are gathered together in
His name there He is in the midst of them, and where two agree on
earth as touching anything that they shall ask, all shall be done
that they ask. [Matt. 18:19, 20] How much more shall they obtain
what they ask, when a whole city comes together to praise God and
to pray with one accord! We would not need many
indulgence-letters if we proceeded aright in this matter. Souls
also would easily be redeemed from purgatory and innumerable
blessings would follow. But, alas! that is not the way it goes.
Everything is reversed; what the mass is intended to do, we take
upon us and want to do ourselves; what we ought to do we give
over to the mass. All this is the work of unlearned, false
preachers.

26. To be sure, this sacrifice of prayer, praise and
thanksgiving, and of ourselves, we are not to present before God
in our own person, but we are to lay it on Christ and let Him
present it, as St. Paul teaches in Hebrews xiii: "Let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of
the lips which confess Him and praise Him," [Heb. 13:15] and all
this through Christ. For He is also a priest, as Psalm cx says:
"Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" [Ps.
110:4]; because He intercedes for us in heaven, receives our
prayer and sacrifice, and through Himself, as a godly priest,
makes them pleasing to God [Heb. 5:6, 10, etc.], as St. Paul says
again in Hebrews ix: "He is ascended into Heaven to be a mediator
in the presence of God for us" [Heb. 9:24]; and: "It is Christ
Jesus that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, Who is even at
the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us."
[Rom. 8:34]

[Sidenote: Christ the Priest: Christians the Sacrifice]

From these words we learn that we do not offer Christ as a
sacrifice, but that Christ offers us. And in this way it is
permissible, yea, profitable, to call the mass a sacrifice, not
on its own account, but because we offer ourselves as a sacrifice
along with Christ; that is, we lay ourselves on Christ by a firm
faith in His testament, and appear before God with our prayer,
praise and sacrifice only through Him and through His mediation;
and we do not doubt that He is our priest and minister in heaven
before God. Such faith, forsooth, brings it to pass that Christ
takes up our cause, presents us, our prayer and praise, and also
offers Himself for us in heaven. If the mass were so understood
and therefore c