LIFE VALUES
OF

By REV. JOHN L. MURPHY

ST. ANTHONY’S GUILD
PATERSON NEW JERSEY



GUILD PAMPHLETS

By Most Rev. R. J. Cushing

The Third Order in Our Day

By William J. Doheny, C. S. C.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

By Felician A. Foy, O. F. M.

Christ and You — Redeemers

By Rev. Richard Ginder

Life Begins at Baptism The Christian Nobility
Peace of Mind and Heart

By Francis J. Greiner, S. M.

Mary’s Work in the World

By Most Rev. William A. Griffin

Peopling Heaven: A Thought on Vocations

By Marion A. Hahig, O. F. M.

Man of Peace St. Francis Solano Vico Necchi
Our Lady of the Highway

By Rudolf Harvey, O. F. M.

A New Birth of Freedom The Pursuit of Happiness
This Nation under God What Is Man?

By Augustine P. Hennessy, C. F.

God’s Troubadour and His Lady

By Jeffrey Keefe, O. F. M. Conv.

The Gospel Truth

By Gordon Krahe, O. F. M.

What the Mass Is for You

By Giles Bawlor, O. F. M.

Don’t Be Afraid To Go to Confession

By James M. Iiinehan, O. F. M.

A Living Crucifix

By Valentine Bong, O. F. M.

The Last Supper Every Day
Mothers

On Using the Brain
The Way Home

Who Believes in Sin Any More?
Why Not Take God’s Word for it?

Youth— Springtime of Love

By Cuthbert Malone, O. F. M.

St. Paschal Baylon



> 3
^'

1

LIFE

VALUES

OF

THE

MASS

By

REV. JOHN L. MURPHY

ST. ANTHONY’S GUILD

PATERSON, NEW JERSEY



Copyright, 1952, by

St. Anthony’s Guild, Paterson, N. J*

Nihil ohstat:

Bede Babo, O. S. B.

Censor

Imprimatur

:

t Thomas A. Boland

Bishop of Paterson

February 5, 1952

reprinted with permission

FROM THE TORCH

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA



LIFE VALUES OF THE MASS

Part One

:

;|jJIFE to many people is a pretty drab affair.

Hit hard by its trials, tormented by its

worries, weakened by its sorrows, they have

come to look upon it as a burden, and little

else— a daily plugging and plodding to eke
out a bare existence, a snatching at happiness

when and where they may, a persevering to

the end.

When we stop to reflect, is it any wonder

that we find people reacting thus? The

modem world has left so many of them

handicapped. True, it has added dozens

of conveniences to their humdrum lives,

conveniences intended to bring a new era of

happiness and freedom from want. But

hasn’t it also deprived them of something:

the spiritual? Haven’t they lost, in many

instances, the concept of God, of an ideal,

and with that, the consciousness of all ideal-

ism? Hasn’t life become only too often

nothing but dollars and cents, movies and hos-

pitals and cars and telephone bills? Doesn’t

the practical, the material, weigh upon the

average individual overmuch? Isn’t it true

that there is scant room in his life for any

1



soul-stirring idealism, for any element deeper

than the surface realities— the practical
things— which go to make up his life?

Surely we can admit that these things are

true without danger of being charged with

exaggeration. The modern world all too

clearly lacks a wholesome idealism. Men

have tried to set up love of country, love of

fellow men, or love of accomplishment as

the motivating power of their lives; but each

of these fails in one regard or another for

want of something deeper, something more

basic. Often they amount to little more

than flag-waving, or money-grabbing, or

pretty words without a soul. That is to say,

these very "idealisms” have themselves be-

come in many cases mere external counters

or tokens which no longer represent any

intrinsic value: brotherly love, progress, ac-

complishment, are often words and no more.

Varied Attempts

Realizing the necessity of ideals, however,

of keeping something in view which will

give worth and meaning to life, the modern

world has felt forced to these attempts. It

has tried everything— except, by a strange
paradox, the only thing which will serve as

2



a motive power for the development of

nature to its fullest, and truly aid in an

active life: the spiritualizing of that life

and its activity. As long as other plans

ignore this entire field of reality— super-
natural reality though it is—they are doomed
to failure.

The purpose here, however, is not to

lament the irreligiousness of the modern

world, or to point out its defects. Indeed,

the modern world is not all bad, and it is

important to keep this in mind. There are

many in it really and truly living what might

be termed a full life, a Christian life.

Through it they have come to learn of a

new kind of happiness— a happiness that
lasts. Although their next-door neighbor

would undoubtedly deny it, yet these souls

realize that he actually is missing something

from life; rather, that he has not yet really

begun to live. He does not know of the

existence, even, of this force from which

they draw their strength. He fails to real-

ize that there is something deeper, some-

thing finer, to be found in living.

