laugh at them, call them foolish and unreasonable. Those people do
not stop to consider that by doing so they, themselves, are acting most
unreasonably. For no reasonable person, no judge, will condemn another
without hearing both sides of the question.

These wiseacres, however, flatter themselves that they know all about
the Catholic Church and her ceremonies without hearing her side of the
case. Hence the misunderstandings and misrepresentations regarding her
that exist among well-meaning people.

If people would but learn to speak about that which they knew and
understood; if they would accord to the Catholic Church the same
treatment as to other institutions; if they would examine both sides of
the question before criticising and ridiculing her teachings and her
ceremonies; if they would but treat her with that openness, that
fairness, that candor, that honesty characteristic of the American
citizen when dealing with other questions--what a vast amount of
ignorance, of prejudice, of sin would be avoided!

We claim that ceremonies used in the worship of God are reasonable,
because they were sanctioned by God in the Old Testament and by Jesus
Christ and His apostles in the New Law.

I. Ceremonies Necessary to Divine Worship

THE angels are pure spirits. They have no body. Consequently the worship
they render God is spiritual, interior.

The heavenly bodies are not spiritual, but entirely material substances.
They render God a sort of external worship according to the words of the
prophet Daniel, "Sun and moon bless the Lord, . . . stars of heaven
bless the Lord. Praise and exalt Him forever." Man has a soul, a
spiritual substance similar to the heavenly bodies. He should,
therefore, honor God by the twofold form of worship, interior and
exterior.

"God is a spirit; and they that adore Him must adore Him in spirit and
in truth" (_John_ iv. 24).

From these words of the beloved disciple we are not to conclude that
interior worship is prescribed as the only essential, and exterior
worship condemned. True piety must manifest itself externally. Man
naturally manifests his feelings by outward signs and ceremonies.

The Catholic Church recognizes that man has a heart to be moved as well
as an intellect to be enlightened. She enlightens the intellect by her
good books, sermons, etc.; and she moves the heart by the grandeur of
her ceremonies.

If any one doubts that God considers ceremonies necessary to divine