E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

48
THE EPISTLE.
the Sunday or festival. On greater days
one Collect
only is said ; on all festivals except the chief, other
Collects are admissible, and these are called Com
memorations a remembrance of saints and feasts.
A Collect prescribed by the Bishop in some special
need is called an Oratio imperata, a prayer ordered.
That prayer is sometimes for the Pope, or Church,
or for a temporal gain, e.g., fine weather, &c.
Amen gives assent to all said by the priest. In
the early ages the people answered Amen at Mass.
The server now answers for them.
The Epistle.
The Jews began the public service of their Sabbath
by readings from Moses and the Prophets. (Acts xiii. 15.)
The first Christians followed their example, and during
divine worship on the Sunday read passages
from the
New or Old Testament.
The general rule is, with few exceptions, that each
Mass has two Lessons from the Bible said or sung
during the the Gospel.
Holy Sacrifice, one is the Epistle, the other
The Epistle may be taken from any portion of the
Old or New Testament except the Psalms and the
four Gospels. It is thought that the present arrange
ment of Epistles and Gospels throughout the year,
was made by St. Jerome, by the desire of Pope
Damasus, about the year 376.
The Epistle is more commonly
taken from the
Epistles of the Apostles.
From the ninth century the Epistle at High Mass
has been sung by the subdeacon, the Gospel by the
deacon. The Epistle is read before the Gospel to mark