ancient we cannot mention a time when the holy sacrifice was offered with other prayers. Henceforth, what veneration will be due to those prayers which our ancestors in the faith so often pronounced before us-prayers which were their chief consolation, and which obtained for them the strength necessary to resist tyrants, to endure tortures, to shed their blood for religion!

When the Priest has finished the Sanctus, he raises his eyes and hands to Heaven: this is to imitate the Saviour, who, before working miracles, addressed His Father above. But he soon casts down his eyes, joins his hands, and bows as a suppliant. He then kisses the altar, which represents Jesus Christ, in order to show his love and respect for Him, and to ask that his prayer may have power over the heart of God. And how could he fail to be heard? He offers to the most merciful Father the infinite merits of Our Lord, His Son, in favour of the Holy Catholic Church and all her children.

During this prayer, the Priest makes the sign of the cross three times over the chalice and host, in order to show that it is through the merits of the cross of Jesus Christ he asks God to bless the bread and wine and change them into the body and blood of the Saviour, as gifts which come from Him, as presents which we offer to Him, and as the matter of the pure and spotless sacrifice which is about to be made to Him. The Priest keeps his hands spread out to the height of his shoulders. Do you not imagine that you behold Moses on the mountain, Jesus Christ on the cross, our forefathers in the catacombs? It was thus that they prayed. Does this scene, so rich in memories, touch no chord in our hearts?

The Priest has prayed for all the Church. He has asked peace and union among her children. He has asked protection for the Sovereign Pontiff, the centre of Catholic unity and the representative of Jesus Christ on earth; for the Bishop of the place, because he is appointed to guide a portion of the flock; and for the king, who is an outside bishop." Lastly, he has asked grace for all those who profess the Catholic and orthodox faith.

In a second prayer, he recommends to God all those present, and more particularly those for whom he is about to offer up the holy victim.

Let us here acknowledge that the Church has a most motherly heart. Health of soul and body, peace, union, charity, the eternal salvation of her children: behold what she asks of her Divine Spouse! Behold, too, what she wishes that we should ask for one another! But all this is not enough for her tenderness. After assembling all her children that still travel with her on earth, after telling them to have but one heart, one soul among themselves,

after gathering them in a manner under her wings, as the hen gathereth her chickens, this tender mother invites us to lift up our eyes with her and to contemplate our brethren who reign in Heaven and who stretch out their arms towards us, and the Angels who make ready to put our prayers into their golden censers, that they may offer them to the Lord as a sweet perfume.

She reminds us, therefore, of the consoling dogma of the Communion of Saints, which makes of Christians on earth and in Heaven but one family, with common interests. My beloved ones, she says to us, you whom I now bring forth to Jesus Christ, have confidence; you are in communion with your elder brethren: their prayer will support yours; your sacrifice is theirs. And straightway she begins to tell us the names of some of these illustrious inhabitants of Heaven: Mary our Mother, and Mother of Jesus Christ, our Eldest Brother; the Apostles; and a few of our most glorious Martyrs. During this prayer, the Priest holds his hands raised, and bows respectfully at the names of Jesus and Mary.

It would seem sufficient, without naming so many of the blessed, to say, honouring the memory of thy Saints, through whose merits and prayers we beseech Thee to grant, &c.; but the Church wished to remind us of a usage most venerable by its antiquity. There were formerly three catalogues or diptychs in every church: the word diptych means a tablet folded in two.

On the first diptych were written the names of the Blessed Virgin, Saints, Apostles, and especially Martyrs; and, later on, the names of Bishops who had died in the odour of sanctity. When it was proposed to declare a man holy, his name was placed on the diptych of the Saints. Hence the word canonise, because the name was mentioned during the Canon.

On the second, the names of some of the Faithful still living, and commendable by their dignity, or by the services that they had rendered to the Church. This list contained the names of the Pope, the Patriarch, the Bishop, the clergy of the diocese, kings, princes, magistrates, &c.

On the third, the names of some of the Faithful departed in the communion of the Church. These three lists were publicly read in the church, during the holy sacrifice of the Mass, by the Priest, a Deacon, or a Sub-deacon.

We have retained some vestiges of this ancient usage. In the beginning of the Canon we recite the names of the Pope, Bishop, king, &c.; in the first memento the names of the living, and in the second the names of the dead; and before and after consecration, the names of the principal Saints of the Church. At the prone, we still find remains of the same tradition. Prayers are then offered

up for the living and the dead, both of whom are named. To our mind there can be nothing more touching or charitable.' Behold how everything in our liturgy breathes the great virtue of Christianity, that virtue which civilised the world, that virtue which still constitutes the strength of nations, the happiness of families, and the charm of life-the virtue of charity!

Prayer.

O my God! who art all love, I thank Thee for the great lessons on fervour and charity which Thou givest me in the prayers of the holy sacrifice. Help me to understand these prayers well, and to repeat them like the Early Christians.

I am resolved to love God above all things, and my neighbour as myself for the love of God; and, in testimony of this love, I will hear Mass in the spirit of a victim.

LESSON XXI.

CHRISTIANITY BROUGHT BEFORE THE SENSES (continued).

Fourth Part of the Mass (continued): Consecration, Elevation, and following Prayers. Relation between the Fourth Part of the Mass and the Passion. Sentiments that ought to prevail in our Hearts.

