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Show 1 flon-MeHc fineries, and Ewers Oereto (San Francisco Monitor.) Why do you curry on your services in a tongue not Known hy the people? Why not say mass in the lan-Suage lan-Suage of the congregation? vi'hv do priests preach in Latin? Why do you do-iivcr do-iivcr sermons in Latin? Is it to keep the people in Ignorance? Sermons are never preached to the people in Latin, but always in their own tongue. As to the mrds of ihe nia.ss and other official services, we do not consider the use of the Latin language essential, essen-tial, for in the east the use of the vernacular is permitted. The Latin language, however, is the s Official language of the Catholic church in her liturgy, councils, etc., for many reasons: 1. Historically, it bears witness to the origin of 5 ihe faith of western Christendom, Home, the cori- y rertcr of the nations for instance, France, Bel gium, Spain, Portugal, England, Ireland, Scotland, 1 jrermany, Hungary. Poland. The Catholic church, 1 founded by Jesus Christ, when the lioman empire eras supremo, naturally adopted in her liturgy the 'anguage of the people, and her missionaries kept he language of Ko?ic in the divine service even i alien they had to preach in the vernacular. Pro- ! estant churches, born in modern times, adopted as j 1 consequence ihe modern languages. ' 2. Again, Latin being a dead language, is free Tom thoo. changes inevitable to modern tongues. , n these laltrr, words are continually becoming ob solete, nnd so change in meaning as to become tm- ntelligil.le and ridiculous to the ears of succeed ing generation. Latin, therefore, preserves the dignity of the liturgy and the perfect exactness of .he dogmatic decrees of councils, so necessary in a perennial, unchangeable church. 3. A universal church, moreover, should have it universal language. It is the same principle that riindc business men some years ago endeavor to rtablih Yolupuk as a common means or communication, com-munication, or medical men of late discuss the !idviability of adopting, some common language in their congresses. Did any one ever object, for example, ex-ample, to French as the language of diplomacy? ' Latin allows the Catholic people to feel at home very where in the universal bond of a common language lan-guage at their Sunday mass, and enables the Catholic Cath-olic his-hops of the world to correspond easily with the Korean See, and discuss matters of dogma and discipline in the councils of the Universal Church. 4. In the Jewish synagogue the services were conducted in Hebrew even after it had ceased to be the language of the people, who lost it at the time of the Captivity (II Esdras via, 13). And so in the east today the Melchites say mass in Greek and the Syrians in Syriac, although Arabic is the language of the people. Indeed, there is no reason for fault-finding, for remei-bcr that in those parts of the service that we have in common with Protestants, namely, preaching, preach-ing, public prayers and hymn singing, we use the language of the people. But the mass with us is more of an action than a prayer an act of sacrifice sacri-fice which the priest offers up in the name of Christ for the people. The people are, therefore, perfectly free to follow fol-low their own special devotion in the manner of hearing mass, either meditating on the passion and death of Jesus Christ, or, if they so desire, following fol-lowing the prayers of the liturgy in the translations transla-tions to be found in their prayer books. It would indeed be practically impossible in some of our large churches for the priest to be understood, even if he did, celebrate mass in English, and as a matter mat-ter of fact the liturgical laws of the Church command com-mand that certain prayers be read, for sake of reverence, in a very low voice-. There is no more necessity for the people of our day understanding what the priest says than of old when Jewish priests prayed alone in the tabefnacle at the hour of sacrifice (Luke i, 9, 10). I have frequently wondered why so many otherwise other-wise well informed non-Catholics imagined that we preached in Latin to our congregations. Aside from ignorance arising from deliberate calumny in the past, I know of no way to account for this save that some Protestants attending a Catholic burial service have mistaken the Latin liturgical prayers read by the priest over the body of the deceased for a sermon to the people. "Why do you give honor to the saints when It all belongs to God? Why do Catholics worship and adore the saints? Catholics do not adore the saints; they adore God alone. They venerate and love the saints as special friends of Jesus Christ. Just as the State honors and respects its great men, and holds up to the imitation of the citizens their love of country, coun-try, so the Church of God honors its heroes, and holds up to the faithful their love of God. The . word "worship" in the question is ambiguous, for in the English language it by no means is synonomous with adoration. It may be applied either to the supreme divine worship of the one God (latria), or the infinitely inferior respect and veneration of the saints of God dulia (or hyper-dulia). hyper-dulia). In the old Protestant marriage service, for instance, the phrase, '"with my body I thee worship," by no means signified a divine adoration. adora-tion. Xor, again, does the term "your worship" or "worshipful sir" applied to the judge on the Tbench necessarily give him the divine honor paid io the old Roman emperors. Strange, indeed, that despite the fact of the constant protest of Catltolics for nearly four hundred hun-dred years, .and despite the acknowledgement of Protestant misrepresentation frequently made by Protestants everywhere, this old calumny should still be voiced by the ignorant. To learn the Catholic Cath-olic doctrine one has merely to read a Catholic catechism, which refutes this calumny, as of old it was refuted by St. Augustine. He says: "We venerate the martyrs with that veneration of love and fellowship which, even in this life, we honor the holy servants of God, whose hearts we feel are ready to endure a similar suffering for the truth of tlie Gospel. But we honor them the more devoutly de-voutly because