E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
from His Body, that separation is, to use the words of
the Council of Trent,
"
re-presented to us," placed again
before our eyes in the double consecration of bread and
wine. Although
Christ exists whole and entire under
the appearance of bread as well as under the appear
ance of wine, nevertheless by the words of Consecration
the Body only is under the appearance of bread, and the
Blood only under the appearance of wine. We have
then here that mystical parting of the Body and Blood
which makes the re-presentation of the Death upon the
Cross.
We are anxious for our friends or relatives who are
leading bad lives. But through the Mass we may
infallibly appease the anger of God which we and they
have justly incurred, and we may infallibly procure
them graces, which if accepted, will lead them back
into friendship with our Lord. For the soul in the
state of grace the Mass infallibly satisfies a part of the
punishment due to forgiven sin, wards off the chastise
ments of God, and obtains graces in every conjuncture
of life, and for the soul in Purgatory the Mass is the
surest and the quickest way of paying the debt, and
releasing the prisoner from the flame. Devotions
come and go in the Church. Some are more popular
in one age than in another. Mass is the devotion of
every age and people : it is our spiritual centre, like
the sun in the heavens, shedding light and warmth over
the earth. Mass can never leave us so long as this
planet hangs in the firmament, and the last Mass on