What is the Mass?


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WHAT

IS THE

MASS?

JOHN N. McCORMICK,

C.SS.R.

JOHN A. TREINEN,

C.SS.R.



Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2016

https://archive.org/details/whatismassOOmcco



What Is

The Mass?

JOHN N. McCORMICK, C.SS.R.

JOHN A. TREINEN, C.SS.R.

Published by

LIGUORIAN PAMPHLETS

REDEMPTORIST FATHERS

LIGUORI. MISSOURI



TABLE OF CONTENTS

We Cannot Live Without the Mass.— 3
The Perfect Prayer .. 12

The Mass Is Mine ...• 19

The Mass Is the Life of the World 26

The Mass — My Offering 30
The Mass — My Consecration ..37
The Mass — My Banquet 44
The Mass and the Mother of God 52

Going Up to the Altar of God 58

4?

Imprimi Potest:

John N. McCormick, C.SS.R.
Provincial, St. Louis Province

Redemptorist Fathers

September 9, 1957

Imprimatur:

St. Louis, September 10, 1957
^Joseph E. Ritter

Archbishop of St. Louis

Seaefdffled



WE CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT
THE MASS

Since the sixteenth century something sad, even disas-
trous has been happening to the idea of prayer. In our day
we see the meaning of prayer gradually falling apart, so
that there is hardly one solid piece left of it.

This breakdown in the idea of prayer had its origin in
Protestantism with its insistence on individual freedom,
private interpretation of Scripture, private determination
of the law of God. Such false notions lead naturally to a
false idea of prayer.

This decline shows itself in the divorce of prayer from
the very elements which make it genuine and effective.
Unfortunately this Protestant mentality has also infected
the thought of many Catholics. We speak with Protestants
on the street, on the train and at home; we find their
religious views insinuated in writings not specifically reli-
gious. Contact here means contagion. The result is that
our own ideas are colored by these indirect influences.

This cutting away of the substantial elements of prayer
developed in three stages.

PRAYER WITHOUT SACRIFICE
1. Prayer was divorced from the idea of sacrifice. With

the outlawing of the Mass and the smashing of Catholic
altars, the so-called Reformation reduced prayer to mere
lip-service without act or evidence to back it up.

To those cut off from the body of the true Church by the
reformers, a church was an organ and a choir, a pulpit and
a book. If there was an altar, it was not for sacrifice but
only for holding a book. Songs of love for God died with
the silencing of the organ. Protestations of adoration cost
nothing but the breath spent in sounding them. Sighs of
sorrow for sin demanded no proof of sincerity. Prayer was
reduced to hollow words.

— 3 —



4 WHAT IS THE MASS?

PRAYER WITHOUT FELLOWSHIP
2. Then prayer was divorced from our fellowship with

other men. It became a solitary, lonely thing. Individual
freedom, personal rights, extreme nationalism made men
lose sight

,
of their oneness, the unity of the whole human

race. So far had men forgotten the divine unity of the
human race that a phrase, One World, coined by a politician,
hit them with the force of an atomic explosion. “A new
idea,” they cried, as if Christ had never prayed, “That they
all may be one !” Far beyond Christ's meaning they inter-
preted the words, “When you pray, go into your room and
close the door and pray in private to your Father,” so that
prayer was divorced from the prayer of other men and
made alone with God.

All else we do in society with others : work, play, study,
argue and debate, but not pray. Men lost the deep sense
of the unity of the human race, because they lost the true
idea of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ; they
had torn it limb from limb. The social life of all men in
Christ was forgotten. So men prayed alone, divorced from
their fellowmen.

PRAYER WITHOUT GOD
3. And now prayer is divorced even from God. The

collapse is complete.

Prayer used to be thought of as a seeking after God.
Now in prayer men seek to satisfy a vague emotional need,
to fill an undefinable sentimental void in their hearts, to
find relaxation for their tired and taut nerves, to purchase
a sense of power by contact with some unknown superhuman
force, no matter if that force is Buddha, or Nirvana, or a
cosmic radiation, or the fifth dimension.

This is not a false accusation; evidence for its truth
abounds. Recently we heard of a professor in a medical
school for whom the church represents one of man’s in-
tuitive approaches to truth. For him, to leave prayer
uncultivated is to miss one of the greatest sources of
knowledge. This is true no matter how ineffective the
church may be, how poor the preaching, for there is a



WHAT IS THE MASS? 5

beauty in any church service and food for thought in every
sermon. The hurry of existence leaves little enough time
for that quiet contemplation from which creative ideas
arise. Going to church is one of the vital necessities.

But where does this professor’s idea of prayer make
contact with God?

THE CATHOLIC VIEW

In contrast to these motives for going to church, for
praying, we have this statement of a Catholic woman : “To
keep house means to exercise day in and day out a woman’s
peculiar talent for doing the same utterly unimportant
things over and over again. I am not content with this. I
want to say a word that will pierce the heavens and do a
deed that will shake the earth. At church a deed is done
and I help do it; there a word is said and I help say it.
My word reaches the heart of God and my deed redeems
the world. Consequently I go to church not to listen or to
get, but to give and to do. Spiritual satisfaction? Say
rather spiritual effectiveness. Comfort for the soul? Say
rather use of the soul.”

This good Catholic lady was thinking of the Mass. She
was not infected with any Protestant mentality.

* *

If you should wonder why we are going back to renew
our acquaintance with the Mass, the answer is this : because
too few Catholics think as this alive and alert Catholic lady
whom we quoted. If all Catholics would think as she did,
there would be no need of learning again about the Mass.

Sadly, the majority of Catholics must be convinced that
there is no prayer without sacrifice

;
that there is no truly

effective prayer separated from the family life of Christ
and His members, that every prayer must look up to God
first in adoration and thanksgiving and love, as well as
look upon ourselves.



6 WHAT IS THE MASS?

Here is the Catholic doctrine about the Mass.

The Mass is prayer with sacrifice.

The Mass is prayer and sacrifice with the Church

.

The Mass is the prayer and sacrifice of the Church with
Christ to God.

The Mass, in a word, is Catholic life.

This truth, that the Mass is Catholic life, was expressed
seventeen centuries ago. A group of Christians was dragged
in chains to Carthage because they had dared in secret to
celebrate the Mass, despite the prohibition under penalty
of death. When the man who had offered his house for
this divine service was asked by the pagan governor why
he had done this, he answered quite simply : “These are my
brothers. I could not keep them from it, because without
the holy Mass we cannot live.”

May God grant that all who read these thoughts on the
Mass will be so enlightened and inspired that they too will
say, “We cannot live without the Mass.”

IT IS THE MASS THAT MATTERS

How well the enemies of Christ and His Church sense
the importance of the Mass to Catholics! It is always the
central fortress in the kingdom of God which they labor to
batter down. The rulers of Rome drove the early Christians
into the catacombs. The Protestant rebels against Christ
and His Church, His Mystical Body, centered their attack
upon the Mass. In Mexico, in Russia, in Red Spain of some
years ago, the Mass was the first Catholic act to be outlawed.
In pagan Nazi Germany seminaries were closed and semi-
narians driven into civil or military life under penalty of
death. Today bishops and priests, for the flimsiest of rea-
sons, are herded into concentration camps or thrown into
prison in China and Yugoslavia — to die. And all this to
kill the priesthood and so to kill the Mass. Even they know
too well that “It is the Mass that matters.”

The true lovers and friends of Christ know that the Mass
must go on, else the end of all is upon us. And the Mass
does go on, in every nation of the globe/



WHAT IS THE MASS? 7

Priests may die as did Father Pro and hundreds of others
in Mexico, because they offer Mass in secret mountain hide-
aways and in broken farm houses; but the Mass is more
important than their lives. Priests in disguise find their
way into Red Russia with the blessing of the Holy Father
upon their martyrdom, while the rest of the world trembles
at the ruthlessness of the Red dictators and fears to defy
their inhuman tyranny — and Russia still has its Masses.
It is almost a monotonous repetition of history

;
monotonous

but heroic.

And why this heroic, this apparently fanatical devotion to
the Mass? Why? Because it is a command of the Master;
the last order He gave before He went out into the dark
night to die for us. Never shall we forget, never shall we
neglect that last order from the Master.

Why did Christ lay such stress and emphasis on the con-
tinuation of the Mass? Because the Mass is the soul, the
center of the divine religion that He has left us; because
without the Mass there can be no Christianity, as without
sacrifice there can be no religion.

TRUE RELIGION DEMANDS A SACRIFICE

It is a matter of history that there has never existed a
religion which sprang true from the human heart which did
not have its sacrifice. And here let us dispose of an objec-
tion at once. Someone may say : “Protestantism never had
nor has a sacrifice.”

With all respect to sincere Protestants we answer : Prot-
estantism as a religion is a negation, as its name implies.
It is a protest. Against what? Against the will of Christ;
against the Mystical Body of Christ

;
against the truth and

teaching of Christ. It is a fit of anger and resentment and
rebellion against the social order God has set up in the
world. But it is by no means a natural expression of man’s
religious life, of man’s relation to God. That is why
Protestantism is a dying religion. It arose from resentment,
quarrels and greed, not from man’s natural desire to ac-
knowledge the rights of God and the duties of man.



8 WHAT IS THE MASS?

Every natural religion springing clean from man’s human
impulses and convictions is built around a sacrifice. Why
is this so ? When men had gathered their harvests of grain
from the fields, when men had watched their cattle grow
from weak and tottering calves into fully developed animals
ready for, the slaughter, they instinctively thought of the
God Who made all these things possible.

In their desire to express their gratitude, in their sense
of dependence upon their Creator, in their conviction of
what would become of them if His providence failed them,
they took the finest grain from their fields and the choice
head from the herds and offered them to Him as a symbol
of their belief that all they were and all they had belonged
to Him. Their reason went even further.

Thus in their ancient records you can read of the Aztec
Indians of Mexico adorning the fairest virgin of their tribe
and hurling her into a burning volcano or furnace. You can
read of the North American Indians gathered on the banks
of the Niagara River, hands and voices raised in prayer,
while the most beautiful daughter of the tribe, helpless to
disengage herself from her floating prison, drifts over the
ridge of the falls in a canoe to sudden death as a sacrifice
to the lord of life and death.

We do not endeavor to justify the slaughter of innocents;
we are not saying that the fifth commandment of God was
abrogated. But this we do say : the principle of these primi-
tives is correct. The basic thought common to the idea of
sacrifice is solid and reasonable.

In his effort to acknowledge God as his Creator and him-
self as a creature, the barbarian offered to Him the very
life that God had loaned him, as the most precious thing in
his possession. The principle is correct, though the applica-
tion of the principle is false and erroneous. Nevertheless
in the offering of the most precious thing he owned, the
barbarian said with a deep sincerity that makes modern
religionists seem hypocritical : “Lord, God, we acknowledge
Thy sovereignty and adore Thee. We are grateful to Thee
and thank Thee. We hope for Thy continued mercy. We
repent of our misuse of Thy gifts and implore Thy pardon.
See our sincerity in the gift we offer Thee.”



WHAT IS THE MASS? 9

AS OLD AS THE HUMAN RACE
Sacrifice is the highest form of religious worship, the

outward public expression of man’s entire dependence upon
God. And because man’s belief in a Supreme Being is nat-
ural, because it is natural for man to give outward expres-
sion to his inward sentiment and convictions, the offering
of sacrifice is as old as the human race.

On the first pages of human history we find Cain and
Abel offering sacrifice to God

;
one offered the fruits of the

field, the other sacrificed the firstlings of the flock.

Even among pagans you will find this truth carried out.
Plutarch, the Greek historian, writes: “You may find cities
without walls, without literature, without a ruler

;
but you

will never find a city without a deity, without a sacrifice
and without prayer.”

GOD COMMANDS IT
What reason urges, God commanded. When men began

to wander hopelessly from religious truth, God Himself
intervened. He selected the Chosen People to guard His
truth

;
he codified the law of human nature on Mount Sinai

and unmistakably manifested His will.

Among these very first prescriptions of His will was the
command to offer sacrifice. By God’s order, a family, that
of Aaron, was singled out by Moses as the priestly family
with only one work in life, that of prayer and sacrifice.

Minutely and in most precise detail did God instruct the
Jews in this essential act of their religion. Individually,
as well as socially, the principal acts of religion were prayer
and sacrifice — not preaching. Some sacrifices were des-
tined to the adoration and honor of God; others to thank
Him; still others to plead for His graces and blessings;
others, finally, were sacrifices for sin.

