The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-02-08


the seventh. 1t was meet that the
first day become the Sabbath of the
New Dispensation. The time of the
observance was altered: the law it.
self was unaltered-the law that one
day of the seven be the Lords Day,
sacred to the Lord, to the Lord alone.
The Obligation to Worship God.
Master" it was asked of Jesus,
(which is the great commandment of
the law?" Jesus answered.: Thou
shalt love the Lord, thy God, with
thy whole heart, and with thy whole
soul, and with thy whole mind. This
is the greatest and the first command
ment" Above all creatures is the
Creator: above other duties is the
duty of divine worship. The Sunday,
the Lords Day, is the appointed time,
when men, in manner most particular,
Should remember their Creator. The
dawning of Sunday morning is the
signal: Come, let us praise the Lord
with joy; let us joyfully sing to God,
our Saviour For in His hands are
all the ends of the earth, and the
heights of the mountains are His.
Come, let us adore and fall down, and
weep before the Lord who made u.s."
The signal given, our hearts are un-
moved, our lips are silent, our steps
do not lead to the temple of the Lord:
then, let us confess, we have lost all
sense of duty to God, the Creator and
r ~l ~
we are in open rebellion to the great
est and the first commandment
"Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God,
with thy whole heart, and with thy
whole soul, and with thy whole mind"
The bane of our modern times is the
forgetfulness of the Sunday. Men do
not go to church: they do not wor-
ship God. Religion is out of fashion,
and with it the moral and social in
f1uences born of it, so necessary to
the moral and social welfare of hu-
manity. The evil is widespread:
Catholics themselves are in peril. Al
ready too many fail in their duty to
sanctify the Sunday, to worship the
Creator; on Sunday too many stay
away from the holy sacrifice of the.
Mass.
To God we owe what we are, what
we have: upon God we depend in all
that is needful to our welfare, tenn
poral and spiritual, in time and in
eternity. "All things were made by
Him, and without Him was made moth
ing that was made" That men, sum-
moned by Heaven to alteration and
prayer, could be silent before the
Majesty of the Most High, is the
mystery of blindness of eye, and of
hardness of heart. Yet this is the
blindness of eye, this the hardness
of heart of the man, who, on the
Lords Day, has no thought for God,
no throb of soul in response to the
call: "Come, let us praise the Lord
with joy Let us fall down and
adore, and weep before the Lord who
made u.s.
Justice, gratitude, bid us worship
the Almighty God. We are His
creatures, bound to Him by ties of
absolute dependency. Should we not,
through wholessouled awakening, rec
ognize this dependency? Should we
not praise and thank Him for gifts
we have received: should we not, con-
scious of abiding miseries and needs,
petition Him for continued favor?
The child honors father and mother:
the friend greets the friend: the re-
ceiver of kindliness thanks the bene-
factor: the citizen puts forth tokens
of reverence to the nation that guards
life and property: the needy seeks
relief from hands able to give succor.
God is forgotten. Alone among IA
theirs and mothers, friends and bene-
factors: alone among guardians and
helpers, God is unnoticed, unhonored
yea, despised by the silence of in
difference, insulted by open rebellion
to His commandment: "Thou shalt
fear the Lord, thy God, and Him alone
shalt thou serve
Under the New Dispensation the
form and manner of the sanctification
of the Lords Day is precised into
attendance at the holy sacrifice of the
Mass. The obligation to sanctify the
Sunday is increased the hundred fold;
and increased in equal measure is the
sinfulness of the omission.
The Sacrifice of Calvary Gave Ade-
quate Worship.
OF all blessings awarded to men in
the New Law after that of the Re
demption, the highest in dignity, the
richest in spiritual value, is the holy
sacrifice of the Mass.
The primary duty of man, we have
said, is the worship of the Almighty
God-recognition of His Sovereign
grandeur, praise of His supreme truth,
goodness and beauty, thanksgiving for
graces already vouchsafed, petition
for renewals of mercy and favor. Left
to himself, man worships the Almighty
God as best he may: he is powerless
to do so in adequate measure. Man
remains the finite in the presence of
the Infinite In the Mosaic law aid
was sought: there was sacrifice of
fruits and beasts, to symbolic Gods
mastership over creation, to represent
in the physical sacrifice the moral
sacrifice of the human will in homage
to the Supreme Lord But in the
Mosaic law there was no adequate
worship: fruits and beasts are crea-
| lures as man himself. Nought, indeed,
beneath a sacrifice of Infinite merit
prfvns adenunfa wnrasin IN infinif@ aw.