cause of Christ. Next the prayer mentions “all the

bishops and their flocks, who cherish the catholic and

apostolic faith.”

Then comes the “Commemoration of the Liv-

ing,” in which particular persons are mentioned for

whose intention or benefit the Mass is to be offered up

in a special manner. At the letters N. N. in the text,

the names of these persons should be mentioned. But

the Mass is always of special benefit also to those who

attend it and pray with the priest. This is well shown

by the words of the prayer: “Be mindful, O Lord,
of Thy servants, N. and N., and of all here present,

whose faith is known to Thee and likewise their devo-

—34—



BEFORE THE CONSECRATION

tion, on whose behalf we offer unto Thee, and who

themselves offer unto Thee, this sacrifice of praise for

themselves and all who are theirs, for the good of

their souls, according to their hope of salvation and

deliverance from all harm; and who pay Thee the

homage which they owe Thee, eternal God, living and

true.” Nothing can show better than this prayer how

intimately the people attending the Mass are associ-

ated with its holy action and blessings.

These prayers of priest and people are not to stand

alone. They are to be strengthened by those of the

saints in heaven, the tried friends of God. Their in-

tercession will help to make us more worthy of the

full blessings of the Mass and of having our sacrifice

fully accepted by God. The Mass prayer, therefore,

goes on: “United in Thy only Church, we honor

the memory, first of the glorious and immaculate Vir-

gin Mary, mother of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ ;

then that of Thy blessed apostles and martyrs, Peter

and Paul . . . and of all Thy saints, by whose

merits and prayers, grant that we may be always

favored with the help of Thy protection: Through

the same Christ our Lord. Amen.” Since the

Church, with her full power, is officially praying in

the Mass, we are assured by this prayer of the help

of the saints. We can with all the more hope con-
tinue to pray for the acceptance of our sacrifice. It

is now our sacrifice and that of the whole family of

God, that is, of the whole Church on earth and of the

saints in heaven. Hence the Canon continues: “We
further beseech Thee, O Lord, to receive in atonement
this sacrifice of adoration from us and from all Thy

household. Provide that our days be spent in Thy

—35—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

peace, save us from everlasting damnation, and cause

us to be numbered among those whom Thou hast

chosen: Through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

During this prayer the priest has been holding

his hands over the bread and wine. This custom

existed in the old Jewish sacrifice, especially in the

sacrifice for the Day of Atonement, one of the great

types of our Lord’s sacrifice for the sins of mankind.

In the Jewish sacrifice the high priest held his hands

on the head of the animal to be sacrificed. The mean-

ing of the action was, it is said, that through the im-

position of the hands of the priest, acting for all the

people, the sins and weaknesses of the people were

transferred to the offerings, and were then washed

away when these offerings perished or were slain, and

accepted by God. The action becomes the more sig-

nificant in Mass, if we remember that the gifts on the

altar are now soon to be changed into the very Body

and Blood of Christ. And it is the very same Christ

who took upon Himself the nature of man with all

the weaknesses and sins of mankind, and who, by of-

fering Himself on Calvary, purified this nature and

made it again acceptable to our heavenly Father. Of

this more will be said in later paragraphs. The prayers

of the Canon are now arriving at the sacred action

of the Consecration. After the imposition of hands

upon the offerings by the priest, only a short prayer

follows; and it is the introduction to the Consecra-

tion. It mentions the immediate purpose of the sec-

ond stage of offering, which began with the Canon

and is now ending: "Do Thou, O God, deign to bless
what we offer, and make it approved, effective,

worthy, and acceptable in every way, that it may

—36—



BEFORE THE CONSECRATION

become for our good, the Body and Blood of Thy

dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Now the consecration takes place. The priest re-
cites the narrative of what Christ did at the Last

Supper when He "took bread into His holy and

venerable hands, and having raised His eyes to heaven,

unto Thee, His almighty Father, giving thanks to

Thee, blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to His

disciples, saying: Take ye all, and eat of this: for

THIS IS MY BODY.” In the same way the words
narrated in the Gospels and used by Christ are pro-

nounced over the chalice for the consecration of the

wine into the living Blood of Christ. With this dou-

ble pronouncement of the priest, the consecration has

been accomplished. There is no longer bread and

wine on the altar, but the real Body and Blood of

Christ Himself. Christ, our divine High Priest, and

the Mediator between God and man, has descended

on the altar. He has come into the midst of us in
order to help us perfect our sacrifice.

In the Consecration the most holy and solemn

action of the entire Mass has taken place. So far,

the action of the Mass had been that of all the faith-

ful and of the entire Church. The priest celebrating

the Mass has acted by special delegation of the hier-

archy of the Church, and with the commission and

power received in the sacrament of Holy Orders. So

far he was always speaking and acting also for the

people, and the people, by uniting their minds with

him, were speaking and acting through and with him.

