Sacrilege

“ Also, they that withdrawen falsly the rightes that longen to holy chirche. / And pleynly and generally, sacrilege is to reven holy thing fro holy place, or unholy thing out of holy place, or holy thing out of unholy place. ”

“ Such persons are all those who are in sacred orders, and all religious who take public vows even though they be simple and not solemn. All sins, therefore, against purity, whether internal or external, which these persons commit, or which others commit with them, are sacrileges. ”

“ O ALMIGHTY, everlasting God, seeing that it is the true faith of thy Church that the holy sacrifice of the Mass instituted by thy Son is infinitely pleasing to thy divine Majesty, and renders thee an infinite worship and praise, and since by it alone thou canst be worthily and adequately worshiped and praised; impelled by an ardent desire of thy honour and glory, I purpose to assist at this present sacrifice with the utmost devotion of which I am capable, and to offer this most Holy Oblation to thee in union with thy priest. ”

“ But indeed a Sacrament so great and so rich in all manner of blessings can never be extolled as it deserves by human eloquence, nor adequately venerated by the worship of man. This Sacrament, whether as the theme of devout meditation, or as the object of public adoration, or best of all as a food to be received in the utmost purity of conscience, is to be regarded as the centre towards which the spiritual life of a Christian in all its ambit gravitates; for all other forms of devotion, whatsoever they may be, lead up to it, and in it find their point of rest. ”

“ Let thy Priests be clothed with justice, and let thy saints rejoice. I will freely sacrifice to thee, and will give praise, O God, to thy Name, because it is good.
Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.
AFTER MASS.
Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; save me in thy mercy, O Lord; let me not be confounded, for I have called upon thee.
I stretched forth my hands to thee; my soul is as earth without water to thee. ”

“ Upon the holiness of this sacrament, and upon our own corruption. It is the body of Jesus Christ, it is the bread of angels, it is the Lamb without stain, who admits none around his altar but those who either have not defiled their garments or who have purified them in the blood of penitence. And what art thou, forward soul, whom I see approaching with so much confidence? Bringest thou there thy modesty, thy innocence? Hast thou always possessed the vessel of thy body in honour and in holiness? Hath thy heart not been dragged through the filth of a thousand passions? ”

“ For this most high and precious sacrament is the health both of soul and body, the medicine for all spiritual languor; hereby my vices are cured, my passions bridled, my temptations overcome or at least weakened; greater grace is infused, virtue begun is increased, faith is confirmed, hope strengthened, and love inflamed and enlarged.
3. For Thou hast bestowed, and still oftentimes dost bestow many benefits in this sacrament upon Thy beloved ones that communicate devoutly, O my God, the protector of my soul, the strengthener of human frailty, and the giver of all inward comfort. ”

“ For the gifts of glory are far more perfect and excellent than those of grace. To this high degree have I been destined by thy infinite goodness and mercy.
If, then, O my soul, thou hast gained the second degree, be diligent to reach to the third; especially when thou hast so many aids and supports to help thee to arrive at such happiness. Such are the most holy sacraments, purchased for us, and left to us by Christ Jesus our Lord, who, as the crown and perfection of all his favours, has left us also the most holy sacrament of his precious body and blood. ”

“ According to the constant Tradition of the Apostles, the holy Sacrifice of the Mass may be offer’d up for those Believers who die in the Grace of God before they are intirely cleans’d from their Faults; and ’tis likewise offer’d up to remove Afflictions and public Calamities, and to atone for the Sins of the Living, and the Pains which they have deserv’d. From hence I conclude, that the Sacrifice of the Mass is offer’d particularly for the Benefit and Advantage of all the Faithful. ”

“ There is, my brethren, among many men who practise Christian duties to a certain extent, one remarkable want. I will call it the want of the Spirit of Sacrifice. Compare such men with any of the saints, and you will see at once what I mean. One saint may differ a great deal from another, but this is common to them all—a vivid sentiment of God's greatness and Sovereignty, of His right to do with us what He wills, and a willing and reverent recognition of that right. ”

“ Of this sacrament, this sacrifice, this priest, this God, before, having been made of a woman, He entered on His mission, all sacred and mystical, angelic and miraculous appearances to our fathers, as well as their own deeds, were resemblances, in order that every creature might in a manner by its acts speak of that One destined to come, in whom should be the salvation of all that were to be restored from death. ”

“ And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee, that all we, who are partakers of this holy Communion, may be fulfilled with thy grace and heavenly benediction. And although we be unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto thee any sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service; not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offences, through Jesus Christ our Lord ”

“ Here let us notice, as we pass, that no religion is worth the name that has not its sacrifice through which the worshipper expresses his devotion. And in Christian religion the sacrifice is the consecration of the man and of his life to God's service in Christ. ”

“ Salvation, the great sacrifice, once offered, has infinitely more voices for us before God, than all our sins can have against us. His blood is said to speak for us; it cries aloud to the God of justice for the church; yea, for every sensible sinner, that mercy might be shewn, and pardon enjoyed by him upon the ground of strict justice, truth, holiness, righteousness, and judgment ”

“ What is this holiest sacrifice, most pleasing to God? It is Jesus Christ Himself, who once sacrificed Himself on the Cross in a bloody manner, and who continually offers Himself for us in the holy Mass in an unbloody manner. ”

“ I believe that the church is one—the body of Christ, and that Christ calls upon his body to be a living sacrifice to himself. As any blemish on the lamb that was brought to the temple for offering neutralized its value, so any blemish in our hearts, in the withholding of a complete self-sacrifice, is a blemish on that “living sacrifice” which the Lord Jesus Christ calls upon us and prompts us to make. ”

