'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH’

New Zealand Tablet, 18 February 1915, Page 11

'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH’

(A Weekly Instruction specially written . for the N.Z.

Tablet by Ghimel.)

THE OBLIGATION OF HEARING MASS ON SUNDAYS AND HOLY DAYS.

(Continued.) ’ N

The great feature of the sanctification of the Catholic Sunday is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and devout attendance at it should ever be the first duty of a good Catholic. A second duty, hardly less important, is to try to understand what the Mass means and to know something about those venerable prayers and ceremonies by which its celebration is accompanied. As showing the anxiety of the Church that her children should follow the ritual of the Mass intelligently, there is a striking passage in the decrees of the Council of Trent: ‘That the flock of Christ,’ we read, ‘may not go hungry nor His little ones seek bread, and there be no one to break it to them, this Holy Synod commands all pastors and those who have the care of souls, frequently to explain, during Mass itself, portions of what the priest reads in the Mass, and at other times (and that especially on Sundays and festivals) to preach on some mystery of this holy Sacrifice ’ (Session xxii. chap. 8). What is here said to pastors of souls holds in its own way for parents in regard to their children. Parents should make every effort to teach their little ones as much as possible about this greatest of mysteries ; if the children come to understand the Mass, they will love it also. (Much useful information will be found in a leaflet of the Catholic Truth Society ‘What are they doing at the Altar,’ and in Cardinal Vaughan’s little book. On the II oh/ Mass).

The sanctification of a parish would be quickly effected if men and women came to love the Mass and to live in its presence. ‘ The reason is,’ writes Dr. Medley, ‘ that from the Divine Victim there comes to a sincere worshipper a mighty impulse and grace which turns his heart to his Maker and fills him with the horror of sin ; that in the Mass he receives a supernatural light to see the value of his immortal soul and the nearness of eternity; and that in the power of Him Who is immolated there he carries away a supernatural strength to enable him to stand firm against temptation.’

In conclusion, we may quote Cardinal Newman’s moving description in Loss and Gain: ‘To me nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass for ever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words —it is a great action, the greatest action that can be on earth. It is, not the invocation merely, but, if I dare use the word, the evocation of the Eternal. He becomes present on the altar in flesh and blood, before Whom angels bow and devils tremble. This is that awful event which is the scope, and the interpretation, of every part of the solemnity. Words are necessary, but as means, not as ends ; they are not mere addresses to the throne of grace, they are instruments of what is far higher, of consecration, of sacrifice. They hurry on, as if impatient to fulfil their missiop. Quickly they go, the whole is quick, for they are ’ all parts of one integral action. Quickly they go, for they are awful words of sacrifice, they are a work too great to delay upon, as when it was said in the beginning, “What thou doest, do quickly.” Quickly they pass, for the Lord Jesus goes with them, as He passed along the lake in the days of His flesh, quickly calling first one and then another ; quickly they pass, because as the lightning which shineth from one part of the heaven unto the other, so is the coming of the Son of Man. Quickly they pass, for they are as the words of Moses, when the Lord came down in the cloud, calling on the Name of the Lord as He passed by, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.” And as Moses

on the mountain, so we'too “make haste and bow bur heads to the earth, and adore.” So we, all around, each in his place, look- out for the : great Advent, “waiting - for the moving of the water,” each in his < place, with his own heart, with his own wants, with his own thoughts, with his own intentions, with his own prayers, separate but concordant, watching what is going on, watching its progress, uniting in its consummation; not painfully and hopelessly, following a hard form of prayer from beginning to end, but, like a concert of musical instruments, each different, but concurring in a sweet harmony, we take our part with God’s priest, supporting him, yet guided by him. There are little children there, and old men, and simple labourers, and students An seminaries, priests preparing for Mass, priests making their thanksgiving, there are innocent maidens, and there are penitent sinners; but out of these many minds rises one Eucharistic hymn, and the great action is the measure and the scope of it.’