In the Consecration this is no longer true. When the
priest there pronounces the words "This is my Body,”
and "This is the chalice of my Blood,” he is no longer

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MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

speaking for himself or for the people. By virtue of

his power of priesthood, which is the priesthood of

Christ, he is in these words speaking for Christ and

for Christ alone. Through the mouth of the priest,

Christ*Himself is speaking, and it is Christ who per-

forms the action of descending upon the altar and

entering by a mysterious change of substances into

the gifts there prepared. At the Consecration the

people are but silent witnesses of the divine action.

The action has for the moment been taken over by

God Himself. Hence the Consecration is so sublime

in its dignity; it has the full, unspeakable grandeur

of the Divine.

Often we think of the consecration of the bread

and wine merely as of an event occurring on the altar,

and as in so far remote from ourselves; just as we

often think of the Incarnation, the birth of Christ,

as a distant historical event, without thinking of its

intimate connection with our lives. The transubstan-

tiation on the altar is not merely a holy event that

occurs so and so many feet away from ourselves, at

which we happen to be present more or less acci-

dentally. The holy action of God we are witnessing

is most intimately related to us, and to all that are

in any way connected with the sacrifice being of-

fered in the Mass. A moment’s reflection will show
that most clearly. At the Offertory we offered up

bread and wine to God. This offering symbolized and

indicated the offering of ourselves to God. The gifts

represented ourselves. This was emphasized by the

imposition of hands by the priest over the gifts im-

mediately before the Consecration. We were most
intimately drawn into the Mass, because in our gifts

—38—



BEFORE THE CONSECRATION

we had placed ourselves on the altar, together with

our joys and sorrows, our hopes, and our weaknesses,

as an oblation to God. Now at the Consecration
Christ descended into those very gifts, which stood

for ourselves. It is our Lord’s sublime response to our

act of oblation. God has not merely accepted our

oblation for what it might be worth; but Christ

has identified Himself with it, has entered truly into

that which we designated as meaning ourselves.

No words can exhaust or even describe the sub-

lime meaning of this action of Christ. He offered

Himself in a bloody manner for us once on Calvary.

The evening before, He instituted the unbloody Sac-

rifice and Sacrament. And as He said, it was with

a great longing that He had awaited the moment for

doing so. In the sacrifice of the Mass, the Church

follows the command of Christ: "Do this for a com-

memoration of me;” whereupon Christ, with the

same infinite longing for us, descends into the midst

of us by an action that indicates His desire for a most

intimate union with us. Human mind could not
have imagined an action so divine, so infinitely ex-

pressive; only a divine love could have conceived it.

Henceforth we are no longer alone in our pleadings,

Christ is praying with us. The moment is therefore

of supreme value. Hence the Church does not pause

in the progress of her sacrifice, but continues with-

out interruption. This is her greatest opportunity,

and she hastens to make use of it.

—39—



Chapter VI

THE CANON: AFTER THE CONSECRATION

During the holy moments of the Consecration we

were silent witnesses of the action of Christ descend-

ing upon the altar. Instead of bread and wine we

now have the divine Person of our Lord—really
present there under the appearances of bread and

wine. In the sublime manner instituted by Himself

at the Last Supper, He is now ready to continue the

action of the Mass with us, to re-enact the sublime

sacrifice of Calvary. At this holy moment the iden-

tity of the sacrifice of the Mass and that of Calvary

becomes real. Through the official priest the whole

action of the Mass was performed by Christ, but

vicariously. Now Christ has placed Himself on the
altar as an acceptable offering to God. From this

moment on there is in the Mass the same divine Priest

and the same divine Victim as on Calvary. It is now

that the Mass begins more particularly to be a special

application of the fruits of the Redemption.

We have mentioned before that in His sojourn
on earth and His sufferings and death, Christ united

all humanity to Himself by reason of His taking on

a human nature. On Calvary all mankind was of-
fered with Him. But not all men there had the op-

portunity of actively associating themselves with His

sacrifice. That opportunity was to be given to men

throughout the succession of time by reason of the

fact that Christ gave His mission and His priestly

powers to a living Church, and that the Church was

—40—



AFTER THE CONSECRATION

to continue His sacrifice day after day in the Mass.

At the Consecration, Christ did not descend on the

altar in order to receive our adoration as the supreme

Judge and divine King, but in order to act as our

Mediator in the same way as He had on Calvary.

Our Lord is now on the altar in order that He may

again be the victim offered to the heavenly Father for

us, and in order that this time we may have the op-

portunity of actively uniting ourselves with Him in

this oblation. In that way every Mass is an extension

of the sacrifice of Calvary, insofar as it actually effects

for many individuals, especially those attending the

Mass, what was made possible for all on Calvary. On
Calvary all men were offered up to God in Christ as

acceptable victims, but it was, so to say, apart from

their consent. In the liturgy of the Church, and es-

pecially in the Mass, men have the opportunity and

the great privilege of giving their consent to this

union with Christ, and therefore of actually deriving

for themselves the great fruits of the Redemption

first earned for them on Calvary. For this reason the

action of the Mass after the Consecration continues

to be one of offering. It is the third stage of offering,

in which Christ Himself comes to our aid and gives

Himself to us as an oblation that will be fully accept-

ed by the heavenly Father.

