THE LITURGY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
There is no derogation of the honor clue to the Catholic Church in the
assertion that a large element in the extraordinary spell which she has
always exercised upon the minds of men is to be found in the beauty of
her liturgy, the solemn magnificence of her forms of worship, and the
glorious products of artistic genius with which those forms have been
embellished. Every one who has accustomed himself to frequent places of
Catholic worship at High Mass, especially the cathedrals of the old
world, whether he is in sympathy with the idea of that worship or not,
must have been impressed with something peculiarly majestic, elevating,
and moving in the spectacle; he must have felt as if drawn by some
irresistible fascination out of his accustomed range of thought, borne by
a spiritual tide that sets toward regions unexplored. The music which
pervades the mystic ceremony is perhaps the chief agent of this mental
reaction through the peculiar spell which the very nature of music
enables it to exert upon the emotion. Music in the Catholic ritual seems
to act almost in excess of its normal efficacy. It may, without
impropriety, be compared to the music of the dramatic stage in the aid it
derives from accessories and poetic association. The music is such a
vital constituent of the whole act of devotion that the impressions drawn
from the liturgy, ceremony, architecture, decoration, and the sublime
memories of a venerable past are all insensibly invoked to lend to the
tones of priest and choir and organ a grandeur not their own. This is the
reason why Catholic music, even when it is tawdry and sensational, or
indifferently performed, has a certain air of nobility. The ceremony is
always imposing, and the music which enfolds the act of worship like an
atmosphere must inevitably absorb somewhat of the dignity of the rite to
which it ministers. And when the music in itself is the product of the
highest genius and is rendered with reverence and skill, the effect upon
a sensitive mind is more solemnizing than that obtained from any other
variety of musical experience.
This secret of association and artistic setting must always be taken into
account if we would measure the peculiar power of the music of the
Catholic Church. We must observe that music is only one of many means of
impression, and is made to act not alone, but in union with reinforcing
agencies. These agencies--which include all the elements of the ceremony
that affect the eye and the imagination--are intended to supplement and
enhance each other; and in analyzing the attractive force which the
Catholic Church has always exercised upon minds vastly diverse in
culture, we cannot fail to admire the consummate skill with which she has
made her appeal to the universal susceptibility to ideas of beauty and
grandeur and mystery as embodied in sound and form. The union of the arts
for the sake of an immediate and undivided effect, of which we have heard
so much in recent years, was achieved by the Catholic Church centuries
ago. She rears the most sumptuous edifices, decorates their walls with
masterpieces of painting, fills every sightly nook with sculptures in
wood and stone, devises a ritual of ingenious variety and lavish
splendor, pours over this ritual music that alternately subdues and
excites, adjusts all these means so that each shall heighten the effect
of the others and seize upon the perceptions at the same moment. In
employing these artistic agencies the Church has taken cognizance of
every degree of enlightenment and variety of temper. For the vulgar she
has garish display, for the superstitious wonder and concealment; for the
refined and reflective she clothes her doctrines in the fairest guise and
makes worship an aesthetic delight. Her worship centres in a mystery--the
Real Presence--and this mystery she embellishes with every allurement
that can startle, delight, and enthrall.
Symbolism and artistic decoration--in the use of which the Catholic
Church has exceeded all other religious institutions except her sister
Church of the East--are not mere extraneous additions, as though they
might be cut off without essential loss; they are the natural outgrowth
of her very spirit and genius, the proper outward manifestation of the
idea which pervades her culture and her worship. Minds that need no
external quickening, but love to rise above ceremonial observances and
seek immediate contact with the divine source of life, are comparatively
rare. Mysticism is not for the multitude; the majority of mankind require
that spiritual influences shall come to them in the guise of that which
is tangible; a certain nervous thrill is needed to shock them out of
their accustomed material habitudes. Recognizing this fact, and having
taken up into her system a vast number of ideas which inevitably require
objective representation in order that they may be realized and
operative, the Catholic Church has even incurred the charge of idolatry
on account of the extreme use she has made of images and symbols. But it
may be that in this she has shown greater wisdom than those who censure
her. She knows that the externals of religious observance must be endowed
with a large measure of sensuous charm if they would seize hold upon the
affections of the bulk of mankind. She knows that spiritual aspiration
and the excitement of the senses can never be entirely separated in
actual public worship, and she would run the risk of subordinating the
first to the second rather than offer a service of bare intellectuality
empty of those persuasions which artistic genius offers, and which are so
potent to bend the heart in reverence and submission.
