E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

H2 THE THIRD PART OF THE PRAYER.
The sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham the
allusion is to Genesis (xxii.), when Abraham was ready
sword in hand to sacrifice his son Isaac. God spared
the boy and blessed Abraham. The offerings of Abel
and Abraham are figures of the bloody Sacrifice of
the Cross. Abel offered a lamb, the figure of the Lamb
of God, and was put to death by Cain as Christ was put
to death by the Jews. (Heb. xii. 24.) Abraham is the
father of all believers and called our Patriarch because
to him was given paternity over the nations :
" and in
seed shall the nations of the earth be blessed."
thy
That which Thy high priest Melchisedech
offered to Thee, a holy Sacrifice, a spotless
Victim.
Melchisedech is the figure of the Eternal High
Priest Jesus Christ. The sacrifice of Melchisedech
was of bread and wine (Genesis
xiv.
18), and therefore
a figure of the unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass, where
our Lord is offered
wine.
under the appearance of bread and
The words
were added by
holy Sacrifice, a spotless Victim
St. Leo the Great and refer to the
sacrifice of Melchisedech : not that the sacrifice or host
in his case was holy or spotless, but in so far as it pre
figured the spotless Sacrifice of the Mass.
THE THIRD PART OF THE PRAYER.
Bowing down profoundly, with his hands joined and placed
upon the A Itar, the Priest says :
Supplices t.e rogamus, omni- We most humbly beseech
potens Deus:jube haec per- Thee, Almighty God, let these
ierri per manus sancti Angeli offerings be carried by the
tui in sublime altare tuum, in hands of Thy holy Angel to