nd let us say: "Spare, O Lord, spare
Thy people." Or let us repeat with the publican this heartfelt prayer: "O
God, be merciful to me a sinner." At the death of Jesus the sun was
darkened, the earth trembled, the very rocks were rent, as if to show that
even inanimate nature sympathized with the sufferings of its God. And
should not we tremble for our sins? Should not our hearts, though cold and
hard as rocks, be softened at the spectacle of our God suffering for love
of us, and in expiation for our offences?

Third--The Sacrifice of the Mass is, in fine, a sacrifice of supplication:
"For, if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of a heifer being
sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled to the cleansing of the flesh, how
much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the Holy Ghost, offered
himself without spot to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works to
serve the living God?"(405) If the prayers of Moses and David and the
Patriarchs were so powerful in behalf of God's servants, what must be the
influence of Jesus' intercession? If the wounds of the Martyrs plead so
eloquently for us, how much more eloquent is the blood of Jesus shed daily
upon our altars? His blood cries louder for mercy than the blood of Abel
cried for vengeance. If God inclines His ear to us miserable sinners, how
can He resist the pleadings in our behalf of the "Lamb of God who taketh
away the sins of the world."

"Let us go, therefore, with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid."(406)

Chapter XXIV.

THE USE OF RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES DICTATED BY RIGHT REASON.

By religious ceremonies we mean certain expressive signs and actions which
the Church has ordained for the worthy celebration of the Divine service.

True devotion must be interior and come from the heart, for "the true
adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father
indeed seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit; and they who worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."(407) But we are not to infer
from this that exterior worship is to be contemned because interior
worship is prescribed as essential. On the contrary, the rites and
ceremonies enjoined in the worship of God and the administration of the
Sacraments are dictated by right reason, are sanctioned by Almighty God in
the Old Law, and by Christ and His Apostles in the New.

The angel