In the study of the Catholic system of rites and ceremonies, together
with their motive and development, the great problem of the relation of
religion and art meets us squarely. The Catholic Church has not been
satisfied to prescribe fixed forms and actions for every devotional
impulse--she has aimed to make those forms and actions beautiful. There
has been no phase of art which could be devoted to this object that has
not offered to her the choicest of its achievements. And not for
decoration merely, not simply to subjugate the spirit by fascinating the
senses, but rather impelled by an inner necessity which has effected a
logical alliance of the special powers of art with the aims and needs of
the Church. Whatever may be the attitude toward the claims of this great
institution, no one of sensibility can deny that the world has never
seen, and is never likely to see, anything fairer or more majestic than
that sublime structure, compounded of architecture, sculpture, and
painting, and informed by poetry and music, which the Church created in
the Middle Age, and fixed in enduring mould for the wondering admiration
of all succeeding time. Every one who studies it with a view to searching
its motive is compelled to admit that it was a work of sincere
conviction. It came from no "vain or shallow thought;" it testifies to
something in the heart of Catholicism that has never failed to stir the
most passionate affection, and call forth the loftiest efforts of
artistic skill. This marvellous product of Catholic art, immeasurable in
its variety, has gathered around the rites and ordinances of the Church,
and taken from them its spirit, its forms, and its
tendencies;--architecture to erect a suitable enclosure for worship, and
to symbolize the conception of the visible kingdom of Christ in time and
of the eternal kingdom of Christ in heaven; sculpture to adorn this
sanctuary, and standing like the sacred edifice itself in closest
relation to the centre of churchly life and deriving from that its
purpose and norm; painting performing a like function, and also more
definitely acting for instruction, vividly illustrating the doctrines and
traditions of the faith, directing the thought of the believer more
intently to their moral purport and ideal beauty; poetry and music, the
very breath of the liturgy itself, acting immediately upon the heart,
kindling the latent sentiment of reverence into lively emotions of joy
and love. In the employment of rites and ceremonies with their sumptuous
artistic setting, in the large stress that is laid upon prescribed forms
and external acts of worship, the Catholic Church has been actuated by a
conviction from which she has never for an instant swerved. This
conviction is twofold: first, that the believer is aided thereby in the
offering of an absorbed, fervent, and sincere worship; and second, that
it is not only fitting, but a duty, that all that is most precious, the
product of the highest development of the powers that God has given to
man, should be offered as a witness of man's love and adoration,--that
the expenditure of wealth in the erection and decoration of God's
sanctuaries, and the tribute of the highest artistic skill in the
creation of forms of beauty, are worthy of his immeasurable glory and of
ourselves as his dependent children. Says Cardinal Gibbons: "The
ceremonies of the Church not only render the divine service more solemn,
but they also rivet and captivate our attention and lift it up to God.
