The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-01-30

= II - - y
MoNIAL OF RELIGIOUS WoR.
SHIP IN THE CATHOLIC
CHURCH.
Many of those who will still linger
loutside the Catholic Church, though on
its: threshold, find in our riches of
ritual a means of deepening those con,
Vtctions which keep them where they
are, writes Very Rev. Vincent McNabb
0. p. When they have been present
at a High Mass or a fe,,3t-day Rene
diction they say perhaps regretfu1ly:
| Give me a simple service. This
elaborate ceremonial does not help my
soul towards God The incense, the
lights, the bowings and professions
merely withdraw my soul from its
centre and stifle the voice of a
prayer. ID. $50.
Bear with me when / say that
can pray best when away from you1
elaborate ceremonial and hidden in
my own room, or best of all in the
great silences within the hills or with
in hearing of the noble music of the
sea-"
A number of things have to be set
tied before satisfying answer can be
made to this regret
The speaker must determine with
himself how much, if any, of his dis
taste is but an overflow into the
| sphere of external worship of his in
nate distaste for doing anything un
der command. To enter the Kingdom
of Heaven as little child demands
measure of self-surrender which
| balkS many minds. Perhaps it is al
most too much to expect from minds
of every type the childlike self-sur
render needed by each unit in col
lectiVe and external prayer.
Again, in preferring the hills or the
seaside to "a church. as a place OF
prayer, the speaker may be giving
choice to very natural sanitary in
stinct. He may be fixing the name ot
a. spiritual judgment to the natural
pleasure healthy man feels in ex
changing the overheated or under.
ventilated air Of room for the winds
from the heather or the surf None
are likely to part company with him
on this point; and especially NO
priests, whose lives are often short
ened by long hours in the foul air OF
a place of public worship.
| Moreover, it has to be determined
[ by The speaker how much of his dis.
taste for a ritual of prayer is not a
misinterpretation Of life Pascal has
written: 1T is superstition to
look on ceremonies as an end; it is
pride to deny they are a means" To
refuse ritual is to deny oneself; for
mans daily life is an elaborate ritual
| What, for instance, can be imag
ine1 more formal or, il the word may
pass, more ritualistic than our meals!
In every Ieisured and well-ordered
house there is always at least one
meal surrounded by as much form
atty as a royal reception.
No country in the whole world has
such an elaborate etiquette of the din.
| ing table as England. 1t might almost
be said that the very hairs of our
head are numbered. Special gar.
ments must be worn. Special phrases
must be used. The meal is opened
like q solemn religious function, with
procession. We may not move our
head or our hands except by law alp.
pointed The very meats we eat and
wines we drink arc law OF. the
Modes and Persians. Nay, the very
order of taking them may hardly be
broken, and unless az man would be
Ia social outcast he dare not transpose
the items of the MENU. To crown it
all. in this same menu we have even
the strange phenomenon of ritual
language not understood Of the peo-
pie" ~
Now that the nation has largely
given up even-song and evening pray
err, its appetite for ritual has become
identified with its appetite for food.
The chief liturgical act of the day is
no longer the morning sacrifice, but
the evening meal.
All this can be quite mistakenly
condemned. 1t is not all in vain; nor
vain at all except in SO far as it sup
plants what is Of greater worth and
duty. The worst of it is merely a.
misplaced instinct for what is divine
Imagine what a meal would be If
men and women sat down at we'll
spread table with no other intent
than to consume as much as they
could as quickly as they could! The
action of taking food is of itself SO
gross and humiliatins that a meal
without manners would be an uneIl-
durable orgy. The Ritual of. Meal
taking is not necessarily a sacrifice to
Baechus, but to Minerva. It prevents
the animal within us having its way.
Thereby it unchains the mind. What
meal unguarded by formality would
give room for intelligent talk? Yet it
is mostly at the evening meal that the
family meet face to face; and tally is
the better fare. The evening meal is
thus the one common act of the
household. Unless sanctified by ritual
it would be a mere carrying out in
public of acts better done in private.
But as it is the one common act of the
day it is only less holy than a COM