Mass (liturgy)

“ When the worshipers are seen kneeling in the pews or before an altar at the side wall, fingering rosaries or with eyes intent upon prayer-books, it is not the words of the Mass that they are repeating. The Mass is the prayer of the Church at large, but it does not emanate from the congregation. ”

“ For all who devoutly assist at Holy Mass are made one with the priest, and along with him present to heaven the adorable sacrifice. What would you, therefore, do without the Holy Mass? "Holy Mass is the sun of Christianity, the soul of faith, the center of the Catholic religion, the grand object of all her rites, ceremonies, and sacraments ”

“ It is Christ who celebrates the Mass, and He celebrates it with a warm and living Heart, the same Heart with which He worshipped the Father on Mount Calvary. It is this that makes the Mass what it is. If it were not for this, the Mass would be a carnal sacrifice, infinitely superior, indeed, to those of the Old Law, but of the same order. ”

“ At Mass, by offering to the Eternal Father the person of Jesus Christ, Man and God, we render God an infinitely greater homage than if we offered Him the lives of all men and all angels.
2. By this offering of Jesus Christ, which is made at Mass, we offer to God complete satisfaction for all the sins of men, specially of those present at the Sacrifice, to whom is applied the same divine Blood as was shed on Calvary for the redemption of the human race. Thus, by a Mass, we make more satisfaction to divine justice for our faults than by any other expiatory work. ”

“ This was intended to show that when we are occupied in any spiritual exercise, we ought not be diverted to other things, even under pretext of civility.
11. The Mass is certainly a function the most excellent, the most holy, the most acceptable to God and useful to us, that can be imagined. And so, while it is going on, the Angels assist in crowds, with bare feet, with earnest eyes, with downcast brows, with great silence, with incredible amazement and veneration. With what purity, attention, devotion, and reverence, then, ought the priest to celebrate it? ”

“ Naturally the mass is the part in which this joy predominates. Though her pictures and images and crucifixes are still veiled, yet the Cross is covered with white, the Altar is decorated, and the candles are of white wax. In Cathedral Churches, the Bishop always pontificates on Holy Thursday, and during the mass blesses the Holy Oils, a function which we will describe later. ”

“ According to the “Catechism of the Council of Trent,” the Sacrifice of the Mass was instituted by our Lord at His last supper (Luke xxii: 19) ; it must be offered to God alone; was signified in Malachi i: 11; is the same sacrifice with that of the Cross; there is one priest of both, for the celebrant uses not his own words, but those of Jesus Christ; it is a sacrifice of praise and propitiation, and available for the living and the dead. There is an obligation on all Christians of the Roman Obedience to hear mass on all Sundays and holy days of obligation. ”

“ The Mass is a sacrifice. The prayers of the Mass are offered to God. Hence when the priest says Mass he is speaking not to the people, but to God, to whom all languages are equally intelligible. Are not these sufficient reasons for the use of the Latin language? Are not good Catholics more attentive, more devout at Mass than others at their prayer-meetings? The good Catholic knows that the Mass represents the passion and death of Christ; that the passion and death of Christ are the sinner's only refuge, the just man's only hope ”

“ But, surely, no Catholic who has any right idea of the importance and value of Holy Mass will remain satisfied with this. He will attend Holy Mass as often as he can on week-days as well. He will, likewise, have Masses offered up by the priest, both for himself and others, living or dead.—Fr. ”

“ For what end or intention may Mass be offered? A. Mass may be offered for any end or intention that tends to the honor and glory of God, to the good of the Church or the welfare of man; but never for any object that is bad in itself, or in its aims; neither can it be offered publicly for persons who are not members of the true Church.
Q. 927. Explain what is meant by Requiem, Nuptial and Votive Masses. A. A Requiem Mass is one said in black vestments and with special prayers for the dead. A Nuptial Mass is one said at the marriage of two Catholics, and it has special prayers for their benefit. ”

“ The favor demanded is a great one, and therefore we have chosen all that Christian piety, the church, God himself, offers us as having most power to prevail with him. Rather than depend alone on disseminating leaflets of prayers, or engaging pious souls to remember Russia, thus giving to these associations a form which, in one way or another, might injure their character of universality, we have endeavored to obtain the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. For this intention we have asked for Masses. [12] In the Holy Mass it is Jesus Christ himself who prays, and he is always heard. ”

“ Every prayer and every gesture of Holy Mass, since the first Mass was celebrated upon the first Maundy Thursday, has been studied in minutest detail by generations of liturgiologists and ceremonialists, whose library is almost infinite in its vastness and extent from the humblest pamphlets to the hugest folios. ”

“ To the Catholic, who realised all that the Mass meant,—how it was the centre of his religion and the sublime Christian Sacrifice, it was a point of honour and conscience to imperil fortune and even life for so sacred a heritage. ”

“ LAST Sunday I spoke of the Catholic doctrine of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist; I pointed out what our faith taught us about the Blessed Sacrament and how the Mass was to our Catholic forefathers and to us to-day, the central act of worship of God; and that the Holy Communion in a very true sense is the food of our spiritual life, as it binds us to God and brings Him into our lives in truth and in reality, which is the end and object of every act of religion. ”