Our mind is so active, so volatile, and full of distractions, our
imagination is so fickle, that we have need of some external objects on
which to fix our thoughts. True devotion must be interior and come from
the heart; but we are not to infer that exterior worship is to be
condemned because interior worship is prescribed as essential. On the
contrary, the rites and ceremonies which are enjoined in the worship of
God and in the administration of the sacraments are dictated by right
reason, and are sanctioned by Almighty God in the old law, and by Christ
and his apostles in the new."[45] "Not by the human understanding," says
a writer in the _Caecilien Kalendar_, "was the ritual devised, man knows
not whence it came. Its origin lies outside the inventions of man, like
the ideas which it presents. The liturgy arose with the faith, as speech
with thought. What the body is for the soul, such is the liturgy for
religion. Everything in the uses of the Church, from the mysterious
ceremonies of the Mass and of Good Friday, to the summons of the evening
bell to prayer, is nothing else than the eloquent expression of the
content of the redemption of the Son of God."[46]
Since the ritual is prayer, the offering of the Church to God through
commemoration and representation as well as through direct appeal, so the
whole ceremonial, act as well as word, blends with this conception of
prayer, not as embellishment merely but as constituent factor. Hence the
large use of symbolism, and even of semi-dramatic representation. "When I
speak of the dramatic form of our ceremonies," says Cardinal Wiseman, "I
make no reference whatever to outward display; and I choose that epithet
for the reason that the poverty of language affords me no other for my
meaning. The object and power of dramatic poetry consist in its being not
merely descriptive but representative. Its character is to bear away the
imagination and soul to the view of what others witnessed, and excite in
us, through their words, such impressions as we might have felt on the
occasion. The service of the Church is eminently poetical, the dramatic
power runs through the service in a most marked manner, and must be kept
in view for its right understanding. Thus, for example, the entire
service for the dead, office, exequies, and Mass, refers to the moment of
death, and bears the imagination to the awful crisis of separation of
soul and body." "In like manner the Church prepares us during Advent for
the commemoration of our dear Redeemer's birth, as though it were really
yet to take place. As the festival approaches, the same ideal return to
the very moment and circumstances of our divine Redeemer's birth is
expressed; all the glories of the day are represented to the soul as if
actually occurring." "This principle, which will be found to animate the
church service of every other season, rules most remarkably that of Holy
Week, and gives it life and soul. It is not intended to be merely
commemorative or historical; it is, strictly speaking,
representative."[47] "The traditions and rules of church art," says
Jakob, "are by no means arbitrary, they are not an external accretion,
but they proceed from within outward, they have grown organically from
the guiding spirit of the Church, out of the requirements of her worship.
Therein lies the justification of symbolism and symbolic representation
in ecclesiastical art. The church of stone must be a speaking image of
the living Church and her mysteries; the pictures on the walls and on the
altars are not mere ornament for the eye, but for the heart a book full
of instruction, a sermon full of truth. And thereby is art raised to be a
participant in the work of edifying the believers; it becomes a profound
teacher of thousands, a bearer and preserver of great ideas for the
centuries."[48] "Our Holy Church," says a German priest, "which
completely understands the nature and the needs of humanity, presents to
us divine truth and grace in sensible form, in order that by this means
they may be more easily grasped and more securely appropriated by us. The
law of sense perception, which constitutes so important a factor in human
education, forms also a fundamental law in the action of Holy Church,
whereby she seeks to raise us out of this earthly material life into the
supernatural life of grace. She therefore confers upon us redemptive
grace in the holy sacraments in connection with external signs, through
which the inner grace is shadowed forth and accomplished, as for instance
the inward washing of the soul from sin in baptism through the outward
washing of the body. In like manner the eye of the instructed Catholic
sees in the symbolic ceremonies of the holy sacrifice of the Mass the
thrilling representation of the fall of man, our redemption, and finally
our glorification at the second coming of our Lord. Out of this ground
law of presentation to the senses has arisen the whole liturgy of the
Church, _i. e._, the sum of all religious actions and prayers to the
honor of God and the communication of his grace to us, and this whole
expressive liturgy forms at once the solemn ceremonial in the sanctuary
of the Heavenly King, in which he receives our adoration and bestows upon
us the most plentiful tokens of his favor."[49]
These citations sufficiently indicate the mind of the Catholic Church in
respect to the uses of ritual and symbolic ceremony. The prime intention
is the instruction and edification of the believer, but it is evident
that a necessary element in this edification is the thought that the rite
is one composite act of worship, a prayer, an offering to Almighty God.
