Sacerdos Sanctificatus

UNLESS a Priest esteem the Holy Sacrifice as it deserves, he can never celebrate it with suitable devotion. Assuredly there is no action, which man can perform, so sublime, so sacred, as the celebration of Mass. God himself could not enable a man to perform anything greater than the celebration of Mass. All the ancient sacrifices, by which God was so much honored, were but shadows and figures of our sacrifice of the altar. All the honor that angels by their adorations, and men by their good works, austerities, and even martyrdoms, have ever rendered or will ever render to God, never could, and never will, give him so much glory as one single Mass; for, while the honor of all creatures is only finite, that which accrues to God from the holy Sacrifice of the Al tar is infini te, inasmuch as the victim which is offered is of infinite value. The Mass, therefore, offers to God the greatest honor that can be given him; subdues most triumphantly the powers of hell; affords the greatest relief to the suffering souls in purgatory; appeases most efficaciously the wrath of God against sinners, and brings down the greatest blessings on mankind. Hence St. Bonaventure says, that in the Mass God manifests to us all the love which he has borne us, and includes in it, as in a compendium, all his benefits. On this account the devil has always endeavored to abolish the Mass througbout the world by means of heretics, making them the precursors of Antichrist, who before all things will endeavor to abolish, and in fact will, in punishment of the sins' of men, succeed in abolishing the holy sacrifice of the altar, according to the prediction of Daniel: "And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice, because of sins: and truth shall be cast down on the ground, and he shall do and shall prosper."