Keep God's day holy! : the third commandment . ' W f* : KEEP GOD’S DAY HOLY! The Third Commandment With Discussion Club Outline By REV. GERALD C. TREACY, S.J. New York THE PAULIST PRESS 401 West 59th Street Imprimi Potest: James P. Sweeney, S.J., Provincial , Maryland-New York. Nihil Obstat: Arthur J. Scanlan, S.T.D., Censor Librorum. Imprimatur : B Francis J. Spellman, D.D., Archbishop of New York. New York , August 7, 1940. Copyright, 1940, by The Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle in the State of New York PRINTED AND PUBLISHED IN THE U. S. A. BY THE PAULIST PRESS, NEW YORK, N. Y. THE THIRD COMMANDMENT TN the Book of Exodus, that part of the Bible that tells of Moses giving the people of Israel the Ten Commandments, we find the third commandment stated as follows: “Remem- ber that thou keep holy the sabbath day . Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy works; but on the seventh day is the sab- bath of the Lord thy God; thou shalt do no work on it, neither thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are within them, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” (Exodus xx. 8, 11). This commandment prescribes the external worship which we owe to God. It follows from the second commandment. For if we sincerely and truly worship God, directed by the faith and hope we have in Him, we shall honor Him with ex- ternal worship. But we cannot do this while engaged in other affairs. So we are commanded to set aside a fixed time for honoring God by our worship. It can readily be seen that this commandment differs from the other commandments. All the other commandments are obligatory at all times. Even if they had not been promulgated, they would be of obligation. The voice of conscience would dictate them. They belong to what is called the Natural Law. This means God’s Law as it is implanted in the human heart. If a man were patient enough to think of God and of himself, he would realize that he would be bound to do good and avoid wrong. All the other commandments explain what is meant by this “good” and “wrong.” So after the Law of Moses gave way to the Law of Christ, the other commandments kept their force. For the simple reason that the other commandments flow from the fact that man is God’s creature. God has created human nature and the commandments are the way of happiness for that nature. This commandment, however, about the observance of the sabbath, in so far as concerns the time for its fulfillment, is not fixed and unalterable. It belongs to the ceremonial law. The time part of it does not come from the Moral Law nor [Page 3 ] from the Natural Law. For we do not reach a conclusion from reasoning about it that we should give external worship to God on one day rather than on another. As a matter of fact, the sabbath was observed by the Jewish people only from the time of their liberation from the slavery of Pharaoh. As other Hebrew ceremonies and observances ceased at the coming of Christ so was the observance of the sabbath to be changed. The Jewish religion was a preparation for the True Religion to come. Its rites and ceremonies were shadows that were to break out into the Light. They were symbols that were to climax into the Truth. They were figures that would burst into Reality. With the coming of the Light and the Truth, they would disappear. It was difficult for the early Christians to learn this. They were Jews and they clung to Jewish observance even after the dawn of the Light. So we find St. Paul telling them that the old order had gone, giving place to the new: “For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor fe- male. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. . . . But now after you have known God . . . how turn you again to the weak and needy elements which you desire to serve again? You observe days and months and times and years. I am afraid of you lest perhaps I have labored in vain among you” (Gal. iv. 10). When we say that the third commandment is unlike the others we speak of the time element or the day that we keep holy. For the worship of God and the practice of religion which it entails are both commanded by God and dictated by man’s nature. Paganism which had lost the knowledge of the True God never lost the sense of worship. So we find among all ancient peoples, public festivals dedicated to religious ob- servance. That there should be special times consecrated to public worship is an age-old conviction of the human heart. God Calls for Reasonable Service We know from the life of our Lord how much the sabbath meant to the Jewish people. In fact sabbath observance had assumed ridiculous proportions. God calls for a reasonable [Page 4 ] service. The observance of our Saviour’s day was unreason- able. Over and over again Christ rebuked the Pharisee on this very point. He placed Himself in opposition to the for- malism that had destroyed the real meaning of sabbath ob- servance. He permitted Himself to be classed as a sabbath breaker. He worked many miracles on that day. The reli- gious leaders like the ruler of the synagogue resented this. “And the ruler of the synagogue (being angry that Jesus had healed on the sabbath), answering said to the multitude: Six days there are wherein you ought to work. In them therefore come and be healed; and not on the sabbath day. And the Lord answering said: Ye hypocrites, doth not every one of you on the sabbath day, lose his ox or his ass from the manger and lead them to water? And ought not this daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound, lo these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when He said these things all His adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the things that were gloriously done by Him” (Luke xiii. 14-17). On another occasion His disciples passing through a corn- field began to pluck the ears and eat for they were hungry. The Pharisees took scandal at this and exclaimed: “Behold Thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days. But He said to them: Have you not read what David did when he was hungry and they that were with him? . . . Or have ye not read in the law that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple break the sabbath, and are without blame? But I tell you that there is here a greater than the temple, for the Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath” (Matt. xii. 1, 8). And we find that in every instance when our Lord spoke of the keeping of the sabbath it was invariably to condemn the senseless formalism of the Pharisees. The Sabbath Day in the Old Law and the New In keeping holy the seventh day, the Jew of old com- memorated his deliverance from the slavery of Egypt, and bore witness before all the nations that surrounded him that the God he worshiped was Creator of all things. [Page 5 ] There was much, too, that was symbolic in the observance of the Jewish sabbath. God in the book of Exodus calls it a sign: “See that you keep My sabbath because it is a sign be- tween Me and you in your generation, that you may know that I am the Lord Who sanctify you” (Exodus xxxi. 13). And in Ezechiel God says: “Moreover I gave them My sab- baths to be a sign between Me and them, and that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them” (Ezechiel xx. 12). For it was a sign that man should dedicate himself to God. It was sign, too, of the great work of creation. With the passing of the Old Law, the observance of the sabbath ceased. Its significance had gone. He Who declared Himself “Lord of the sabbath,” sanctified another day. For on the first day of the week He rose from the dead and on that day a week later He appeared to His apostles. And on that day the Holy Ghost came down upon the apostles and disciples and the Church He founded was truly born. We call it Pentecost. So in the early