This "something finer” can be found, and

has been found. And it is the Catholic

Church which offers it to all. The whole

idea of the Church is to bring men to God,

3



and by so doing, to raise up their lives.

"With gladness and rejoicing they shall be

brought into the temple of the King” (Psalm

44) . The Church not only promises this joy,

but she actually gives it in her temples. Her

whole liturgy is aimed at accomplishing this

end; and at the center of the plan, as Pius

XII tells us in his encyclical letter, On the

Liturgy
,
we find the Holy Sacrifice of the

Mass.

The Mass Is Calvary

The question which arises now is not

unexpected: What is the Mass, and what

has it to do with me?

The answer does not appear at once, but

only gradually. We must seek the first part

of it on a hilltop in Jerusalem 2,000 years

ago— and even further back than that.
There is a plaintive Negro spiritual which

is broadcast over and over again during the

Lenten season: "Were you there when they

crucified my Lord . . .?” Very few Christians

can hear those words without thinking back

to that great event, and its overpowering

effect upon all the centuries which have

followed it. Very few can listen to that

wistful melody without wishing that they

actually had been there, to show in some

4



way— in contrast to the howling mob which
was there— their own love and devotion to
Christ; to take their place beside Mary and

John at the foot of the cross.

But Catholics, when they hear that hushed

query, "Were you there . . .?” can answer in

a very real sense: "Yes, I was there.” They

were there, perhaps that very morning, in

communion with "Mary ever-virgin, Mother

of Jesus Christ, . . . and the blessed Apos-

tles and martyrs . . . and all the saints.” They

too stood, in a very real sense, on the hill

of Calvary, when they stood in the early

light of morning about the altar of their

parish church while the priest offered up the

Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. For the Sacri-

fice of the Mass is the Sacrifice of Calvary

repeated in an unbloody manner. To be al-

lowed to attend even one single Mass in

a lifetime would be an overpowering favor

to us on the part of God. How fortunate,

then, are those who may stand about the

altar of Christ’s sacrifice again and again

throughout their lives, even every day when

circumstances permit.

Adam’s Sin

Once Adam and Eve had sinned in the

garden of paradise, all mankind was affected.

5



God had given men a completely free gift;

He had called them to an eternal reward

which was far above any claims of their

nature; He had given them the means—
sanctifying grace— to attain this goal, and
receive this reward. He gave His gifts, how^

ever, in a special way— and who can deny
a benefactor the right to give in the way he

desires? He gave them to Adam and Eve

on the condition that, if they were faithful,

their children and their children’s children

to the end of time would also receive them.

But Adam failed. And so our race found

itself in the unhappy state of what theolo-

gians call "fallen nature.” Men had lost

the means to attain the supernatural goal—
the means which we call sanctifying grace;

they were turned from God. We have a

special name for this state in the descend-

ants of Adam: we call it Original Sin.

But God is a God of Love. Hardly had

the sin been committed when He promised

to do something about it, to help men get

back on the road to their final goal. He

promised to send a Redeemer: "I will put

enmity between you and the woman, between

your seed and her Seed; He shall crush your

head, and you shall lie in wait for His

6



heel” (Genesis 3:15). That was the first

promise, even before Adam and Eve were

cast out of the garden of paradise.

And this Redeemer was Christ, the Son

of God. For centuries God sent prophets to

the Jewish race, telling them more and more

about this promised Redeemer, the Messias

as He was called. Some of the most specific

details were revealed by God: the Messias

would be born of a Virgin, at Bethlehem;

He would be of the tribe of Juda and the

family of David; He would be betrayed for

thirty pieces of silver, and slain unjustly;

and over His garments they would cast lots.

Centuries before these things actually

took place, the prophets of God told the

Jewish people that they would take place;

and the Jewish race kept alive the hope of

the Promised One, and waited and prayed

for His coming. And at last, "Jesus was

born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days

of King Herod ” At last Christ came.

The promise made to Adam and Eve and to

their children was fulfilled; the Son of God

was made man, and came to earth to draw

men back to God.

7



The Cross

It became evident at once, however, that

there was more to this than merely the birth

of Christ. Scarcely had He been bom when

the shadow of the cross fell upon Him: "Be-

hold, this Child is destined for the fall and

for the rise of many in Israel, and for a

sign that shall be contradicted” (Luke 2:34)

.

Throughout His public life, Christ continued

to point toward the cross, telling His disci-

ples that "they will . .
.
put Him to death;

and on the third day He will rise again”

(Mark 10:34).