The first prayer after the Consecration well ex-

emplifies this: "Wherefore, we Thy servants, and

likewise Thy holy people, calling to mind not only

the blessed passion of the same Christ Thy Son, but

also His resurrection from the dead, and finally His

glorious ascension into heaven, offer unto Thy su-

preme majesty, of Thy gifts bestowed upon us, the

—41—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

pure, the holy, the all-perfect sacrifice of thanks for

our redemption—the holy Bread of life eternal and
the Chalice of unending salvation.” These words

also indicate the purpose of the sacrifice which is the

same as the purpose of Calvary, our eternal salvation.

This purpose is likewise expressed by the words re-

ferring to the resurrection and ascension of our Lord.

We are now celebrating not only the passion of
Christ, but also the fruits thereof, the resurrection

and ascension, in which we all hope to share.

The next prayer asks God to look favorably upon

our present sacrifice, as He did formerly upon the sac-

rifices of Abel, Abraham, and Melchisedech. This

may at first thought seem strange to us, since it is im-

possible that God refuse to accept His own divine Son,

who is now being offered. But we must remember

the fuller purpose of the Mass. As has been explained

before, it is this: That those attending, or connected

with the Mass, may be intimately united with Christ,

and be accepted with and through Him by the heav-
enly Father. There is no doubt of the Father’s ac-

cepting Christ—in fact, He has accepted the victim
Christ on Calvary for all eternity. But whether

He will accept us with Christ, depends on the state
of our soul, and on God’s mercy. Hence we ask Him
most insistently, even after the Consecration, to ac-

cept the full oblation of the Mass, namely, Christ and

us with Him. A third prayer continues this petition,
and at the same time speaks of the special way in

which we are in the Mass assured of a most close union

with Christ: "Most humbly we implore Thee, al-

mighty God, cause these our mystic offerings to be

borne by the hands of Thy holy Angel unto Thy altar

—42—



AFTER THE CONSECRATION

above, before the face of Thy divine majesty; that

those of us who from this sharing in the heavenly sac-

rifice, shall receive the most sacred Body and Blood

of Thy Son, may be filled with every grace and

heavenly blessing: Through the same Christ our Lord.

Amen.”

After thus laying our offering, that is, Christ and

ourselves, on the altar of Heaven, we turn our

thoughts a moment to the helpless souls in purgatory.

They are completely dependent on our prayers and

on the sacrifice of Christ. In praying for them we

are showing in our hearts the sympathy of Christ;

we thus become more closely united to the divine

Victim and therefore most acceptable to the heaven-

ly Father. The same end is attained by the commem-

oration of the saints that follows. The prayer men-

tions the Apostles, early martyrs, and "all Thy

saints;” but this time not in order merely to ask for

their intercession. We now ask God to unite us to
them through the merits of Christ: ". . . all

Thy saints, into whose company we implore Thee to

admit us, not weighing our merits, but freely grant-

ing us pardon: Through Christ our Lord.” Admit-

ted into the company of the intimate friends of

Christ, we shall be also more closely united with

Christ, and, as living members of His mystic body,

shall be accepted by the Father because of our living

union with our divine Head and Mediator. Thus the

sacrifice of the Mass continues to exercise the same

mediatorship of Christ that was exercised on Calvary.

Christ Himself comes down on the altar in person,

in order to offer us together with Himself. All that

was ever done for us, all that we can ever expect to

—43—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

obtain, comes only through Christ, our divine Media-

tor. Hence the prayers of the Canon, of the whole

Mass, so often mention this fact.

This idea is also the closing note of the Canon.

Our whole hope lies in Christ; and properly so, be-

cause He is the right hand of the Father and His

only-begotten Son. Our prayers of oblation in the

Canon end most appropriately by reminding the

Father of the universal mediatorship of His divine

Son, Mediator of the sanctification of man as also

of the glory given to God. "Through whom, O Lord,
Thou dost ever provide, make holy, fill with life, make

fruitful of good, and bestow upon us all these Thy

gifts: Through Him, and with Him, and in Him,

is to Thee, God the Father almighty, in the unity

of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory, for ever and

ever. Amen.” "A sacrifice of praise” the Mass was

called in the second prayer of the Canon, and with

this note of praise to the divine Trinity the Canon

closes. We have now come to the end of the sac-
rificial action proper of the holy Mass. In three

stages the action of offering has unfolded itself from

the Offertory to the last words of the Canon, ending

in a sort of mystic union of ourselves with the divine

Jesus, by which we are offerers with Him through the
mediation of the officiating priest, and are with Him
the acceptable victims offered.