But though their sacrifices embraced almost all their
possessions in one form or another, yet they all clustered
around one which was the outstanding sacrifice of the Old
Law— that of the Paschal Lamb. It was both a memory
and a prophecy; a memory of the deliverance of the Jews



10 WHAT IS THE MASS?

from the captivity in Egypt, and a prophecy of the delivery
of the whole world from the captivity of sin under the
justice of God by the redemptive sacrifice of the True
Paschal Lamb, Christ on Calvary.

THE PERFECT SACRIFICE
Yet what adequate honor and glory can grain and ani-

mals render to God ? How can they be acceptable, save only
in consideration of the spirit of adoration and worship and
love that prompts men to offer them? Still, in themselves
they are not even perfectly symbolic of adoration and grati-
tude; they offer no true satisfaction for sin. In the words
of St. Paul : “It is impossible that sin should be taken away
with the blood of oxen and goats.”

There was an imperative need for an offering, a sacrifice
that could really and in justice offer to God the adoration,
the thanks and above all the reparation for sins that He
deserved. That, of course, meant an infinite gift. Even
human life was insufficient, because it involved no infinite
honor or reparation.

That is why the Word was made flesh, uniting Himself
to us in order to offer the only worthy sacrifice to His
Father. He did this not merely as our representative, but
as a part of us, as our head. He paid the price of our sins,
not as a friend will pay the fine imposed upon his friend in
court, but as a hand will pay the fine for the whole body.
He suffered, not as a friend suffers in sympathy, but as our
head suffers the pain of a headache for the overindulgence
of the rest of the body.

On Calvary we have the only sacrifice that can fulfill
completely the office of sacrifice. The altar of sacrifice is
the cross, raised on an elevation, midway between God and
us. Voluntarily Christ mounts this altar. He is the Victim
which is offered. Forever finished are the incomplete vic-
tims — sheep, scapegoats, lambs — and instead, His beau-
tiful, holy, sinless body is broken and presented to His
Father in our name. He, too, is the priest who offers. Of
His own free will He makes this sacrifice. He does not bend
His neck to a sword or hang limp from a rope. He stands
erect, with head high against the altar, retaining full use



WHAT IS THE MASS? 11

of His powers to the very end, commanding the situation,
speaking now to God and now to man. He could have
escaped as He did before, by miraculous flight through dense
crowds, by the majesty of His divinity in the garden. But
no! This is the hour of sacrifice for which He has waited
so long. He will not retreat.

On the road down to Jerusalem from Bethany, knowing
that they were waiting for Him, He had said: “I have a
baptism wherewith I am to be baptised and how am I
straitened, torn apart with eagerness, until it be accom-
plished.” Calmly, as a priest at the altar, He now hangs on
the cross and offers Himself in throes of love to His Father
— freely, joyously.

Thus, by the sacrifice of the cross, the greatest gift was
offered to God : the life and death of Christ, the God-Man.
You and I, guilty of sin, die in the person of Christ. But He
alone is crucified, the rest of us are free. God’s love for us
Is proved, and the dawn of hope breaks once more upon
the race of men. Life is worth living again

;
God is in our

midst again, though dead on the cross.

Men are born into the world to live. With Christ it was
just the reverse: He was born into the world to die. Death
was not the collapse but the crown of His life and work,
for He came to give His life for a redemption for many.
When He had died, He had just begun.

Since His death was the supreme moment for which He
had lived, He wanted to have it remembered before all
others. He did not ask that men should write down His
words in a Scripture. He did not ask that His kindness to
the poor, the lame and the blind should be recorded in
history. But He did ask that men would remember His
death. For God’s death for man was something too beau-
tiful, too holy ever to be forgotten. In order that its memory
might not be any haphazard narrative on the part of men,
Christ Himself instituted the precise way it should be
recalled. Man has instituted memorial days to recall the
death and sacrifice of soldiers, but Christ instituted His
own memorial to recall His death on the cross. This He did
at the Last Supper. After He had said, “This is my body



12 WHAT IS THE MASS?

which shall be delivered for you. This is my blood of the
New Testament which shall be shed for many unto the
remission of sins,” He added, “Do this for a commemoration

That commemoration, that remembrance of His death is
the Mass.

One of the blessings of our modern life is specialized
service. Men and women specially trained and skilled stand
ready to execute almost any human task in a far more
perfect manner than we ourselves could do it. We have
accountants to balance our books and keep our business
orderly; secretaries to write our letters and arrange the
trivialities of our life; managers to conduct our business;
hostesses to conduct our parties; lawyers to handle our
legal affairs; tailors and dressmakers to clothe our bodies;
cooks to prepare our foods; laundries to do our linens;
dentists to retain our chewing-power; detective agencies
to recover our losses.

The list is almost inexhaustible. It covers practically
every department of life. And the striking advantage of
the system is that these individuals are qualified by nature
and by education to do the job far better than we ourselves
could do it.

Now, would it not be wonderful if we had someone
especially educated, trained and skilled by experience as
well as endowed by nature to pray perfectly for us? Would
that not be a source of incalculable ease and peace and

THE PERFECT PRAYER

THEY CAN DO BETTER



WHAT IS THE MASS? 13

comfort to our often troubled minds and hearts ? That such
is the desire of most good Catholics is evidenced by the fact
that they will ask others whom they esteem more holy than
they — saintly children, holy nuns, priests — to pray for
them. What is behind that request if not a conviction that
God must have equipped some, both by nature and by grace
and experience, to pray better than they do? This desire
can reach a point where people will say, “Oh, if only I had
a God to pray to God for me, I should be certain that my
prayer would be worthy, certainly deserving of an answer.”

IN HOLY SCRIPTURE
We have just that —A GOD TO PRAY FOR US — TO

PRAY IN OUR STEAD.

Our Divine Saviour has assured us of this comforting
supernatural service. “Hitherto you have not asked the
Father anything in My name. Amen, amen, I say to you,
if you ask the Father anything in My name, Pie will give it
to you.” (Jno. 16/23)

You wonder sometimes why your prayers are not heard
and answered, why you do not receive the graces and gifts
you plead for. Perhaps Christ is speaking the answer to
your wonder today. Perhaps even after all these years and
centuries, you have not yet understood the meaning of His
words. Perhaps He still must warn you as He did the dull
Apostles on the night of His last supper: “Hitherto you
have not asked the Father anything in My name.” Perhaps
you have asked only in your own name — a name that has
no power — no sweetness — a name that is perhaps none
too pleasing to God because of your sins, your infidelities
and disloyalties to Him and His love

; a name that may have
been written too often on the list of Christ’s enemies.

Now, both by His Incarnation, which is the union of the
divine and human nature, as well as by His personal ap-
pointment by His heavenly Father, Christ is our petitioner,
our mediator with the heavenly Prather. To impress the
realization of His mighty love for His Son upon our poor
dull minds, the heavenly Father spoke to mankind not just
once, but several times.



14 WHAT IS THE MASS?

At the baptism of Christ in the Jordan, the heavens
opened and the voice of the Father was heard ringing down
through the skies : “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am
well pleased.” Again when our Lord was transfigured on
Mt. Thabor, there was a cloud overshadowing Him and a
voice came out of the cloud saying: “This is My beloved
Son, hear ye Him.”

WORDS OF OUR LORD

How careful and desirous Christ Himself is to remind
us of this power of His with His Father and of this office
that He has undertaken : to pray for us, to stand before His
Father and plead our cause for us. Recall for a moment one
of the most moving and touching hours in His life. He
stands before the tomb of His dead friend, Lazarus. Mary
and Martha are there, and the Apostles, disappointed that
Christ did not save Lazarus from the pain of dying. With
tears in His own eyes, Christ groaned in deep prayer. They,
therefore, took the stone away and Jesus lifting up His
eyes said : “Father, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast heard
Me. And I know that Thou hearest Me always, but because
of the people that stand about I have said it that they may
believe that Thou hast sent Me.” And when He had said
these things, after He had prayed to His heavenly Father,
He cried with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come forth!” And
presently he that had been dead came forth, bound hands
and feet with winding bands ; and his face bound about with
a napkin. Jesus said to them : “Loose him and let him go.”
(Jno. 11/41)

Why did Jesus do this so publicly? As He Himself said,
that we may know that the Father sent Him expressly to
pray in our place, to offer our prayers to His Father. That
is His office — an office called in theology, that of Mediator
between God and man: He Who stands between God and
man to offer our prayers to the Father for us.

Thus not only does His divine nature make His prayer
irresistible, but by His very position, by His appointment
from His Father, by His profession, He is the Pray-er for
mankind. As lawyers are appointed by the State to plead



WHAT IS THE MASS? 15

the cause of human beings before a judge, so Christ has
been officially appointed by God the Father to plead our
cause before Him as our advocate.

Listen to St. Paul insisting upon this truth : “For there
is one God and one Mediator of God and man, the man
Jesus Christ.” (I Tim. 2/5) As man He is one of us and
we can claim Him as our own. As God, His Father cannot
refuse Him His requests, “Who gave Himself a redemption
for all.” In fulfillment of this office, Christ Himself tells
us: “No one cometh to the Father but by Me. I am the
Way, the Truth and the Life.” (Jno. 14/6) No plea, no
petition, no prayer is deserving of respect and attention
save it come to the Father with and through Christ Him-
self the man of prayer for us.

AT THE LAST SUPPER

Christ reached the height of His praying for us when
He first offered the perfect prayer for us and in our stead.
That prayer was begun with His lips at the Last Supper
and ended with His body broken and pierced at the ninth
hour on Good Friday. In that prayer He glorified His
Father.

From His birth to His death Christ burned with zeal
for the divine glory. And in His great prayer He prayed

:

“Father, glorify Thy Son. I have glorified Thee on earth.”
His great prayer also contained gratitude. This was His
intention and desire at the Last Supper when He gave
thanks. Then, only after He had given His Father glory
and thanks, does Christ turn to the prayer of petition. “I
pray for them (the Apostles). Holy Father, keep them
from evil.”

But all this was not the entirety of Christ’s perfect
prayer for us. Something more than words is needed to
convince men of your sincerity. Something more is asked
and demanded by God. “Not every one that saith Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” He was the
one to carry out His own principles.



16 WHAT IS THE MASS?

Adoration means acknowledging God’s sovereign good-
ness, our utter dependence upon Him, that all we have and
are belong by first right to Him. How better tell that truth
in the language of action than by laying down all, even
life at His feet? That is what Christ did on the cross for us.

We owe God thanks for the boundless bounty He has
showered upon us. How better tell Him our thanks than
by offering up all we have as a return gift? That is what
Christ did on the cross.

If our hearts feel a vast need for pardon, for grace and
mercy and divine help and protection, how could Christ
better obtain these for us than by presenting to God an even
greater gift than He asks — His own Divine Self : the last
breath of His lips, the last beat of His heart, the last drop
of blood, a last groan?

We know that the last moment of any life is always the
most precious

;
that of Christ is infinitely dear to His divine

Father. Each drop of blood, a ruby of infinite value. Thus
did Christ pray for us. Thus did He round out that vocal
prayer of the Last Supper with the offering of His life on
Calvary. He gave a God to God in our name. In that act
of Christ’s sacrifice all our debts and obligations were met
and equalized. Christ backs His prayers for us with sacri-
fice. He energizes, electrifies it with the spark of sacrifice.
No more perfect prayer could ever be conceived, not to
speak of being offered by mortal man. Here is God praying
a perfect prayer to God.

IN HIS NAME

Through none other than this prayer of Christ does the
Church ever pray. Not in herself, not in the grandeurs and
heroism of Our Blessed Lady, not in the superhuman merits
of the martyrs, or of the confessors, not even in the accumu-
lated sanctity of all the saints in the age-old history of the

Church, does she presume to trust. Only in and through
One does she dare to oifer all her prayers to the divine
Father : in the name of Him Who is always heard for His
reverence; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord.



WHAT IS THE MASS? 17

Every sacrament she administers, every sacramental she
approves, every prayer she utters, every Mass she cele-
brates, always, always: IN THE NAME OF CHRIST. He
it is Who prays for and in her, as she cries out in the
highest point of the sacrifice of the Mass: “Through Him
and with Him and in Him be all honor and glory to Thee
Almighty Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.” Here is
the example of the prayer of the Spouse of Christ, yes, of
His Mystical Body — not alone, not relying on its own
merits, but only on Him and in His name.

How drastically, dismally, pathetically different from this
perfect prayer are our poor attempts at prayer ! What have
we that could possibly recommend us to the love and mercy
and bounty of God? Nothing! We have only our sins and
the debts we owe for them. Can God look upon us and cry
out : “This is My beloved child in whom I am well pleased” ?

