tiful words of Cardinal Newman show that the Mass is
something more than a mere form of words, and that ceremonies are
reasonable as well as necessary in its celebration:

"To me nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so
overcoming, as the Mass said as it is among us. I could attend Masses
forever and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words--it is a great
action, the greatest action that can be on earth. It is not the
invocation merely, but, if I dare use the word, the evocation of the
Eternal. He becomes present on the altar in flesh and blood, before Whom
angels bow and devils tremble. This is that awful event which is the
scope and the interpretation of every part of the solemnity. Words are
necessary, but as means, not as ends; they are not mere addresses to the
throne of grace, they are instruments of what is far higher, of
consecration, of sacrifice.

"They hurry on as if impatient to fulfil their mission. Quickly they go,
for they are awful words of sacrifice; they are a work too great to
delay upon, as when it was said in the beginning, 'What thou doest, do
quickly.' Quickly they pass, for the Lord Jesus goes with them, as He
passed along the lake in the days of His flesh, quickly calling first
one and then another; quickly they pass, because as the lightning which
shineth from one part of the heaven unto the other, so is the coming of
the Son of Man.

"Quickly they pass, for they are as the words of Moses, when the Lord
came down in the cloud, calling on the name of the Lord as He passed by,
'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and generous, long suffering, and
abundant in goodness and truth.' And as Moses on the mountain, so we,
too, make haste and bow our heads to the earth and adore.

"So we, all around, each in his place, look for the great Advent
'waiting for the moving of the water,' each in his place, with his own
heart, with his own wants, with his own prayers, separate but
concordant, watching what is going on, watching its progress, uniting in
its consummation; not painfully, and hopelessly following a hard form of
prayer from beginning to end, but like a concert of musical instruments
each different, but concurring in sweet harmony, we take our post with
God's priest, supporting him, yet guided by him. There are little
children there, and old men, and simple laborers, and students in
seminaries, priests preparing for Mass, priests making their
thanksgiving, there are innocent maide