church Sunday, or the first day of the week, was chosen as the Lord’s Day and dedicated to divine worship. The apostles “who are appointed to rule the Church of God” very probably established this day as the new sabbath of the New Law. St. Paul very clearly states: “Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect to a festival day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come” (Col. ii. 16, 17). And in his first letter to the people of Corinth he speaks of the offer- ings that are to be made “on the first day of the week” ( 1 Cor. xvi. 2). St. John also in his mystic manner says: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet” (Apoc. i. 10). We Sanctify the Lord's Day We sanctify the Lord’s Day by abstaining from unnecessary work. In the words of the commandment work is forbidden: Thou shalt do no work on it. We are to avoid whatever may interfere with the worship of God. Servile or manual work, because it generally is physically and mentally exacting, is the sense in which work is taken. Intellectual work, artistic work, is allowed. Work is classified as servile, liberal and [Page 6 ] common. Servile works are those occupations which employ the body rather than the mind. Liberal works are those in which the mind is more engaged than the body. Common works are those which are pursued by people of all classes. In an old English catechism that was brought out about the middle of the last century there is a quaint but clear para- graph that summarizes this question of works allowed and forbidden: “Liberal and common works are allowed even for the sake of gain. For example a person might give lessons on Sunday in drawing, writing, reading, music, without vio- lating the third commandment. But all unnecessary servile works are prohibited. The prohibition extends to all public transaction of business whether of a mercantile or forensic character. And with the exception of such things as may be needed for daily consumption, all buying and selling in shops. Observe, unnecessary servile works alone are forbidden; hence a person does not break the commandment who works to avoid any serious loss. It is lawful to reap corn, or mow hay, or to gather in fruit, when such things would be likely to suffer from bad weather. It is lawful to perform all those house- hold duties which are necessary for cleanliness and the prepa- ration of food. Again we may do servile works on Sunday to relieve the pressing needs of our neighbor, if we are actuated simply by charity for such works sanctify rather than pro- fane the day. ‘What man shall there be among you,’ said our Lord, ‘that hath one sheep and if the same fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not take hold of it and lift it up? How much better is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do a good deed on the sabbath day’ (Matt. xii. 11, 12). Piety also excuses any work which the service of God or the interests of religion require” ( Instructions in Christian Doc- trine , by Provost Wenham. London, 1869, Imprimatur, N. Card. Wiseman). To keep holy the Lord’s Day means then, to make it dif- ferent from any other day. We make it the day of the Lord. And how do that? By doing something. When the people of the Old Law were told by Moses not to do certain things on the sabbath which was then the Lord’s Day, they were also told to do other things. They were to make themselves pleas- [ P age 7 ] ing to God and show “that He was their God and they were His people.” And so prayers and sacrifices were prescribed to be offered in temple and synagogue. They were to adore God, to petition Him for His help, to thank Him for His benefits, and to atone to Him for sins committed. This is the mean- ing of prayer. And the Lord’s Day must be sanctified by prayer. "Pray the Mass" The Church as God’s Voice tells us how to sanctify Sun- day. We are commanded, under pain of sin, to be present at Mass. And presence at Mass means an active presence. Pius X, the great Pope of the Eucharist, expressed it by saying: “Pray the Mass.” We should be so present as to see and hear the action of the Mass. For the Mass is an action, a drama, the Drama of Calvary. We should be present not bodily only but with our minds and hearts. We should intend to share in this great action by joining with the priest in the prayers and the Supreme Sacrifice. And so we should attend to the great parts of this greatest act of religion. Intention and attention make for active presence. If we realize that the Mass is Calvary repeated for us, Calvary given to us, each one receiving individually all that God wants to give, we shall appreciate what presence at Mass really means. Christ on Calvary died for all men. Believers and unbelievers, saints and sinners, from the first to the last, all men were in the Mind of the God-Man as He shed His Blood. In offering this supreme gift to the Eternal Father, He made all men one. They might be different in a number of ways; they would be one in this, that they were all re- deemed and by redemption would be made a “chosen genera- tion, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people. Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold and silver . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled” (1 Peter ii. 1). All men were not on Calvary. Yet its blessing was to be for all men. As a fact in time it is different from any other fact. For any other fact begins and ends. Calvary begins and con- tinues. [Page 8 ] The Roman captain thought to end it with his crashing spear. He was wrong. He did not end it. For God con- tinued it. It is the Mass, your Mass and mine. If we take it as God wants us to take it. For He wants us to take it and make it our own. What our Blessed Lady did on Cal- vary God wants us to do. She stood by the cross. “And there stood by the cross Mary the Mother of Jesus.” To stand by means to be present with all our energies. For every moment of three hours our Lady was present. She did not miss a word that was uttered, a movement that took place, a sigh that was whispered. She was totally absorbed by the Divine Drama. She was part of it. There were hundreds probably on or around the hill of Golgotha. But Calvary did not reach them. They did not reach Calvary. For Calvary means Christ crucified for me. Christ lifting me up to Him. Christ restoring me to that life which Adam lost for me. The lift of Grace, the Life Supernatural beginning on earth, con- tinuing in heaven. Happiness unending and complete. God reaches down to man to lift him up to God. To appreciate the Mass I must appreciate Calvary. By His death on the cross our Lord restored the order that had been wrecked in Eden. He came and died to bring me back to the way of salvation. His very Name means that. “But while he thought on these things behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: “Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His Name Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. i. 20, 21). The Name Jesus means Saviour, and points to His office and the Mission He was to fulfill. He declared that mission in the words: “The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost” (Matt, xviii. 11). He was to renew all things since God had determined “to re-establish all things in Christ that are in heaven and on earth” (Eph. i. 10). The creed in the Mass expresses this by saying: “Who for us men and for our salva- tion, came down from heaven.” Any act done by Christ could have effected this restora- tion. The act that accomplished it was His death as the climax [Page 9] of His Passion. This was the satisfaction called for by divine justice. In Holy Scripture, we find our redemption attributed to the Passion and Death of our Lord. “He hath loved us and washed us from our sins by His blood” (Apoc. i. IS). “He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death even unto the death of the cross” (Phil. ii. 8). “He bore our sins in His body upon the tree, that we being dead to sins should live to justice; by whose stripes we were healed” (1 Peter ii. 24). Moreover it is emphasized in Holy Scripture that our Lord offered Himself to His Father as a ransom in satisfaction for our sins: “Who gave Himself a redemption for all” (1 Tim. ii. 6). “You are bought with a great price” (1 Cor. vi. 20). “You were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb un- spotted and undefiled” (1 Peter xviii. 