How often in our prayers do we think of the adoration,
the thanksgiving we ought to pay God before we are so
brazen as to ask for new mercies and favors? What have
we done with His past blessings of body, of health, of goods,
of friends, of His graces, that would entitle us to more? Too
often we have used them in defiance of His will and His
glory. With what sacrifices have we backed and strength-
ened our prayers? And even though sacrifices have given
backbone to our prayers, what is the worth in the eyes of
God of our puny gifts? We do not say, if we are humble,
but if we are just decently honest, we shall admit that all
our prayers and sacrifices have no value save when they are
united to and become one with the prayers and sacrifice of
Christ, the Man of the perfect prayer, our Mediator with
the heavenly Father.

WE ARE NOT ALONE
How can we ever pray alone, poor undone children of

sin? Can we ever be capable of fulfilling our duties to God,
alone? No! We have become so helpless through sin, orig-
inal and actual, that even with the best of will and the
greatest exertion it would be impossible of our own strength
to regain the friendship of God. Our adoration will never



18 WHAT IS THE MASS?

correspond to the infinite majesty of God. Our gratitude
can never measure up to the benefits we have received. Our
reparation and penance could never repair the insult and
the contempt our sins have offered to a Father of infinite
goodness and love.

And our prayer — Lord save the word — though our poor
distracted prayer could of itself pass beyond the searching
eyes of the angels and reach the throne of God, it could
never merit to be heard. What an abyss there stretches
between the all-holy, eternal God and us poor sinners! In
what a bad way we would find ourselves, had not Christ
our mediator reached His hand across that abyss and Him-
self undertaken to pray for us, if only we would pray with
Him ! Pray with Him in His most perfect prayer — in the
Mass. The Mass is the prayer and the sacrifice of Christ
repeated daily for us. We need but to join in, unite heart
and hand with the heart and hand of Christ. Then our
prayer, like His, becomes perfect.

Of course, He will not force Himself upon us. We must
join freely with Him in His prayer, in the Mass. I must
place myself with Him, hold His hand, sink my heart in
His, cling to Him and climb the mountain of prayer, the
altar with Him, if I would offer the perfect prayer. With
Him, as He bows low at the foot of the altar in the opening
prayers of the Mass, for He is the high-priest clothed in
the sacred vestments

;
with Him, we bow low in adoration,

confessing our unworthiness and God’s grandeur and maj-
esty. In harmony of voice with Him we sing the song of
praise and thanksgiving that the angels taught us in the
Gloria of the Mass: “Glory to God in the highest and on
earth peace to men of good will. We adore Thee, we thank
Thee, we glorify Thee.” With Jesus, our leader in prayer,
we move on to the pleading orations of the Mass, with out-
stretched arms, begging, in the name and person of Jesus,
for pardon and for all the graces and mercies we need, for
all the blessings and bounties for which we hunger in body
as well as in soul. For this first part of the Mass has for its
purpose and goal to dispose us for the great action that is
to follow, an action that is ours as well as Christ’s.



WHAT IS THE MASS? 19

What a joy, what an honor to have Christ as our daily
servant in prayer, ever ready to execute that office of
praying for us! Yet what a responsibility for us if we
neglect Him, refuse to pray with Him and fail in this first
and most important duty of our entire life. He stands in
our place at the altar of prayer. We had better stand with
Him ! He stretches out His hands and arms in supplication
for us. We had better stretch ours out with Him! His
voice cries out for us. Our voice had better join in harmony
with His! His heart beats for us. Ours had better beat
for and in His! For with Him and in Him and through
Him alone may we offer the perfect prayer, the prayer that
pierces the heavens and conquers the heart of our God,
bringing down upon us the shower of His mercy, His love
and His grace.

THE MASS IS MINE
Maybe you recall the Negro spiritual, Were you there

when they crucified my Lord ? Were you there when they
nailed him to a tree ? This is surely a good question. For
the redemption of mankind was brought about by an act
of Christ. That act was His sacrifice, His death on the
cross. He performed this act alone and only once, on Good
Friday afternoon, in April of the year 33.

At three o’clock on that Good Day, all the world should
have dropped to its knees and cried out: “We adore Thee,
0 Christ, and we praise Thee, because by Thy holy cross
Thou hast redeemed the world.”



20 WHAT IS THE MASS?

APPLICATION OF MERITS

The far more important question for us who missed that
death, who did not witness that act of sacrifice, is : “How
can Calvary with its redeeming power mean redemption
to us? How can the body which was broken, and the blood
which was shed in A. D. 33 be of any value and profit to
us in A. D. 1956 ?” And the all-important, though all-easy
answer is — through the Mass!

For the Mass is not only a memorial of the heroic death
of Christ

;
it is not only the unbloody representation of that

divine sacrifice; it is also and supremely the application to
us now of the merits that were gained then.

However, if the Mass is to be a benefit to us, if the merits
and fruits of Calvary are to be applied to us, we must have
some part in the Mass.

This fact stands out clearly in human organizations ; only
those who actually contribute to an enterprise can actually
draw dividends or benefits from the organization. If I want
a share in the profits of the First National Bank, I must
invest in it. If I want dividends from General Motors, I
must buy stocks in that corporation.

If I want to profit from the teaching of a university, I
must apply my energy to study. If I want to build up my
muscles on the field or on the court I must join the team
and play the game.

In other words, If I want to take out, I must first put
in, and the amount that I draw out is measured by the
degree of my cooperation with the activities of the organi-
zation. Inactive members, dead members or dead partners
are soon struck from the books. They fail to gather bene-
fits because they fail to participate in the work which alone
can produce these benefits.

PARTNERSHIP OF PRAYER
Now the Mass is a corporation, a partnership of perfect

prayer. For the Mass is not only the sacrifice of the physical
Christ in an unbloody manner, but it is also the sacrifice
of the whole Christ, that is, head and members. Let us try



WHAT IS THE MASS? 21

to understand this tremendous mystery ; for it is a mystery
in which Christ and we, His Church, are linked to do glory
to God in the highest — to bring salvation to us the lowest.
The Mass does not belong exclusively to Christ alone, for He
gave it to His Church. It is therefore the sacrifice not only
of the Vine — but of the Vine and the branches.
On the cross Christ offered to the Father in death the

human nature He had taken from Mary. As Priest He
offered that human nature in reparation for the sins of
men. Hence that human nature can never suffer, can never
die again. For after His ascension, that nature entered
into its reward beyond nails and spear and blood. His office
as Priest and Sacrificer can continue only if He takes other
human natures to Himself.

And that is just what Christ has done.

As head of the Church, He has called others to Himself.
By baptism He has given them the right to worship God
with Him. By priestly ordination He has specially appointed
some as priests to consecrate, to sacrifice in His Name: to
do what He had done at the Last Supper.
“As a great patriot in time of a national crisis seeks not

only to offer his own life for the sake of his country, but
also strives to rally others to himself, that through their
corporate unselfishness the whole nation might be preserved,
so He, the glorified Christ in Heaven, seeks the enlistment
of you and me and all of us, under His headship, that we
may offer ourselves with His offering on the cross to win
triumph of other Calvaries, even as He!”

THE MYSTICAL BODY
If this doctrine seems strange and novel it is because we

have forgotten what it means to be a Christian and a
Catholic; forgotten that the glorified Christ in heaven has
incorporated unto Himself a Mystical Body which is the
Church, a body which we constitute by being its members.

Our Divine Saviour Himself revealed this beautiful one-
ness of ourselves with Him as He left the supper room.
Walking with His apostles toward the Garden of Olives, He
must have passed the luscious vineyards along the way.



22 WHAT IS THE MASS?

Pointing out the vines and the clinging branches, strong,
sturdy, He said to them: “Abide in Me and I in you. As
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the
vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the
vine and you are the branches

;
he that abideth in Me and

I in Him, the same beareth much fruit
;
for without Me you

can do nothing.” (Jno. 15/4)

Christ is the vine; we are the branches. The vine and
the branches form one plant, sharing the same life, working
together to produce the fruit. As the branches depend for
their life upon the vine, so we, the member-branches of
Christ, live in Him, live with His divine life of grace, become
united to Him and become one with Him.

Whatever belongs to the vine belongs also to the branches.
As the vine and branches live one life through the vital
stream of sap so do we live one life with Christ through
the vital stream of sanctifying grace.

St. Paul uses the expressive image of the body to impress
upon us our close union with Christ : “Christ is the Head

;

we, the Church, are the members of His Body.”

We know that our own bodies are made up of millions
of cells. All these cells live the same life as the body and
are fed on the same food. They are one in and with the
body. Now Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, is made
up of millions of cells: all those beings who are destined
to live His divine life of grace. We, then, “being many, are
one body in Christ.” (Rom. 12/5)

Now this sublime revelation about Christ and ourselves
holds especially true in the Mass, for there above all we are
one with Christ in His Mystical Body. Think what a gran-
deur this truth brings to us. Christ is with us in all we do
and with us particularly in prayer — in the perfect prayer
of the Mass. The Divine Father seeing us at Mass, sees
not mere human beings but He sees His only Son, He sees
Christ. And we are with Him, especially when He ascends
the altar in the twentieth century, to offer the sacrifice of
the Mass. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we are in
the Mass. We have a part in this partnership of prayer.



WHAT IS THE MASS? 23

CHRIST DOES NOT ACT ALONE

In a real, though secondary sense, then, the faithful offer
the sacrifice of the Mass because they are one with Christ.
Christ acts as first Priest, as Head. Then the ordained
priest on earth is the official, visible minister of Christ and
of the Church, while the faithful, through baptism which
enrolls them in Christ’s priesthood, co-offer with the priest
and with Christ. Hence in the Mass, Christ does not act
alone. We act and offer with Him in virtue of our oneness
with Him in the Mystical Body.

However, not every individual member of the Church has
the same part in the holy sacrifice. Nor is the share in the
benefits or fruits equal for all members. Some receive
more, others less. Some contribute more directly and proxi-
mately in the offering. Others contribute more remotely.

The priest naturally holds the first place as offerer be-
cause of the dignity of his office. He was chosen by God as
Aaron was to be the official, visible spokesman for God and
for His people. And even though his private character or
personal merit is unworthy in the eyes of men, still as priest
at the altar he wears the official robes, the official dignity
of Jesus Christ, the High Priest. And even though his
prayers and actions at the altar avail him nothing, if he is
grievously unworthy, still through his hands, unworthy and
unclean though they be, the Heavenly Father applies to
those who are worthy, the benefits and fruits of His Son.

OTHER OFFERERS

Next in the order of offerers of the sacrifice are those
who by providing the elements of the sacrifice, and by mak-
ing provision for the support of the clergy, enable them to
offer the sacrifice.

Formerly the faithful supplied the priests with the ele-
ments actually needed for their human support and for the
divine worship. They brought bread and wine and other
gifts. They furnished the food and clothing and shelter
for their priests, since the law forbade the clergy to support



24 WHAT IS THE MASS?

themselves by trade or commerce. Gradually, however, as
living conditions changed, the offerings of the faithful were
given in the form of money.

Wherefore, now, all who contribute in money or in kind
to the support and upkeep of the church, to the vestments
and sacred vessels and to all those things needed for the
sacrifice have a special active part as offerers in all the
Masses offered by their priest. However, with regard to
any particular Mass, the foremost place among all who take
part with the priest in the sacrifice, is held by the one who
most directly provides for the particular celebration by
giving the stipend fixed by law. For it is the stipend for any
particular Mass that takes the place of the gifts that were
formerly made.

Earliest Church history verifies the fact that those who
made these gifts or gave their equivalent in money, were
to be considered as having a real part in the offering of the
sacrifice — as being truly co-offerers with the priest.

SACRIFICE OF THE WHOLE CHURCH

Finally, as co-offerers, though in a lesser degree, are all
those who are present, who are attending the Mass: the
ministers at the altar, the servers in the sanctuary, the
chanters in the choir and the faithful in the pews. Even
those who are absent for a good reason, if they are present
in heart and mind, share as co-offerers with the priest. For
the Mass is the offering, the sacrifice of the whole Church,
of the physical Christ and His mystical members.

In every sacrifice of the Mass, then, no matter whether
the officiating priest be with or without a congregation, no
matter whether he celebrates in the desert-wastes of Africa
or among the multitudes that fill St. Peter’s in Rome, it is
we, the Church, as one body with Christ, who offer the
sacrifice. The Mass is ours. It is my Mass, for it is my
offering and yours with Christ.

Never attend Mass, then, as though it were someone
else’s prayer and sacrifice. Never attend Mass as you would
a play in which others are the actors and you only a passive



WHAT IS THE MASS? 25

spectator. In this divine drama of prayer and sacrifice you
are an actor. You play a role second only to that of Christ,
— no, not second, but a role that is one with His.
Be reminded of this startling truth when the priest at

the altar turns to you and says with open arms of welcome
in the person of Christ, open arms that embrace each of
us into the oneness of Christ’s Mystical Body: “The Lord
is with you.”

