E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

120 THE CONCLUSION OF THE CANON.
blessed and placed near the altar, could certainly
in another and wider sense be comprised amongst
the good things created, sanctified, vivified, blessed
and granted through Jesus Christ. A vestige of the
custom of earlier ages is seen in the blessing of the
Holy Oil for the sick by the Bishop on Maundy
Thursday. Before saying at Mass the words by whom,
O Lord, Thou dost always create, &c., the Bishop
exorcises and then blesses in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ the Oil used in Extreme Unction. The
moment selected by the Church for blessing the Holy
Oil is the Canon of the Mass where the death of Jesus
Christ is placed before our eyes in the double conse
cration of bread and wine. The Oil is blessed after the
Nobis quoque peccatovibus, in which the Church prays that
her children may have some share, in spite of their
sins, with the saints in glory. As if in keeping with
her request, she commands her Bishop to bless then the
Oil of Extreme Unction, which has as its special sacra
the remnants
mental grace, the power to wash away
of sin, which hinder our entrance into Heaven. This
close union between these blessings and the Eucharistic
Sacrifice is an eloquent testimony to the belief that
the Mass is the centre of all grace and benediction.
We now come to the second part of the prayer,
and with Him, ^ and in Him, *f
through Him, >%*
is to Thee, God the Fathers-Almighty, in the unity
of the Holy 4- Ghost, all honour and glory.
We must bear in mind the two natures, Divine and
Human, in Jesus Christ. Through Him *J, that is,
through Jesus Christ, the Father and Holy Ghost are
infinitely glorified, first by the sacrifice of the Man-
God, secondly, because the homage of creatures is only
acceptable when presented through Christ the one