INTRODUCTION
THESE prayers are not poetry or verse of any kind, but plain continuous prose, though printed in broken lines.
They are printed in this form to remind the reader to go slowly, to pause frequently, to break up and as it were to punctuate his thought in order that each idea may have its due. St. Ignatius' Third Method of Prayer, in which slow and measured breathing regulates the pace, suggests this device.
The prayers, ritual uses and symbols in the Mass are very numerous and of great variety. To some minds they are distracting, worrying even, in their multiplicity, changes and quick succession. The lay-folk often cannot keep pace with the Priest and devotion suffers in the attempt to secure exact correspondence of their prayers, point to point, with his.
This is the case especially with slow-moving and meditative minds that, gazing upon truth and wondering, are soothed and nourished chiefly by the sense of Mystery. The forms of prayer here suggested will meet their need. People of a more formal and business-like habit of mind, who can be quick and brisk in devotions as in other things, may yet find their prayers improved by the art of lingering on the meaning of what they say. Without this, the inward and reflex effect that prayer should have upon ourselves is in great measure forfeited. We need to weigh and ponder in the heart the deep things of God. The very deepest, the most profound and hidden, press close upon us in great number in the Holy Mass. They are grouped together in this little book and summarised under four divine facts or mysteries, each essential to the spirit of Christian worship. By thus reducing the many to four leading master-thoughts, the understanding heart may dwell with more leisure upon the inner motives of the liturgy; and may attain a clearer insight into the value of the priest's prayers, and a fuller sympathy with the inwardness of his acts at the Altar, than by attending to every detail and repeating exactly the priest's actual words. The intention and meaning of Sacrifice, and the mysteries and human needs that underlie and inspire the liturgical prayers and ceremonies of the Mass, will in this way be brought into relief.
The prayers here suggested are for the most part nothing more than enlargements and interpretations of those of the Missal, though in no sense translations. Each embodies enough matter for a meditation or even for a doctrinal instruction; and except at a High Mass it is not supposed that all may be used on a single occasion.
As the treatment is purely devotional, no attempt is made to adjust the thought to any antiquarian lore or critical erudition, but only to religion and theology. If further explanation is desired on any point here too briefly or obscurely suggested, it may be found in a companion volume entitled The Bread upon the Altar, which is in preparation.
The following are the four compendious Mysteries under which the whole Mass-liturgy is here summed up and divided:
The first, the Mystery of God's mercy, drawing us to contrition and trust in Him. The prayers and ceremonies to the end of the Gloria come under this.
The second, the Mystery of God's revelation which calls out our best faculty of faith to meet His divine message. This takes in the Collects, Epistles, Gospel and Creed.
The third is the Mystery of Sacrifice, which implies a complete surrender of our life to the purposes of God, in union with the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This covers the Offertory and Action of the Canon.
The fourth, the Mystery of Union with God through Communion with the Sacred Humanity of our Blessed Lord.
Everyone assisting in the right spirit at Holy Mass should desire to complete the act by Holy Communion. This may be taken as God's answer to their self-oblation. They have offered and given themselves to Him, in union with His Son. He would in return give Himself to them through the same Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and thus ratify and establish the union. This union with God is the end and object of Sacrifice, and indeed of life itself.
When Holy Communion cannot be taken sacramentally it should be received spiritually by desire and faith. The prayers here suggested before Holy Communion may be used even when we do not receive, in view of a future Communion however distant and in preparation for it, and those that follow may be used with reference to past Communions whose effects should still live in us somehow and should be revived by reflection and prayer at every Mass.
Even those who like to limit their prayers to the exact words of the Missal with its daily changes, will find in the memory of the fundamental Mysteries here emphasized a sustaining undercurrent of thought and desire to accompany and swell the meaning of their vocal prayers. For indeed these mysteries, and the corresponding cravings of man's heart, are the hidden fountain-heads from which the Mass prayers, in the first instance, welled up and took shzpe and form in words and ritual acts.
Prefixed to the Mass devotions are some preparatory prayers touching the significance of Sacrifice, and the four ends or intentions for which it is offered.