Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.
unless otherwise stated.
First of all, we must never forget that The Mass is a Sacrifice, an act, by which The Church gives to Almighty God, officially and in the name of all, Worship of the highest kind, Adoration, or Latria (Editor: Supreme Worship allowed to God, alone), which is due to Him alone, in virtue of the supreme excellence of His Divine Being, from which everything comes and to which everything must return.
Therefore, The Mass is offered only to The Three Persons of The Blessed Trinity.
What the Priest offers to God, as an acknowledgement of His Sovereign Dominion over all creatures, is none other than Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, by His Sacrifice on The Cross, has rendered to His Father an infinite Act of Worship, consisting of Adoration, Thanksgiving, Expiation, and Impetration (Editor: The action of requesting something fervently).
Moreover, since all the Mysteries of Our Saviour's life have helped, in union with Calvary, to bring about our Salvation, The Church Commemorates them in The Holy Sacrifice of The Mass by the different Feasts of The Temporal Cycle or The Cycle of Christ.
At Christmas, she offers to God The Divine Child of The Manger, with all that stage in Our Lord's life that has specially contributed to The Father's Glory; and, by that means, ensures to us the application, quite special, also, of the Graces which Christ merited for us, and which will enable us to practise each year, more and more, the Virtues of which The Son of God and Mary then gave us an example.
The Holy Sacrifice is offered in honour of The Saints.
We offer to The Saints, also, a fitting homage when we unite their memory with Our Lord's at the Altar. This is done on the Anniversary of their death and every day in The Canon of The Mass. As Members of The Mystical Body of Christ, it is right to associate them with The Sacrifice of their Head, since, by their sufferings, and often by their Martyrdom, they have mingled their blood with that of this Divine Victim.
Moreover, The Church encloses The Relics of The Saints, especially those of The Martyrs, in the Altar-Stone at the very spot where the Priest places The Sacred Host. "It is the whole City of The Redeemed," says Saint Augustine, "the assembly and company of The Saints, which is the universal sacrifice and which is offered to God by The High Priest, Who offers Himself for us in His Passion."
The efficacy of their merits in the past, and their Prayers in the present, is, in a special way, increased, when these are offered to God closely united with the Merits and Prayers of Christ Jesus, The Universal Mediator, and this happens especially on their Feast Day, when Holy Mass is Celebrated in their honour.
"Most humbly we Pray," says The Church in The Collect for The Feast of All Saints, "that, since so great is the number of Thine Elect pleading for us, we may partake, in all their fulness, of Thy abounding mercies."
Most willingly does God accept the offering of The Blood of Christ, made through The Saints as intermediaries.
How The Faithful can take an active part in this Sacrifice.
Assisting at Mass, we should do four things:
In reading Liturgical Prayers with the Priest;
In singing Congregational and Gregorian Chant at High Mass;
In responding at Low Mass, and best of all,
In receiving Holy Communion with the Priest during Mass.
Certain Texts of The Mass are reserved to the Priest, and should never be said aloud by The Faithful: We can still make these parts our own, not by a mechanical repetition, but by reverent and serious reflection, corresponding to the thoughts expressed by these Prayers.
Other parts of The Mass were originally, and are still meant to be, said by the people. They are of two kinds: Those that are to be Chanted by The Congregation at High Mass, and those that are responded by the Ministers, or by the Server at Low Mass, on our behalf.
In The Ordinary of The Mass, all sentences that may be said by The Faithful are printed in heavier type (Editor: Bold Type).
This assistance at The Holy Sacrifice is the ideal preparation for Holy Communion, since it is the same that The Church imposes on The Pope, the Bishops, and all Priests, whenever they Celebrate Mass.
By means of this preparation, the highest Act of Participation in The Mass is Holy Communion. It obtains all its fruits, because it is one of the most perfect applications of the conditions required by the Decree of the Saintly Pope Pius X, when he said: "A most abundant attainment of the effects of Holy Communion is, by a careful preparation and a thanksgiving, proper to the reception of this Divine Sacrament".
Monstrance.
Photo: 2004-10-18 (original upload date).
Source: Own work (zelf gemaakt).
Originally from nl.wikipedia; description page is/was here.
Author: Original uploader was Broederhugo at nl.wikipedia.
(Wikimedia Commons)