The entire action so far has had for its purpose our

intimate union with Christ and through Him with
God. This is accomplished first of all by a proper

sacrifice of ourselves, by a stripping off of the old

self and a putting on of the life of Christ. But

there is a still more perfect consummation of this

—44—



AFTER THE CONSECRATION

union possible, that of sacramental union at the Com-

munion. The sacramental reception of Christ by the

people at the Communion is not essential to the sac-

rifice of the Mass. But the Mass is not only a sac-

rifice; it is also a sacrament. And the sacrament is

the natural consummation of the sacrifice, insofar as

it perfectly realizes the union which is mystically en-

acted in the latter. In the Mass, therefore, the sac-

ramental communion is the consummation of the sac-

rifice in us. Therein we may find the explanation

of the mention made in the third prayer after the

Consecration, which refers directly to the reception

of the Body and Blood of Christ. And therein alone

do we find the explanation of the part of the Mass

that comes after the Canon. This part has been most

properly called the eucharistic banquet or repast. It

centers around the Communion, being in part pre-

paratory to it, and in part a rapid after-action. The

sacred and mystic action of the Canon, centering

around the Consecration, now being over, the priest
again prays aloud, or chants, and the people through

choir and server again participate more actively in

the action of the Mass.

.—45—



Chapter VII

THE EUCHARISTIC REPAST

The second part of the Mass of the Faithful be-

gins with the Our Father. The act of oblation hav-

ing been completed in the sublime offering up of

Christ Himself, the eyes of priest and people, under

the guidance of the Church, turn towards the con-

summation of the sacrifice through the sacramental

communion. Most appropriately is the new turn

taken by means of the Our Father. It is the perfect

prayer given to us by Christ Himself; and like all

true prayer, it directs the mind first of all to God and

only after that thinks of the needs of the creature.

In it God is addressed as our common Father. As He

presided at the sacrificial offering, so He now presides

at the holy table. As the sacrifice was offered to Him,

so it is He who will now give Christ to us, insofar as

Christ ever did all things according to the will of His

heavenly Father and at His command. As with a

family at table, all minds are associated with the

priest, who says the prayer aloud. The words "give

us this day our daily bread,” and their sequel are

specially significant. They can be taken as the key-

note of what is to follow in the Mass. The daily

Bread of Life will be profitable to us only in the de-

gree in which we are freed in mind from all the

vestiges of sin. After the mystic ecstacy—using the
phrase in figure—of the second part of the Canon,
our thoughts are again directed to this our great need.

Hence the petition with which the Our Father ends:



THE EUCHARISTIC REPAST

"Forgive us our trespasses, . . . Lead us not in-

to temptation,” to which the people respond: "But

deliver us from evil;” while the priest again answers:

"Amen—So be it.”
Purity of mind and heart is essential for Commu-

nion and its full fruitage of graces, and this purity

comes from God. Accordingly the next prayer con-

tinues the closing petitions of the Our Father. It asks

that we be freed from all evils, and that by the in-

tercession of the saints "we may be always free from

sin and safe from all disturbance.” Thereupon the

priest breaks the Host. Formerly this was the ac-

tual breaking up of the heavenly Bread into indi-

vidual portions for each one sitting at the great fam-

ily table of the altar. Today it still symbolizes this

action, and is therefore significant in the part of the

Mass before the holy Communion. Making the sign

of the cross over the chalice with one of the par-

ticles, the priest addresses the people with the beau-

tiful wish: "May the peace of the Lord be always

with you,” to which they answer: "And with thy

spirit.” Peace should indeed reign in those hearts

into which Christ Himself is to enter. And it must

be the peace of the Lord. Christ said long ago that

no offering or prayer is acceptable to God, if there

is any hatred or rancor in our hearts. The mutual

wish of priest and people expresses the fact that a

universal charity reigns in the hearts of all—truly
the peace of Christ. It is a practical sequel to the pe-

tition sent up to God in the Our Father, that He
forgive us even as we forgive our neighbors.—After
dropping the small particle of the Host into the

Chalice and praying that the mingling may "help

—47—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

us who receive it unto life everlasting,” the more im-

mediate preparation for the reception of Christ takes

place.

Now the prayer of the Mass turns directly to
Christ. "Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of

the world, have mercy on us,” say the priest and the

choir, and the people in union with them. Christ

is now directly appealed to. He is already very near,

and we are on the threshold of holy union with Him.

The words here used are the same that St. John the

Baptist made use of when Christ was about to enter

upon the active mission of His sojourn on earth.

Jesus is now about to renew the saving activity in a

special way in our hearts. Hence in the very same

words we now beseech Him to come in the fulness of
His divine mercy. The "Agnus Dei—Lamb of God,”
is repeated three times. After the last invocation the

petition is changed to: "Grant us peace.” Again

we have the thought of the peace of heart that dis-

tinguishes the true follower of Christ, the peace of

heart that the world can not give. It also recurs in

the first of the three prayers that follow. In it the

priest takes up the same idea, and in the true spirit of

Christ, asks that this peace may be given abundantly

to the whole Church: "O Lord Jesus Christ, who

hast said to Thy apostles: Peace I leave unto you,

my peace I give unto you, regard not my sins but the
faith of Thy Church, and deign to keep it in peace

and unity, according to Thy will; who livest and

reignest God through all eternity. Amen.” The

priest is indeed always the mouthpiece of the Church,

and through her of Christ. We can not be of Christ
unless we are filled with these same holy sentiments.

