a universal language; 3d, because the Catholic
clergy are in constant communication with the Holy See, and this
requires a uniform language.

Besides, when a priest says Mass the people, by their English Missals or
other prayer-books, are able to follow him from beginning to end.

The Mass is a sacrifice. The prayers of the Mass are offered to God.
Hence when the priest says Mass he is speaking not to the people, but to
God, to whom all languages are equally intelligible. Are not these
sufficient reasons for the use of the Latin language? Are not good
Catholics more attentive, more devout at Mass than others at their
prayer-meetings? The good Catholic knows that the Mass represents the
passion and death of Christ; that the passion and death of Christ are
the sinner's only refuge, the just man's only hope; that it can not but
be good and wholesome to turn our minds and our hearts toward this
subject; that frequent meditation on Christ's passion will move us to
avoid sin, which caused it; and that nothing can more efficaciously
cause us to think of Christ's passion and death than the holy sacrifice
of the Mass.

III. Ceremonies of the Mass

THE Mass is the great sacrifice of the New Law. It was foreshadowed by
all the sacrifices ordained by God in the Old Law. They were shadows; it
is the substance.

We learn from Genesis of the fall of man. Universal tradition, as well
as Scripture, informs us that the creature formerly became guilty in the
eyes of the Creator. All nations, all peoples, endeavored to appease the
anger of Heaven and believed that a victim was necessary for this
purpose. Hence sacrifices have been offered from the beginning of the
human race.

Cain and Abel offered victims; the one the first fruits of the earth,
the other the firstlings of the flock. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and
Melchisedech worshiped this way, and their worship was acceptable to
God. Everywhere, even among the heathen, you find the altar, the priest,
and the sacrifice. As we learn from Leviticus and other portions of the
Old Testament, God Himself carefully prescribed the quality, manner,
number, and place of the various sacrifices which He was pleased to
accept from the hands of His chosen people. From this fact that
sacrifice has ever formed a prominent feature in the worship of all
people, we conclude that it belongs to the essentials of religion, and
that Christians to-day should have an altar of which, as St. Paul says,
"t