“ In this respect the Roman Catholic Church has retained a great advantage over reformed churches. Whatever we may think of its tenets and principles, its forms of worship are more impressive and more attractive. The Mass, apart from all dogma and miracle, is a mysterious and beautiful religious drama, in which appropriate symbolism, vocal and instrumental music, all the highest efforts of human art, are united to produce feelings of joy and of devoutness. ”

“ You may close your eyes and imagine that you are present at a Mass of old days—a Mass of the dead—a silent Mass, at which no sound escapes from the lips of the praying, and no tinkle comes from the bell that is vainly shaken. ”

“ IN HONOUR OF THE HOLY CHILD JESUS.
Of all offerings to our Father in heaven Holy Mass is infinitely the best. It is His only-begotten Son who offers Himself as a Victim. It is one with the Offering on Calvary. His priest at the Altar partakes of His Priesthood; and when you hear Holy Mass you are called by God to join with the priest in this holiest of all offerings. ”

“ The law is therefore most salutary and simple, requiring that one take part in the greatest act of worship, the sacrifice which is a commemoration of Christ, and that one rest from the labors and cares of the week and be spiritually refreshed. In reference to the Mass, the precept requires that Mass itself be heard, and that it be an entire Mass and the same Mass. ”

“ Would it be the right thing if an artisan, a magistrate, or a doctor only worked at his profession one or two days in the week? You have the power to say Holy Mass every day. Why do you not avail yourself of it?
"Consider that the action of saying Mass is the loftiest, the most august, of all the functions of religion, the one which renders more glory to God and more solace to the living and the dead than any other. ”

“ Now in the morning Mass you do all that the race needs to do and has done for all these ages where religion was concerned; there you have the sacred and separate Enclosure, the Altar, the Priest in his Vestments, the set ritual, the ancient and hierarchic tongue, and all that your nature cries out for in the matter of worship. ”

“ How easily the oblation of Christ—the Christian's one offering—became the means of intercessory prayer for all men and all occasions, and gave rise to the requiem mass, the mass for some special grace, the mass of thanksgiving, the mass in commemoration of a saint. ”

“ Now I wish to call [pg 315] your attention to this remarkable fact, that all these Liturgies, though compiled by different persons, at different times, in various places, and in divers languages, contain, without exception, in clear and precise language, the prayers to be said at the celebration of Mass; prayers in substance the same as those found in our prayer books at the Canon of the Mass. ”

“ The priests and assistants advance slowly in procession to the foot of the altar, and the solemn celebration of High Mass commences.
The lessons conveyed by this beautiful and symbolic representation are happily continued when the reality of the divine mysteries has taken its place. The priests who represented the shepherds, quitting the crib where they were the first to do homage to the Child-God, proceed to occupy the most exalted places in the choir, and to take the leading parts in the chants that accompany that Holy Sacrifice in which the same Child-God once more descends on earth. ”

“ Let us always ask God when present at the holy Mass for a lively faith in His Real Presence, an ardent love for Him in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, and the grace to imitate His humility, His purity, His meekness, obedience, patience, and charity here, and enjoy His presence forever hereafter. ”

“ THESE rules indicate the attitude which the Church desires, as most suitable to the various parts of the Mass. They do not bind so strictly as to make it a sin to depart from them, for sufficient reasons.
LOW MASS.
Rise when the priest is going to the altar.
Kneel from the beginning to the end of Mass, except during the Gospels.
HIGH MASS.
Rise when the priest is going to the altar. ”

“ Incense is also used as a token of honour to the thing incensed. Masses are divided into solemn or high mass, and plain or low mass; mass sung, or said; public mass, or private mass. A solemn mass, is mass offered up with all the due solemnities, by the bishop or priest, attended by a deacon, subdeacon, and other ministers, each officiating in his part. Such a mass is always sung; and hence a choir of singers accompanies it, with an organ, if possible ”

“ Many souls will be converted if they are well prayed for, and not otherwise. But the most efficacious prayer is that which goes up in closest union with Christ crucified, pleading in sacrifice for us. Christ crucified thus pleads in every Mass. In every Mass, as the Church says, 'the memory of His Passion is celebrated anew.' I can not spend my day in hearing Mass, traveling from altar to altar. ”

“ A short ferial mass without Gloria or Credo, especially if there is no Imperata prayer, or a Missa Quotidiana for the Dead, omitting the Dies Iræ, are instances of very short masses which might take less than twenty minutes. The really important thing is that mass should be offered by the priest with dignity and recollection, as though conscious of the greatness of the act, a spirit which will show itself in every movement and gesture, and help the devotion both of him who celebrates and those who assist. ”

“ Since the appointment of special Masses in honour of the saints is a distinguishing feature of the Latin rite, Western liturgical books are in themselves a source from which we can increase our knowledge of the saints’ festivals, the most important in this respect being the sacramentaries, but the other books used at the celebration of Mass, the collections of epistles and gospels especially, also throw light on the subject. ”

“ Thus, by each Mass more satisfaction is made to God than by any other expiatory work. But although the Mass is of infinite value, God accepts it only in a finite manner, according to the dispositions of those who attend the holy sacrifice, and, therefore, it is useful to hear several Masses.
3. In the Mass we render to God an adequate thanksgiving for all the benefits that he has bestowed upon us.
4. During the Mass we can obtain all the graces that we desire for ourselves and for others. ”