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New Zealand Tablet, 10 April 1913, Page 5

treasures of mercy and love placed at our disposal in the Mass, the bold though reverent words of St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi rise to our lips: ' Of a truth, Thou hast made a fool of Thyself, Christ, for the love of man,' The Mass, then, is a sacrifice, for it fulfils all the conditions: (1) a visible thing is offered, namely, the Body and Blood of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine; (2) the offering is made by Christ Himself through His minister, consecrated for that purpose; (3) the Victim is destroyed in a mystical or symbolical fashion in the separate consecration of bread and wine; (4) the sacrifice is offered ' for all faithful Christians living and dead '; (5) men, through Christ, their Head, thereby pay to the sovereign majesty of God the homage due to It. No doubt Mass is often celebrated in honor of our Lady or the Saints; but it is never, it could not be, offered to them, they are not the objects of an act of worship. Indirectly, however, we do honor the Saints on these occasions: (a) for we return thanks to God for the graces vouchsafed to those glorious confessors of the Faith, and, as St. Augustine says, ' stimulate our ardor in the fight for the palm of victory, after the example of the Christian hero whose noble deeds we commemorate ' ; (b) and again we ask with confidence during the Holy Sacrifice for the help of the Saint's powerful intercession.' > The Sacrifice of our altars is substantially that of the Last Supper and Cross, for the same Jesus Christ offers and is offered in the one case and the other. But there are some differences: (1) in the sacrifice of the Last Supper and Cross Christ celebrated in person, whereas now He celebrates by the ministry of His priests; (2) then He consecrated His mortal Body, now through His representative He offers the same Body, but in its glorious and immortal life; (3) then He completed the sacrifice by the shedding of His Blood, now He makes the offering without such shedding ; (4) the Mass satisfies for sins, only because it is Calvary over again, the application of merits and satisfactions gained once for all.