On Sunday in the Catholic Hour Series it rather foolish to arrive at the theatre when a play is ead} finished? The better the play, the more eager re to see it in its entirety. The Mass is not merely a but the greatest drama of all time, a drama of an extra-type, because in it the people are not meant to be mere but, together with the priest, to play the role of actors. of the drama, the sacrificial action proper. i Consecration The priest now enters upon the Canon of the Consecration, an invariable formula of prayers which precedes, accompanies and follows the act of Consecration. After praying for the Church and all living Catholics, the priest prays that God institution of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, The first words of the Consecration bring Christ, really living, upon the altar. The next words, spoken over the chalice, mystically crucify Christ again, though really the whole rite of consecration is truly sacrificial. It is our sacrifice—the sacrifice of every living Catholic the world over.
The prayers which follow the con-secretion include petitions to God and the Saints as well as a special remembrance of the dead and reach na their climax in the prayer that Christ 3
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.