—48—



THE EUCHARISTIC REPAST

The prayer for the entire Church is prompted by a

conviction of the solidarity of all the members united

in Christ, and of the fact that in the Church is to be

found the fuller manifestation of Christ Himself and

the realization of His mission.

Two further prayers are more personal, and ask

for the full grace of the Communion for the priest

who is officiating. But the words apply equally to all

others receiving the Communion, and can most fit-

tingly be used also by them. Then, after the simple

statement, "I will take the Bread of Heaven, and

call upon the name of the Lord,” and the thrice re-

peated "Lord, I am not worthy, etc.,” the priest con-

sumes the sacred Host. In like manner the Chalice

is consumed after the equally simple but meaningful

words: "What shall I offer the Lord for all that He

hath given to me? I will take the Chalice of salva-

tion, and I will call upon the name of the Lord.

Praising I will call upon the Lord, and I will be saved

from my enemies.”

After the communion of the priest comes that of

the faithful. Today a special prayer occurs before

it. The server recites for the people a general con-

fession of guilt, and calls upon the saints and the

priest to pray for their forgiveness. Again we have

the idea of greater purity of heart for a more fruit-

ful reception of the Sacrament. The priest, who acts

officially for the Church, therefore with the power

of Christ entrusted to the Church, turns to the peo-

ple and prays for their forgiveness: "May the al-

mighty God have mercy upon you, forgive you your

sins, and bring you to life everlasting.” The server

and people answer "Amen” to this and to the fol-

—49—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

lowing similar prayer: "May the almighty and mer-

ciful Lord grant you pardon, absolution, and remis-

sion of your sins.” The priest now holds up a sacred

Host with the words: “Behold the Lamb of God,

behold, which takes away the sins of the world.”

After saying "Lord, I am not worthy, . . .”

three times, he gives Communion to each person with

the prayer: " May the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ

preserve thy soul to life everlasting. Amen.”

Through the lips of the priest this is prayer of the

Church, nay, of Christ Himself as He is entering into

the heart of His beloved child. For Christ is now

again realizing the great love with which He came

upon earth, and with which He instituted the Sacra-

ment at the Last Supper and commanded its frequent

celebration.

Formerly the prayers of confession and forgiveness

were not recited before Communion. They are,

in fact, part of the preliminary prayers for the Mass

of the Catechumens, the first part of the Mass. Only

when the custom had arisen of giving Communion,

quite regularly outside Mass, were these prayers at-

tached immediately to the rite of giving Communion;

and only then did they enter into the text of the

Mass immediately before the communion of the

faithful. Before that time the communion of the

faithful took place ordinarily at Mass, and was at-

tached immediately to that of the priest. Even to-

day the Mass is the natural setting for the reception

of holy Communion, and the practice of general

distribution of Communion before or after Mass, or

outside Mass, is only tolerated by the Church, not at

—50—



THE EUCHARISTIC REPAST

all desired .
1

While the communion of the peo-

ple is not an essential part of the sacrifice of the Mass,

so that the sacrifice would be complete without it,

we must repeat here that the communion is the nat-

ural and logical consummation of the part the peo-

ple take in the sacrifice of the Mass. As we have just

seen, the very text of the Mass after the Canon is

preparatory to the sacramental reception of Christ in

Communion. Here, as elsewhere, the priest prays in

the plural, for himself and for the people attending.

Just as in the sacrificial action the people all acted

with him, so in the preparation for Communion they

should all join with him in the same sentiments. In

fact, the active participation of the people in the

action of the Mass again becomes more pronounced

here, after the solemn silence of the Canon is ended.

Apart from the text of the Mass, the action of the

sacrifice itself points to its consummation in holy

Communion. A brief survey will indicate this. The
Mass is at once the commemoration of Calvary and

of the Last Supper. At the one Christ sacrificed

Himself for all, at the other He gave Himself sacra-
mentally as the Bread of Life. At the Offertory

gifts were offered to the Father that came from the

people and stood for the people. In offering them

with the priest, the people offered themselves to God

and thus strove for a closer union with Him. The

first part of the Canon repeated the offering of the

gifts with a more direct emphasis on the holiness of

the purpose of the sacrifice. After the Consecration,

Christ Himself has entered into the gifts of the peo-

1
See Caronti, The Spirit of the Liturgy, pp. 72 fF., for a brief state-

ment. Popular Liturgical Library
,
Series I, No. 2.

—51—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

pie, thus putting Himself into the hands of the peo-

ple as a victim fully acceptable to the Father and at

the same time symbolizing His union with the people

offering. The action after the Consecration cements

this union, insofar as the people now offer in union

with Christ, and offer themselves together with Him.