19). And not only is He our ransom, He is our representative Who satisfies God’s justice, replacing us sinners. As was put by the prophet Isaias: “He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, everyone hath turned aside into his own way; and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all” (Is. liii. 5, 6). Moreover as St. Paul explains: “He hath deliv- ered Himself for us an oblation and a sacrifice unto God” (Eph. v. 3). Now in a sacrifice the victim which is innocent replaces the guilty sinner for whom the sacrifice is offered. And so He was greeted by His herald John the Baptist as the “Lamb of God Who taketh away the sins of the world.” What Calvary Is the Mass Is What Calvary is the Mass is. On Calvary our Lord as High Priest dying, freely offered up His blood and His life to the Eternal Father to satisfy His outraged justice for the sins of the world. He offered Himself in acknowledgment of the infinite majesty of God, and so fulfilled all the conditions necessary for a sacrifice. He does the same in the Mass. By the Mass He has made Calvary perpetual. For the Mass is [Page XO] the unbloody renewal of Calvary. It is identical with Calvary. In both sacrifices it is the same victim, Christ Himself, Who is sacrificed. In both it is the same Priest, Christ, Who offers the sacrifice. The priest is His representative not merely His successor in the priesthood. St. Paul makes that plain: “Let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. iv. 1). That is why the priest assuming the person of Christ at the consecra- tion of the Mass does not say: “This is the Body of Christ,” but “This is My Body.” The sacrifice of the Mass is different from the sacrifice of the Cross in the manner of the offering. On the Cross, Christ really died, His Blood was really shed, His Soul really sepa- rated from His Body. In the Mass there is no real shedding of blood, no real separation of soul from body, no real death, but a mystic shedding of blood and a mystic death in the sepa- ration of the species of bread and wine. This is the mystery of the Mass. Christ can die no more being risen, triumphant in the glory of heaven. But in His love and by His power He undergoes an external change which is in some way equivalent to death. The Last Supper, Calvary, the Mass, the Bridge be- tween heaven and earth, earth and heaven. Christ our Lord the Bridge-Builder. This is the central idea in our Catholic life. Father Ellard in Christian Life and Worship explains it in detail (Bruce Publishing Co.). Briefly it means this. Our Redemption was and is a priestly func- tion. The sin of Adam was an act of irreligion. It was a deliberate refusal of an act of homage to God, a refusal of the homage of obedience. So the Redemption in the first instance is an act of religion. The supernatural order will be recov- ered by a deliberate rendering of the homage of obedience to God. It will be a public act of an accredited representative of mankind. It will be the highest expression of worship, the worship of sacrifice. For this a priest will be necessary. The Redeemer “shall be great and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father, and he shall reign in the house of Note: Pontifex, the Latin word for High Priest literally means bridge-builder. [Page 11] Jacob forever** (Luke i. 32 ) . But above all He must be a priest. The beauty and glory of our Lord’s priesthood becomes clear at once. For no one could really bridge the two ex- tremes, heaven and earth,: but He Who is God equal to the Father and Holy Spirit from all eternity, and yet truly man “like unto us in all things sin alone excepted.” The hu- man flesh assumed from Mary was anointed as with the chrism of priestly ordination by the Divinity. Jesus—Saviour, Son of God and Son of Mary, is therefore the Christ, the Anointed One. He, the Head of the family of children of men came into the world to repair the first great sin, the refusal of wor- ship, the act of disobedience. He came to restore the God- made order, shattered and wrecked by man’s disobedience. He did this by the Supreme Sacrifice. The perfect act of worship. “Be you therefore followers of God, as most dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness” (Eph. v. 1, 2). The real Mediator can only be One in Whom Divinity and Humanity meet. So St. Augustine centuries ago explained: “Christ is the Mediator between God and men because He is God with the Father and because He is man with men. Man is not a mediator with respect to the Divinity, God is not a mediator with respect to Humanity. Behold The Mediator.” "It Is the Mass That Matters" Christ died on Calvary and the Redemption was accom- plished. But Christ lives to apply the fruits of the Redemp- tion as long as the world lasts. For He is our Great High Priest. “And being consummated He became for all who obey Him the cause of eternal salvation. Called by God a High Priest according to the order of Melchisedech” (Heb. v. 9, 10). And our Lord applies the fruits of the Redemp- tion to the Mass. If we keep in mind the Bridge of Salvation, namely, the Last Supper, Calvary, the Mass we understand better the supreme importance of the Mass. We appreciate the fact that it is our sharing in the Mass that makes the Lord’s Day holy. We might do a number of very good things, say a great many prayers, attend beautiful devotions, spend [Page 12] ourselves in helping others, without the Mass our Sunday would not be the Lord’s Day. “It is the Mass that matters.” So it was that Benson exclaimed: For Holy Mass is better far Than earth or moon or sun or star, Or all things that within them are. Our Lord Who offered a true sacrifice at the Last Supper, made this sacrifice perpetual in His Church. For when by the words of consecration He made His body present under the appearance of bread and His blood present under the ap- pearance of wine, He placed Himself equivalently in the state of death by the mysterious separation of His blood from His body. He made it clear that He intended to offer sacrifice by the words: “This is My body which shall be delivered (which is broken) for you” (1 Cor. xi. 24). “This is the chalice of the New Testament in My blood which shall be shed (which is poured out) for you” (Luke xxii. 20). And we know the sacrifice of the Cross was an agonizing, bloody sacrifice. To apply the benefits of that sacrifice to every indi- vidual soul our Lord offers Himself in every Mass. This has been the constant teaching of the Church from the days of St. Paul. “We have an altar whereof they have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle” (Heb. xiii. 10). The Fathers of the Church in many instances refer to the Mass as the per- petual sacrifice of the New Law. For example St. Justin (ISO a. d.) speaks “of the sacrifices which we offer in every place, that is of the bread and chalice of the Eucharist, Mala- ccas has prophesied.” And in a very old document called The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles the faithful are urged: “Being assembled on every Lord’s Day, break bread and give thanks after confessing your sins, that your sacrifice may be a clean one; for it is the sacrifice of which the Lord hath said: In every place and at every time a clean oblation