This is the theory of Catholic art, the view which pious churchmen have
always entertained of the function of artistic forms in worship. That all
the products of religious art in Catholic communities have been actuated
by this motive alone would be too much to say. The principle of "art for
art's sake," precisely antagonistic to the traditional ecclesiastical
principle, has often made itself felt in periods of relapsed zeal, and
artists have employed traditional subjects out of habit or policy,
finding them as good as any others as bases for experiments in the
achievement of sensuous charm in form, texture, and color. But so far as
changeless dogma, liturgic unity, and consistent tradition have
controlled artistic effort, individual determination has been allowed
enough play to save art from petrifying into a hieratic formalism, but
not enough to endanger the faith, morals, or loyalty of the flock. He
therefore who would know the spirit of Catholicism must give a large
portion of his study to its art. From the central genius of this
institution, displayed not merely in its doctrines and traditions, but
also in its sublime faith in its own divine ordination and guidance, and
in its ideals of holiness, have issued its liturgy, its ceremonial, and
the infinitely varied manifestations of its symbolic, historic, and
devotional art. The Catholic Church has aimed to rear on earth a visible
type of the spiritual kingdom of God, and to build for her disciples a
home, suggestive in its splendor of the glory prepared for those who keep
the faith.
All Catholic art, in so far as it may in the strict use of language be
called church art, separates itself from the larger and more indefinite
category of religious art, and derives its character not from the
personal determination of individual artists, but from conceptions and
models that have become traditional and canonical. These traditional laws
and forms have developed organically out of the needs of the Catholic
worship; they derive their sanction and to a large extent their style
from the doctrine and also from the ceremonial. The centre of the whole
churchly life is the altar, with the great offices of worship there
performed. Architecture, painting, decoration, music,--all are
comprehended in a unity of impression through the liturgy which they
serve. Ecclesiastical art has evolved from within the Church itself, and
has drawn its vitality from those ideas which have found their permanent
and most terse embodiment in the liturgy. Upon the liturgy and the
ceremonial functions attending it must be based all study of the system
of artistic expression officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church.
The Catholic liturgy, or text of the Mass, is not the work of any
individual or conference. It is a growth, an evolution. Set forms of
prayer began to come into use as soon as the first Christian
congregations were founded by the apostles. The dogma of the eucharist
was the chief factor in giving the liturgy its final shape. By a logical
process of selection and integration, certain prayers, Scripture lessons,
hymns, and responses were woven together, until the whole became shaped
into what may be called a religious poem, in which was expressed the
conceived relation of Christ to the Church, and the emotional attitude of
the Church in view of his perpetual presence as both paschal victim and
high priest. This great prayer of the Catholic Church is mainly composed
of contributions made by the Eastern Church during the first four
centuries. Its essential features were adopted and transferred to Latin
by the Church of Rome, and after a process of sifting and rearranging,
with some additions, its form was completed by the end of the sixth
century essentially as it stands to-day. The liturgy is, therefore, the
voice of the Church, weighted with her tradition, resounding with the
commanding tone of her apostolic authority, eloquent with the longing and
the assurance of innumerable martyrs and confessors, the mystic testimony
to the commission which the Church believes to have been laid upon her by
the Holy Spirit. It is not surprising, therefore, that devout Catholics
have come to consider this liturgy as divinely inspired, raised above all
mere human speech, the language of saints and angels, a truly celestial
poem; and that Catholic writers have well-nigh exhausted the vocabulary
of enthusiasm in expounding its spiritual significance.
The insistence upon the use of one unvarying language in the Mass and all
the other offices of the Catholic Church is necessarily involved in the
very conception of catholicity and immutability. A universal Church must
have a universal form of speech; national languages imply national
churches; the adoption of the vernacular would be the first step toward
disintegration. The Catholic, into whatever strange land he may wander,
is everywhere at home the moment he enters a sanctuary of his faith, for
he hears the same worship, in the same tongue, accompanied with the same
ceremonies, that has been familiar to him from childhood. This universal
language must inevitably be the Latin. Unlike all living languages it is
never subject to change, and hence there is no danger that any
misunderstanding of refined points of doctrine or observance will creep
in through alteration in the connotation of words. Latin is the original
language of the Catholic Church, the language of scholarship and
diplomacy in the period of ecclesiastical formation, the tongue to which
were committed the ritual, articles of faith, legal enactments, the
writings of the fathers of the Church, ancient conciliar decrees, etc.