they are safe, having conquered in the strife. Tut with that worship which in Greek is called latria (adoration), wo neither worship them, nor teach men to worship any but the one God." (Cont. Faust. Man., Ixx, n, xxi. For the Fathers, see "Faith of Catholics," vol. iii, p. 318-409. Cf. Gen. xix; Xum. 31; John v, 4; Apoc. xxii, 8.) Is every Catholic bound to pray continually to the saints? "Why not go directly to Christ the one mediator? (I. Tim. ii, 5.) What proof Is there that the saints know our needs? How do you know that they really Intercede for us? Does not your teaching make the saints practically omnipotent? The teaching of the Catholic church on the invocation in-vocation and intercession of the saints is clearly set forth by the Council of Trent (Sess. xxv) : "It is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to their prayers, aid and help for obtaining benefits of God, through his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who alone is our Redeemer and Savior." The fact of intercessory prayer, the venera tion and the mediation of the angels and saints, is evident to any student of the Scriptures : Gen. xix, i: "And seeing them (the two angels), he rose up and went to meet them, and worshiped prostrate to the ground." Gen. xlviii, 16 : "The 'angel that delivereth me from all evils, bless these boys." Zach. i, 12: "O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem," etc. Matt, xviii, 10: "TJieir angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven." Apoc. v, 8 : "Golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints." Apoc, viii, 3, 4: "That he should offer of the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, and the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God." The Seriptures, moreover, tell us that the prayers of a saint on this earth avail much (James v, 16), and give us many an example of the efficacy of intercessory prayer, as the prayer of Abraham (Gen. xviii), of Moses (Exod. xvii), of Job (xlii), the brethren for St. Paul (Rom. xv, 30; Eph. vi, 18, 19; I Thess. v, 25). According to the ordinary Protestant notion this intercessory prayer was useless. use-less. Why not go to God directly !- or, in the new law, why not go to Christ directly ? Catholics ask is it reasonable to suppose that nearness to the throne of God destroys this power of intercession? Is it to be expected that in the joy of God's presence the saints will forget their brethren upon earth, who are still righting the good fight? Xay, rather their love for us must become more intense with the greater realization of the joys of God's kingdom, and their prayers be multiplied as their power becomes greater with God. I have met many Protestant3 who imagine that after death the saints have no knowledge of what happens upon earth. They fail to grasp the essential essen-tial doctrine of the Communion of Saints, although they may recite the words of the Apostles' Creed. Scripture plainly declares that the angels in heaven heav-en know our actions upon earth (Tob. xii, 12; I Cor. iv, 9; Matt, xviii, 10), and even our very thoughts (Luke vi, 10). Why, then, decry the same knowledge to the saints? especially as our Lord declares that the children of the resurrection shall be as "the angels of God in heaven" (Matt, xii, 30; Luke xx, 36). How do you know? continues the objector. Scripture tells us the fact, not the mode of their knowledge. The common Catholic teaching is that they know, all things conducive to their happiness in the face-to-face vision of God (I John iii, 2; I Cor. xiii, 12). The intercession of Jesu Christ is unique ;inl totally different from the mediatorship ,.f tj1P i saints, his followers. He is the one meli iti,r ' justice in virtu re. of his redemption, ncconlinfr tl) the Apostle: '"There is one mediator cf ;, men the man Christ Jesus, who irave hinix lt' a redemption re-demption for all" (I Tim. ii, f, 0). Tin- m 1 i;1 r i, ,n of the just upon earth and the saints in !i, nvrn . is not of justice hut of rra't and crHcaiMm ,.niv t in union with his mediation. ' There is no possibility of disunion Lftv.pn Christ, the head of the mystical body, and tlip saints as membws thereof. Their mediation, therefore, there-fore, being' in a true sensr his own. by no iur-a:w derogates from his honor and glory, but, on t'no contrary, redounds thereunto. The early Church understood this doctrine w, i:., as we can read on every page of the early Fatii. !-. The veneration of the saints and martyrs wa universal,-countless miracles of their intercession ;i v recorded, and the love of the early Cliri.-ri.ii:-shown by the honor paid to their tombs, relies, im ages and pictures. (For many testimonials . "Faith and Catholics,'' vol. iii, pp. niS-4u!, le v. Thomas Livius, "The Blessed Virgin in the Fat1; ers,' chs. vii, viii, pp. 278 et. sec.). St. Ignatius. i:. the second century, writes to the Trallians: "V. spirit be your expiation, not nw only but when ! shall have attained to God'' (l-') St. Cyprian, in the third century, writing to Pope Cornelius, s r.-: "If one of us shall, by the speediness of the divoio dispensation, depart hence the first, let our continue in the presence of the Lord; let not mi-prayer mi-prayer for our brethren and sisters cease in t'n.-presence t'n.-presence of the mercy of the Father" (Ep. ad Cr-nel. Cr-nel. 57, Pat. Lat., torn, iii, p. S36). The principle of intercession presents rio dir'- ficulty in things human; why, then, in things divine? di-vine? If I desire a favor of President Koosevolr. I may ask him directly, or do so indirectly throuirli some of his personal friends. Will he take it a an rnsult if I approach him indirectly? The request re-quest must come ultimately to him. So in the supernatural su-pernatural order. If I desire a favor of God. I may ask him directly if I choose, or indirectly through his friends, the saints of God, as wo an taught by the Scriptures and all Christian antiquity. an-tiquity. The request must ultimately come to God. who alone can grant it. How absurd to think him insulted if his loved ones add their prayer-; to ours. The saints' intercessory power by no means in--plies omnipotence, for they have no power of themselves to grant us what we ask, but can merely plead to God on our behalf. |