The people are therefore united with Christ both as

offerers and victims, and this by reason of the sacra-

mental presence of Christ on the altar—the type of
presence instituted by Him for sacramental Commu-
nion. Thus the triple action of offering, the end of

which is a more intimate union with Christ, is nat-

urally consummated by the reception of Commu-

nion. For the sacrificial action of the Mass, to re-

peat, the people’s reception of Communion is not

essential, but in the progressive attainment of union

with Christ, it is the one higher type of union pos-

sible after the action of the second part of the Canon.

So much being clear, there is no need to point out

further how appropriate a preparation for sacramen-

tal Communion we have in the preceding action of

the Mass.

—62—



Chapter VIII

AFTER THE COMMUNION

In general, the progress of any public liturgical

function of the Church works up to a culmination

by successive steps. But once the culmination is

reached, the closing action is short and rapid. This

feature we find well illustrated in the Mass. In one

sense the Consecration can be called the peak of the

sacrificial action, for the moment when Christ Him-

self descends upon the altar is the most sacred of all.

With the Consecration, however, as we have seen,

the sacrificial offering is not yet completed. Even

after the completion of the latter, that is, after the

end of the Canon, the liturgy continues its progress.

Because the Eucharist is both sacrifice and sacrament,

and the sacrament is the logical outcome of the sac-

rifice, the liturgical action goes forward up to the

Communion. The latter is the most perfect consum-

mation of our union with Christ. With it the pur-

pose of the entire action of the Mass has been most

fully achieved. Hence with her fine understanding

of human nature, the Church does not linger over

the conclusion of her eucharistic worship. We shall
briefly examine this last part of the Mass.

If the texts of the Mass from the end of the

Canon to the Communion are an immediate prepara-

tion for Communion, then the part after the Com-

munion is likewise a thanksgiving, and a common

thanksgiving for all attending the Mass. While re-

ceiving wine into the chalice after the Communion,

—53—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

the priest says the following short prayer: “What

we have taken like bodily food, may we treasure with

a pure mind; and may what is given us in time

be our provision for eternity.” A second prayer is
recited by the priest in the first person. Like the

former it is a prayer for the fuller fruits of the Com-

munion: “May Thy Body, O Lord, which I have
eaten, and Thy Blood, which I have drunk, affect

me to the depths of my being, and grant that no
trace of sin may be found in me, whom these pure

and holy mysteries have renewed; who livest and

reignest through all eternity. Amen.” Next the

priest says the Communion verse, which is also sung

by the choir. This is an aspiration of praise, of peti-

tion, or a meditative thought, connected with the

special feast or mystery of the day. It is a holy senti-

ment, which should unite all hearts, of priest and of

people, in the one, common worship. Then by means

of the “Oremus,” the priest exhorts the people to

pray with him, after giving them the customary

greeting: “The Lord be with you.” The prayer

he next recites is for all. It is in the plural; and at the

end of it, the people answer the customary “Amen”

through the server or the choir.

This prayer is worth noting. It is called the Post-

communion and varies from day to day. With very

few exceptions it refers to the reception of the Sac-

rament that has just taken place, and always prays

for some special grace to be bestowed on all the faith-

ful present. It is remarkable for the fact that the

reference to the reception of the Sacrament seems to

take for granted that Communion is received by all

who are present. The plural expressions of the prayer

—54—



AFTER THE COMMUNION

make no discrimination. They are exactly the same

as those of previous prayers, in which the priest

prayed publicly as the official spokesman of all present

and offered up the gifts and the sacrifice officially

for all. These prayers are all of ancient date, and not

only indicate that Communion was ordinarily re-

ceived in the Mass, rather than outside, but also that

the reception of Communion was taken for granted

by the very texts of the Mass, that reception of Com-

munion was the ordinary way of more completely

taking part in the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

At the middle of the altar the benediction is given

to the people. Previous to that the priest recites a

prayer, asking that his personal infirmities may not

hinder the effects of the sacrifice, but that it may be

most profitable to all for whom he has offered it.
This prayer is addressed to the Holy Trinity: "May

the tribute of my worship be pleasing to thee, most
Holy Trinity . . .”

Only a few times is the Holy Trinity thus direct-

ly addressed in the Mass. Still the latter is truly one

continuous act of homage to the Trinity. In the

praises of the first part of the Mass, the three divine

Persons receive separate mention. In the various

prayers there is mention of the Trinity, these prayers

being with few exceptions addressed to the Father

and ending: "Through Jesus Christ, ... in the
unity of the Holy Ghost.” The Canon ends with

praise to the Trinity, and the entire sacrifice, offered

up to the Father, is thus offered up to the Trinity, of

which the Father is the eternal, divine Source. In

the same manner, after the prayer just mentioned

above, the final blessing is given in the name of the

—65—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

three divine Persons: “May almighty God bless you:

the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” The peo-

ple again answer “Amen.”