shall be of- fered to My Name.” The old liturgies going back very far in the history of the Church contain rubrics and prayers for the celebration of Mass, as the Holy Sacrifice. A brief survey of these liturgies shows the clear-cut conviction since Apos- tolic times that the Mass is Calvary and Calvary is the Mass. [Page 13] The Excellence of the Mass The Catechism of the Council of Trent has this to say of the excellence of the Mass: We therefore confess that the Sacrifice of the Mass is and ought to be considered one and the same sacri- fice as that of the cross. For the victim is one and the same namely Christ our Lord, who offered Him- self once only a bloody Sacrifice on the altar of the cross. The bloody and unbloody victim are not two but one victim only, whose Sacrifice is daily re- newed in the Eucharist, in obedience to the command of our Lord: Do this for a commemoration of Me. “The priest is also one and the same, Christ the Lord: for the ministers who offer sacrifice, consecrate the holy mys- teries not in their own person but in that of Christ, as the words of consecration itself show. . . . “This being the case, it must be taught without hesitation that as the Council of Trent has also explained, the sacred and holy Sacrifice of the Mass is not a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving only, or a mere commemoration of the Sacrifice performed on the cross, but also truly a propitiatory Sacri- fice, by which God is appeased and rendered propitious to us. “If therefore with a pure heart, a lively faith, and affected with an inward sorrow for our transgressions, we immolate and offer this most holy victim, we shall without doubt ob- tain mercy from the Lord, and grace in time of need. For so delighted is the Lord with the odor of this Victim that be- stowing on us the gift of grace and repentance, He pardons our sins. “Hence this usual prayer of the Church: As often as the commemoration of this victim is celebrated so often is the work of our salvation being done. That is to say through this unbloody Sacrifice flow to us the most plenteous fruits of that bloody victim” (Sess. 22, c. 2, can. 3). It is the Mass then that sanctifies Sunday. And what is true of Sunday is likewise true of holydays. The obligation we have to be present at Mass holds for the holydays of the Church, too. In modern life and in a society that is not [Page 14] Catholic, Sunday and holyday observance are not easy. The world we live in is not the same as the world of the early Christians or the Christians of the Middle Ages when all Europe was Catholic. For that reason the modern Catholic has a duty to “show forth the Faith that is in him” by the example he gives to his fellow-citizens on the Lord’s Day. Surely it should be a day different from other days. Prayer besides Mass should bless it. Devotions in church or at home should characterize it. While it is a day of rest and recrea- tion it should not be only that. While the strictness of the Jewish sabbath was done away with when the Church suc- ceeded the Synagogue, the sanctifying of the Lord’s Day still remains a divine command made clear by the teaching of the Church. The Christian Mass and the Old Jewish Service As far back as we can go in the history of God’s dealings with His people we find the command to give God special honor on a particular day. In the long wanderings of that people we find them ever conscious of this command. We find, too, that they practiced two types of worship, sacrificial and non-sacrificial. In the Temple at Jerusalem there was sacrificial worship. In the synagogues scattered through the world of that day there was non-sacrificial worship. Now the Church is the heir of the temple and the synagogue. It is natural therefore to expect a striking parallelism between the Christian Mass and the old Jewish service in temple and synagogue. Our Mass is a combination of sacrificial and non- sacrificial worship. In the early days of the Church, however, there was a distinction between these two forms of worship. While the Holy Sacrifice was not restricted to one place, as the Jewish temple service was held only in Jerusalem, it was limited to certain days, and it was for Christians only . Non- Christians were urged to attend the Christian meetings for prayer and instruction. And that is why we call the first part of the Mass, the Mass of the Catechumens, that is candi- dates for Baptism. Here we find a striking resemblance to the form of the synagogue service as it was in the days of our Lord and His apostles. [Page 15] It was customary to build the synagogue in a prominent place, and generally it faced to the east. At the end of the building was the Ark where the Scriptures were preserved. It would correspond to the sanctuary in our churches. Before the Ark a lamp or two burned continually. Near the Ark was a lectern where the Scriptures were read. The services opened with common prayers led by the ruler of the syna- gogue. These prayers were recited standing and facing to- ward Jerusalem. After the prayers came the reading of the Scriptures. That finished, two psalms were sung. A chanter sang one verse and the congregation responded. And at times hymns were also sung. The passages read from the Scriptures were explained to the people. Anyone might be asked to preach to the group. This sermon was followed by short prayers. These prayers were for all classes, the poor, the sick, benefactors, the priests, and the congregation. After each prayer the congregation answered “Amen.” At some part of the services alms were collected for the poor. There was a final blessing and the congregation was dismissed. This old synagogue service, as is plain, forms the first part of the Mass. The opening prayers, the Scripture lessons, the psalms, the sermon are all easily recognized. Allowing for a few distinctively Christian features, every devout Jew would feel at home in the first part of the Mass. One part of the Jewish ritual has disappeared except in the Mass of the Pre- sanctified on Good Friday. That is the long series of sup- plications for all classes of society. As the Old Law was ful- filled and not destroyed by the coming of our Saviour, as all sacrifices of that Law were figures and symbols of the Unend- ing Sacrifice, it is not surprising to find in the liturgy of the Church prayers and ceremonies that date back to ancient Jewry. Sunday Observance as the Church Teaches Temple, synagogue, church, mark the way of man with God. For they are the centers of divine worship. On the Lord’s Day which was the sabbath in ancient Jewry and is Sunday in the Christian dispensation, prayer and sacrifice have sanctified both the day and the places of divine worship. It has always been true that individuals or peoples who grow [Page 16 ] negligent in the observance of the Lord’s Day very soon grow slack in their love for God. Sunday observance as the Church teaches, means the sancti- fication of Sunday by prayer and good works with Mass as the central act of honor to God. It means lawful recreation and enjoyment of true pleasures. It does not mean an all- day round of pleasures, nor does it mean an all-day atmos- phere of gloom. God loves the cheerful giver. Life as well as prayer should be a cheerful giving to God. And surely no one would think himself generous in God’s service who would merely give the shortest possible time to God and spend every other minute of Sunday in recreation and amusement. Sunday should be a day of rest from the ordinary labor of the week. Men and women are not machines. Body and mind call for suitable rest and change. State Law as well as God’s Law for the welfare of the body politic should encourage and secure the observance of Sunday. Pope Leo XIII in his Rerum Novarum stresses the need of Sunday observance. He says: “No man may outrage