Yes, Christ is with you and you are with Him; and it is
your sacrifice. Think of this when you hear the priest again
in the person of Christ call out to you: ‘.‘Let us pray!”
For you and Christ must pray together just as you are one
body together. The priest is not one man at the altar, he
is Christ and Christ is telling and begging you to realize
your part in this divine sacrifice. The Mass is our prayer
and our sacrifice as well as Christ’s.



26 WHAT IS THE MASS?

THE MASS IS THE LIFE
OF THE WORLD

The Mass is mine. It is mine because in it I help Christ
pray and sacrifice. But it is mine also because through the
Mass, the fruits and benefits of Calvary can and do become
mine.

The Mass is from me to God but also for me from God.

THE FRUITS OF THE MASS
In human societies we know that the more we contribute

the more we draw out of the society. This is true no matter
whether the society be educational or social or financial.
Our profits or dividends are proportionate to our invest-
ment. Likewise is this the case in the supernatural organi-
zation of prayer, the Mass. The more actively and inti-
mately we participate in the action of the sacrifice, the more
fruit we derive from it.

And the first fruits of the Mass are intended for Our
Father Who is in heaven. Picture the Mass as a mighty
tree lifting its head high above the clouds of the earth, rising
even into heaven before the throne of God Himself. From
that divine tree God plucks the infinite fruits of adoration,
praise, thanksgiving and propitiation. These first fruits,
though they are from us, have actually an infinite value, for
the infinitely perfect God does not spoil their perfection as
they issue from the infinite heart of Christ, our divine head.

GRACES AND BLESSINGS
Other fruits from this infinitely laden tree fall to earth

upon our souls. These are the graces and blessings that we
need for ourselves. These are the fruits of petition for our
body and soul

; the fruits of pardon for sin and its punish-
ment

;
the fruits of special actual graces and the increase of

sanctifying grace. The pity is that though these fruits could
be infinite by virtue of the infinite power of the Mass, never-



WHAT IS THE MASS? 27

theless because of our lack of devotion or because we bring
only a thimble-soul to the altar, we carry away from the
tree of the Mass only a very limited supply of fruit.

Perhaps an illustration will make this truth more clear.
The warmth and light of the sun are almost boundless.
They can benefit every one in the world — those in homes,
in factories or those even in the shade of trees. But the
benefits for all these come in a weakened and filtered form.
Whereas those actually in the sunlight receive more of its
warmth than those in homes or in coal mines. And still
others, by the use of a magnifying glass or some focusing
apparatus, can concentrate the intensity of its rays upon
them.

Now apply this illustration to the Mass and its fruits.
As food and drink benefit the entire physical body, so all
the faithful share in the general fruit of the Mass, for it is
the sacrifice of the entire Mystical Body. All the faithful
— all are included — the pope, the bishops, the priests and
the laity. All are included, even though they are not think-
ing of the Mass — though they are tepid and full of sin
or even externally cut off from the body of Christ by inter-
dict or excommunication. None of these are excluded from
the general fruits of the Mass for the Church prays for all.

Those at the most distant outposts of civilization, for
example, Admiral Byrd at the South Pole, or the lone
missionary in Africa, are not forgotten. Even down into
the depths of purgatory flows that cooling stream of com-
fort from the Mass. Naturally, however, the closer the
union with the Mass by fervor and devotion, and the more
intimate the union of works and sufferings with this great
sacrifice, the larger is the share of the general fruits.

SPECIAL FRUITS
Next in dignity and value are the special fruits. These

are applied to those who are physically and mentally present
at the Mass so that they are actual co-offerers with the
priest at the altar. They contribute body, heart and mind
and thus exercise as far as they can their office of royal
priesthood. And in return they are remembered bountifully
by the Giver of all good gifts. But these special fruits also



28 WHAT IS THE MASS?

are proportionate to the degree of the intention of heart and
attention of mind. Faith, love and, if possible, an intelligent
and not merely a speedy, mechanical use of the missal, is
their best contribution to the sacrifice and their surest
guarantee of a generous return on their investment.

Finally, the most special fruits are those which the priest,
in place of Christ by virtue of his ordination, can direct to
whomsoever he wills. Ordinarily that includes the person
or persons responsible for having the Mass offered, that is,
those who give the Mass stipend.

On Sundays and Holy Days and certain other feast days
of the year, the pastor of a parish is bound by law to apply
these most special fruits to his people, namely, to those
who support the Church and keep him alive to continue his
work. He is forbidden to accept any other stipend or inten-
tion for that Mass. He must reserve its fruits as a weekly
thanksgiving to his faithful supporters in the work of
Christ.

Thus, the Mass is really our sacrifice: ours, not by a
fiction of language, but by a divine order and plan. Ours
it is by its very nature as the sacrifice of the Mystical Body
which we compose and by which we are one with Christ the
Principal Offerer. Ours, too, it is by reason of the fruits
which are our own in the degree that we trouble ourselves
to pluck them.

The Mass then is our perfect prayer, spoken not merely
with the lying language of the lips but with the unquestion-
able accents of sacrifice, offered up by a God to a God in
our name and for our benefit.

ANSWER TO A MYSTERY
In this vital truth we have the answer to the deep mystery

of God’s mercy to a sinning, treacherous human race. Why
has God not long since destroyed a world in open rebellion
against Him? How can infinite power tolerate the insults,
the denials, the anarchy of a world that subsists only be-
cause He supports it ? Why is He patient with a race of men
who hourly hurl open defiance into His face, who blaspheme



WHAT IS THE MASS? 29

Him, deny Him, make profane jests about Him, make Him
the butt of their vile humor and call Him a hindrance to
scientific progress ? Why does He not lay low a race of men
who seem to have nothing but contempt for His law and
His will, who flaunt the putrid parade of their murders,
their lusts, their hatreds, their revenge before His very
face? How can He endure a race of men whose governments
use His name as a camouflage, a mask for their national
sins of injustice, uncharitableness, hatred and bloodshed?
Why does He not wipe out this world and these men and
be done with their insults?

Why? Because that same human race has membership
in a Mystical Body which daily and hourly offers to God
a prayer and a sacrifice that gave Him a glory, an honor, a
praise, an adoration and a reparation so vast and so grand
that like a mighty mid-day sun it pierces and disperses all
the high-banked clouds of human evil and sin; because in
one Mass offered by the Mystical Body, the honor, the love,
the adoration given to God, is far greater than the insults,
the hatred, the irreverence of all the sins of all men from
the beginning of time to its last instant

; because the prayer
and the sacrifice of Christ is the prayer and the sacrifice
of that same sinning race of men, who are destined to be,
and many of whom are, members of the Mystical Body of
Christ, that race which together with Christ is both priest
and victim in the Mass. We live on, despite our deep un-
worthiness, because at our prayer and at our sacrifice, the
Father sees His Beloved Sons in Whom He is well pleased.



30 WHAT IS THE MASS?

THE MASS —MY OFFERING
That the Mass is our sacrifice, the sacrifice of the mystical

body of Christ, is expressed throughout the whole ritual and
words of the Mass, but especially in the part we would like
to consider now — that part called the first principal part
— the offertory.

Both by action and by word the Church strives to remind
us of our part in the sacrifice when the priest says the
prayer at the mingling of the few drops of water in the
chalice of wine at the offertory.

As the priest pours a few drops of water into the wine,
he says this prayer which you may follow if you are using a
missal: “0 God, Who in creating human nature didst
wonderfully dignify it, and hast still more wonderfully
renewed it, grant that by the mystery of this water and
wine we may be made partakers of His divinity Who has
vouchsafed to become partaker of our humanity, Jesus
Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with
Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost/ :*

WHAT THIS PRAYER MEANS FOR US
This prayer reminds us that God had made Adam a

masterpiece, the paragon of His creation. He had endowed
him with wonderful gifts, which Adam rejected. Then God,
by the Incarnation, and by the death of Christ, still more
wonderfully renewed, recreated, and caused man, in the
words of our Lord to Nicodemus, to be reborn by water and
the Holy Ghost. As a result man has now become a par-
taker of the divinity of Christ, even as Christ became by
His birth, a partaker of our humanity.

To represent this truth more vividly to our minds, the
water becomes a symbol of us, human beings, while the
wine is an emblem of our divine head, Christ. The water
alone is not offered to God because without Christ, we, the
water, would have no value. Nor is the wine alone without



WHAT IS THE MASS? 31

the water offered to the heavenly Father, because unless
we are in the Mass it cannot benefit us. Therefore the water
and the wine are mingled to show us that we, in and with
Christ, are the sacrifice that is being offered to the Divine
Father.

Think of what that ought to mean for our daily lives!
What a life of goodness and sinlessness we ought to lead
so as to make our actions worthy offerings to God! Then
we shall be able to say of all that we do: here is another
drop of myself poured into the chalice of all Masses. Living
thus as water mingled with Christ, we shall become worthy
members of Christ’s mystical body, we shall grow into an
extension of Christ in the world, and shall be able to say:
“I live now, not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

In the ancient days of Christianity before churches were
as immense as they are now and before Christians were
numbered in the thousands, the faithful assisting at Mass
expressed this act of offering themselves with Christ, not
merely in words, but even in actions. In our Masses today
there is only one procession of the faithful to the altar to
take part in the Mass — and too many do not take part
even in that — at the Communion. Then the faithful come
to the altar to receive, to partake of the fruits of the sacri-
fice of the Mass. In the olden days there were two pro-
cessions, one, to the altar to give, the other, to receive at
Communion time.

The faithful of those days understood well that they
partook both in the offering and in the receiving of the
Eucharist. They approached the altar each one in person
and presented their part in the sacrifice; some gave bread
and wine, flour or fruits. Others offered gold or other
precious gifts according to their means. But their gift even
then was a sign of the inner spiritual gift of themselves
which each one made to God. By it they showed their readi-
ness to sacrifice whatever God asked of them in their lives.
Some of these gifts were used for the consecration — the
bread and the wine. Others were kept for the adornment
of the church, the altar, the sacred vessels, and what re-
mained was set aside for the poor.



32 WHAT IS THE MASS?

OUR OFFERING IN THE MASS
In our days when this procession is quite impossible and

these assorted gifts are impractical, we, the faithful, no
longer offer bread and wine and other material gifts. But
the disposition, the readiness to sacrifice and to give our-
selves to God out of love is still possible, yes, still necessary
for each one of us.

The present practice of taking up the collection and
receiving the offerings of the faithful at this part of the
Mass is not just a matter of convenience, not held at this
time merely because the faithful are seated and have nothing
else to do. This is a continuation of the ancient offertory
procession. This act should be performed in the same spirit
in which the early Christians presented their gifts as part
of the sacrifice and as symbols of themselves. It is a pity
that the materialism of our age, the immediate needs of
building and repairing churches and schools, in fact all
such things as brick and mortar and coal should loom so
large in our minds as to obscure the true meaning of the
offertory. The visible gifts go to the same uses as the gifts
of the early Christians, namely the service of God and the
needs of the Church, the mystical body of Christ.

But we have forgotten the deeper meaning, forgotten our
personal offering, whereas that is of more value to God
than all the bricks in the world. He can create bricks and
stones out of nothing, but He cannot force your love to
offer yourselves to Him. You and you alone can do that.
Thus while the dramatic expression of self-offering in a
procession is past, the idea and sentiment of it is preserved
in the offertory prayers and collection.

OFFERING OF OURSELVES

If only we say the prayers of the Mass with the priest,
this thought of self-offering will be brought clearly to our
minds. Lifting our eyes on high to the raised chalice we
shall offer ourselves with Christ. Notice, it is we the priest
says, not I. “We offer Thee the chalice of salvation, that in
the sight of Thy divine majesty, it may ascend with the
savor of sweetness for our salvation and that of the world.”



WHAT IS THE MASS? 33

May we be pleasing to God when offered together with
Christ His Son — pleasing as an odor of sweetness ! Bend-
ing down in humility before God, mindful of the words of
the Psalmist, “A contrite and humble heart, 0 God, Thou
wilt not despise,” we beg that we may be received favorably
by Him, and “May our sacrifice be so offered up in Thy
sight this day that it may be pleasing to Thee, 0 Lord.”
But Christ and His sacrifices are always pleasing to the
Father: “This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well
pleased.” Clearly then these words refer to us, that we by
goodness and sinlessness of life may be acceptable to God.

Raising his eyes on high again, the priest prays to the
Holy Spirit, “Come, 0 Sanctifier, almighty and eternal God,
and bless this sacrifice prepared for Thy holy name.” Again
Christ, the Son of God needs not to be blessed but we do,
and the blessing is said more over us and our offering than
over Christ. Then after the psalm begging God to make
us pure and sinless as well as worthy to take part in His
sacrifice, we summarize our offering in a beautiful prayer
of oblation to the Blessed Trinity.