Thus we see that not alone the coming

of Christ, but more explicitly, His death

on Calvary, was the central point. That

was indeed the most far-reaching event in

history. It was toward those three hours

of agony on the cross that the Prophets had

pointed during all the long centuries before

Christ; it is back toward those hours that

all of Christianity has looked ever since.

It was the very climax of the life of Christ,

of His redemptive work. It is the very

CENTER OF HISTORY.

If that is true, then it is not surprising that

in a recent encyclical letter Pius XII should

have reminded us that the Sacrifice of the

8



Mass is also the center of the Christian

religion. If the Sacrifice of Christ was the

point of climax in the acquiring of salva-

tion for men, it is to be expected that it

would also be so for the application of that

salvation. Those three hours were too great,

too important, to be limited to a certain

place, a certain time; and so God— though
He by no means had to— willed to extend
them, as it were, for all time, in the Sacrifice

of the Mass.

The death of Christ upon the cross was

an act great enough to save all mankind

(provided, of course, that each individual

would freely accept the great gift offered

him, provided that he would live a good

life) . That one act, accomplished once in

time, was all-sufficient; nothing more could

be added to it. But the truth comes upon

us: Christ did not wish to leave it at that.

He wished to gather all men to Himself

about the cross in another way; He chose

that as the center, the "meeting-place” we

might say, of the Christian religion, from

which would flow the graces destined for

men. Calvary was to play its role not only

in the redemption of men, but also in the

application of that redemption to the indi-

vidual man. Thus, as St. Thomas Aquinas

9



tells us, the effect which was once wrought in

the world by the Passion of Christ is now

wrought in the hearts of men by the

Sacrifice of the Altar: the unbloody Sacri-

fice of Calvary.

In the Mass we have a representation of

the Sacrifice of the Cross, but it is not

merely the sort of representation we get in a

picture or a movie; it is a real sacrificial

act, by which the effects of Christ’s death

come to us. The Mass is dependent upon

Calvary: without the Mass we could still

have had Calvary, but without Calvary we

could not have had the Mass.

The Same Sacrifice

It is a difficult truth to understand com-

pletely, but it is a beautiful truth for the

believer. At the Mass, by the consecrative

words of the priest, Christ becomes present

upon the altar, and offers Himself to His

Father. In this way, on our altars, as the

Council of Trent tells us, is the Sacrifice

of Calvary offered once again through the

priest. It is essentially the same. True, on

Calvary it was a bloody Sacrifice, and at

the Mass the shedding of Christ’s blood is

merely represented by the separation of the

10



Eucharistic species. The presence of Christ

under the appearances of bread and wine is

a figure, a symbol, of the actual separation

of His body and blood in the bloody Sacri-

fice of Calvary. However, the main elements

of the Sacrifice are present in both instances.

First, we have the same Minister: Christ.

The priest is but the instrument Christ uses

at Mass— much as we use a pen to write.
The pen makes the marks, but it is still we

who write; so Christ offers Himself through

the priest, but it is still Christ who offers

Himself. The words of Christ are true both

on Calvary and at the Mass: "No one takes

it [My life] from Me, but I lay it down

of Myself” (John 10 : 18).

Secondly, we have the same Victim:

Christ. It is only the manner of offering

which differs; by the shedding of blood in

one, and by a mere representation of the

shedding of blood in the other. But the

Victim in both cases is Christ our Redeemer

offering Himself to the Father.

Thirdly, the end and purpose is the

same: the glory of the Father, thanksgiving

to the Father, the bringing about of expia-

tion and reconciliation, the petition for help.

These, then, are the main elements; they

are the important things on Calvary. It was

11



not the place— the upward path, the hill,
the rocky soil— nor the soldiers, nor the
great crowds, which made Good Friday im-

portant. It was rather Christ Himself will-

ingly dying for mankind that made it im-

portant. And when we have the identical

thing in the Mass, Christ the Priest offering

Himself as Victim, for the same purpose,

then our only conclusion can be that the

Mass is Calvary.

Each morning, we too are part of the

crowd around the hill of Calvary, though

the time is two thousand years later; we too

witness Christ’s great redemptive act, though

it is performed in an unbloody manner.

When we see the priest elevate the body

and blood of Christ, we are actually at

Calvary: we could not have been more truly

present at the Sacrifice of Christ if we had

been standing that afternoon on the summit

of Golgotha— if we had seen the Roman
soldiers rear the cross as He offered His life

for the sins of men.

For the Catholic who realizes this awe-

inspiring truth, those plaintive words "Were

you there when they crucified my Lord . . .?”

will not be a mere unanswered question.

