Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1906-10-11
Lecture ut Mt. Carmel Church.

Lecture Mt Mt Carmel Church.
An interesting lecture was delivered at
Mt. Carmel Catholic church on Monday
evening. The lecturer was the Rev. A..
P. Doyle, rector of the Apostolic Mission
House at the Catholic University in
Washington, d. c. His subject was,
1.-THE Mass as the Central Act Of Catho-
lie Worship"
He took occasion before commencing
his lecture, to remark that Thurmont i'm
pressed him very favorably as town Of
more than ordinary get up" to it, with
its banks and enterprising stores and par
ticularly, the absence of saloons. When
the saloon is debarred from town gen.
eral flood of prosperity comes in.
In speaking Of the Mass, he said. ut
was time honored devotion, having been
celebrated in the christian world for 10
centuries. 1t is dignified and worthy Of
respect for its venerable antiquity. As
the mass is said today. it has been said
ever since Christ was on earth. The
vestments that are worn by the priests
are in shape and form but the ordinary
clothes that were worn in the city Of
Rome when our Lord was on the earth.
1.-THE mass was instituted by Jesus
Christ in the upper chamber at Jerusa-
lem the night before he suffered. There
as he sat at the last supper, surrounded
by his disciples, he took bread and wine
and said over them, this is my Body,
this is my Blood By the power of God
that he possessed, the substance of the
bread and wine was changed into His
body and blood. His divine power wro't
thie stupendous miracle, and then He
babe the apostles to do likewise. They
took him at his word and did as told by
him and with the same results. They
came together on the Lords Day and
taking bread and wine into their hands
just as our Lord, and said over it the
same words as he said. and the bread and
wine in their hands were changed into
body and blood of our Lord. So it has
been done ever since. The apostles or
dained priests and in their ordination gave
them the power to do this, and this pow
er has been transmitted down through
the centuries to the priesthood. This
then is what the mass Is. 1t Is doing just
as our Lord did at the last supper. 1t is
not then mere memorial service where
but bread and wine are passed around.
but it is the changing Of the bread and
wine into the body and blood of Christ.
No doubt this is a wonderful thing and
hard to believe, but it is no harder to be-
lieve that Christ is in the bread and wine
than it is to believe that he was in that
! little babe wrapped in swaddling clothes
in the manger at Bethlehem or that he
was in that poor forlorn outcast who hung
on the infamous gibbet of the cross.
Moreover, this belief that present to
you tonight has been the traditional be-
lief of christians since the days of our
Lord. Your fathers, as we'll as mine, if
you go back few generations, knelt be-
/ fore Catholic altar and believe this 50 me
thing. Moreover, as it was the love Of
Christ for men that brought him on earth,
it is that same love that leads him to
stay with us in the blessed eucharist. No
more fitting way could be devised where
by he could come to each one of US than
in the ordinary food of mankind. There
Is no union 80 close as that of food with
the body; 80 there is no spiritual union
80 important as the union by means Of a
material food. It is one of the joys of
the Catholic church to have Christ 80
near US and there is supreme pleasure for
the religious soul TO receive God into his
heart in Holy Communion. 1t is the es-
sence Of religion to be drawn to and unit
ed with God. It is the test of the true
church to have Christ in the blessed sac
rament. Where the blessed sacrament
is, there is the apostolic succession; there
is the religion that goes back by continu-
Gus succession to Christ himself.