Ablution

“ He replied, “Tarry till I make the Wuzu-ablution and pray; and, when I prostrate myself, then take my soul while my body is on the ground.” [454] Quoth the Angel, “Verily, my Lord (be He extolled and exalted!) commanded me not to take thy soul but with thy consent and as thou shouldst wish; so I will do thy will.” Then the devout man made the minor ablution [455] and prayed: and the Angel of Death took his soul in the act of prostration and Almighty Allah transported it to the place of mercy and acceptance and forgiveness. And they tell another tale of ”

“ The prescribed ablutions consist of washing the hands and the face in preparation for prayer. In the case of the medium Obligatory Prayer, this is accompanied by the recitation of certain verses (see Some Texts Revealed by Bahá’u’lláh Supplementary to the Kitáb-i-Aqdas) .
That ablutions have a significance beyond washing may be seen from the fact that even should one have bathed oneself immediately before reciting the Obligatory Prayer, it would still be necessary to perform ablutions (Q and A 18) . ”

“ Thorough ablution of the body is a grand requisite of health. I maintain that no one can be perfectly healthy unless he thoroughly wash his body—the whole of his body; if filth accumulate, which, if not washed off, it is sure to do, disease must, as a matter of course, follow. Besides, ablution is a delightful process; it makes one feel fresh and sweet, and young and healthy; it makes the young look handsome and the old look young! Thorough ablution might truly be said both to renovate and to rejuvenize! ”

“ This process being repeated three several times, he must next make three ablutions, with the following prayer: ‘As the tired man leaves drops of sweat at the foot of a tree; as he who bathes is cleansed from all foulness; as an oblation is sanctified by holy grass, so may this water purify me from sin.’ He must next fill the palm of his hand with water, and, presenting it to his nose, inhale the fluid by one nostril, and, retaining it for a while, exhale it through the other, and throw away the water to the north-east quarter. This is considered as an internal ablution which washes away sin. ”

“ If he has no server, the priest will get the cruets and place them within his reach on the Epistle-side of the altar, and make the pourings for himself into the chalice as it stands on the corporal. Then holding the purificator between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, so that it will hang over the back of the hand, and taking up the chalice, by the knop, with his right hand, he receives the ablutions, meanwhile holding the purificator under his chin. ”

“ In all parts of the earth, at this moment, that holy, innocent, undented oblation is presented to Thee, which must always ascend before Thee as an odor of sweetness. Oh, permit us, then, to unite an unreserved oblation of our whole being, and a fervent renewal of our vows, to the first oblation which Jesus offered in the Temple, and also to all the Masses now going on throughout the world. We most humbly beg of Thee to accept this Victim, infinitely greater than any favors we could ask, as a powerful motive for granting us the intentions of this novena. ”

“ His Vizier answered, 'When human means fail, it is then that we must rely on Heaven, for often these evils are sent to remind us of our dependence on Him who alone holds power. Fast, therefore, and pray, and perform ablutions, and when that is done make a great banquet, and call to it the poor and needy ”

“ However deeply rooted the sin may appear, rooted in constitution and habit, we must cleanse ourselves of it if we would be holy. ‘If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.’ As we bring out every sin from the inner part of the house into the light of God and walk in the light, the precious blood that justifies will work mightily to cleanse too: the blood brings into living contact with the life and the love of God. ”

“ So then, after the people have been prepared and instructed, the next step is to proceed to the celebration of the mystery, which is both offered as a sacrifice, and consecrated and received as a sacrament: since first we have the oblation; then the consecration of the matter offered; and thirdly, its reception.
In regard to the oblation, two things are done, namely, the people's praise in singing the "offertory," expressing the joy of the offerers, and the priest's prayer asking for the people's oblation to be made acceptable to God. ”

“ Wash all my sins away,
Wash all my sins away.
Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved to sin no more,
Be saved to sin no more. ”

“ O Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, not trusting in my own goodness, but in Thy great merits, I desire to receive the holy Sacrament of Thy Body and Blood. I am stained with many sins; do Thou wash me in Thy precious Blood. I am faint and weary in my strife against sin; do Thou refresh and strengthen me. Give me perfect purity of soul and body; drive from me all unholy thoughts, and keep me from every evil word and deed. ”

“ The blasphemy and mortal sin of what he had done sickened and frightened him; was not his being here the most horrible blasphemy of all?—he had no right; he had made false confessions to the priest, he had received absolution on lies; daily he had come here worshipping God with his lips and Satan with his heart. ”

“ Have we, in like manner, received the anointing with the Holy Ghost, endowing us with power and wisdom for service? Then, the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, the peace-offering of consecration,—has the Lamb of God been used by us in all these various ways, as our expiation, our consecration, our peace, and our life? And has the blood which consecrates also been applied to ear, hand, and foot? Are we consecrated in all the members of our bodies? ”

“ That so thou mayest be able to approach to offer up sacrifice to God, and to receive for thy salvation the sacrament of my body.
4. For there is no oblation more worthy, nor satisfaction greater, for the washing away of sins, than to offer up one's self purely and entirely to God, together with the oblation of the body of Christ, in the Mass and in the communion.
If a man does what lies in him, and is truly penitent; as often as he shall come to me for pardon and grace; as I live, saith the Lord, who will not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live ”

“ The meaning is that not only have you there been washed and cleansed in soul through the forgiveness of sins, but your flesh and blood have been condemned, given over unto death, to be drowned, and your life on earth to be a daily dying unto sin. For your baptism is simply an overwhelming by grace—a gracious overwhelming—whereby sin in you is drowned; so may you remain subjects of grace and not be destroyed by the wrath of God because of your sin. ”