The only exceptions to the rule which prescribes Latin as the liturgical
speech are to be found among certain Oriental congregations, where, for
local reasons, other languages are permitted, _viz._, Greek, Syriac,
Chaldaic, Slavonic, Wallachian, Armenian, Coptic, and Ethiopic. In each
of these instances, however, the liturgic speech is not the vernacular,
but the ancient form which has passed out of use in other relations.[50]
The Mass is the most solemn rite among the offices of the Catholic
Church, and embodies the fundamental doctrine upon which the Catholic
system of worship mainly rests. It is the chief sacrament, the permanent
channel of grace ever kept open between God and his Church. It is an
elaborate development of the last supper of Christ with his disciples,
and is the fulfilment of the perpetual injunction laid by the Master upon
his followers. Developed under the control of the idea of sacrifice,
which was drawn from the central conception of the old Jewish
dispensation and imbedded in the tradition of the Church at a very early
period, the office of the Mass became not a mere memorial of the
atonement upon Calvary, but a perpetual renewal of it upon the altar
through the power committed to the priesthood by the Holy Spirit. To the
Protestant, Christ was offered once for all upon the cross, and the
believer partakes through repentance and faith in the benefits conferred
by that transcendent act; but to the Catholic this sacrifice is repeated
whenever the eucharistic elements of bread and wine are presented at the
altar with certain prayers and formulas. The renewal of the atoning
process is effected through the recurring miracle of transubstantiation,
by which the bread and wine are transmuted into the very body and blood
of Christ. It is in this way that the Catholic Church literally
interprets the words of Jesus: "This is my body; this is my blood; whoso
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life." When the
miraculous transformation has taken place at the repetition by the priest
of Christ's words of institution, the consecrated host and chalice are
offered to God by the priest in the name and for the sake of the
believers, both present and absent, for whom prayer is made and who share
through faith in the benefits of this sacrificial act. "The sacrifice of
the Mass," says Cardinal Gibbons, "is identical with that of the cross,
both having the same victim and high priest--Jesus Christ. The only
difference consists in the manner of the oblation. Christ was offered
upon the cross in a bloody manner; in the Mass he is offered up in an
unbloody manner. On the cross he purchased our ransom, and in the
eucharistic sacrifice the price of that ransom is applied to our
souls."[51] This conception is the keystone of the whole structure of
Catholic faith, the super-essential dogma, repeated, from century to
century in declarations of prelates, theologians, and synods, reasserted
once for all in terms of binding definition by the Council of Trent. All,
therefore, who assist in this mystic ceremony, either as celebrants and
ministers or as indirect participants through faith, share in its
supernatural efficacy. It is to them a sacrifice of praise, of
supplication, and of propitiation.
The whole elaborate ceremony of the Mass, which is such an enigma to the
uninstructed, is nowhere vain or repetitious. Every word has its fitting
relation to the whole; every gesture and genuflection, every change of
vestments, has its symbolic significance. All the elements of the rite
are merged into a unity under the sway of this central act of
consecration and oblation. All the lessons, prayers, responses, and hymns
are designed to lead up to it, to prepare the officers and people to
share in it, and to impress upon them its meaning and effect. The
architectural, sculptural, and decorative beauty of altar, chancel, and
apse finds its justification as a worthy setting for the august ceremony,
and as a fitting shrine to harbor the very presence of the Lord. The
display of lights and vestments, the spicy clouds of incense, the
solemnity of priestly chant, and the pomp of choral music, are contrived
solely to enhance the impression of the rite, and to compel the mind into
a becoming mood of adoration.