“ This sacrament is the gift of gifts and the grace of graces. When the almighty and eternal God comes to us, with all the perfections of His thrice-holy humanity and His divinity, He surely does not come empty-handed. ”

“ I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and the ungodly shall be converted unto Thee. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, [83] O God, the God of my salvation: my tongue shall exult in Thy righteousness. O Lord, Thou shalt open my mouth, and my lips shall show forth Thy praise. For if Thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would have given it; Thou wilt not delight in burnt-offerings. The sacrifice [acceptable] to God is a bruised spirit; a broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.” [84] ”

“ In the ascetic practices which Islam, Buddhism, and the older Christianity encourage we see how indestructible is the idea that sacrifice of some sort is a religious exercise. In lecturing on asceticism I spoke of its significance as symbolic of the sacrifices which life, whenever it is taken strenuously, calls for. [6] But, as I said my say about those, and as these lectures expressly avoid earlier religious usages and questions of derivation, I will pass from the subject of Sacrifice altogether and turn to that of Confession. ”

“ We must never reckon that lost which is laid out for God. The burning of the sacrifice signified the sharp sufferings of Christ, and the devout affections with which, as a holy fire, Christians must offer up themselves their whole spirit, soul, and body, unto God. 8. This is said to be an offering of a sweet savour, or savour of rest, unto the Lord. The burning of flesh is unsavoury in itself; but this, as an act of obedience to a divine command, and a type of Christ, was well pleasing to God: he was reconciled to the offerer, and did himself take a complacency in that reconciliation. ”

“ One thing alone bars us from this glorious communion and shuts heaven against us, and that is sin. But in the Church there is provided for repentant sinners the Absolution from Sins, the remission of sin and its penalty. When we finally die in the grace of God our soul shall enjoy eternal life, and our glorified body shall be joined to it on the great day of resurrection.
This, then, is what we are taught to believe in the Apostles' Creed. When we say this Creed with devotion and perfect faith, we honor and glorify first of all the Blessed Trinity. ”

“ And as the Christ, who had previously been known more in His pardoning, quickening, and saving grace, is again sought after as a real deliverer from the power of sin, as a sanctifier, He comes and takes up the soul into the fellowship of the sacrifice of His will. ‘He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,’ must become true of us as it is of Him. ”

“ I believe that immeasurable mischief has been wrought by the ceaseless repetition for the last two thousand years of the formula: "Not through any merit of mine shall I enter heaven, but through the sacrifice of Christ."—Not through the sacrifice of Christ, nor any other sacrifice, shall any one attain strength, save in so far as he takes the spirit and the purpose of the sacrifice into his own life and lives it. ”

“ The essence of religion is sacrifice. St. Paul summed it up in his own inimitable fashion when he said, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." ”

“ And the Sacrament of God's precious flesh and blood;
Marriage, the Holy Extreme Unction, and Penance.
These seven be good to have in remembrance,
Gracious sacraments of high divinity.
Everyman. Fain would I receive that Holy Body,
And meekly to my ghostly father I will go.
[Pg 299]
Five Wits. Everyman, that is the best that ye can do:
God will you to salvation bring,
For good priesthood exceedeth all other thing.
To us holy scripture they do teach,
And converteth man from sin, heaven to reach.
God hath to them more power given
Than to any angel that is in heaven. ”

“ Life and love and treasure offered up to please and placate Deity; and the crowning sacrifice of Deity himself in the person of his son to satisfy his own wrath and save a sinning but well-beloved and eternally damned people! It is doubtless this sacrificial atonement of the ancient churches which has passed into the metaphysical concept of self-sacrifice as a laudable and beautiful thing, a holy and righteous thing, a kind of sublimated duty. ”

“ Such an outpouring of the Holy Spirit forms at once a demonstrative proof of the completeness and acceptance of His once offering of Himself as a sacrifice for sin, and a prophetic ‘earnest’ of the certainty that He ‘shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation,’ to judge the world in righteousness. ”

“ As Christ's Passion benefits all, for the forgiveness of sin and the attaining of grace and glory, whereas it produces no effect except in those who are united with Christ's Passion through faith and charity, so likewise this sacrifice, which is the memorial of our Lord's Passion, has no effect except in those who are united with this sacrament through faith and charity. ”

“ THE SEVENTH SERMON SATURDAY BEFORE REMINISCERE Yesterday we heard of the use of the holy and blessed sacrament and saw who are worthy to receive it, even those in whom is the fear of death, who have timid and despairing consciences and who live in fear of hell. All such come prepared to partake of this food for the strengthening of their weak faith and the comforting of their conscience. ”

“ The historical sacrifice was a burning-glass which focused the diffused rays of the Sun of righteousness and made them effective in the melting of human hearts. The sufferings of Christ take deepest hold upon us only when we see in them the two contrasted but complementary truths: that holiness must make penalty to follow sin, and that love must share that penalty with the transgressor. ”

“ We believe that repentance and faith are sacred duties, and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the regenerating Spirit of God, whereby being deeply convinced of our guilt, danger, and helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession, and supplication for mercy; at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King, and relying on Him alone as the only and all-sufficient Saviour. ”

“ I desire with my whole heart to bewail my sins as they deserve. But the grace of contrition must be thy gift. Bestow it on me then in thy mercy; I beg it through the merits of thy most precious blood and wounds; and since thou wiliest not the death of a sinner, but that he be converted and live, convert me, my God, and I shall be truly converted. ”

“ In every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a pure oblation} And this miracle, itself the very greatest of its kind, is ac- companied by innumerable other miracles; for here all the laws of nature are suspended; the whole substance of the bread and wine are changed into the body and the blood; the species of bread and wine are sustained by the divine power without the support of any underlying substance; the body of Christ is present in many places at the same time, that is to say, wherever the Sacrament is consecrated. ”