with impunity that human dig- nity which God Himself treats with reverence, nor stand in the way of that higher life which is the preparation of the eternal life of heaven. Nay, more, a man has here no power over himself. ... He cannot give up his soul to servitude; for it is not man’s own rights which are here in question but the rights of God, most sacred and inviolable. From this follows the obligation of the cessation of work and labor on Sunday and certain festivals. This rest from labor is not to be under- stood as mere idleness; much less must it be an occasion of spending money in vicious excess as many would desire it to be; but it should be rest from labor consecrated by Religion. Repose united with religious observance disposes man to for- get for a while the business of this daily life and to turn his thoughts to heavenly things and to the worship which he so strictly owes to the Eternal Deity. It is this above all which is the reason and motive for the Sunday rest; a rest sanctioned by God’s great Law of the ancient covenant, ‘Remember thou keep holy the sabbath day ’ And taught to the world by His own mysterious Test,’ after the creation of man. ‘He rested on the seventh day from all the work which He had done.’ ” [Page 17] "We Are Spiritual Semites" Our present Holy Father has said that “we are spiritual Semites.” This means that we have inherited from the Jews of old a spiritual tradition. The Synagogue and the Temple were to them what the Church is to us. As we have the True Sacrifice in Mass, we have a series of prayers in preparation for it. The prayer service of the Synagogue began with the worshiper facing the place of sacrifice. Then a lesson was read from Moses, and a second lesson from one of the prophets. Then tw’O psalms were sung as the books were replaced in the Ark. So St. Paul tells the early Christians: “Teach and admonish one another and in psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles sing in your hearts to God” (Col. iii. 16). And later about the year ISO a. d., St. Justin writes “the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits.” From the be- ginning of Mass to just before the Gospel the prayers we say are very much according to this plan. There was a sermon in the synagogue service as we find in the Acts of the Apostles: “After the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent to them saying: If you have any word of exhortation to make to the people, speak. Then Paul rising up and with his hand bespeaking silence said: Ye men of Israel and you that fear God give ear” (Acts xiii. IS, 16). And St. Justin speaking of the early Church service remarks, “The memoirs of the Apostles are read, and when the reader has ceased, the presiding officer orally admonishes and exhorts us to imitate these excellent things.” That is a record of the second century. There followed in the Jewish service prayers for the needs of each group in the community. So St. Paul, writing to his fellow-bishop, Timothy, declares: “I desire therefore first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all men” (1 Tim. ii. 1). These prayers are said now only in the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday. Following these prayers was a solemn blessing. This blessing now occurs at the end of Mass. Then there was a prayer for peace, which has its parallel in the PAX that is given at High Mass, and the peace prayer before Communion in every Mass. And before the dismissal offerings were made or collections as [Page 18 ] St. Paul called them: “Now concerning the collections that are made for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia so do ye also. On the first day of the week let every- one of you put apart with himself, laying up what it shall well please Him” (1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2). Man's Tribute to God Sacrifice and prayer are man’s tribute to God. They are characteristic of all peoples not merely of those to whom God revealed His Law. The observance of certain days especially dedicated to worship has been common among the pagan na- tions, ancient and modern. For example the ancient Greeks called down the blessing of the gods on nearly all their daily actions and set aside certain special days for divine worship. No meal was taken without some portion of food or drink be- ing offered to the gods. On festival days a special sacrifice was held in the home. Every important event was blessed by prayer, and sacrifices were offered at the opening of public assemblies and the courts of law. A good many days were set aside for religions festivals. These were regarded, too, as days of rest. So we find Plato declaring: “the gods, pitying the laborious nature of men, ordained for them as a rest from their labors the succession of religious festivals.” Certain days of the month were ob- served as holy, for example at Athens the third and seventh days were sacred to Athena and Apollo, Athena claiming the third, Apollo the seventh. The four great national festivals were associated with religion. Games and contests were the order of the day but a religious tone pervaded all. Today we think of the Olympic Games as great centers of athletic prowess. We forget that while they claim an uninterrupted celebration since about 776 b. c., they were in their origin and for centuries of their continuance really part of a religious celebration. For Olympia where they were held was looked on as the chief center of worship of Olympian Zeus in ancient Greece. The Olympian festival was held every fourth year. The sacred month in which it was celebrated, was alter- nately the second or the third after the summer solstice. The games took place in the middle of the month. A sacred truce [Page 19] was proclaimed two weeks before and two weeks after the games. This secured the safety of travelers going and coming from Olympia. The great temple of Zeus overlooked the scene, and religious rites preceded and followed the contests. As with the Greeks so with the Romans there were spe- cial seasons and days set aside for religious observance. Sacri- fice and prayer characterized the Roman religion. The nature of the sacrifice depended on the object desired by the sacri- ficer and the function of the particular deity. The Roman farmer always offered the first fruits of all crops to the gods; in June sacred cakes made from the corn plucked in May were offered by the Vestals at a ceremony known as the Vestalia. In April cakes and milk were offered to Pales, the deity of farmers. What was true of ancient Greece and Rome is true today in modern paganism. There are days and seasons consecrated to religious worship. The Hindu in modern India dedicates in one way or another every day to the deity. Throughout the year he observes many religious festivities. There is a ten-day abstention from all foods except those which are prod- ucts of milk. This is observed even by the little girls. Dur- ing this time they bathe in the holy rivers, gather in the afternoon for folk dances, and sing ancient hymns asking the divinity to bless them with good husbands. When the monsoon time is almost spent there is an elaborate celebration which is really a thanksgiving service for the coming of the rains. Gun- paty, the god with an elephant head, is enshrined in the homes for about nine days. Then a great procession is organ- ized and the people march to the river or the sea and fling the god into the water. The Hindu year opens and closes with throngs visiting the temples. For the Mohammedans in India as throughout the world Friday is a holyday. All shops are closed and special visits are made to the Mosque. During the year Mohammedans have special feast days, some are kept by all, others observed by particular sects into which Mohammedanism is separated. There is a forty-day fast observed