Their answer is verified every time he ap-

proaches the Altar of Salvation in his own

12



parish church or in any church throughout

the world where this great moment of history

is repeated daily "from the rising of the

sun even to the going down thereof.”

13



Part Two:

JT IS natural for man to express his in-
ward thoughts and sentiments in some

external fashion. Since the beginning of the

world, children have been presenting their

mothers and fathers with sorry-looking

gifts— gifts often enough shapeless from
the pressure of stodgy little hands, yet mean-

ing more to those parents than diamonds

or pearls, because they symbolized the love

burning in the heart of that child to whom

they gave life.

Immemorially has the lover given to his

beloved "the best that money”— his money,
at least— "can buy”; intending, by the cost-
liness or beauty of the gift, to symbolize

something far beyond it.

And every nation privately and publicly

has offered sacrifices to its gods— tokens,
that is, of submission to them. The Jewish

people, who worshiped the one true God,

for centuries offered up to Him many sorts

of ritual sacrifice. And all these offerings,

these oblations and holocausts, were, as St.

Augustine tells us, no more than "previews”

of that which was to come. When Christ

established His Church upon this earth and

14



endowed it with His rite of sacrifice, He

was fulfilling that need in men’s natures

which these ancient sacrifices expressed,

though often in a dim and distorted way.

He was making it possible for His followers

to show in a perfect manner their inner

thoughts and sentiments toward God, who

has created them, who has redeemed them,

and who continues daily to sanctify them.

Our Sacrifice

This rite which Christ gave to His Church

is the Sacrifice of the Mass. It is the Mass,

we have said, that enables us to reply, yes,

we are there when they crucify our Lord.

But we are not there as mere spectators. The

Mass is our sacrifice as well.

The Mass and Calvary, we have seen, are

identical in their essential, their fundamental

points. They differ, however, on these points:

First, the manner of offering. Though

the internal oblation, the intention of Christ,

is the same in both, namely, the offering of

Himself to the Father for men, yet the obla-

tion at Mass is accomplished without the

shedding of blood.

Second, on the cross, Christ was the sole

Priest. At the Mass, Christ is the principal

Priest, and the ordained minister is the

15



secondary, the visible, priest who actually

offers the Sacrifice himself in the name of

Christ.

Third, at the Mass, not Christ alone is

offered, but the Church as well, and all her

members. Our Holy Father reminds us of

this in his encyclical, On the Liturgy; the

faithful, he says, do offer the Sacrifice of

the Mass, and they must offer themselves

as victims. He goes on to explain very clear-

ly in just what manner this is to be under-

stood.

In order to comprehend his reasons, one

must have some appreciation of the relation

between Christ and the members of His

Church. The Catholic Church is so closely

united to Christ, in a way so very special

and intimate, that it is clearly marked off

from every other religious group on earth.

That close union has been described by St.

Paul and St. Augustine and others after

them, in these terms: Christ is the Head,

and the Church is His Mystical Body. The

two are considered to form one person
,
as it

were: the Whole Christ or the Mystic Christ.

How We Offer

The liturgical act at Mass is performed

only by the priest. His words alone, at the

16



Consecration, make Christ present upon the

altar as a Victim; and by this same act, the

ordained minister offers the divine Victim

of Calvary to God the Father for the glory

of the Most Holy Trinity and the good of

the entire Church. In this act, insofar as

it is an oblation or offering, however, the

faithful may be said to participate, in a

twofold way:

(1) The faithful offer the Sacrifice

THROUGH THE HANDS OF THE PRIEST. When

Christ offers, because of the union between

Him and the members of His Mystical

Body, it is the entire Church that offers. It

is an action of the "Whole Christ.” But

the priest, as Pius XII reminds us, is "an-

other Christ.” He bears the person of that

Christ, who is the Head of all the members

of His Mystical Body. Thus, when the

priest offers the Sacrifice of the Mass, he

also acts as Christ; and since Christ acts as

the Head of all the members of the Church,

they are rightly said to be offering the Sacri-

fice which is actually being offered through

the hands of the priest.

(2) There is a second manner, perhaps

more easily understood, in which the faithful

may be said to participate in this oblation

of the Victim: they join their individual

17



acts of praise and petition, of expiation and

thanksgiving, with the prayers and acts of

the priest, and thus of Christ the High

Priest Himself. In addition, this way the

faithful have something very special of their

own to bring to the Mass: their own per-

sonal lives, the dedication and labor of those

lives. They must offer themselves as victims.

And thus their personal offerings are joined

to the intention of the priest so that they

may be united with the offering of the

divine Victim; may be made manifest, as it

were, to God the Father by being incorpo-

rated in the rite performed at the altar.