FOURTH Part of the Mass (continued).—In the last prayer, the Church of earth entered into communion with the Church of Heaven. The two sisters have met to offer up the august sacrifice which rejoices both. The Priest is their minister: he is going to take possession of the victim in their name. Lo! he extends his hands over the chalice and the host. This imposing ceremony takes you back three thousand years. You see Aaron and his successors, the ancient pontiffs, extending their hands over the heads of victims, while taking possession of them in the name of God, and expressing by this sign that the animal whose blood should soon flow was substituted in their place, in place of guilty man, man worthy of death.

Thus does the Catholic Priest act. But it is no more over a figurative victim that he extends his hands: it is over the true victim, expected during four thousand years; and his extended hands, like Aaron's, say that it is he who is guilty, he who ought to be sacrificed instead of the innocent victim. Oh, with what sentiments should we all unite in this prayer! What a holy awe should seize us when we behold this terrible ceremony-when we

1 See M. Thirat, p. 333; Lebrun, p. 410.

consider that here, under the hands of the Priest, we are also placed as victims with Our Lord!

The Priest asks God that He would vouchsafe to accept this offering of our service and of His whole family. These words allude to Priests, who are more closely connected with the service of God than the Faithful.1 Peace in this world, freedom from sin, eternal salvation; these are the things which we hope to receive from the sacrifice and which we express in this prayer. Let us ask them confidently: the blood of the Second Abel is powerful enough to obtain them.

The sacred minister has taken possession of the victim. He draws back his hands, and joins them as a sign of humility; for he is going to beg the greatest of miracles. Hitherto, there have been only bread and wine on the altar-the elements of the sacrifice. There is now question of obtaining their transubstantiation into the body and blood of the Man-God. The Priest therefore, reanimating his faith, arms himself with the sublime power that has been given him. Addressing the Creator of all things, he tells Him to pronounce over the bread and wine, according to His promise, that omnipotent fiat which may change them into the body and blood of His Son, as it called forth the universe from nothingness.

By the ministry of the Priest we ask that this oblation may be in all respects blessed, that is to say, wholly, perfectly blessed-in other words, changed into the body and blood of the Saviour, which is the blessing of blessings; and that thus the Divine Victim, the Victim essentially blessed, may communicate all His blessings to us. The Church mentions in general whatever she can desire regarding the oblation of the altar when asking that it may be in all respects blessed; but, the better to describe the great grace which she expects, she details in the four following words all that she hopes from God.

Approved. That He may be satisfied with it, and that the oblation which we make of ourselves with Jesus Christ may no longer be rejected, but admitted with that of Jesus Christ.

Ratified. That it may become a permanent sacrifice, not changing like those ancient sacrifices of animals which were revoked, and that the oblation of ourselves may also be irrevocable, so that we may never have the misfortune of being separated from God.

Rational. Hush, human reason! Adore in silence Him who created the universe with a word, and who can, by speaking, work prodigies more easily than thou canst utter thy thought! We ask that the victim on the altar may become a human victim, a rational

1Lebrun, p. 441.

victim, nay, the only victim endowed with reason, reason itself, the only victim worthy of reconciling us with God;1 for none of the victims whose blood flowed on the altars of the ancient world during four thousand years were rational, or worthy of God or man.

Pleasing. That the oblation of the altar may become the body and blood of the Beloved Son, in whom the Lord places all His delights. We ask that the oblation may not only become all this, but that it may become such for our welfare.

And do you see what simple language the Church uses in begging these prodigies of power and goodness? With as much simplicity as the Scripture expresses the greatest of miracles in the order of nature, the Creation-Let light be-and the greatest in the order of religion, the Incarnation-Be it done unto me according to Thy word -the Church asks that prodigy which contains all others, the great miracle of the change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ-that this oblation may become for us the body and blood of Thy most dear Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ!

Is it not sublime? Find anything to compare with it in profane authors! Nothing, therefore, O holy religion! can be more true than that thou dost unite in thyself all the titles that can recommend thee to the love of Christians and the admiration of intelligent beings. On every page of thy liturgy, as on every one of thy dogmas and precepts, there shines the seal of thy heavenly origin! The Priest, while saying the prayers that we have just explained, makes the sign of the cross several times, in order to show that it is in the all-powerful name of Jesus Christ that he asks the miracle.

At length we have reached the supreme moment when the Son of God, the Eternal, the Strong, the Mighty, the Creator of worlds, prepares to obey the voice of a mortal. The Priest wipes the thumb and forefinger of each of his hands on the corporal, so as to remove moisture or dust from them, and to have them in a more proper state to touch the body of the Lord. With the fingers which he has purified, and which have been consecrated by ordination, he takes the host, and, in a plain, simple tone of voice, like that observed by the Saviour-whose place he holds-when working miracles, he pronounces the all-powerful words of consecration.

The miracle is wrought! The Priest falls on his knees. The assistants prostrate. And the bell tells the Faithful at a distance to adore. Of old, at the sound of the sacred tocsin, they were to be seen casting themselves on their knees in houses, in streets, and in fields, and saying the Lord's Prayer. Meanwhile, the Priest elevates the adorable body of the Son of God, who has just become

1 1 Lebrun, supra; Condren, Idée du saorifice.