each year. It is a strict fast, no food or drink is taken till after sundown. It is notice- able, too, that the Moslem never advertises this practice or any other practice of his religion. [Page 20] Friday is the holy day for the Mahometan. Prayer is of obligation for every adult male. Women take no part in it. The men gather in the mosque at the noon hour under the direction of a leader. Besides this day of prayer there are five daily prayers said by all the faithful except the women. They are said at dawn, mid-day, mid-afternoon, sunset and nightfall. The prayers are preceded by ablutions and the worshiper faces toward Mecca. Gestures and prostrations ac- company the words. There is a day of fasting prescribed called the Fast of the month of Ramadan. It is a strict fast from sunrise to sunset. A celebration of three days follows this fast. Then there is the famous pilgrimage to Mecca. Every Mahometan man and woman must make this pilgrimage once in a lifetime. The obligation may be fulfilled however by sending a substitute and in certain instances a dispensation may be obtained. Wherever we turn in the history of religions we find a special day or season set apart for religious observance. As it is natural for man to be religious so is it natural for him to set aside certain times to show his religious instinct in a spe- cial manner. For the Catholic really attuned to his religion the meaning of Sunday is not merely rest, recreation and a minimum of prayer. It is a day to be sanctified. So too are the Holydays. And what are the Holydays? The Holydays These are days set apart by the Church to commemorate the sacred mysteries of our redemption. At present the Holy- days of obligation in the United States are six. Three are in honor of our Lord and Saviour, Christmas, the Circumcision, the first day of the year, and Ascension Thursday when we commemorate His entrance into heaven. There are two in honor of our Lady, the Assumption, August ISth, and the Immaculate Conception, December 8th. There is one Holyday in honor of all the saints on November 1st. Easter Sunday or the commemoration of the resurrection like every Sunday is dedicated to divine worship. While every religion has its sa- cred days the true religion which is the Catholic Church has a [Page 21] perfected system of religious observance, festive seasons that go to make up the Church Year. The oldest Church feasts are the solemnities of Easter and Pentecost. Down to the third century they remained with the Lord’s Day the only universal Christian feasts. In the fourth century Christmas and Epiphany were added. Then came local observances in honor of the Apostles, martyrs and con- fessors. Feasts of the Blessed Virgin were added in the sixth and seventh centuries. When Christianity had been well estab- lished during the fourth and fifth centuries, civil courts were adjourned and the games in the circus and theatrical perform- ances were forbidden on all feasts to give everyone an oppor- tunity to hear Mass. As centuries passed the Church calendar grew larger and longer because in early times each bishop had the right to establish feasts in his diocese. By about the middle of the twelfth century there were about forty-five public feasts and Holydays. That means about eighty-five days when no work was done and about ninety-five days when no courts con- vened. In many provinces there were eight days after Easter, and in some at least four days after Pentecost kept as rest- from-labor days. From the thirteenth to the eighteenth cen- tury there were dioceses in which the Holydays and Sundays amounted to over a hundred. This did not include the feasts of particular monasteries and churches. In the Byzantine Empire, by the year 1166, there were sixty-six full Holydays and twenty-seven half-Holydays exclusive of Sundays. Pope Urban VIII in 1642 reduced the number of feasts to thirty- six. In the eighteenth century Clement XIV made the num- ber sixteen: As we know Catholics in this nation observe six Holydays. The Liturgical Year All the days we call holy are part of the Liturgical Year. Liturgy is a Greek word meaning a public duty, or a service due to the State from a citizen. In the Old Testament it means the public service of the Temple. In the Christian Church it means our public official service. It often signifies the whole complex of official services, rites, ceremonies and sacraments of the Church. This is in contrast to private prayers and devotions. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and [Page 2 2] the Divine Office constitute the public, official prayer of the Church. The Divine Office is said by priests as official repre- sentatives of the Church. It is both a preparation for the Holy Sacrifice, the Prayer of Prayers, and a thanksgiving for the Holy Sacrifice. From this it will be seen that the Church is fulfilling our Lord’s command: “Pray always.” There is no moment of the day or night when the official prayer of the Church is not rising to the throne of God. We may forget at times to pray. The Church never does. She never will cease to pray until as Church Militant she becomes Church Trium- phant on the day that heaven meets earth at the call of the Angel’s trumpet. Then prayer will be one long act of love in an eternity of happiness. The system of measuring time in expressing our love for God in worship is called the liturgical year or the Church year. As the liturgy is the public, official worship of the Church, it is to be expected that fixed days and seasons will be set apart for special religious observance. The Church year, like the liturgy, has been a gradual de- velopment. It follows to some extent the ancient Jewish ritual. Strict legislation governed we know the celebration of the Jewish week and the sabbath that closed it, as well as the other festivals observed by the Jews in memory of God’s many mercies to them. The pasch or Passover, the day of liberation for the Israelites, together with the harvest festival which ended the paschal season, remain in our Church year as Easter and Pentecost. It was during the Jewish Pentecost that the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles. No ancient pagan festival was continued into the Christian worship. What the early Church did was to institute feasts in honor of our Lord or the saints to supplant pagan celebra- tions. For example when the early missionaries found the pagans worshiping local gods, they did away with this and taught the people to pray to a saint to protect their locality. The modern missionary does the same thing. The liturgical year really began in the days of the Apostles when the early Church substituted Sunday for the sabbath. Certain days and seasons were set apart to commemorate the great events of our Redemption, the incarnation, death, resur- [Page 23] rection and ascension of our Lord. As the Church grew and spread through the era of persecution, the birthdays of the martyrs, that means the day on which they were martyred and went to heaven, were celebrated with liturgical functions in keeping with the custom of the times. Liturgical Cycles The Church continues to honor our Lord and the saints in two liturgical cycles. One is called the Temporal Cycle, the Proper of the Season, which celebrates the events in the life of our Saviour. The other the Sanctoral Cycle, the Proper of the Saints, which pays honor to these friends of God. The Church re-enacts the mysteries of Christ’s life on earth from the beginning to the end of the liturgical year. In recalling these mysteries and giving honor to the saints the Church of- fers the Holy Sacrifice. Of course the Mass is always offered to the Three Divine Persons but it is frequently said in honor of the saints. Sunday as we know holds a place in honor in the Liturgy. With few exceptions each Sunday has