Now, are not all these acts which I have just recorded--the prostration and
procession, the prayerful invocation, the chanting of a hymn, the touching
of the ears, the lifting up of the eyes to heaven, the breathing on the
Apostles, the laying on of hands and the unction of the sick--are not all
these acts so many ceremonies serving as models to those which the
Catholic Church employs in her public worship, and in the administration
of her Sacraments?

The ceremonies now accompanying our public worship are, indeed, usually
more impressive and elaborate than those recorded of our Savior; but it is
quite natural that the majesty of ceremonial should keep pace with the
growth and development of Christianity.

But where shall we find a ritual so gorgeous as that presented to us in
the Book of Revelation, which is descriptive of the worship of God in the
heavenly Jerusalem? Angels with golden censers stand before the throne,
while elders cast their crowns of gold before the Lamb once slain. Then
that unnumbered multitude of all nations, tongues and people, clothed in
white raiment, bearing palms of victory. Virgins, too, with harp and
canticle, follow near the Lamb, singing the new song which they alone can
utter.(418)

How glorious the pageant! How elaborate in detail!

Surely there ought to be some analogy and resemblance, some proportion and
harmony between the public worship which is paid to God in the Church
militant on earth, and that which is offered to Him in the Church
triumphant in heaven.

Strange would it be if God, who, in the dispensation past and that to
come, is seen delighting in external majesty, should have deprived the
Christian Church (the living link between the past and the future) of all
external glory. "For," as St. Paul says, "if the ministry of condemnation
is glory, much more the ministry of justice aboundeth in glory."(419)

It is true that God uttered this complaint against the children of Israel:
"This people draw near Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips,
but their heart is far from Me."(420) It is also true that He was
displeased with their sacrifices and religious festivals.(421) But He
blamed them not because they praised Him with their voice, but because
their hearts felt not what their lips uttered. He rejected their
sacrifices because they were not accompanied by the more precious
sacrifice of a penitent spirit.

The same Lord who declares that the true adorer shall ad