Today the Mass closes with a further prayer, the

beginning of the Gospel of St. John. It is a sublime

hymn to the glory and power of Christ, the Word,

the eternal Mediator between God and man. It was

through Him that all was made; and it was Christ,

who was made flesh for us. Likewise is the fruit of

the sacrifice and the sacrament of the Eucharist given

only through Christ. The Eucharist in fact is Christ.

In it He continues the mediatorial mission, so glori-

ously described in the Gospel of St. John, for the

realization of which He descended upon earth. Most

fittingly has this Gospel hymn to Christ been set down

as the closing prayer of the sacrifice of the Mass .
1

1
Attention was called above to the fact that, once the whole purpose

of the eucharistic celebration is attained in the Communion, the action

comes to a rapid close, and that this is in harmony with liturgical functions

in general. But other reasons can also be assigned for the fitness of a very

short collective action after the Communion. Christ has given Himself

sacramentally to the individual soul. It is a supreme moment for intimate

converse between the latter and Christ. All attention and aspirations should

now be centered on Christ present in the heart, so that the short official

action after the Communion can well be viewed as a natural transition

from collective action to the intensely intimate communion that should

ensue between Christ and the individual soul.

—5fi—



Chapter IX

THE MASS OF THE CATECHUMENS

The Mass of the Catechumens is the part of the

Mass from the beginning to the Offertory. In early

times all who were taking instructions in the Chris-

tian religion could attend it, even while they were

forbidden to be present at the holy action of the Mass

of the Faithful. The latter was only for those who

had been signed with the seal of Baptism, who had

been received as approved followers of Christ, to be

faithful unto death. The distinction made in this

fashion disappeared after the violent persecutions of

the early Church were over. But the Mass of the

Catechumens continues to retain its ancient character

of being in part a sort of initiation into the truths of

the Christian religion, especially through the Epistles

and Gospels. More than the rest of the Mass it em-

phasizes the truths of religion connected with the

special feast of the day, and it helps to link up the

general celebration of the Eucharist with these divine

truths.

In this final chapter, the Mass of the Catechumens

shall be treated only in its function of being intro-

ductory or preparatory to the Mass of the Faithful.

The latter, as we have seen, is a holy action in which

Christ Himself takes part. It is an action performed

by the priest officially for the Church, and by all the

faithful in union with Him. The more closely the

faithful have associated themselves with the priest,

and the more intimately they are united among them-

—57—



MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

selves in mind and soul, and the more they have de-

tached themselves from the thoughts of earth and

lifted up their hearts and minds to God, the more per-

fect will be their celebration of the Eucharist. The

Mass of the Catechumens has precisely this object in

view, namely, to produce in the faithful the state of

mind most suited to celebrating the Eucharist per-

fectly; to lift their minds from the things of earth to

those of God, to purge their hearts of all that is not

of God, and further to unite the hearts of those as-

sembled in a unity of holy thoughts and sentiments,

so that they may all be of one heart and mind in cel-

ebrating the one sacrifice and sacrament. The Mass

of the Catechumens should make the faithful more

conscious of their relation to God through Christ,

and of the bond of unity existing between the indi-

vidual members of the mystic body of Christ, which

is about to celebrate the divine mysteries collectively.

The Mass begins with the "introductory prayers”

at the foot of the altar. The priest and the servers re-

cite Psalm 42 alternately. It is a dialog prayer, in

which the server, as usual, speaks for the people. This

form of dialog prayer continues with more or less

emphasis throughout the first part of the Mass of the

Catechumens. The keynote of Psalm 42 is given in

the verse which is also said as an antiphon before and

after the Psalm: "I will go in unto the altar of the

Lord.” It is a conscious declaration of purpose on

the part of priest and people. Knowing the sublimity

of the action to be performed on the altar, and the

unworthiness of all men, the Mass text most appropri-

ately continues with an official prayer confessing

human guilt and asking for forgiveness. The priest

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is the first to recite the Confiteor. He confesses be-

fore God and all the saints that he has sinned, and asks

the saints and the people to pray for him. The peo-

ple respond through the server: "May almighty God

have mercy upon thee, and forgive thee thy sins, and

bring thee to life everlasting.” After the priest’s

"Amen,” the server makes the same confession for

himself and the people and receives the same prayer

of forgiveness from the priest. Thereupon the priest,

speaking officially for all, prays a second time for for-

giveness: "May the almighty and merciful Lord grant

us pardon, absolution, and remission of our sins.”

