houses of the faithful on Holy Saturday, and even in this country, devout people like to have their houses blessed on first entering them.

On the same principle the Church on occasions, blesses the harvests, the cattle, the fruits of the earth, and all things employed in the service of man.

To sum up, then: all these sacramentals are beautiful symbols. The use of them is meant to bring many good thoughts and recollections to your mind; they are to help you to take religion with you into the ordinary affairs of life, by reminding you of that supernatural, unseen world we are all so ready to forget; they are, through the prayers of the Church, distinct means of divine assistance, in proportion to the faith and devotion of those who use them.

And now, are you bound to use them? For instance, ought you to be particular in keeping Holy Water in your house, in having blessed candles, and other objects of devotion? I think in all these things you may follow your natural inclination and turn of mind a good deal.

Some people naturally derive more pleasure and profit from such external things than others. To some they are great helps to piety, whilst to others they are not. This much is certain, that you may be an extremely devout Catholic, without making any considerable use of them. You must, however, take greatest care of one thing, that is, never to allow yourself the least thought of contempt for such things, or the devout people who delight in using them. You may be quite

On other Sacraments, and Sacramentals

161

sure that any practice that the Church encourages must be good, and if you cannot appreciate it, it is a misfortune, probably arising from some deficiency in your own mind.

INSTRUCTION IIL

ON HEARING MASS.

All Masses essentially the same.-Ancient Sacrifices.-Whenes their efficacy.-Ends of Sacrifice.-Parts of the Mass.-Prayers that change. When the bell rings.-Different Masses celebrated.-High Mass and Low Mass.-Ceremonies.-Their use.— Latin language.—Eastern Liturgies.—Methods of assisting at Mass.--How to find the places.-Meditation at Mass.-Preparation for Mass.-Attitude at Mass.-Music and Lights at Mass.— Payment for Masses.

THE Sacrifice of the Mass will arm the subject of this Instruction. The Mass is the very soul of all Catholic worship and devotion. Nothing is more important for you, if you would be a devout Catholic, than to understand thoroughly what the Mass is, and how you ought to assist at it. I shall therefore explain it as fully as I can.

You hear of a great many sorts of Masses; of High Mass and Low Mass, of Masses of the Blessed Virgin and of the Saints, of Masses for the Dead, of Votive Masses.

You must understand that all these are essentially

exactly he same; that is, not only are the nature and mear ag of all the same, but that they are, word for wo, the same in all the essential and more solemn pats.

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The Mass is a sacrifice; however it may be offered, t is always the same sacrifice, offered to the same Lord, since it can never be offered except to God, and substantially for the same objects.

In the first place, what do you mean by a sacrifice ? It is the highest possible kind of worship. It is the way in which the supreme honour due to God alone is most strongly expressed. This is done by the offering of some creature to God as a victim, in token that God is supreme Lord of all things, and master of life and death. This victim, if a living one, is put to death, or at any rate in some way changed, and by this change is sacrificed to God. We read how Cain and Abel, very soon after the fall, offered sacrifice to God. Again, when Noe had come out of the Ark, his first thought was to build an altar and offer "holocausts,' or whole burned offerings of "all cattle" upon it, and we are told that "the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: 'I will no more curse the earth, for the sake of man.'" (Gen. viii. 21.) You see, then, that the notion of offering sacrifice to God, as the highest way of honouring Him, was part of the original religion given by God Himself to men.

In the law of Moses the same thing is kept up. Almighty God commanded a great number of sacrifices to be offered for different purposes, and on diferent

occasions. The worship of sacrifice was in this way continued from the beginning of the world till our Lord's coming.

Was it to stop then? Was there, in future, to be no altar and no sacrifice, no means of offering to God this most excellent kind of worship? No. As we might expect, God has provided a sacrifice in the New Law, to continue on to the end of the world, that great hymn of sacrificial worship which has been offered to Him from its beginning.

This sacrifice is the Mass. What is the Mass? "It is the Unbloody Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ," the Catechism tells us. That is to say: It is the same sacrifice which Our Lord once offered on Mount Calvary. On His cross Jesus offered Himselt as a sacrifice for the sins of men. He offered this sacrifice Himself, of His own will, though He did it by the hands of the wicked men who were allowed to put Him to death.

In the Mass our Blessed Saviour offers again this same sacrifice which He there made, only now He offers Himself by the hands of His priests, instead of those of His executioners. He does not suffer, or pour out His Blood in a natural way, because His Body and Blood are now glorified; He does not really die as He did then, since "Christ dieth now no more," but only undergoes such a mystical immolation as to represent a real death.

Now let us consider the reason of all this. What was the real use of those early sacrifices? why should