The Missal

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 52, 30 December 1925, Page 57

The Missal

%$ There is no special method of hearing Mass laid down as of obligation. Bodily presence, with even passive assistance, quite fulfils v line's obligation. To those who attend Mass at one time, in any special church, no doubt, the fruits and merits that accrue are different by many more degrees than the Scriptural "hundredfold, sixty-fold, and fifty-fold." Those who pray do well. ; Those who form the intention of offering with the priest and who use the ordinary of '■■•". the Mass as found in most prayer books, do better, but "yet I show unto you, a more ■ excellent way." This more excellent way ;: is the devout uso of the Missal. The ordinary of the Mass cannot include :. the.special Collects, Epistle and Gospel fr,r each day; it cannot give the commemoration • of the mystery, or the saint honored each day, and it is exact only with the parts of the Mass which do not vary. _ The Missal introduces the devout Catholic -. to a very wonderland of the Church's treasure, "treasures new and old" from the in- "-.'. exhaustible store of the gracious generosity of our God, poured into the lap of Mother Church.

,r. , m „ ,:I • * 1 Treasures. .Vr The treasures of the Missal, learned for the first time, strike one with the charm and freshness of a revelation, and the devout Catholic learns how to color the day with holy, happy thoughts, of a martyr's conor a Confessor’s intrepidity a virgin’s triumph, or some sweet mystery of Jesus or Mary which raises the day from being only a secular space of time, and invests it with some of the glory of heaven—indeed, with much of the glory of heaven. Father Benson, in By What Authority, d € - scribes the Mass of Easter Sunday as hoard by the two converts, Isabella and Anthony Norris. „ • it was their first Mass, and many who are not converts, and who have heard Mass for decades of years, would learn by reading the glowing .chapter which so delightfully desenbes the Easter Mass that there were un.suspected beauties in their Easter Masses of the past, and their Easter Masses of the future should be heard much belter because of this new knowledge. . By using the. Missal, not only the

Mass of Easter day, bub the Mass of every day, will yield tip the glory of wealth m Scriptural significance and allusions which are a "sealed book" to those acquainted only with the broad features of the Mass, and the prayers and portions that do not vary. Some impatient person may say, "It's good enough to read a, prayer book and to strike your breast when the bell rings." But when it is so easy to improve on that, why not take notice of the "more excellent way?" Since you use a book, why should not the book be the real book, the Missal, so little used by laymen, as though they considered that for its use some special quality were needed as for the sealed book of the Apocalypse, of which is written, "Who is worthy to open the book, and who shall break tho seals thereof?" It is certain that our particular share in the fruits of the Mass depends upon the extent of our union with the priest who celebrates, and the closest union can be secured only by knowing what are the special prayers, what saints are commemorated, and what Epistle, what Gospel, what Collects are in the Mass of the day.-

The Missal gives us all this knowledge: it is, of course, given in English. Once more, before saying another word in praise of this method of hearing Mass, let us remember that any prayers, any private devotions, with a special recollection at the Consecration, are quite good enough for a reverent, profitable • assistance at the Holy Sacrifice, but, “thanks bo to God for His unspeakable gift,”’ these days of Eucharistic revival call, and not in vain, for much more than “ good enough,” and it is with great confidence that the “more excellent way” is here advocated and outlined for those who will be glad to secure by its adoption a closer union with the celebrating priest. Learn, then, to follow by means of the Missal, step by step with the priest, all the evolutions of this Divine Drama, which lead up to, and down from, the great centre Act of Consecration and Consummation in Communion. Call about you as Holy Church does the goodly company of the burning Seraphim and Cherubim, the radiant martyrs-hands invoked during the Canon of the Mass, the holy Virgin Saints, and Martyrs, and Apos-

ties; and standing in spirit with" Mary who x r stood by the foot of the Cross know ' that" all your] prayer and all your worship are th» more acceptable to God, because offered in the company of His chosen friends who proved themselves on earth, even as we now strive to do.' ■ V*- ' ' ■ ■ ■" ■■"-.■ - ~ ■.-.....".'. a-*."v''■■.■■■»' Then when the blessing is given, and' we , are bidden to depart because "Mass is done," and the Gospel of John is read, which so magnificently proclaims the God-head and eternity of the Son, the Lamb of the Sacri- , ' fice, at which we have been assisting, let us V go down from the Hill with the remembrance Jl of His sweet, bitter Passion new and deep . in pur hearts, with kindled eyes of faith, to |l see what the Centurion saw so brightly, inN~. the miracle darkness of Calvary, that "indeed, this Man was the Son of God." ', ; :' ; With faith renewed; and love enkindled i;; from each Mass at which we assist—" What then shall separate us from the love of-;* Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or.;'. famine, or nakedness, or danger, or persecu- ' tion, or the sword? ... In all these things we overcome because of Him Who hath loved us."— The Pilot (Boston). I§