its own special Mass. Feast days of the saints are celebrated on week days as a rule. During special liturgical seasons, as Lent for instance, there are special Masses assigned to week days. Moreover four times a year we have the Ember Days. They date so far back in the history of the early Church that little is known of their origin. It is probable that they were originated by the early Church to replace the pagan nature festivals. The name ember is from the Anglo-Saxon ymbren which means a period or season. The present arrangement of the liturgical year dates from the sixteenth century when the Council of Trent introduced what was then the new Roman Missal and Breviary. The calendar to be followed was for all churches, unless there were churches which had calendars that had been in use for two hundred years or more. Owing to the introduction of new feasts the calendar of the sixteenth century has gone through many revisions. The Church Year begins with the first Sunday of Advent and ends on the Saturday which follows the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost. It is made up of two calendars of [Page 24] feasts which run simultaneously, called the temporal cycle and the sanctoral cycle. The temporal cycle re-enacts the life of our Lord and the mysteries of our Redemption. Within this cycle are two important periods, the Christmas cycle and the Easter cycle. The sanctoral cycle is made up of the feasts of our Blessed Lord and the saints. It is called the proper of the saints as the temporal cycle is called the proper of the time. The Liturgical Year is really the Church teaching us divine truths in a vivid and realistic manner. Pius XI emphasizes this in his encyclical Quas Primas when he declares: “People are better instructed in the truths of faith and brought to ap- preciate the interior joys of religion far more effectively by the annual celebration of the sacred mysteries than by even the weightiest pronouncements of the teaching Church. For such pronouncements reach only the few, and these generally the more learned, whereas all the faithful are stirred and taught by the celebration of the feasts. Pronouncements speak only once; celebrations speak annually and as it were continuously. Pronouncements affect the mind primarily, celebrations have a salutary effect on the mind and the heart, that is on the whole man.” In the Liturgical Catechism the Church Year is called “the annual celebration of the mysteries of man’s salvation and of the memory of the saints.” Yet it would be a mistake to think of it as merely a memorial of our Blessed Saviour s life. It is the actual re-enactment of the mysteries of our Lord’s life. Our Lord’s life on earth was lived in fulfilling the most ordinary human tasks. He was a carpenter and the reputed son of a carpenter. He lived, suffered, died and then arose again from the tomb. Today He is joined to every member of His Church in reliving these events, in what we call a mystical or mysterious manner. This is accomplished through the lit- urgy. The events of His life become contemporary and im- mediately present through the Sacrifice of the Mass and other liturgical ceremonies by which the current season of the Church Year is observed. As Monsignor Sheen in his book on the Mystical Body of Christ remarks: “There are three phases in the complete life [Page 25 ] of Christ: His earthly life, His glorified life and His mystical life.” It is His mystical life which is relived by the members of the Church, His Mystical Body in which He lives. We do not merely commemorate, we live again the life of Christ. The Divisions of the Liturgical Year The first day of the Church Year is the first Sunday of Advent. The word means coming . It is the time of prepara- tion for the coming of Christ at Christmas. The season is marked by four Sundays. The first Sunday is the one nearest to the feast of St. Andrew, November 30th. It may occur as early as November 27th and as late as December 3rd. A popu- lar but incorrect idea of the Advent Sundays is that they represent the 4,000 years that the world awaited a Re- deemer, that is from the time of the sin of Adam to the birth of Christ. This is incorrect for Holy Scripture and the Church do not state the precise length of time that elapsed between these two events. Advent prepares us for the feast of Christ- mas by reminding us of the ceaseless longing of God’s chosen people for the coming of the Messias. The liturgy brings us back to the centuries before the Incarnation and bids us pray with the patriarchs and prophets calling upon the Redeemer: “Bestir Thy power, we beseech Thee O Lord, and come.” Our minds are directed toward the threefold coming of Christ, His coming into the world at His birth, His coming into the hearts of men through divine grace, His coming as the all-just Judge on the Last Day. Advent leads into the Christmas season which opens on the eve of Christmas and closes on the octave of the Epiphany. The Church did not celebrate the Nativity of our Lord until the fourth century. The actual date of our Lord’s birth is not known. December 25th may have been chosen to replace the Roman festival of that date which was in honor of the un- conquerable sun-god. It is striking how the Christmas liturgy stresses the idea of Christ our Saviour as the Light of the World. The Gospel of the midnight Mass speaks of the Bright- ness of God that shone upon the shepherds, and the Preface says that the light of God’s glory has shown anew upon the [Page 26] eyes of our mind. The Introit for the dawn Mass announces: “A light shall shine on us today this day for the Lord is born to us.” And in the Gospel we are told: “In Him was life and the life was the light of men; and the light shone in dark- ness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. . . . That was the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.” The three Masses of Christmas symbolize the threefold birth of Christ. His eternal birth, His birth in time, and His birth in the human heart by grace. The Epiphany which means manifestation or showing forth is one of the oldest Christian feasts. It is often called the feast of the Three Kings. It commemorates not only the manifestation of our Lord as the Messias to the Gentile and pagan world, but also the revelation of Christ as God at His baptism when the Eternal Father proclaimed Him as His Di- vine Son, and the declaration of His divine power which oc- curred at the wedding feast of Cana. While the Christmas cycle really ends with the octave of the Epiphany, we have an extension of Christmastide in the season that follows that is called the time after Epiphany. This season commemorates the childhood and hidden life of our Lord at Nazareth. Following the Nativity cycle we have the Paschal cycle which too has its period of preparation, celebration and pro- longation. The period of preparation, Septuagesimal or pre- Lenten season, begins on Septuagesima Sunday and ends on Ash Wednesday, a period of seventeen days. The Lenten season from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, forty days not counting the Sundays. The two weeks preceding Easter form the Passiontide season. The time of celebration or Eastertide lasts from Easter to Trinity Sunday. The period of pro- longation includes the time between Pentecost and the first Sunday of Advent. This is a brief summary of the Liturgical Year. It brings out the striking truth that the Church never forgets to pray to God and to live with Christ. Summary The Third Commandment may be summarized thus: God wishes us to honor Him on a special day. That day to the [Page 27] Jews of old was the sabbath. As the Church succeeded the Synagogue the Lord’s Day—Sunday—became the Christian day of worship. We are bound to keep that day holy by ex- pressing our love of God by