We have already united ourselves to Christ as head of
the mystical body, and with the priest we have offered Him
first and then ourselves to the Divine Father. Now we unite
ourselves to the whole mystical body, to our Blessed Lady,
to the apostles, to all the saints — for they too are members
of Christ. In no grander way can we honor our Blessed
Lady and the saints than by giving them part again in the
Mass.

Then turning to the people, the priest begs them or rather
commands them to “pray that both my sacrifice and yours
may be acceptable to God the Father almighty.” Notice the
words, “my sacrifice and yours.” The Mass is our sacrifice—-our possession! What a joy to be able to offer to God
a spotless host as our own prayer and sacrifice and to
offer ourselves with Him in one act!
The closing of the offertory is called the secret, from the

Latin word secreta, meaning separated, because it was said
over the gifts that were separated from the others to be
consecrated in the Mass. The thought so prominent in all
the offertory is repeated, namely, that we present our gifts
to the divine Father, and we are also offered with them.



34 WHAT IS THE MASS?

HOW TO OFFER YOURSELF
And what are the gifts we offer — the gifts that we can

place upon the paten and the altar side by side with the
immaculate host that is to become Christ in but a few
moments? During the offertory St. Gertrude was accus-
tomed to place herself upon the paten in spirit, surrendering
to God her body with all its senses, her soul with all its
powers. Let us not neglect in spirit to place our offering on
the paten next to Christ, as a small host near the large host
which is Christ.

Why do you suppose our Lord chose bread and wine out
of all creation to represent His body and blood? First of
all, to represent our unity one with another in His mystical
body. Just as wine is made up of many grapes and bread
of many grains of wheat, so we the individual members of
Christ are made one with Christ in the re-offering of Cal-
vary to the heavenly Father. The second reason was prob-
ably to remind us that our part in the Mass was a sacra-
mental part, that we assist at Mass not as spectators at a
drama, but as cooperators. For just as grapes become wine
only by passing through the wine-press, so too we become
one with Christ only by reproducing in our lives the cross
which He lived in His own life. And finally, because in
offering bread and wine we offer the most substantial
nourishments of life which represent the very substance
of our being.

Therefore we offer first ourselves, our body, our soul,
that there may be nothing in them unworthy of a member
of Christ, nothing that cannot stand side by side with
Christ and be offered to the divine Father

;
and whatever of

evil or sin is in us, that we offer to be destroyed.

Have we not some sorrow that weighs us down ? Let that
be our gift to God, sanctified and made especially pleasing
through the cross of Christ. Must we not work and labor
from early morning till late at night, at home, in factory,
in office or on the street? Let us offer our work and our
good will

;
they are precious gifts. Has God perhaps lavished

joys and prosperity upon us, blessed us abundantly with
health and happiness? With grateful hearts let us bring our
joys, our happiness, our good things and offer them to Him,



WHAT IS THE MASS? 35

that they may not injure us. Has God sent us poverty,
sickness, loneliness? Then with a resigned love let us unite
them with His poverty and pain and loneliness.

Every one of us must often practice self-denial, restraint
of our passions, avoidance of the occasions of sin and evil

;

every one of us knows what St. Paul meant when he said,
“They that are Christ’s have crucified their flesh with its
vices and concupiscences.” Let these too be our gifts in
the offertory. Never come to Mass empty-handed, for God
has given each of us something that we can and should
bring to bind us to our divine Friend and Head — Christ

!

OUR SHARE IN THE SACRIFICE
Do you now see what St. Peter implied when He called

the ordinary faithful a kingly priesthood, implying that they
as well as the specially consecrated priesthood have a share
in offering sacrifice to God ? That is your right, your privi-
lege — to be offered. Then we go from the Mass to resume
the work of our daily lives. Behind us we leave the altar and
the tabernacle housing the sleepless Christ, Who from that
vantage point watches the world and us. The candles go
dead in their sockets. The missal and cards are removed.
The altar is covered reverently by the sacristan. Mass there
has ended.

But the Mass that our lives might and should be is not
ended. Our task of offering sacrifice is not over. We still
have lives of endless sacrifice to lead. Like the priesthood
of Christ, our priesthood never ends. We can make our
lives Masses. We can make not merely a good intention in
our works, we can make our works Masses. With a vast
sweeping intention, as in the morning offering of the Sacred
Heart Apostleship of Prayer, we can unite ourselves with
the Masses as they are offered in endless succession around
the globe.

EVERY ACTION OF THE DAY
Even more personally, we can offer to God with Christ

every least and every greatest action of the day, and we
can offer it with the priest who at that moment celebrates



36 WHAT IS THE MASS?

one of the three hundred and fifty thousand Masses said
throughout the world each day. All that we say and do and
suffer as the hands of the clock swing round, we as offerers,
can present on the altar to God. Our most trivial actions
can become other offertories placed on other patens and
poured into other chalices around the earth.

We do not cease to act as offerers even when we resume
the common places that occupy us at desk, counter, work-
shop, in kitchen, classroom or office, on the playing field,
at the party, or during a play. All may be offered by our-
selves, the members of a priestly head, Christ, to God.

If we really want to make a profitable good intention,
then let us offer ourselves and our works with Christ in
every Mass. There they take on a value that comes from
Christ. And thus we shall see the new dignity and worth
that invests our actions. They carry the morning sacrifice
through the day.

We do not assist at Mass, nor merely go to Mass. We
take part in the Mass. We stand at the altar, hand in hand
and heart in heart with Christ Himself. That is just what
most of us need. It is so hard to work and suffer and carry
on alone, but to have another with us, a strong Friend,
Who offers Himself with us, sacrifices Himself with us, and
lives with us, that is encouraging and heartening. That
makes our offering and life easy and joyful. We have that
with Christ in the Mass!



WHAT IS THE MASS? 37

THE MASS-MY
CONSECRATION

One of the most thrilling, beautiful and heroic scenes
that I have ever been privileged to witness is that of the
consecration of a young lady to Christ — the scene of a
nun’s religious profession. The entire consecration is spread
between two ceremonies

;
between the two is interposed the

period of her novitiate. She enters the chapel for the first
time clothed as a lovely bride, white-robed, veiled, carrying
a gorgeous bouquet in her arms. She comes forth for the
second time a somber nun, clothed in black, her body en-
tirely garmented except for her face. She has almost lost
her identity, even to the extent of changing her name.

Now she is called Sister.

But the sister of whom? The sister of Him Who is called
the First-born of all the brethren, our Brother, Jesus Christ.
The human being has suffered a mystical death; there is
born of that act of consecration a new being, a spouse and
lover of the divine Christ.

This act of consecration of a nun, this transformation
usually takes place during holy Mass. It is a sacrifice within
a sacrifice: a small Calvary erected side by side with the
mystic Calvary of Christ.

WHY IS THIS DONE AT MASS?
This act of consecration and change, this transformation

takes place at Mass because it is through the Mass that
each of us can and must be changed into the likeness of
Christ. Through the Mass we must put on Christ that we
may be able to say: “I live, now not I, but Christ lives in
me.” And this transformation of us into Christ can be
effected only by suffering and by sacrifice.



38 WHAT IS THE MASS?

In the Mass the lifeless forms of bread and wine receive
a new being. They are changed, transubstantiated, conse-
crated so that they become a new and divine substance at
the very moment that the Mass is completed and effected.
For the words of consecration have a double office: they
change the bread and wine into the body and blood of
Christ and by that same act they accomplish the act of
sacrifice.

On the cross Christ willed the separation of His blood
from His body to the very last drop, and because He was
of our flesh, death was the normal result. We can almost
hear Him say as He hangs upon the cross: “Father, this
is My body

;
this is My blood. They are now separated from

one another as a reparation for the separation of humanity
from Thee by sin.” The scourge, the thorns, the nails of
the executioners and the lance were but the tools of this
death and this sacrifice on the cross.

In the Mass, as also at the last supper, that sacrifice of
the cross is repeated and renewed. The last supper, the
cross and the Mass are the same sacrifice, differently offered
and presented to the divine Father. In all three the high
priest, Who assisted at the table of the last supper, upon the
tree of the cross, and now at the altar of the Mass is the
same — Christ. Only here at the Mass, Christ acts and
speaks in the person of the priest: “This is My body.”
In all three the victim offered is the same : it is Jesus Christ
at the table of the last supper under the appearances of
bread and wine; on the cross under the form of a broken,
bleeding victim, and in the Mass under the forms of bread
and wine.

In all three the purposes of the sacrifice are the same:
to honor and glorify God by making Him a worthy gift, a
divine gift; to show man’s gratitude to God by returning
to Him a gift of infinite value for all His gifts; to satisfy
and repair for all men’s sins by a divine victim offered in
man’s place

;
and to plead for grace and blessings for soul

and body.



WHAT IS THE MASS? 39

THE MYSTICAL SACRIFICE

Only the actual manner of the offering and sacrifice
differs at the last supper and the Mass from that of Calvary
and the cross. As on the cross the separation of the blood
of Christ from His sacred body effected the sacrifice that
redeemed the world, so in the Mass the mystical repre-
sentation of this separation of the blood from the body of
Christ effects this sacrifice.

Since Christ has risen from the dead and since His body
is glorified, Christ can die really no more. Death hath no
more dominion over Him. His body and blood upon our
altars are His glorified body and blood now enthroned on
the right hand of His heavenly Father, so that now there
is offered to the Father a mystical representation of the
death of Christ, a reminder to the heavenly Father that
Christ was once on the cross and is still on the altar the
victim once slain for us.

In the Mass the body and the blood are mystically sep-
arated; not indeed, by the scourges, the nails and lance,
but by the consecrating words of the priest. At Christ’s
command the priest performs separate consecrations. Over
the bread he says : This is My body. Then over the chalice
of wine the priest says : This is My blood.

By the separate consecrations, through the mystic lance
and nails of the consecrating words, the body and blood
are symbolically but not actually separated, and the separa-
tion on Calvary is re-presented. By the words and intention
and action by which the bread and wine are changed into
the body and blood of Christ, the sacrifice of the Mass is
accomplished.

OUR PART IN THE SACRIFICE

But is Christ, the Head of the mystical body, the only
one who is consecrated, the only one who is sacrificed on the
altar in the Mass ? Is the Mass His sacrifice and His alone ?
No, indeed! We are inseparably united to Christ by grace



40 WHAT IS THE MASS?

into the unity of His mystical body ; He is the vine and we
are the branches, as members of His mystical body, we must
do whatever the Head does if we are to be worthy members
of the Head. The words of consecration then have a double
significance

;
they refer both to the Head and the members

of the mystical body; to Christ and to us.

At the offertory of the Mass we presented our gifts to
God under the appearances of bread and wine and also
ourselves under the symbols of bread and wine as the
supports of the life of our body. At our baptism we were
changed into members of Christ; we were born again of
water and the Holy Ghost; we began to share in the life
of Christ through sanctifying grace. But Christ did not
endow us with this dignity merely to honor and ennoble us.
He did it in order that we might live and act and work in
and with Him, especially that we might love and suffer and
sacrifice ourselves with Him. He gave us this share in His
own life that we might be able to say now at the moment of
consecration : “Here too is My body ; here too is My blood.”

At the moment of consecration we must have a strong
faith in our glorious dignity as members of Christ. We must
realize that we too, even as the bread and wine, are con-
secrated into the spirit of Christ and changed into His
members.

Consequences of a sacrificial nature follow from our
consecration into Christians. If the words of consecration
apply to us insofar as they reassert our oneness in and with
Christ, they apply to us too insofar as they demand that
we have a part in the sacrifice which those words effect and
accomplish. At the consecration of the Mass our Lord is
saying to you: “You, Mary, you John, and James and Ann
and Teresa, give Me your body and your blood. Give me
your whole self. I can suffer no more. I have filled up the
sufferings of My physical body, but I have not filled up the
sufferings of My mystical body. I can suffer no more. But
now you may and must carry out My injunction: ‘Take up
your cross and follow Me. Fill up those things that are
wanting in My Passion.' ”



WHAT IS THE MASS? 41

THREE WAYS TO SACRIFICE YOURSELF

On the cross our Lord was looking forward to you to
carry on His sacrifice, hoping that you would give yourself
to Him at the moment of consecration. In the consecration
of the Mass that hope of our Lord for you is fulfilled, if only
you will live up to it.

How can you take part in the sacrifice that is implied in
the consecration? By the actual separation of your blood
from your body? Some have been called to take that part
in the Mass — that is the way the martyrs lived the Mass
long ago in Rome. That is also the way today for the
martyrs of Russia and China. That is the way the heroic
saints who mortified their bodies unto the shedding of blood
have taken their part in the Mass.

