Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/430

 were, the courtiers of so great a King, would leave their Lord without the attendance of his retinue?

But listen to the most true, though wonderful sentiment of a very learned and pious author, Father Antony Molina, who says, If all the charity with which all the Saints together, from the very beginning of the world, have heen, and will be, inflamed to the end of time; the merits and praises rendered by them all to God; the torments ,of the martyrs, who, with heroic fortitude, have ured out theirlife and blood ‘or Christ ; the virtues of the Confessors, Patriarchs, Prophets, Monks, Hermits, and all the rest who, by another, slower, and, ina certain way, more difficult kind of martyrdom, have crucified them- selves, and subdued their rebellious appetites by fastings, watchings, and prayer, were all heaped together; and, lastly, if all the services rendered to God, how acceptable soever to him, past, present, or future, were added to them, they would not comprise the perfection of praise and honour that would a single Maas, celebrated by the poorest and humblest Priest.

And, not to seem to speak without reason, he adds, The reason of this is, that in every Mass Christ is the principal Priest, who, as such, offers up in act the Sacrifice itself. Now, the office of the Priest is to worship God. It is Christ, therefore, who, principally to supply our deficiency, worships and honours the Father in the Mass,

And it is certain that all creatures together cannot honour God so highly as the Son of God ; so that the Sa- crifice of the Mass, both on the part of him who offers and him who is offered, by far surpasses all the devotion and worship that could be rendered by any creature, or by all collectively.

Let Priests, then (justly adds the same author), observe what great riches they grasp in their hands. Shame and disgrace it is that any there should be who are most ready, for a thing of nought, to despoil themselves and others of a treasure of so great a magnitude. Thus the weighty and pious author aforesaid.

Consider, says Cardinal Bellarmine, how sad and lamentable a thing it is to see a Priest performing the divine Mysteries, surrounded on all sides by choirs of Angels, who tremble in amazement, and shout aloud with admiration, at the things which the Priest does and says, and yet he himself, in the midst of them, utterly cold