reasonable service. Sabbath ob- servance in the time of Christ had degenerated into unreason- able service. It became formalism. Christ repudiated this formalism time and time again. “The sabbath is made for man, not man for the sabbath.” The sabbath commemorated the liberation of the Jews from Egyptian slavery. With the coming of Christ, the Lord of the sabbath, another day was sanctified. Sunday commemorates the Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles. We sanctify Sunday by abstaining from all unnecessary work. We make it different from other days. Even our civil law indicates this by ordering the closing of shops and places of business. In some cities this law is often violated, and there is no apparent difference between Sunday and other days. This indicates a deadening of the Christian conscience both in law observance and law enforcement. While the Jewish or Puritan sabbath is not to be commended, a better observance of Sunday in abstaining from buying and selling, is very much to be de- sired. We first sanctify the Lord’s Day by not doing certain things. Then we show our love for God by doing other things. The Church as God’s Voice tells us what to do. We are commanded under pain of sin to be present at Mass. We should “pray the Mass.” For the Mass is the greatest of all prayers as it is the greatest of God’s gifts. It is Calvary given to each one of us. To appreciate the Mass we must appre- ciate Calvary. The Last Supper, Calvary, the Mass—this is the Bridge between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. Christ our Lord is the Bridge-Builder. Our Mass is known as the Roman Mass. It dates back to the sixth century. As the Mass sanctifies Sunday so does it sanctify all Holydays. Sun- days and Holydays are the high spots in the Liturgical Year. The Liturgical Year is the Church teaching us divine truths in a realistic manner. It is “the annual celebration of the Mysteries of man’s salvation and the memory of the saints.” It is divided into seasons, days, hours. It is the Church ful- filling Christ’s command: Pray always. [Page 28 ] DISCUSSION CLUB QUESTIONNAIRE LESSON I (Pages 3-5) In what book of the Bible de we find the third command- ment and how is it stated? How does this commandment follow from the second? How does this commandment differ from the others? Does sabbath observance belong to the unalterable law of God? Is the time for the fulfillment of this commandment fixed ? When did the Jews begin the observance of the sabbath? When did this observance cease? What is meant by the ceremonial law? What is the connection between the Jewish religion and the Catholic? Did the convert Jews in the days of the Apostles cease at once their old religious practices? What did our Lord say to the people of His day regarding the sabbath? What was His answer to the ruler of the synagogue on violating the sabbath? How did He justify the sabbath conduct of His disciples? LESSON II (Pages 5-8) What did the sabbath signify to the Jews in their history? When was Sunday made the Lord’s Day? What does it commemorate? What works are forbidden on Sunday? What works are allowed? How is the Lord’s Day kept holy? What were the Jews commanded not to do and to do? What is the meaning of prayer? LESSON III (Pages 8-11) What does presence at Mass mean? How may this presence be expressed in three words? [Page 29] For whom did Christ die on Calvary? How does Calvary differ from any other fact in history? How were all men made one by the Sacrifice of Calvary? How was our Lady present on Calvary? Did its blessing reach everyone who was there? What did Christ aim to accomplish on Calvary? What Name explains His mission? Prove that our Lord’s death effected a restoration and a ransom. How is the Mass related to Calvary? How did our Lord fulfill all the necessary conditions of a sacrifice on Calvary? Does He do the same in the Mass? How is Christ’s death on the cross re-enacted in the Mass? LESSON IV (Pages 11-15) What is the Bridge between heaven and earth? How is our Lord the Bridge-Builder? Why is our Redeemer our High Priest? How is Christ the Perfect Mediator? How does our Lord place Himself equivalently in the state of death by the Mass? What words make it plain that Christ intended to offer sacrifice at the Last Supper? What has the Church constantly taught regarding the Mass? What has the Council of Trent said of the excellence of the Mass? LESSON V (Pages 15-19) What was the synagogue prayer service? Explain the resemblance between the synagogue service and the first part of the Mass. The Church is the heir of the synagogue. Explain. What does the Pope mean by saying “we are spiritual Semites”? Prove from St. Paul and St. Justin the antiquity of some of our Mass prayers. [Page 30] LESSON VI (Pages 19-21) What is the Mahometan holy day, and what share have men and women in the observance? How many daily prayers are there in this religion? What is the sacred fast of the Mahometans? Who are obliged to make the pilgrimage to Mecca? LESSON VII (Pages 21-24) What are the Catholic Holydays and how many are there in America? What are the oldest feasts in the Church? Trace the development of Holyday observance in the early centuries. What did civil legislation prescribe about Holyday ob- servance in the fourth and fifth centuries? What was the approximate number of Holydays in the twelfth century? How account for the increase? What action did Pope Urban VIII and Pope Clement XIV take regarding Holydays? What does the word Liturgy mean? What is the official prayer of the Church? When is it said? What relation does the Divine Office bear to the Holy Sacrifice ? When will the Church cease to pray? What is the Liturgical Year? Was the Liturgical Year established at once? What was the Jewish liturgical year? Are our Christian festivals derived from the pagan cele- brations? How did the Liturgical Year begin and when? [Page 31] LESSON VIII (Pages 24-28) What are the two liturgical cycles? How does the Church re-enact the Life of our Lord? To Whom is the Holy Sacrifice offered and in Whose honor? What place does Sunday hold in the Church year? When are the festivals of the saints celebrated? What are the Ember days? When did the present arrangement of the Liturgical Year begin? Has it remained the same? When does the Church Year begin and end? What are the two important periods of the temporal cycle? What are the other names of the temporal and sanctoral cycles? What does the Pope, Pius XI, say of the teaching value of the liturgy? How does the Liturgical Catechism define the Church Year? Do we merely commemorate our Lord’s Life through the liturgy? What is the first day of the Church Year? What is the meaning of the Advent season? What is the incorrect idea of the season? What does Advent bring to our minds? Explain the threefold coming of Christ. When did the Church first celebrate the Nativity? What is the actual date of our Lord’s birth? What note does the Church especially stress in the Christ- mas Day liturgy? What do the three Masses signify? What does Epiphany mean? What three manifestations does it commemorate? What does the season after Epiphany commemorate? Explain the three parts of the Paschal cycle. State in a sentence the meaning of the Liturgical Year. Summarize the third commandment. [Page 32] TEN COMMANDMENT SERIES By REV. GERALD C. TREACY, S.J. This new series will be representative of the finest in pamphlet publication. Each title will be forceful, instructive and interesting and will con- tain an eight-lesson discussion club outline. The covers with their original designs in varied colors will make the booklets attractive in bookracks and on mission tables. IN PREPARATION The Eighth Commandment 5c each, $3.50 the 100, $30.00 the 1,000 Postage Extra THE PAUL 1ST PRESS 401 West 59th Street New York, N. Y. 61