And there are hundreds of such saints in the world today,
reliving the Mass in their sacrificial lives. If this way is
not for you then you may and must have part in the
consecration-service without ascending the heights of such
a real and heroic Calvary. You can do so in three ways.

SEPARATION FROM SIN

First, you must realize that you cannot preserve this
divine life, this membership in Christ’s mystical body save
at the price of sacrifice. A readiness to sacrifice the sin, the
evil, the vicious passions in you and in the world is the first
way to live in Christ. “They who are Christ’s have crucified
their flesh with its vices and its concupiscences.”

When greed for wealth would make us dishonest, we must
separate that greed from our hearts; when passion for
pleasure would tempt us to impurity and intemperance, we
must separate this passion from our hearts; when bitter-
ness towards others draw us to hatred, we must separate
that bitterness from our souls ; when desire for social posi-
tion and prestige would make us defiant of God’s law, we
must separate our hearts from that desire

;
when the friend-

ship of men is a barrier to the friendship of Christ, we must
divorce ourselves from the affection of men.



42 WHAT IS THE MASS?

We must die to the evil in us and in the world; that is
our first part in the sacrifice of Christ. But it is only the
beginning, not yet the end

;
it brings us only to the foot of

Calvary, not to the peak. It is only our birth, not yet our
adulthood.

CARRYING THE CROSS

Secondly, this divine beginning of Christ in us, this grace

must grow, it must not remain stagnant and sterile; we
must not always remain children in grace but must grow to
adulthood. “If any man will be My disciple, let him take
up his cross daily and follow Me.” Living and growing in
this life of Christ, then, means the carrying of the cross.

Anyone who imagines that it is easy to be a true member
of Christ’s mystical body, a genuine Catholic, has not really
tried to be a real Catholic as yet, has no realization of the
meaning of the word Christian. It is not easy to practice
the charity and the meekness and the consideration of Christ
toward others, even to the sacrifice of self. Ask Father
Damien, martyr of the lepers; ask foreign missionaries,
ask sisters who wear out young lives for Christ in schools,
hospitals, orphanages

;
ask mothers and fathers of families

who see in their children other Christs and in their own
duties those of other Marys and Josephs. Ask those who
seek to live united to Christ their Head in a life of prayer

;

those whom you find at daily Mass and Communion, in their
daily visit to Christ in the Eucharist, who force themselves
to find time for their daily rosary, for their daily stations
during Lent. Ask those who strive to keep the laws of
fasting and abstinence which the Church of Christ lays
down for them. Ask those who set up Christ as the ideal
and model of their actions, who try in their daily lives, in
the little actions of each hour to act as He would act. They
will tell you that being true to those words of consecration
which they pronounce over themselves at the consecration,
“This too is my body, this too is my blood,” demands that
they take up their cross daily and follow Him.



WHAT IS THE MASS? 43

SUFFERING

Finally, living the Mass means never wasting suffering
but always being good stewards of the trials God gives us.
There is hardly anything so tragic in the world as wasted
pain. Think of how much suffering there is in hospitals,
among the poor and the bereaved ! Think how much of that
suffering goes to waste. How many, or rather how few, of
those lonesome, suffering, abandoned, crucified souls are
saying with our Lord at the moment of consecration : “This
is my body, take it.”

And yet that is what we all should be saying at that
second. “Here is my body, take it; here is my blood, take
it. Here is my soul, my will, my energy, my strength, my
property, my wealth — all that I have. It is Thine. Take
it. Consecrate it. Offer it. Offer it with Thyself to the
heavenly Father in order that looking down on the great
sacrifice, He may see only Thee, His beloved Son in Whom
He is well pleased. Change this poor bread of my pain and
sorrow into Thy divine life. Thrill the wine of my wasted
life into the divine Spirit

;
unite my broken heart with Thy

warm heart; turn my cross into a crucifix. Let not my
abandonment, my sorrow, my bereavement go to waste.
As the drop of water is absorbed by the wine at the offertory
of the Mass, let my life be absorbed in Thine.

“As Thy great St. Gertrude used to take her life, her
heart, her body and soul and mind and all, and drop them
into the chalice at the moment of the offertory as a drop of
water and pray Thee to change all into Thyself at the
consecration of the Mass — so do I drop my life and all
into the chalice of Thy Sacred Heart that I may be changed
truly into Thee. Consecrate these trials of my life which
would go unrewarded unless united to Thee. Transubstan-
tiate me, so that like the bread which is now Thy body and
the wine which is now Thy blood, I too may be whollv
Thine.”

“I care not if the appearances remain, if like the bread
and wine after the consecration, I seem to all earthly eyes
the same as before. My station in life, my routine, my work,



44 WHAT IS THE MASS?

my family —- all these are but the external appearances of
my life which remain unchanged. But the substance of my
life, by my love for Thee, by my spirit of sacrifice, by my
union with Thee in the Mass — my soul, my mind, my will,
my heart — transubstantiate them wholly, transform them
entirely into Thy service. Thus finally, when I make the
last act of sacrifice on my bed of death, it may be made in
union with Thee in the Mass. And then the first words that
I shall hear in eternity will be spoken by Thy sweet lips
over me as I lie in Thy eternal embrace : ‘This is My body

;

this is My blood, made one with Me in the sacrifice of the
Mass.’

”

THE MASS-MY BANQUET
There is a double reason why Communion by the faithful

ought to be a part of every sharing in the Mass; a double
motive to impel us never to omit Communion from our Mass
unless, by a state of disgrace, we are unworthy.

The first reason is our need of the strengthening food of
the body and blood of Christ. There is nothing so ridiculous,
so absurd, so pitiful as the hunger strike of a supernatural
kind of so many Catholics. They complain of the exacting
demands of a good Catholic life

;
they murmur against the

severity of the commandments, of the heavy demands of the
laws of the Church. Besides, they are constantly exhausting
themselves in the spiritual combat of life; now it is a sac-
rifice to be made — now a temptation to be battled — now
passions to be mastered. And in this constant struggle, this
battle which never ends as long as life lasts, the will ex-
hausts its energies. We need, therefore, to be constantly



WHAT IS THE MASS? 45

refreshed, re-supplied with supernatural vigor. Have we an
unfailing source of strength and life? Indeed we have : “My
flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed. He that
eateth the flesh of the Son of Man and drinketh His blood
shall not see death forever.” We can hear the injunction of
Christ in our ears : “Each day do you eat this bread of the
strong, because each day you must suffer and struggle
and labor; just as each day you eat the bread of earth
because each day in the labors of life your body is weakened
and worn by the toils of life.”

The second reason for receiving Holy Communion when-
ever we assist at the sacrifice of the Mass, even daily, is
that our assistance at holy Mass is, in a certain sense,
incomplete unless we receive the body and blood of Christ
in Holy Communion.

SACRIFICE AND SACRAMENT

Christ gave us the Mass both as a sacrifice and a sacra-
ment. The sacrifice is a gift in which we offer God adora-
tion, gratitude and reparation. The sacrament is a gift in
which God offers us Himself as the food of our souls. At
Mass we give to God what is His — let us then take from
it what He made ours!

Every time Mass is offered there goes out to us a pleading
invitation from Christ: “Come to the wedding feast!” How
we restrict and limit the graces that Mass brings to us when
we try to take part in the sacrifice without sharing the
banquet which Christ has spread for us! We do not really
take part in the Mass completely at all. We treat Christ,
Who is the Host of this divine party, as we should treat a
host at any party to which we were invited, if we were to
come to the dinner table, unfold our napkin and then refuse
to partake of the food set before us.

How must Christ feel, when we recall that with desire
He desires to eat this feast with us! How must He be
disappointed when He recalls what this banquet has cost



46 WHAT IS THE MASS?

Him in His passion and death; when He remembers how
lovingly He has amassed here the graces of strength and
peace for our tired and dejected souls! The beggar seems
to turn his back on the hand that offers him a meal. The
dying person apparently turns away from the medicine of
life which the divine physician holds out.

Thus Christ is made almost to feel again the desolation
of being abandoned by His friends and left alone on the
Calvary of the altar. How like to Good Friday are so many
Sunday mornings, repeated in thousands of churches —
Good Fridays multiplied a thousand times — as the crowds
file by His cross and barely look up to Him. So few ask Him
why He thirsts; so few partake of the gift of His body
which was broken and His blood which was shed, now
become food and drink for them. Ah, the precious loss of
such precious food and drink!

Though the vicar of Christ has yielded to the objections
of hunger, late hours and health, why will people still remain
glued to their pews when Christ begs : “Take ye and eat !”

To say nothing of going out of their way to attend daily
Mass, why do so many neglect to share fully even in their
Sunday Mass? Either they are in the state of grace and
could receive, and then their refusal must be attributed to
coldness or carelessness — coldness to the love of Christ or
carelessness for their own spiritual good

;
or they are not in

the state of grace and dare not receive, and then their
Catholic conscience, their concern for their own salvation,
ought to bring them to their knees in the confessional, there
to be raised again to life.

OBJECTIONS

But some may object: “I do receive Communion fre-
quently and still I am not a saint, still daily tumble into the
same faults, still have to fight the same habitual sins. I
seem to get so little out of my Communions. What is the
matter?” One answer is that all too many communicants
receive Communion without being properly prepared to
receive the graces of Communion.



WHAT IS THE MASS? 47

A flower garden cannot spring from a cement sidewalk,
even though you spread the most costly seeds over that hard
and unresponsive stone. Nor can a soul blossom forth in
the roses of holiness even though the divine seed of the
Eucharist be cast upon it, if that soul is not disposed to
receive the graces.

It is the same sun and the same rain and the same seed
that is given to the rich black soil of Illinois and to the sandy
soil of New Mexico, yet one is productive of wealth, the
other productive of poverty. Why? Because one is disposed
to receive the seed and sun and rain, and the other is not.
There is the answer to the sterility of our Communions:
our souls are dry, half-barren, sluggish soil and upon them
the seed of grace will not bloom to its fullest.

Bring the comparison closer to the Eucharist. A friend
may love you intensely, may be constantly offering you
affection, favors and gifts. But you do not feel the same
toward him

;
your heart is not on fire as his. You pay little

attention to his gifts. You scarcely bother to extend a hand
to receive them. You turn from intimate affection. All his
love and favors are practically lost on you, simply because
you are not sufficiently disposed to receive either his love
or his gifts.

Now Christ is that person Who comes to you with an
ardent love and unnumbered gifts, with arms and heart
loaded with graces, blessings and favors. But his success
in giving these gifts depends so much on your willingness
and your capacity to receive them, on your faith and love
for Him, on your extended arms and open heart.

You may have a gallon of the most costly and expensive
wines for your friend, but if he has come with only a
thimble, no matter how strongly you may want to give it
all to him, he can take no more than a thimbleful. Naturally
you feel very sad because your love and generosity toward
him are thwarted by his coldness and stupidity. So must
Christ feel when He comes with His arms filled with infinite
treasures of grace and He finds only a thimble-heart and
even that half-closed to His love.



48 WHAT IS THE MASS?

Now, how can we improve the soil? How enlarge the
thimble? By an intelligent preparation for Holy Com-
munion.

REMOTE PREPARATION FOR COMMUNION

Our preparation for Communion should be two-fold : one
remote, the other immediate. The remote preparation is
the sinless and Christly living of our daily lives. Christ
must not be the Friend whom we meet merely for a few
warm moments in the morning. He is the Friend Who
stands at our side all day and watches over us by night.
Really to be prepared for His reception in a fit manner in
Communion, we ought never to forsake Him in the course
of the day.

Never forsake Him. That is the keynote of a true prep-
aration; never forsake Him. Not by mortal sin, for that sin
builds a hard crust around the soul, keeping Him out.
Therefore cling closely to Him by seeking only one objective
in your daily life : the accomplishment of His holy will, the
quest of His pleasure. Try even not to turn from Him by
deliberate venial sin. Then He will love to walk and talk
with you. Never leave Him, but strive to live thoughtful
of Him. Then Christ will dwell by faith in your heart.

We know He walked with Adam and Eve in the evening
hours of Eden. He walks with you through the long dreary
hours of the day in the Eden of faith. He leaves you only
when you drive Him away by serious sin. Do not slight
Him, ignore Him, forget Him. You would do that to no
other loved one. Do not do it to Him. Have the delicacy
of turning hourly to Him during the day, whispering words
of love.

IMMEDIATE PREPARATION

The more important preparation is that which you make
just before Holy Communion. It consists, ideally, in the
intelligent and prayerful participation in the Mass with the
priest.