There are several kinds of Masses, differing in certain details, or in
manner of performance, or in respect to the occasions to which they are
appropriated, such as the High Mass, Solemn High Mass, Low Mass, Requiem
Mass or Mass for the Dead, Mass of the Presanctified, Nuptial Mass,
Votive Mass, etc. The widest departure from the ordinary Mass form is in
the Requiem Mass, where the Gloria and Credo are omitted, and their
places supplied by the mediaeval judgment hymn, Dies Irae, together with
certain special prayers for departed souls. In respect to the customary
service on Sundays, festal, and ferial days there is no difference in the
words of the High Mass, Solemn High Mass, and Low Mass, but only in the
manner of performance and the degree of embellishment. The Low Mass is
said in a low tone of voice and in the manner of ordinary speech, the
usual marks of solemnity being dispensed with; there is no chanting and
no choir music. The High Mass is given in musical tones throughout by
celebrant and choir. The Solemn High Mass is performed with still greater
ritualistic display, and with deacon, sub-deacon, and a full corps of
inferior ministers.
The prayers, portions of Scripture, hymns, and responses which compose
the Catholic liturgy consist both of parts that are unalterably the same
and of parts that change each day of the year. Those portions that are
invariable constitute what is known as the Ordinary of the Mass. The
changeable or "proper" parts include the Introits, Collects, Epistles and
Lessons, Graduals, Tracts, Gospels, Offertories, Secrets, Prefaces,
Communions, and Post-Communions. Every day of the year has its special
and distinctive form, according as it commemorates some event in the life
of our Lord or is devoted to the memory of some saint, martyr, or
confessor.[52] Mass may be celebrated on any day of the year except Good
Friday, the great mourning day of the Church.
The outline of the Mass ceremony that follows relates to the High Mass,
which may be taken as the type of the Mass in general. It must be borne
in mind that the entire office is chanted or sung.
After the entrance of the officiating priest and his attendants the
celebrant pronounces the words: "In the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen;" and then recites the 42d psalm (43d
in the Protestant version). Next follows the confession of sin and prayer
for pardon. After a few brief prayers and responses the Introit--a short
Scripture selection, usually from a psalm--is chanted. Then the choir
sings the Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison. The first of these ejaculations
was used in the Eastern Church in the earliest ages as a response by the
people. It was adopted into the liturgies of the Western Church at a very
early period, and is one of the two instances of the survival in the
Latin office of phrases of the original Greek liturgies. The Christe
eleison was added a little later.
The Kyrie is immediately followed by the singing by the choir of the
Gloria in excelsis Deo. This hymn, also called the greater doxology, is
of Greek origin, and is the angelic song given in chapter ii. of Luke's
Gospel, with additions which were made not later than the fourth century.
It was adopted into the Roman liturgy at least as early as the latter
part of the sixth century, since it appears, connected with certain
restrictions, in the sacramentary of Pope Gregory the Great.
Next are recited the Collects--short prayers appropriate to the day,
imploring God's blessing. Then comes the reading of the Epistle, a psalm
verse called the Gradual, the Alleluia, or, when that is omitted, the
Tractus (which is also usually a psalm verse), and at certain festivals a
hymn called Sequence. Next is recited the Gospel appointed for the day.
If a sermon is preached its place is next after the Gospel.
The confession of faith--Credo--is then sung by the choir. This symbol is
based on the creed adopted by the council of Nicaea in 325 and modified
by the council of Constantinople in 381, but it is not strictly identical
with either the Nicene or the Constantinople creed. The most important
difference between the Constantinople creed and the present Roman
consists in the addition in the Roman creed of the words "and from the
Son" (filioque) in the declaration concerning the procession of the Holy
Ghost. The present creed has been in use in Spain since 589, and
according to what seems good authority was adopted into the Roman liturgy
in 1014.
After a sentence usually taken from a psalm and called the Offertory, the
most solemn portion of the Mass begins with the Oblation of the Host, the
ceremonial preparation of the elements of bread and wine, with prayers,
incensings, and ablutions.
All being now ready for the consummation of the sacrificial act, the
ascription of thanksgiving and praise called the Preface is offered,
which varies with the season, but closes with the Sanctus and Benedictus,
sung by the choir.
