The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-06-17
MEANING OF THE MASS
WAS FULLY EXPLAINED
Fl. Sutton Spoke to a Large Audience
Last Evening On the Subject
"The Mass"

The Mass was the subject Of the lecture
by Rev. Fir. Sutton at st. Monica's church
last evening to a very large audience. The
Mass and the different parts, and the vest
ments that the priest wears while saying
Mass were explained to all present and
was very interesting especially to those
who are not Catholics. FIR. Sutton ex
planned: 1t is a serviee held In the Cath
Ollie Church only in the forenoon, never
celebrated In the afternoon. Non-Catholies
who have never been present at the ser
vice have found it strange for there is
nothing whatsoever in their religion that
resembles it a particle IL is entirely diff
ferent and new to you, you see the priest
on the altar going through certain motions,
turning to the people, bnt most of the time
with his back to the people. To begin
with, the Mass is a sacrifice, and it Is the
sacrifice Of the Body and Blood of Christ
We have ever held that from the begin
ming that when Christ instituted the Holy
Euehrist at the last supper, that solemn
supper, He Himself said, that he had left
us His Body and His Blood under the APP
pearanee Of bread and wine.
And performing this miracle, he told
the people this great miracle would con-
tinue to exist after his ascension into
Heaven. He said he would be with them
and give himself to them as food. He said
the bread that ] will give you Is my flesh
They said, how can this man give us his
/ flesh to eat III they had made mistake
our Lord certainly corrected them. II
say unto you, unless you eat the flesh Of
the son of man and drink his blood, you
shall not have life in YOU just before
Our Lord went to supper on that last
evening, before separating from the Ap0s-
ties, he gathered them about him to cele-
| brate the Pastil Feast. He then took
bread into his hands and said tThis Is
my body and taking the Chaliee ike
\ wise said. "This * my blood. How
did the Apostles know that our Saviour
really meant what he said? He said it
was His Body, and it was changed by his
omnipotent power, and the same OF the
wine, it was changed into his blood.
The holy Eucharist then, Is sacrament
containing the body and blood, soul and
divinity OF Jesus Christ, besides being a
saerament, it is also a sacrifice. As re-
4 ligious act, sacrifice is the external Of
fering Of some sensible object to God, 1t
cannot be offered to anyone but God, not
even to saints, even to Joseph or Mary,
but to God alone In all religions there
must be an external act of religion, and OF
external sacrifice. We find in all religions
J there have been those parts Of religion call
ed sacrifices, with only one exception, and
that Is In what we call Professionalism. 1t
/, Il the only form of religion without sac
rifce And the sacrifice of Jesus on the
cross is the perfect sacrifice, the victim is
Christ himself. In the mass the priest
speaks the solemn words as II Christ were
speaking, consecratiug those elements, he
saws: ssThis is my body" From the be-
ginning Of the apostolic days we find this
service we call the Mass. We find it cele-
brated by those men Christ established as
his priests and ministers. From the apos-
ties to the present day this service has
been performed in the Catholic church.
The service called the Mass dates back
1900 years, over to the days of the Apos-
ties. We find records, monuments tracing
il back over to the oldest days of Christi
lanity by all. When was it trejected2 Not
until after the reformation. Martin Luther
tells III some of his writings, he could not
reject it; that scripture was so strong be
could not reject It, And did not, until the
devil appeared to him and offered him ar
guments that it was not the right thing 70
do. For 1900 years then this service was
going on, what we call Mass, sacrifice per
formed all over the world.
In England the churches are taken
from Catholics, everything taken from it.
The sacrifice Of the Mass Is the same sac
ridoe as that which was offered on Mt
Calvary 1t Is sacrifice on the altar, Of
the body and blood of Christ. Before be
finishes that service he partakes Of those
elements to show the victim has been de