WHAT IS THE MASS? 49

Remember that at the consecration you offered yourself
with Christ to your Father. You said, “All glory to God,
the Father and Spirit through Christ and with Christ and
in Christ.” You have celebrated your Mass, your sacrifice.
Now be on the alert to receive back your offering, the sac-
rament, from the Father. Therefore, recite, at least in your
heart, if not from your missal, the prayers that will enlarge
the thimble and enrich the soil.

First, the Lord’s Prayer, Who offers you now the living
daily bread. Then listen to John the Baptist as he points
to the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world.
Cry out with the Church to Christ to grant the peace He
wants you to possess. Bow low as you implore Him to make
you cling to His commandments and never to let you be
cut away from Him. And finally, hope high that the Com-
munion will bring health to your soul and body, and not
guilt or added blame, through Christ our Lord.

Then at last, when the festive bell calls you to your place
at the banquet, play the role of the humble soldier of Rome
and confess: “0 Lord, I am not worthy.” You feel the
touch of God upon your tongue. One more sigh of sorrow,
one silent breath of welcome, one last act of desire. This is
the hour — do think of it — in which the Son of Man has
come. It is consummated.

What has happened? Once before He came to Elizabeth,
and the unborn Baptist leaped for joy. Once before He
merely looked at water and it became wine. Once He
touched a leper and the dead flesh lived again. Once before,
He came to a grave and called forth a living friend. Com-
munion time may be only a cool empty moment to you. But
warmth and love and longing will bring the torrent of the
Mass into your cup — overflowing.

THE THANKSGIVING AFTER COMMUNION
And now a word about thanksgiving. Here the question

may be asked: “Why does Mass end so soon after Holy
Communion? Why is there not more time given officially
for our thanksgiving after Holy Communion? Our Holy
Father gives the best answer. When the sacrifice is finished,



50 WHAT IS THE MASS?

it is finished. Hence the congregation that offered it is then
dismissed. But he insists that those who were intimately
united with Christ in Holy Communion should remain to
make a suitable thanksgiving.

The word thanksgiving is an incomplete word, almost a
misnomer. For it contains so much more than it says. It
is something like the word confession. That word means
accusation, the telling of our sins. Yet we all know that for
forgiveness of sin in the sacrament of penance, much more
than the mere accusation is required. We take similar
liberties with words in our everyday life. When a friend
invites us to dinner, we do not merely eat, wipe our mouths
and dash out of the house. We do much more than take
dinner. We comment occasionally on the appetizing dishes
served. We express our special gratitude to the hostess for
all the work involved in preparing it for us. We very often
praise one or the other choice dish that is particularly
tasteful. And then when the table has been cleared we sit
around for several hours to make the evening a pleasure
for those who invited us. We exchange our views on per-
sonal matters. We may even become intimate enough to
complain of our needs, or to reveal our troubles. And once
again before taking leave we mention how grateful we are
and what delight the invitation brought us.

Our Lord wants us to be at least human with Him. That
should not be too difficult as long as we keep our faith alive
to the great thing that has come to pass in Holy Communion.
St. John Eudes used to insist that for a fully worthy Com-
munion two eternities would be required, one eternity to
prepare and the other to thank Christ for the gift of Him-
self. Even the saints did not have this opportunity but they
supplied as well as they could. The great St. Theresa was
once asked how she spent her time after Holy Communion.
“That is the time to do business with Christ,” she so rightly
answered.

SUGGESTIONS

The moment you feel the touch of the host on your tongue,
send your guardian angel and your favorite saint and Mary,
your Mother, in advance into your heart to make the final



WHAT IS THE MASS? 51

last-minute preparations in your stead. And when you
have returned to your pew, get down to business. We
make the following suggestions, merely as guides for
your convenience. Build your business-time around the
word F A T H 0 M N. Faith in the Real Presence of
Christ truly and substantially in your soul. I believe.
Adoration: 0 Jesus, You are all the mountains and I but
a grain of sand. You are all the forests and I but a leaf
on a dying tree. You are all the oceans and I but a drop
of water. You are Who must be. I am who need not be.
Thanks for the goods of nature — the earth, the mountains,
the air; our food, our loves, our dreams. Thanks for the
goods of grace: for God, for the Church, for our faith —
and for this Communion. “0 good and gentle Jesus, look
down upon me. . . .” Here recite the indulgenced prayer
before a crucifix. “0 Jesus, pardon me my sins, save me
from the fires of hell.” Mary! Thank her for Christmas,
for Calvary and for the Mass. She made them all possible.
Weeds — of body : health for yourself, your loved ones.
Weeds — of soul : more charity toward God and your neigh-
bor, grace for your usual weakness, grace to persevere in
your resolutions. No more sins!

This conversation with our Lord will take but a few
minutes. If you are faithful here, the minutes will multiply
but the time will seem so short. You can end it when and
as you please, but not until you have thanked Christ once
more for this banquet and promised Him to return for an-
other share at your earliest opportunity. Thus your thanks-
giving will be a full and rounded-out word. It will have
meant a loving visit with the Host Who invited you to
supper with Him. It will not be wanting in etiquette, in the
refinement of manners that we show toward even the least
of our brethren.



52 WHAT IS THE MASS?

THE MASS AND THE
MOTHER OF GOD

Many people are unhappy, not because they must make
sacrifices, but because they refuse to make the sacrifices
that purchase happiness. The reason they are sad is that
they imagine that selfishness and self-gratification and
pleasure are the stuff that joy is made of.

The opposite is true.

A sacrifice is not only a sign of joy, but the price at which
joy is purchased. Gifts are made on joyous occasions and
bring joy to both the giver and the receiver. Gifts are
exchanged by those who love: husband and wife, man and
maid, child and parent; they are made on joyous occasions:
weddings, anniversaries, commencements, birthdays.

What is true of the gifts we make to men is immensely
more true of the gifts we are privileged to make to God,
and especially the perfect gift of the Mass, the gift of His
own divine Son. The sacrifice of the Mass is a mighty and
sweet fountain of joy both to God and to ourselves.

The truth of this statement is exemplified nowhere better
than in the life of our Blessed Lady. She who is the cause
of joy to the world must have been a cause of joy to herself
as well. Can a heart be sad that is thrilling and dancing
with a great and perfect love as was her heart in its love
for God? Can a soul be depressed when it is bent on the
accomplishment of a glorious work that cannot fail as was
the soul of our Blessed Lady? And yet we know that her
life was a life of sacrifice. Her love for God entailed
immeasurable sacrifices. Her work in the world’s redemp-
tion meant a long life of suffering, yet never for a moment
was she sad. Sorrowful, yes, at times, even unto tears, yet
always deep in her heart she was joyful.



WHAT IS THE MASS? 53

In our articles about the Mass we have been urging you
to an understanding and love of the Mass that would help
to make the Mass a part of your life. As in all things
worthwhile Mary has gone before us in this. If we under-
stand her life of sacrifice rightly and truly we shall see
that her life was such a Mass. In fact, she was the first
sharer in Christ’s Mass and thus helped to redeem the world.
She lived her Mass with Christ. Let us look at her life step
by step.

There was in her life the period of preparation in which
her soul was disposed for the intimate offering of the Mass,
even as in each Mass there is a period of preparation in
which we should be disposed to enter into the spirit of the
Mass. This preparation for us begins with the prayers at
the foot of the altar through the Confiteor, the Kyries, the
prayers, the Gloria and Credo and the Epistle and Gospel.
Here we ask pardon for our sins

;
plead for grace

;
glorify

the God in Whom we believe ; enliven our faith in the Epistle
and Gospel.

Mary’s Mass began with her Immaculate Conception pre-
serving her from every trace of original sin. That prepara-
tion continued through the prayerful years of her childhood
in the company of her sainted mother, Ann; through the
religious instruction and formation in the school of the
temple, down to the pure hour of her virginal marriage to
Joseph.

At the Annunciation in the home of Mary and at Beth-
lehem, when Christ was born, the offering for the sacrifice
was provided. Just as you and the members of the Church
provide the material bread and wine for the sacrifice of the
Mass, so then she and God worked together to produce the
material flesh and blood of the first Mass. That material
was Christ, Her Son, first of all, whose body for the sacrifice
she wove out of her own sinless flesh and blood. But that
was not all. If her Son was the Redeemer, then His mother,
in the designs of God, must be the co-redemptrix, and all
that He does as Redeemer, she must do as co-redemptrix.
Therefore did she provide also herself for that offering —
her entire self, mind and heart, body and soul, hopes and
joys, tears and sorrows — all, she made ready for that first



54 WHAT IS THE MASS?

Mass. She would not let her Christ go along that hard and
sacrificial way alone.

After that preparation of the offering, the Mass of Mary
hurries on to its offertory. After forty days she joined the
first offertory procession, or rather led it up to the altar of
the temple in Jerusalem. This first offertory we commem-
orate in the feast of the Presentation.

The law of the Jews commanded that the first-born of
every family, excepting only the tribe of Levi, be presented
and offered to God. As a symbol of the offering of her Child,
Mary’s poverty could offer only two turtledoves to be sacri-
ficed in His place. Christ thus was presented, given to His
Father for the work of men’s redemption. The turtledoves
of that day have become the offertory donation, or the bread
and wine of the Christian Church. But here, too, Mary is
inseparable from her Child. Her sacrifice must be one with
His. As from her heart swells a prayer of offering to her
Father in heaven, of all she is and has, a strange answer is
dropped from the prophetic lips of the old priest. In her
heart Mary is saying: “I pray that my sacrifice and my
Son’s may be acceptable to Thee.” And the answer breaks
in upon her soul: “It is accepted — you must suffer with
Him even unto death. And thine own soul a sword shall
fierce. The sword of sacrifice must bury its hot blade to the
hilt in her tender, young heart. Mary’s sacrifice of the Mass
has begun in dead earnest.

Her life passes into the hush and quiet of the secret,
hidden years — the awed silence before the solemn mystery
of the consecration. It is the period when her mind is en-
lightened more and her heart strengthened more for the
terrible moment of complete offering and sacrifice. For her
this period is the time to build up herself and her Son for
that great sacrificial act. And how does she do it? By a
life of close union and intimate prayer with Christ. Even
she had to pour into her heart and soul the steel of strength
she borrowed from God in prayer, that the consecration
which was soon to come might be genuine and true, and not
a mere ceremony of words and empty actions. Her life had
to be transformed into Christ’s, in its thoughts and desires,
in its loves and actions. That could be done only by bringing
Christ into her heart, that He might work His wonder there.



WHAT IS THE MASS? 55

Whether, during those blissful years, Mary was washing
clothes down by the village stream with the older women,
or whether she was cleaning the home, or preparing the
meals, or mending the clothes, or even chatting with the
neighbors, or playing with the Boy Who sported on eternal
lawns with the angels for His playmates, or building houses
in mud and sand with Him Who built the world with stone
and fire and molten lava — no matter what or where —
always her heart and her mind were moving about her Boy,
Jesus.

There was but one sacrifice, for Jesus and Mary now as
ever were but one. She hears the ringing of the bell in the
pounding of the hammer through her Boy’s hands and feet.
The rushing away of His friends from the cross is so much
like the flight of Catholics from the Mass, as if they almost
cry out to Christ: “Hurry and die that we may get back
to our fun and money-making and friends.” In the dull
nails and sharp spear she sees the words of consecration.
In the mockery and trivial gambling she sees the irreverence
and inattention of modern Catholics. In the elevation of the
cross she envisions the elevation of the host and chalice.
In the agony that breaks her heart at the moment, she fore-
sees the life of sacrifice that we must live if we too would
truly love Christ, be with Him in a union of love and finally
become like unto Him.

In the cry that broke from her heart as she raised her
eyes to the broken body hanging before her, she felt she
was speaking with each of us, her other sons and daughters

:

“This is my body
;
this is my blood. Mine because I gave it

to Him long years ago when we began this Mass together;
mine, too, because He has taken me into Himself, made me
one also with Him in His new body, His Mystical Body. In
a double sense is this my body and my blood.”

Then rang over the hill the announcement of the com-
pletion of the sacrifice: “It is finished!” The sacrifice has
reached its climax, for then the body of Christ was sep-
arated from His precious blood. From Mary’s heart came
the same cry. She had reached the very limit of her power
to suffer. She was for the moment separated from her Son.
Far easier for her would it have been if her body had been



56 WHAT IS THE MASS?

cut off from her blood and her soul from her body. For
Christ was the very soul and spirit of her life, even more
than the soul with which she thought and loved and lived.

