to the command of
Christ, and adores and raises for the adoration of the people the
body and blood of our Divine Lord. It is in this consecration that
the sacrifice of the mass principally consists; as by it the victim
is placed on the altar, and offered to God, viz. Christ himself,
represented as dead by the separate consecration of the bread and
wine, as if His blood were separated from His body. After some other
prayers, in which the priest offers to God the holy sacrifice, and
prays for mercy and salvation for all present, he elevates the host
and chalice together; this was the ancient elevation, as the more
solemn one, which follows immediately after the consecration, was
introduced generally in the 12th century, in opposition to the heresy
of Berengarius. Then concluding the canon the priest recites the _Our
Father_, and breaks the host, as Christ broke the bread, and as His
body was "broken" for us[19]; he puts a particle of the host into
the chalice[20]; he implores mercy and peace from the lamb of God, at
solemn masses gives the kiss of peace according to the recommendation
of scripture, and receives the two ablutions of the chalice, one of
wine, the other of wine and water, lest any portion of the sacred
blood should remain in it: he recites the communion or anthem, which
was originally sung while the holy communion was distributed; he says
the prayer or prayers called postcommunion, dismisses and begs God's
blessing on the people, in fine he recites the beginning of St. John's
gospel or some other gospel appropriate to the day. We shall on other
occasions recur to various ceremonies of the mass[21].

[Sidenote: Latin the language of the liturgy.]

The language of our liturgy has descended to us as a precious legacy
from the time when Peter and Paul preached in Rome. It would be
incongruous that our ancient hierarchy robed in ancient vestments
should perform our ancient liturgy in a moderne language. As in all
parts of the globe there are members of the Catholic church, she has
wisely preserved in her liturgy a language common to all countries,
the language too of majesty, civilisation and science, as De Maistre
observes. Like her divine founder she is the same yesterday and
to-day: like the rock, on which she is built, she is proof against
the winds and waves; she is unchanged and unaffected by the wayward
caprices of fashion. Translations of her liturgy are published for the
use of those who are unacquaint