We Become Victims

This second manner is of special im-

portance for the life of the Catholic, for it

is something involving active, conscious con-

tact. The first manner of offering will be

true even when the individual is not aware

of it— though he should ever strive to
deepen his realization of the union between

Christ the High Priest and himself. But

the second demands a giving from himself.

In order that this oblation by which the

faithful offer the divine Victim to the Heav-

enly Father may attain its full effect, it is

18



necessary to add something else, as Pius XII

tells us: it is necessary that the individual

offer himself, immolate himself as a spir-

itual victim.

Though this offering of self will be made

by formal rite at Mass, it is not limited to

that time. Rather, it must flow over into the

whole of one’s life. It must gradually per-

vade one’s entire day, so that one will ardent-

ly desire to join himself to Christ in pro-

curing the greater glory of God, in suffer-

ing with Him as a spiritual victim. Then

at Mass those solemn words of the priest

will take on new meaning: "Through Him,

and with Him, and in Him, is to Thee who

art God the Father Almighty, in the unity

of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory,

world without end . . . and the response

of the people to these words— "Amen”—
will indicate their actual intention of joining

themselves with Christ.

In this way, Calvary becomes something

in our lives; not only in the sense that we

are actually there, actually present at that

great Act in the Mass; but even more so in

the sense that it becomes a part of our own

lives. We offer ourselves together with

Christ. The Mass is our sacrifice in two

ways: (1) because we are rightly said to

19



offer it through the hands of the priest,

acting in the person of Christ our Mystic

Head; and (2) because we have joined the

offering of ourselves to the external rite of

the priest so as to make our inward offer-

ing manifest in an outward way to the

Eternal Father.

The prayers of the liturgy remind us of

this over and over again. When the priest

turns toward the people after the Offertory,

for example, he says: "Pray, brethren, that

my Sacrifice and yours may be made ac-

ceptable to God the Father Almighty.” So

also in the orations by which the divine

Victim is offered to the Father, the plural

number is always used: ours, we. The

Offertory prayer, for example: "Humbled

in mind and contrite of heart, may we find

favor with Thee, O Lord; and may the

Sacrifice we this day offer up, be pleasing to

Thee”; and in the Canon of the Mass:

"This oblation of our service and that of

Thy whole family, we beseech Thee, O

Lord, do Thou graciously accept.”

Importance of Love

The Mass is our Sacrifice as well. It is

the great means given us by Christ to give

20



depth and worth to our lives. When life

is viewed in relation to the Mass in this

manner, it is seen to be something infinitely

greater than a daily plodding to eke out an

existence. It has supernatural worth, no

matter what it might seem to the non-be-

liever. True, it remains hard; suffering does

not vanish— but it is transformed. True,,
we see it as a sacrifice— but as a sacrifice
of love. Indeed, there is one quality which

may be found eternally connected with all

acceptable sacrifice. It is the quality of

love. It is love that is the basis for under-

standing Calvary, it is love that explains

the Mass.

The mother who willingly suffers the

weariness of a long day caring for her chil-

dren, does not do so because she likes to

work herself to the breaking point. The

father who stands hours on end in a hot,

sweaty foundry, does not get an innate thrill

out of an aching back or a swimming head.

The youth who saves his earnings bit by bit

that he may one day present the ring to the

girl he hopes to marry, does not enjoy pass-

ing up a weekly movie or a glass of beer.

They all act from the high motive of love

and devotion.

21



So is it with us. The Mass is not just

rising from bed on a Sunday morning,

spending forty-five minutes in church, and

going home again. It is so much more! It

is serving God, not only for forty-five

minutes on one morning of the week, nor

even on every morning of the week, but

throughout the whole week: keeping His

commandments; doing good to our neigh-

bors; bearing patiently the wrongs done to

us, the sufferings we must undergo. It is

love which gives meaning to the lives we

dedicate to God in the Mass— just as it
does to the work of the busy mother, the

weary father, the enraptured youth. Our

gifts at Mass are but symbols of ourselves.

Our whole life must make those symbols

a reality.

22



Part Three:

i^ACRIFICE is a hard word to the modem

ear. It implies suffering, and men today

are in endless flight from suffering. Unmind-

ful of our Saviour’s words, "In the world

you will have affliction,” they begin to strive

after the unattainable: a heaven on earth.

As a consequence of original sin, God has

Himself set limits to the earthly happiness

which can actually be achieved by man. No

matter how much social legislation may be

enacted, the truth is that there will always

be some suffering remaining.