We have said that Holy Communion is God’s return to
us for the honor, praise, gratitude, reparation and petition
we have rendered to Him. Communion is God giving us not
merely a grace or some grace, but the very Author and
Source of grace and divine life, Himself. It is true that we
can believe that our Blessed Lady had received Communion
at the last supper with the apostles, and she continued to
receive daily her own Son from the hands of His best-loved
apostle, St. John. But Mary’s return for her part in the
sacrifice of Calvary was even more wonderful than Holy
Communion. Since she redeemed mankind with her Son,
since every grace that Christ merited by His Passion, she
also merited by her compassion

;
since she with Christ paid

the purchase-price of grace for our salvation, not merely
by giving Christ a humanity in which to suffer, but even
more so by suffering with Him, she ought to have a part in
the distribution of grace. Her Communion in that first
Mass, her Communion in every Mass that has followed lies
in this: that Christ communicated to her the disposing, as
she sees fit, of all the graces which they together have
merited upon Calvary. She is the invisible communicant
at every altar in every Mass, receiving all from an affec-
tionate divine Son for distribution to other poorer, weaker,
helpless children — you and me.

Calvary is the reservoir of all the graces and blessings
and mercies that God has destined for mankind. The Mass
is a channel through which those graces flow upon this our
age. The seven sacraments are seven outlets of that divine
stream of mercy and bounty. But Mary is the keeper of the
reservoir

;
she is the co-offerer with the great High Priest,

Christ, and with you and me, the lesser priests of the royal
priesthood of Christ. But, more important for us, she may
rightly be called God’s engineer who opens and closes the
valves in the channels of grace leading from the Mass into
our souls.

Some will tell us that love and devotion to Mary impede
and obstruct our advance to God and to Christ. How ridicu-
lous! Did our mothers impede and obstruct our advance



WHAT IS THE MASS? 57

into life and our progress along the way of life? Does the
open door hinder our advance into a room? All who attended
the first Mass on Calvary and took from it the saving grace
for their souls — Magdalen and John, the good thief and
the centurion, Longinus, stood at that first altar with Mary
and through Mary drew from the cross the grace that saved
them.

Mary stands at every mystic Calvary since, still the
co-redemptrix, still praying, offering, sacrificing with the
divine Redeemer, her Son. Here above all she fulfills the
mission entrusted to her at the first Mass of mothering,
protecting, loving us as her children ; here a hundred thou-
sand times a day she is reminded of her office toward us
in the words re-echoed from every new Calvary’s peak:
“Woman, behold your sons and daughters. Keep them close
to Me and to the source of grace in the Mass. Sons and
daughters, behold your Mother and stay near to her side, for
the crimson grace that flows down my cross is hers and hers
alone to enrich your souls.”

Thus is the Mass the divine fountain of Mary’s power,
of her position of queen of men, of her office as mistress and
lady of all lands, for through the cross and the Mass all
the omnipotence of God, in a certain true sense, passed into
her hands.

And with this power, this exaltation, this divine station
of Mary among men, from the cross and the Mass comes
unbounded joy to the heart and soul of our Mother. Easter
joy from Good Friday’s sacrifice!

Calvary was dark and terrible and painful and bloody,
for that was the hour of sacrifice and toil

;
the Mass is joyful

and beautiful and even gay. On Calvary there were no
beautiful vestments, save the thorns on His head and the
marks of the scourges. On Calvary no lovely flowers
bloomed nor precious vessels glistened, save the red roses
of His wounds and the empty vessel of His divine heart.
On Calvary no lights and candles, save Him Who was the
Light of the World, fast being extinguished by the hatred
of men. On Calvary no joyous singing save the moaning
and agony of the Son of God and Mary. But all these are in
the Mass, for the Mass is to us the source of all good things
through Mary.



58 WHAT IS THE MASS?

GOING UP TO THE

ALTAR OF GOD
I go up to the altar of God!

Do you really mean it? Are YOU going to the altar?
Or are these j ust words you mutter, while you actually stay
right in your pew with prayers and thoughts you could
indulge just as truly at home in your bedroom, or on a park
bench, or on some hilltop?

Go up there to the altar ! God is expecting you — expect-
ing your adoration, your gratitude, your reparation for a
mountain of sins under which you have tried to smother
His majesty, His goodness, His rights. The souls in purga-
tory are hoping and praying that you will go up there to
the altar, for there you can release great floods of relief
and comfort for them. The whole world, bent low under
the weight of its weakness, its crimes, its infidelities, hopes
you will go up to plead for the mercy it needs so badly, so
desperately.

Your own family, your friends; sinners swallowed up in
the fiery flood of big cities and pagans buried in the dark-
ness of mission lands cry out to you to go up and come back
with grace and strength and salvation for them.

Do you not hear the entire Church, on earth and in
heaven, saints and martyrs, confessors and virgins, mothers
and daughters, fathers and sons the world over inviting
you: “Come up to the mountain of sacrifice where Christ
our Head awaits us. Come to the family prayer, the family
offering, the banquet of God’s family on earth.”

Go then to the altar of God to offer, to pray the Mass;
not to daydream the Mass. Go up in thought and intention,
in understanding, conscious of the tremendous action you
are about to perform. The Mass is yours; take your part
in it.



WHAT IS THE MASS? 59

But how can this be done? Ideally, by following step by
step, word for word, prayer for prayer, what your repre-
sentative, the priest at the altar, is doing. Following the

Mass in your missal carries you to the heart of the divine
action. This is the way the Church prays the Mass, and you
are the Church. This is the way Christ is praying the Mass,
and you belong to him. Thus, as Pius XII teaches in his
letter Mediator Dei

,

“The faithful may, united with the
priest, pray together in the very words and sentiments of
the Church.” But note that the Holy Father says in the
sentiments of the Church. Unfortunately, the missal may
be used mechanically, without attention or understanding.
If the use of the missal turns into mere routine, a page-
flipping operation, a neck-and-neck race with the priest at
the altar without intelligent union with the thoughts and
sentiments of the principal offerer, then the missal defeats
its purpose.

To quote Pius XII again: “The chief aim (of the use of
the missal) is to foster and promote the people’s piety and
intimate union with Christ and His visible minister and to
arouse those internal sentiments and dispositions which
should make our hearts become like to that of the High
Priest of the New Testament.” The missal is not a magic
charm that makes us intelligent and alert to what is going
on at the altar. Our interior heart is more important than
our book.

Some with a dramatic sense, with an alert imagination
and keen sense of the symbolic, are able to read the story
of the Mass and its meaning in the language of symbol and
action, of dress and furniture, with which the Church has
surrounded the Mass. Such a one was the father of a priest
who always assisted at Mass very attentively, but without
prayer book, missal or rosary. When asked why he did not
use a book as other people did, his answer was simple:
“But, my boy, I do make use of a prayer book. When I am
present at the holy sacrifice, I see and read in the altar, the
priest and the ceremonies that surround the Mass, the story
of the passion and death of my Saviour. As the Mass is the
unbloody renewal of what once took place on Calvary, I
feel that I can do nothing better during it than to follow



60 WHAT IS THE MASS?

the priest as he performs the sacred rite. I find the Mass
itself the best of prayer books.”

Why all these dramatic externals of the Mass if not to
arouse interest, attention, understanding of what is going
on ? So many have eyes and see not, missing the entire aim
of the Church in surrounding the Mass with such gorgeous
pageantry. They have eyes and see not. They stare as into
a void, absorbed in their devotions or in dumb daydreaming.
All this drama should mean something to us : the altar, the
cross, the candles, the vestments, the actions of the priest.
A Christian at Mass sees : —

THE ALTAR ELEVATED — Christ climbed the hill of
Calvary for the first Mass.

THE ALTAR CROWNED BY A CRUCIFIX — here the
sacrifice of Calvary is renewed.

LIGHTED CANDLES — Christ is the Light of the
World, Who enlightens every man that comes into the
world. Christ is the Word of God, God and Man, our
Mediator, standing between us and God, bringing man to
God and God to man.

THE PRIEST COMES TO THE ALTAR — the priest
represents Christ and us. He bears a cross on His back, as
one of us, and this cross says that this is our sacrifice also.
The servers with the priest, close to the altar, remind us
that we should also be there offering the sacrifice of Christ
and of ourselves, the sacrifice of the Mystical Body.

Each action of the Mass is likewise a meditation for those
who have eyes to see and faith to comprehend

:

BOWING IN LOWLINESS OF BODY, the priest tells
us to bow low in humility of heart and mind, in adoration
and sorrow, because “He must increase and I must decrease”
in my sense of my own importance and greatness.



WHAT IS THE MASS? 61

OPENING HIS ARMS at the Dominus Vobiscum, the
priest says : “The Lord be with you” by grace and charity.
You should be with Him too in the oneness of His Mystical
Body, in the oneness of His sacrifice.

EXTENDING HIS ARMS in prayer, the priest takes the
attitude of pleading and supplication.

STRETCHING OUT HIS ARMS in the canon of the
Mass, the priest reminds us of Christ’s arms outstretched
on the cross, embracing all of us in His sacrifice, nailing
our sins to the cross, inviting us also to come and have our
due part in this renewal of the sacrifice of Calvary.

Each posture conveys to us a meaning:

WE KNEEL to adore, to beg
;
shrinking into our nothing-

ness before the grandeur of God.

WE STAND like soldiers at attention, to hear with
earnestness the word of God and to show our reverence
for it.

WE SIT to think, to contemplate the deep, quiet mys-
teries of our faith.

If we but understood the dramatic actions and gestures
of the Mass, and paid attention to them, how compellingly
they would lead us to enter into the mysteries of the perfect
prayer that is Christ’s and ours.

The feeble grandmother, the tired housewife, the un-
lettered laborer, can follow the Mass with their sorrowful
beads. They know with a simple and bright faith that the
Mass is Calvary renewed. Calvary brought down the ages
to us; not only that Christ might give and offer, but that
they too might give and consecrate and offer with Him their
daily Calvary, their apparently unending agony, their toil
and weariness, their heartbreak and loneliness, their sweat
and tears, their aching backs and heads, their trembling
hands and sagging knees. Too tired to page a missal, too
dull of mind to understand the involved phrases, too feeble



62 WHAT IS THE MASS?

of sight to read the small print, these other Christs plunge

to the very heart of the sacrifice, lay their suffering selves
beside Him on the altar, stretch their agonies beside Him
on the cross of the consecration and eagerly embrace Him
in a Communion that is a union mindful of Mary holding her
Son in her arms for the last time beneath the cross. Their
rosaries are the keys that open to them the very soul of the
sacrifice of the Mass. Let no one tell you that they are
wrong, for Pius XII himself says in the Mediator Dei:

“Many of the faithful are unable to use the Roman missal
even though it is written in the vernacular; nor are all
capable of understanding correctly the liturgical rites and
formulas. So varied and diverse are men’s talents and
characters that it is impossible for all to be moved and
attracted to the same extent by community prayers, hymns,
and liturgical services. Moreover, the needs and inclinations
of all are not the same, nor are they always constant in the
same individual. Who then would say, on account of such
a prejudice, that all these Christians cannot participate in
the Mass nor share its fruits? On the contrary, they can
adopt some other method which proves easier for certain
people, for instance, they can lovingly meditate on the
mysteries of Jesus Christ or perform other exercises of
piety or recite prayers which, though they differ from the
sacred rites, are still essentially in harmony with them.”

No matter what method we use in taking part in the
Mass, whether we read the prayers of the Church in the
missal, whether we read the dramatic story of the sacrifice
written in the action and postures and vestments of the
Mass, or whether we read the signposts of the sacrifice
along the highway of the rosary, what is supremely im-
portant is that we know and are aware of what we are
about, and what Christ is doing in the Mass, what we should
be doing with Him. “Let this mind be in you which was
also in Christ Jesus” — the mind, the spirit of sacrifice.

On Calvary there were three groups of people. Those who
had nailed Christ to the cross; those who were merely
curious, neither hostile nor devoted, who stood and stared

;

and finally those, like Mary and Magdalen and John the



WHAT IS THE MASS? 63

beloved, who suffered every pain, every agony, every insult
keenly. These made Calvary their own by sympathy and
love and union. Among Catholics we find these same three
groups. Those who nail Christ to the cross by their lives
of serious sin, in particular their sins of missing Mass,
of sacrilegiously receiving the Eucharist. Secondly, those
who go to the Calvary of the Mass dully, stupidly, without
understanding or sympathy for the sublime action there
taking place, who are there as if by force of compulsion and
who hurry away as if in relief. And finally those who stand
at the Calvary of the altar even as Mary and John beneath
the cross, with deep understanding, with personal sym-
pathy; who link themselves to the divine Victim and mingle
their tears with His tears, their toil with His toil, their lives
with His life, and who leave the altar with hearts throbbing
with joy, with divine satisfaction, hearing the song of Paul
running through their minds. “I live, now not I, but Christ
liveth in me. For I live in the faith of the Son of God Who
loveth me and delivered Himself for me.”