“ Men in whose minds this faith was created they commanded to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and promised them on the condition of their obedience the gift of the Holy Ghost. [122] By repentance they meant a deep and heart-felt sorrow for sin, accompanied by a reformation of life; [123] by baptism they meant immersion in water in the likeness of Christ's burial and resurrection; [124] and the Holy Ghost was imparted by the laying on of hands and prayer. ”

“ Where there is a full remission of sin, as in baptism, there is no more occasion for a sin offering to be made for such sins already remitted, and as for sins committed afterwards, they can only be remitted in virtue of the one oblation of Christ's death. ”

“ But we, who having, many days before, made confession of our sins, are chastened with penance, worn with fasts, and washed from the stains of our sins with alms and tears, on the day of the Lord’s resurrection, approaching his table in Catholic faith, partake of the flesh and blood of the immaculate Lamb Jesus Christ, not to judgment but to the remission of our sins, and to the salutary preparation for the enjoyment of eternal blessedness.’ Having nothing to oppose to these propositions, they afterwards observed the rules of the church in the reception of this life-giving mystery. ”

“ Her, whose ashes will be cast to the winds! Her, who, deprived of the holy Eucharist at the moment of death, and loaded down with the decree of excommunication, is about to be cast into the bottom of hell for all eternity! ”

“ Lord, I offer to thee all my sins and offences, which I have committed in thy sight, and that of thy holy angels, from the day that I was first capable of sin until this hour, upon thy propitiatory altar, that thou mayst burn and consume them all with the fire of thy charity, and mayst remove all the stains of my sins, and cleanse my conscience from all offences, and restore to me thy grace, which I have lost by sin, by fully pardoning me all, and mercifully receiving me to the kiss Of peace. ”

“ And what though it be all stained and spotted with mortal sin; is there no such thing as true repentance? Are there no fountains of living waters in the sacraments in which it may be washed whiter than snow? Are there no gems of divine grace with which it may be decked out as a bride waiting for the bridegroom?
Prayer for the conversion of sinners should be far more practised than it is. Why, brethren, look around you in this great city, and if you can count the stars of heaven or the sands of the sea-shore you can count the men and women in mortal sin ”

“ That doctrine which maintains a change of the substance of bread and wine, into the substance of Christ's body and blood, commonly called transubstantiation, by consecration of a priest, or by any other way, is repugnant not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense and reason, overthroweth the nature of the ordinance, and hath been, and is, the cause of manifold superstitions, yea, of gross idolatries. ”

“ For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ ... purge your conscience.” 106Thus, in immediate exposition of his statement as to divers baptisms, the apostle specifies the two most conspicuous forms of the sprinklings of Sinai, that of the whole people, upon the making of the covenant, and that administered with the water of separation—the one being the original of the ordinance, and the other its ordinary and perpetuated form. ”

“ Nay, let us devoutly and thankfully believe and know that we do in very truth partake of the Lord's body, but in a spiritual mystery, higher and holier than any visible miracle would be. The very essence of a sacrament is that it be spiritual and invisible--the visible symbol of the invisible reality. Real and corporate flesh and blood is sacrifice, not sacrament; but the true spiritual presence of the Lord's body is never absent in His holy rite. Let us, in all holiness and meekness of spirit, discern the Lord's body, and thankfully receive it. ”

“ So the blood of Christ, which is often spoken of, in scripture, as that by which we are redeemed, justified, and saved, is to be taken for the whole of his obedience and sufferings, both in life and death, to which our salvation is to be ascribed, as well as to the effusion of his blood. ”

“ Our Lord had a fair child, that is to say, the soul made free from all spot by his Passion, and by virtue of baptism. That soul is slain in us by sin. Do you ask how? I will tell you. By giving ourselves up to carnal delights, whose fruit is death. The blood on the hand is sin, which tenaciously cleaves to us ”

“ Through a Divine decree which we cannot penetrate she has been delivered over to Satan. But to offset nature there is the miracle. That is the wonder of Divine grace, through which we can find redemption from sin. The blood of Christ is the medium of redemption, and nothing more is required of us than to believe in Christ and in the redeeming power of his blood. ”

“ In Penance also, there is something which is sacrament only, viz. the acts performed outwardly both by the repentant sinner, and by the priest in giving absolution; that which is reality and sacrament is the sinner's inward repentance; while that which is reality, and not sacrament, is the forgiveness of sin. ”

“ By this faith we perceive the love of God, and break off our sins by righteousness. But while in the flesh, we feel a thorn—a hell of conscious guilt for the sins we have committed, and though the penitent may beseech God, that this messenger of satan, buffeting him, may depart from him, yet the answer will be, "my grace is sufficient for thee." ”

“ And it honestly recognises that we're mortal; inheritors of original sin as the spark flies upward. Yet if we go and confess our sins and try to feel sorry for 'em, we receive the grace of the Sacrament of Penance and Absolution,—and we can then receive the Blessed Sacrament. ”

“ Everyone who will carefully examine these prayers must see that the main idea contained in all is that of sacrifice and oblation. In the same way the prayer called the Secret, which follows upon the offering of the bread and wine for the Sacrifice, though it varies with the feast celebrated, practically always contains some mention of the oblation or victim to be offered. ”

“ When the victim of fleshly sin, suffering from the arrow which has pierced his liver, handed over as it seems to despair, is led to gaze upon the Crucified Christ, and to understand the meaning of His bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, he is touched, he is led to repentance, he is created anew, his flesh comes again to him as a little child, he can offer up to God the sacrifice of a contrite heart, and he is cleansed. ”