Talks on the Sacramentals, by Msgr Arthur Tonne - Benediction

"Sir, we wish to see Jesus." St. John, 12:21.

In the June, 1942, issue of the Victorian Magazine, Josephine Quirk tells the following incident in an article entitled: "Peace Must Be Earned." One Sunday afternoon she went to a reception at the home of a friend in Paris. Among the guests were the select of the social, artistic and political world in France. All were prominent, brilliant and wealthy, but a little soft in their ethics and morals.

At 5 o'clock Miss Quirk told her hostess that she was leaving--to attend services at Notre Dame Cathedral. When the hostess announced this to the guests, laughs and jeers and wisecracks followed:

"Don't tell me you'd leave a grand party to go to church!"

"How delightfully old-fashioned!"

"I thought nobody went to Notre Dame but tourists!"

The good-bye of her hostess included this remark:

"Going to Benediction at Notre Dame! How quaint!"

When Paris fell in World War Two Miss Quirk remembered that day and those people. She wondered, too, if its fall had not been God's way of bringing those moral softies to their senses. In 1941 she received a letter from her hostess friend, who was still in Paris, practically a prisoner of the Nazis, who had stripped her of everything she held dear. After telling of the difficulties of getting bread, the once wealthy friend wrote:

"I spend hours every day in Notre Dame Cathedral. I find peace there and it helps me to bear all this. When I'm kneeling before the altar, the hunger passes and I feel that I can go on and take whatever they force on us. Something gives me strength that I do not get--even from food."

That Parisian woman had learned the hard way the meaning and value of the Eucharist and especially of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. I hope it will not take a war to make you realize the value of this simple yet sublime, this short but thrilling ceremony of Benediction. The actions performed are beautiful and expressive sacramentals. Some of these, like incense and candles, will be explained more fully in particular talks during this series. Today we would like to explain some of the ceremonies of this simple but significant service.

The altar is adorned with lights and flowers. The flowers are beautiful fragrant and pleasant to the senses. They represent the virtues we should bring to the worship of the Lord, virtues which are pleasing to Him. Flowers are an attractive part of creation and should pay their tribute of adoration to their Creator.

The lighted candles are made of beeswax a symbol of the pure body of Christ. The light is a sign of Christ, the Light of the world. The flames show our faith and our love spending themselves for Him.

The priest puts on surplice, stole and cope. The surplice is an abbreviated form of the alb. the long, white linen garment worn by the priest at Mass, and covering the entire body. It was part of the ordinary dress in the time of the apostles, and is worn today to remind us how old are devotions to the Eucharist.

The stole is a long narrow band of silk worn over the neck and adorned with three crosses, one at each end and one in the center. The priest kisses the latter cross as he prepares to place it over his shoulders. The stole is worn whenever he administers the sacraments.

The stole is symbolic of the cords with which Christ was tied; of the cross on which Christ died; and of the yoke which Christ makes sweet. The priest's burden is heavy and responsible; Christ makes it light and sweet.

The stole is also a badge and symbol of priestly authority. At one time it was part of priestly dress not only at the altar, but also on the street, much as the Roman collar is today.

The cope, from the Latin "casa," which means a little house, is a mantlelike cloak reaching to the ankles and fastened at the neck with a clasp. It was originally the Roman overcoat with a hood that could be drawn up over the head in cold or rainy weather.

Clothed in these vestments, the priest enters the sanctuary, genuflects, and kneels on the lowest step for a moment of adoration. He ascends the altar, unfolds the corporal, a square linen cloth, and places it upon the altar table. He places a similar cloth on the place where the monstrance is to rest.

He unlocks the tabernacle, takes out the Sacred Host, inserts it in the monstrance, which is set in a conspicuous place above the altar or tabernacle so that all can see it.

As the choir and people sing the "O Salutaris," or similar hymn, the priest puts incense on the burning coals carried in a censer by the servers, and offers fragrant clouds to the King of heaven and earth. Incense is a symbol of respect and loyalty and adoration. Formerly burned before kings and rulers, it is here a sign of prayer and love rising in tribute to the King of kings.

When the choir has sung the "Tantum Ergo," the priest sings a prayer beseeching God that we might ever venerate Him here in order to feel forever the fruits of His redemption. Then he takes the monstrance containing our Lord, turns to the people and, in the form of a cross, gives the blessing of Christ Himself.

The priest covers his hands with a shoulder veil to show that this is not his own priestly blessing, but the blessing of Christ Himself.

Here is the answer to the ache in the heart of the world--to see Jesus, to adore Him, to honor Him, the ache expressed by the Gentiles, the strangers, to the Apostle Philip when they exclaimed:

"Sir, we wish to see Jesus."

Don't you wish to see Jesus? Don't you wish to adore Him in person? Don't you wish to honor Him on our altar? Above all, don't you wish to receive His very own blessing? Then attend Benediction as often as possible, as lovingly as possible.

You will experience, as did our Parisian woman, a peace and a help and a strength that you get nowhere else and from nothing else. You are seeing the Lord and receiving His blessing. Amen.