A man, then, may choose for his manner

of acting one of two alternatives. He may

close his eyes to the reality of original sin,

and foolishly expend all his energy in the

pursuit of a phantom which he can never

grasp; or he may face the reality of suffer-

ing, and— while doing what he can to
alleviate it— leam at the same time to ac-
cept it and to live under it, knowing that

despite his best efforts suffering will never

wholly vanish. The first is the choice of

the godless modern world of pseudo-science.

The second is the choice of the man who has

a complete realization of the truths of Chris-

23



tianity. And in between we have the com-

promisers, who neither believe nor disbelieve,

but just "live on.”

The Sacrifice of the Mass, then, can have

profound meaning for the man who under-

stands the role of suffering in life. It will

lead him on to a happiness which is not

even thought of by the unbeliever. It will

transform his life for him, even with all its

sufferings. He will see the concept of sacri-

fice not merely as something that entails

suffering and harshness, and nothing more,

as do so many in our day. He will not look

upon it as the mere giving up of something.

Rather, he will realize ever more# clearly

the meaning of the Latin words composing

the term "Sacrifice”: sacrum and facio—
"to make holy,” "to dedicate.” The Mass

will be for him a true "making holy” of his

entire life— not merely an obligation bear-
ing upon him once a week, nor the quarter

dropped casually into the collection box, nor

the sermon which he catches half asleep.

It will mean much more than mere physical

presence at the Sacrifice on Sunday morn-

ings, or even daily throughout the week.

Our sacrifice is the true giving of ourselves

to God, the dedication of our service to

Him; and it is complete in proportion to

24



how well we live according to His wishes,

not only during Mass, but before and after

it as well.

The Mass Prayers

Perhaps it would help us to see this were

we to examine a bit more in detail the action

and prayers of the Mass as related to this

dedication of our life to God through love.

We begin at Mass with our prayers to

God— our way of telling God that we love
Him. In our first prayers we can find each

of the four acts to be included in any good

prayer. In the prayers at the foot of the

altar— the Judica me, Deus and Confiteor
— and in the Kyrie, we find the first: contri-
tion. It is a practical type of sorrow, how-

ever, not one of mere emotion. Simply we

bow our heads and "confess to God and all

the saints that we have sinned exceedingly,

in thought, word, and deed.” But yet, filled

with hope and confidence, we turn and say,

"Lord, have mercy on us. Send out Thy

truth and Thy light,” since we do "hope

in God, who will forgive our sins and bring

us to life everlasting.”

In the Gloria

,

called by the Fathers the

Greater Doxology, we give our pledge of

25



ADORATION and GRATEFUL THANKS tO God

for all His mercies. Having then completed

the first three obligations of our prayer, we

turn as God’s ever-needful children to fulfill

the remaining duty, petition. In the Col-

lects we pray for all the needs of our life,

for eternal happiness, for the welfare of

the Church. These are things which we may

confidently hope for in return for our own

sacrifices. God in His bounty always returns

a hundredfold. We ask these things, too,

not only on our own merits, but on the

merits of Christ and His saints. We seek to

join our prayers with those who have al-

ready won the crown of glory in the heav-

enly kingdom.

In the next part of the Mass, God speaks

to us, and tells us that He loved us so much

as to send His only Son to redeem us on the

cross of Calvary. Our mind is turned back-

ward again to Jerusalem twenty centuries

ago; and back even farther, into the ages

of waiting; back to the garden of paradise;

back into eternity, where this all began.

We hear of Christ first through the inspired

words of Sacred Scripture in the Epistles,

chosen chiefly from St. Paul, but also at

times from the prophets of the Old Testa-

ment. God continues then to speak in the

26



glorious words of the Psalms, and climaxes

in the story of the Gospel, in which we re-

ceive the words of Christ Himself. We see

now the effects of love, the lengths to which

God has gone to show His love for us, and

are encouraged to a greater giving of our-

selves. We close this first part of the great

interchange of love with the Creed

,

by which

we proclaim our belief in Christ’s Incarna-

tion and redemptive death, and accept Him

as our God— a God of love.
In answer to this infinitely great gift of

God, we now have an opportunity to give

Him something of our own in return. That

something is symbolized in the bread and

wine; that something is ourselves, the trials,

needs, difficulties, of our life. Thus when

we pray: "Receive, O holy Father, Almighty

and Eternal God, this spotless host,” and

"We offer Thee, O Lord, the chalice of

salvation,” we have in mind, too, all our

inescapable troubles: the headache that is

just beginning, the long hours in office or

school or factory, the death or sickness of

some near relative, the numberless times we

may be ridiculed or misjudged or even de-

spised by those about us in the week which

lies ahead. It is very easy to speak about

"total giving of self” to God, but no one

27



knows just how much he is offering up with

that little white host. This week, this day,

may bring the one great trial of life. It is

entirely fitting that we pray anew that "this

sacrifice which we offer this day may be

pleasing unto God,” and beg the Holy Spirit

to "come and bless this sacrifice,” giving

us the grace to complete our share in it in a

truly Christian manner. "Brethren, pray

that my sacrifice and yours may be accept-

able to God the Father Almighty,” admon-

ishes the priest. Conscious of our own weak-

ness we pray lest we fail.

