The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-10-18
FIRST IMPRESSION OF THE MASS
A Converts Graphic and Beautiful
Description the Holy Sacrifice.

A Converts Graphic and Beautiful
Description the Holy Sacrifice.
When 1 recall my first impressions
of the mass-if in my bewiIderment
can be said to have received any i'm
preston whatever-I assure myself
that the majority of Protestants and
unbelievers, who look coldly or curl
ously upon the altar. are as little
mindful of the sacred significance of
the Sacrifice and as unworthy specta-
tors as 1 was. Oh, the loss of thesei
Do we not see in the gravity of the
celebrant as he bears the chalice of the
altar, our Lord entering the Garden of
Gethsemane? 1t is the first scene in
the mystical drama and every breath
IS hushed. The divine one is bur-
dened with a fore knowledge of his
doom. He kneels in the garden. We
kneel with him, and are to follow him,
step by step, to the very end.
At the Confiteor he has fallen upon
his face, bathed in the sweat of blood :
he is betrayed with a kiss, led away
captive, grievously smitten and de-
MED. The celebrant turns to us at the
Dominus vobiscum, and in his glance
we see the conversion of Peter Our
Lord is led before Pontius PLATE,
brought to Herod, scornfully sent back
again to PLATE. He is spoiled of his
garments-at the unveiling of the chal-
ice-scourged and crowned with thorns.
PLATE washes his hands of the crime
and at the moment the celebrant moist
ems his fingers. Behold the man.
cries PLATE; and the voice from the al
tar pleads, Orate fratres.
At the Preface we hear the warning
bell. The awful progress of the trag-
edy is watched in breathless silence;
only from the organ loft comes the
wall of the singers. The bell rings;
he is condemned to death, and made
TO bear his cross, while his brow is
wiped with the handkerchief of Ver-
onfca, and the effigy of that sorrow
full face is retained forever. He is
nailed to the cross, and at the Eleva-
tion of the Host, while the Ginning
bells mark every posture of the cele-
hrant at the altar; while the torch
bearers gather about, the smoking
censers are swung aloft, the flowers
are scattered upon the air, and, if it
be a military mass, the whole body
silently presents arms; while the de-
vout kneelers bow their heads and
beat their breasts in contrition. loi the
cross is raised on high. A moment
later the elevated chalice seems to
catch the water and the blood that
gush from the riven heart of him who
died for us.
In the Memento, which follows, he
is praying for the world he is merci-
full to the penitent thief; he thirsts
and he utters the Seven Words upon
the Cross. (Here the Pater Noster is
loudly chanted.) He dies. He de-
scends into hell; and at the Agnus Del,
while the bells chime again, there is
the conversion of many at the cross.
Ia holy communion we commemorate
his burial, and his amounting in the
last ablution of the celebrant. His
resurrection follows, and he appears
10 his disciples at the Dominus
vobiscum. The last collect is a MEM
ory of his forty days with the dis
ciples: the last Dominus vobiscum, of
his glorious ascension; and with the
henediction descends the Holy Ghost!
0 marvellous Sacrament mysterious.
majestical, o never failing source Of
joy what a privation is theirs, who
having once known thee, are parted
from thee! How do they survive who
trust not in thee, and who seek thee
and know thee not?-Charles Warren
Stoddard.