The Sanctus, also called Trisagion or Thrice Holy, is the cherubic hymn
heard by Isaiah in vision, as described in Is. vi. 3. The Benedictus is
the shout of acclamation by the concourse who met Christ on his entry
into Jerusalem. There is a poetic significance in the union of these two
passages. The blessed one, who cometh in the name of the Lord, is the
Lord himself, the God of Sabaoth, of whose glory heaven and earth are
full.
The Canon of the Mass now opens with prayers that the holy sacrifice may
be accepted of God, and may redound to the benefit of those present. The
act of consecration is performed by pronouncing Christ's words of
institution, and the sacred host and chalice, now become objects of the
most rapt and absorbed devotion, are elevated before the kneeling
worshipers, and committed to the acceptance of God with the most
impressive vows and invocations.
As an illustration of the nobility of thought and beauty of diction that
are found in the Catholic offices, the prayer immediately following the
consecration of the chalice may be quoted:
"Wherefore, O Lord, we thy servants, as also thy holy people, calling to
mind the blessed passion of the same Christ thy Son our Lord, his
resurrection from the dead, and admirable ascension into heaven, offer
unto thy most excellent Majesty of the gifts bestowed upon us a pure
Host, a holy Host, an unspotted Host, the holy bread of eternal life, and
chalice of everlasting salvation.
"Upon which vouchsafe to look, with a propitious and serene countenance,
and to accept them, as thou wert graciously pleased to accept the gifts
of thy just servant Abel, and the sacrifice of our patriarch Abraham, and
that which thy high priest Melchisedech offered to thee, a holy sacrifice
and unspotted victim.
"We most humbly beseech thee, Almighty God, command these things to be
carried by the hands of thy holy angels to thy altar on high, in the
sight of thy divine Majesty, that as many as shall partake of the most
sacred body and blood of thy Son at this altar, may be filled with every
heavenly grace and blessing."
In the midst of the series of prayers following the consecration the
choir sings the Agnus Dei, a short hymn which was introduced into the
Roman liturgy at a very early date. The priest then communicates, and
those of the congregation who have been prepared for the exalted
privilege by confession and absolution kneel at the sanctuary rail and
receive from the celebrant's hands the consecrated wafer. The
Post-Communion, which is a brief prayer for protection and grace, the
dismissal[53] and benediction, and the reading of the first fourteen
verses of the Gospel according to St. John close the ceremony.
Interspersed with the prayers, lessons, responses, hymns, etc., which
constitute the liturgy are a great number of crossings, obeisances,
incensings, changing of vestments, and other liturgic actions, all an
enigma to the uninitiated, yet not arbitrary or meaningless, for each has
a symbolic significance, designed not merely to impress the congregation,
but still more to enforce upon the ministers themselves a sense of the
magnitude of the work in which they are engaged. The complexity of the
ceremonial, the rapidity of utterance and the frequent inaudibility of
the words of the priest, together with the fact that the text is in a
dead language, are not inconsistent with the purpose for which the Mass
is conceived. For it is not considered as proceeding from the people, but
it is an ordinance performed for them and in their name by a priesthood,
whose function is that of representing the Church in its mediatorial
capacity. The Mass is not simply a prayer, but also a semi-dramatic
action,--an action which possesses in itself an efficacy _ex opere
operato_. This idea renders it unnecessary that the worshipers should
follow the office in detail; it is enough that they cooperate with the
celebrant in faith and pious sympathy. High authorities declare that the
most profitable reception of the rite consists in simply watching the
action of the officiating priest at the altar, and yielding the spirit
unreservedly to the holy emotions which are excited by a complete
self-abandonment to the contemplation of the adorable mystery. The
sacramental theory of the Mass as a vehicle by which grace is
communicated from above to the believing recipient, also leaves him free
to carry on private devotion during the progress of the ceremony. When
the worshipers are seen kneeling in the pews or before an altar at the
side wall, fingering rosaries or with eyes intent upon prayer-books, it
is not the words of the Mass that they are repeating. The Mass is the
prayer of the Church at large, but it does not emanate from the
congregation. The theory of the Mass does not even require the presence
of the laity, and as a matter of practice private and solitary Masses,
although rare, are in no way contrary to the discipline of the Catholic
Church.