Cylchgronau Cymru

L. I. C. & M. I. e^^D Mi^d^^iq iiii^jscg^m. Th© Messenger of th© Catholic Church (Canmbro Breton Mission), LLANRWST, North Wales. °* A^cH^x Vol. I. 16th January 1910. No. 22. •$? •$* •$? •*!«• *$* *fa °§? "fa *fc *$* *&* •$• •$!* *f<? •$!» 4? «$» *sf<? ff? «!§* «$» *f? 4? *f<* «s?<* ff* •$» »f? «$» «$?> *sf(* *bf* COME TO MASS! " The holy Mass, says our Catechism, is the sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Cheist, really present on the altar under the appearance of bread and wine, and offered to God for the living and the dead." " The holy Mass is one and the same sacrifice with that of the Cross, inasmuch as Christ, who offered Himself, a bleeding victim, on the cross to His heavenly Father, continues to offer Himself in an unbloody manner on the altar, through the ministry of His priests." " The Sacrifice of the Mass is offered for four ends—first, to give supreme honour and glory to God ; secondly, to thank Him for all His benefits ; thirdly, to obtain pardon for our sins ; and, fourthly, to obtain all other graces and blessings through Jesus Cheist." ,. St. Paul says (i Cor., xi, 26) : "As often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup, ye proclaim (or show forth) the Lord's death till He come." Therefore, when the Apostles did what our Lord told them to do at the Last supper,—" Do this for a commemoration of Me " (Luke, xxn, 19),—they represented His death; and, as this has to go on till He comes; so the showing forth of our Saviour's death must always go on, and this it does in the Mass... By assisting at the sacrifice of Mass, Christians can properly fulfil their four duties to God :—(1) In the Mass they can really worship God : the offering of the Body and Blood of Jesus Cheist gives God supreme worship, for Jesus takes our worship and joins it to His own and makes it worthy of God ;—(2) we cannot properly thank God of of ourselves, so Jesus Cheist does it for us in the Mass, and our thanksgiving, too, becomes worthy of God ; —(3) we cannot of ourselves be properly sorry for our sins, so Jesus Cheist offers His sorrow for ours and obtains the gift of real sorrow for us ;—and (4) it is only through Him that all good can come to us, and that is why we always end our prayers " through Jesus Cheist our Lord." Now, I think you can understand why we are commanded, under pain of sin, to assist at holy Mass on certain days—because we are bound to adore and worship God, and the Mass is the means appointed by God for that purpose : therefore, we must assist at it. If we refuse to do so, we are refusing to adore God, to thank Him for His benefits, to ask His for¬ giveness and to acknowledge our dependence upon Him,—and this is a great sin. Canon H.T. Capfeeata.