After a short continuation of the dialog, in which

holy prayers are exchanged between priest and server,

the priest repeats a prayer for purity of heart, and,

kissing the altar, asks that the merits of the saints

may aid in accomplishing this: "We beseech Thee, O
Lord, by the merits of Thy saints whose relics are

here, and of all the saints, that Thou wouldst deign

to forgive me all my sins. Amen.” The Introit verse
is then recited by the priest, and chanted by the

choir. It expresses some special thought for the day

or feast, or some holy aspiration, which the faithful

should take into their hearts. The Kyrie follows, a

triple prayer of mercy, directed in turn to each of

the divine Persons. The priest alternates with the

server in these petitions, while in chanted Masses the

choir also sings them. The first, or more negative

preparation of mind, that of purgation from sins and

faults, has by this time turned into a more positive

attitude of spiritual aspiration. The sublime hymn
of praise, the Gloria, follows, in which the hearts and

minds of priest and people are united with those of

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MY SACRIFICE AND YOURS

the angels in heaven, in singing the praises of the di-

vine Trinity. "We praise. Thee, we bless Thee, we
adore Thee, we glorify Thee.”

All are now prepared for lifting their souls higher

and higher in the unity so much desired by Christ.

The priest turns to the people with the greeting,

"The Lord be with you,” and receives the customary

answer: "And with thy spirit.” Then his "Oremus

—

Let us pray” exhorts all to join in his official prayer,

to which they give their assent by their "Amen,” as

we have already mentioned. The elevation and sanc-

tification of mind continues by means of the holy

instruction of the Lesson or Epistle. The latter is

always the inspired word of God taken from the Old

or New Testament. It is generally a prophet of the
Old or an Apostle of the New Testament, who therein
speaks to the people, giving them a holy exhortation,

inciting their hearts with the zeal of the Lord, tell-

ing them of the great things the Lord will do for all

who are faithful. The Epistle concluded, priest and

choir proceed with the Gradual or Tract. This is a

series of verses that varies with different days, like

the Epistle. It consists chiefly of holy aspirations

tending to enkindle in the mind a keener ardor for the

sacred mysteries of the Lord. The official chant, in

sung Masses, is generally at its height musically in the

Gradual. Heart and mind are lifted up in a unity of

thought and desire that most fittingly prepares them

for the great blessing that is to come.

The climax of the formation of soul comes with

the Gospel. It is the word of Christ Himself, and

out of reverence all the faithful receive it standing.

In the customary form of parable, intelligible to the

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most simple minds, and attractive to the most cul-

tured, the seeds of divine truth and love are planted

in our hearts by Christ Himself. It is the last word

of instruction given us in the Mass of the Catechu-

mens. We are now true disciples of Christ and ready
for the divine action of the common sacrifice. But

with a fine psychological feeling our Mother Church

holds us to another step on all the more solemn feasts

and occasions, namely, the common recitation of the

Credo. In simple phrases the priest and the people

make their confession of faith, a fitting transition to

the most sublime religious act of that faith. Belief

is confessed in God as the Creator of all, in the Father,

and in the Son, whose mysteries of redemption are

mentioned one by one. How well it is to emphasize
these holy mysteries of the Second Person here! Is

not the action to follow a renewal of the most solemn

acts of His life here on earth? Is he not the connect-

ing link between us and the heavenly Father? A con-
fession of belief in the Holy Ghost, the divine Dis-

penser of graces, the Sanctifier, completes the Trinity.

After the triune God, the Church is properly men-

tioned, as she is the trusted heir of the divine life and

powers, the distributor of the divine unto men; and

then the means of the distribution, the liturgy, ex-

emplified in the mention of baptism, through which

we indeed “expect the resurrection of the dead and

the life of the world to come. Amen.” At the

words expressing the mystery of the Incarnation, et

incarnatus est, all kneel. It is the key-mystery that

binds us to God, and the mystery whose accomplish-

ment is represented in the descent of Christ upon the

altar for the fulfilment of the very mission for which

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He once became human flesh. With the end of the

Credo the Offertory has been reached, and then be-

gins the holy action of sacrifice described in the pre-

ceding chapters.

The entire Mass, viewed as the holy action which

it is, is seen to be a progressive drama re-enacting the

mystery of our Lord’s great sacrifice on Calvary. It

is rapid in its development. From the preparation

of mind and heart in the Mass of the Catechumens,

it goes on immediately to the sacrificial act of obla-

tion. The latter proceeds rapidly in three stages, the

sublime height of the third stage being ushered in by

the Consecration. Thence a short transition prepares

for the consummation of the sacrificial act in the

Communion, in which our union with Christ our

Mediator is sacramentally sealed, and after which a

few short prayers bring to a close the entire eucharis-

tic celebration. We have seen that it is an action
which is made possible first of all by the sublime

Person and sacrifice of Christ, and then by the official

priestly powers which Christ our Lord transmits from

generation to generation through Apostles and bish-

ops to the priests of the Church. It is fully realized

by the co-operation, as active as possible, of the peo-

ple with the official act of the priest. Thus it best

becomes a wider fulfilment of the sacrifice of Christ

on Calvary, the true means of uniting the members of

Christ ever more closely to Him, the divine Fountain-

head of their life, who is indeed the beginning and

the end of all. "To Him be glory and empire forever
and ever. Amen” (Apoc. 1, 6).

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