Christ Comes to Us

Yet we have a greater reason to feel as-

sured we will not fail. Christ is coming—
coming to give Himself again in the un-

bloody Sacrifice of the Mass. He unites

His giving with ours; we unite our sacri-

fices with His. "Lift up your hearts and give

thanks.” The Lord is coming. "Blessed is

He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

Immediately before the Consecration we

again place our gifts upon the altar. "We

beseech Thee, O Lord, graciously to accept

this oblation of our service.” Our suffer-

ings, then, all contained within the spotless

28



host and pure wine, are united with Christ

when these forms are changed into His body

and blood. We go on to offer our sacrifice,

our gifts united one to another, "Through

Him, and with Him, and in Him.” We

pause along the way to pray for the Church,

for the living and the dead, for ourselves,

that, our sacrifice being acceptable, we may

all be "delivered from eternal damnation and

numbered among the flock of the elect.”

God never allows Himself to be outdone

in generosity. What a consoling thought

that can be, especially when the going has

been rough, when to complete the "oblation

of our service” we have been forced to

surrender to Him things we had thought it

all but impossible to give up. We look upon

the past, and know that it is not all loss.

We can be sure that God has something

in store for us a thousand times more won-

derful than the things we have offered up

to Him.

Now, having accepted our sacrifice of self,

He turns again to show the inexhaustible

depth of His love, and gives us back His

Son in Holy Communion: as a Pledge of

eternal happiness, and as strengthening Food

to help us live out our offering of self dur-

ing the days which follow.

29



To prepare for this awe-inspiring Grift, we

say again the words which Christ Himself

taught us: "Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be Thy name. . . . Thy will be

done”— no longer will we cry out the hate-
ful "We will not serve!” "Give us this day

our daily bread”— not only material sub-
stances such as the birds and beasts have

need of, but also this supernatural, spiritual

preservative of the life of grace. "And for-

give us our trespasses as we forgive those

who trespass against us.”

With nothing held against our neighbors,

we are free to approach the divine banquet

table, and to receive into our hearts the

Prince of Peace. We have promised to for-

give all; we can hope for forgiveness from

God. "Lamb of God who takest away the

sins of the world, have mercy on us. . .

.

Grant us peace.” Finally, striking our breasts

in simple humility while we acknowledge to

God in the words of the centurion that we

are not "worthy that Thou shouldst enter

under my roof,” and confessing our guilt

before the heavenly court, we receive Him,

knowing that He shall "say but the word,

and our souls shall be healed.”

-30



Live the Mass

Our service is complete. We have pledged

our love to God: He has returned proof of

His. We have made our offerings to the

divine Majesty; He has sent us His Gift

of love in return.

"May Thy body, O Lord, which I have

received, and Thy blood which I have drunk

cleave to my inmost parts; and grant that no

stain of sin may remain in me whom these

pure and holy Sacraments have refreshed.”

We are now ready to go out and Live the

Mass. We are ready to complete our Morn-

ing Offering in its fullest signification. We

ask God for this help once again through

the intercession of His saints, and then

with the blessing of His appointed servant

fresh upon our souls, and the words of St.

John the Evangelist ringing in our ears—
"And the Word was made flesh and dwelt

among us”— we go out to bring Christ to
the world, and to see Him there; not only

as we have here in Church but also in His

visible creation around us, and in our fellow

creatures, whether high or low, rich or poor.

Life to many people is a pretty drab affair,

we have said before. But it needn’t be! Here

we have the whole idea of a worthwhile

31



life wrapped up in the brief time spent in

prayer at the start of each week, or each day.

The long hours in the office, the home, the

school, can really take on a meaning— an
eternal meaning. We can say to ourselves

at the end of the day, not, "Fm glad that’s

over; I wish the whole blamed week were

done,” but something a little higher. We

may still be glad the day is over, or wish

the week were over; but we need not stop

there. We can face the reality of suffering,

and learn to accept it and even to value it

because it is a unique gift we can make

to God.

Daily Drama

Only God and the individual know what

a daily drama— different for each man—
goes on behind the sealed doorways of the

heart. Others can but guess. For one it

will be "the kids at home, nearly driving

me crazy”; for another, "the death of my

husband . . . mother . . . child”; or perhaps "a

serious illness in the family ... an operation.”

Some will offer "a whole day of terrible

temptations against purity,” "the insults, the

dirty remarks directed at me in the office

or in the factory,” or maybe "one particular

32



temptation— an especially tough one— that
almost got me.” It may have been "the

restlessness of the children in my classroom”

that constituted the sacrifice; or "betrayal

by a friend,” "gossip,” "a headache,” "finan-

cial worries.” It will be whatever each day

has brought forth, whatever the "oblation,

the total giving of self,” in the Sacrifice

of the Mass has included. Some perhaps

will even have to come empty-handed, able

only to bow their heads and say: "I did not

try ... I failed ... I sinned.” But, listening

to the callings of grace, they will add: "I’ll

clear this up in confession at once, and then

I’ll try to do better tomorrow.”

A life lived by the Mass is one which

will sweep fast along the path of virtue;

it is one which, should it fail in much or

little, will turn quickly to gain readmittance

into the family of Christ. Such a life has

a formative ideal that will give real direc-

tion to our days. It will not eliminate

trials, nor will it. clothe the skies in never-

fading blue; but it will help us to triumph

over trials, and to see the eternal joys wait-

ing behind the clouds.

33





GUILD PAMPHLETS

By Rev. Charles J. McCarthy

Baptism Boy Wanted

By Boniface McConville, O. F. M.

Peace for Troubled Souls A Picture of the Man

By Owen F. McCormack, O. F. M.

The Catholic Family

By Very Rev. James H. Murphy

The Bread of Life The Church Matrimony
When You Go to Confession

Who Are Catholics?

By Rev. John L. Murphy

Life Values of the Mass

By Eric O’Brien, O. F. M.

Apostle of California

By Isidore O’Brien, O. F. M.

Blessed Are the Clean of
Heart

Brides of Christ

Christ the Physician
The Church Our Mother
Compensation
Consolation

The Father’s Shadow
The Gospel Parables —
God and Justice
Man’s True Friend
Our Moral Life
Understanding the
Message of Christ

Half the Young Men
Hands
Let Us Look at Life
Light of the Cross
“Lord, Teach Us To Pray”

The Meaning of Christmas

“Member for Member”
Our Dead
Our Father Who Art in
Heaven

The Plain Truth
Resignation

The Sacraments —
Parts I and II

St. Anthony of Padua
Sculpturing Truth

Shadow of the Cross
Soldiers of Christ

The Ten Commandments
of Reason

The Third Order of St.
Francis : Instrument of
Peace

By Rev. John A. O’Brien

The Christian Home Until Death Do Us Part
Falling in Love Why Be Profane?
Happiness! But Where? Why Not Receive Daily?

By Conall ©’Leary, O. F. M.

What It Means To Be a Tertiary
Why the Third Order of St. Francis?

By Thomas Flassmann, O. F. M.

The Seven Words of Mary Upon This Rock



GUILD PAMPHLETS

By Francis J. Remler, G. M.
A Bank Account in Heaven Catholics and Sin

Can the Bible Be the Only Rule of Faith?
Is Life Worth Living?

What Is a Good Catholic?

By Doctor A. F. Sava

A Doctor’s View of Birth Control

By Edgar Schmledeler, O. S. B.

Concerning Parents Concerning the Family

Concerning Your Children

By Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen

Communism, Opium of the People
The Lord’s Prayer on the Cross

By R. Southard, S. J.

Reporter in Heaven

By Rev. Joseph Stang

Margaret Sinclair

By Sebastian Weber, O. F. M. Conv.

Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker — and Christ
Complete Religion Divine Art of Living

The Inside Story of God
The Mystery Inside Catholic Churches

Superman and the Sacrament of Confirmation

By Alexander Wyse, O. F. M.

The Negro Saint
No Small Matter

St. Francis, Lover of the Christ-Child

Shall Heaven Be Filled? Why Penance?

Devotional Booklets

To the Catholic Serviceman; Manual of Prayers for
Those Serving Our Country

Holy Hour; Indulgence of the Portiuncula

Prayerbook for Our Times; Prayers to the Infant

of Prague; Three Hours’ Agony Devotions
A Way of the Cross for Seminarians

Little Treasury of St. Jude; of St. Philomena;

of the Sacred Heart

Novena to St. Benedict the Moor; to Our Sorrowful

Mother; to St. Joseph; to St. Francis

ST. ANTHONY’S GUILD, Paterson 3, N. J.

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