Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1916 — St. Augustine’s Church Notes. [ARTICLE]

St. Augustine’s Church Notes.

The greatest festival of the church is near at hand. It comes annually to commemorate the resurrection, the greatest fact of the Christian religion. Easter is a glorious dawn following a night of darkness and sorrow. The Lenten period is but a preparation for the glorious awakening of Easter, an awakening of the soul, a full realization of the surpassing joy at the resurrection. During this week there is great opportunity- for obtaining the grace of God in its complete fullness. If every day of Holy Week i« observed properly, it is safe to say that the soul thus observing it has advanced far on the road to salvation for plentiful graces of God will strengthen the soul to defend it successfully against the temptations of this troublous life.

The services during the last three days of Holy Week will be as follows: On Maunday Thursday the high mass will be at 9 o’clock. On this day the church commemorates the institution of the Blessed Eucharist. On this day one mass only can be said in. the same church and must be a public one. White vestments are worn by the priest, the altar is decked with flowers, and even the purple veil, which covers the cross during the Passiontide, is replaced by one of white. The celebrant consecrates two hosts, one for the priest who officiates on Good Friday, when there is no consecration. This host is carried in procession to a place known as the repository or sepulchre, where it remains until the following day. After mass on Maunday Thursday the signs of the mourning proper to Passiontide are resumed: The altar is stripped of its

■coverings ami of ornaments of all ' kinds, the lights in the sanctuary j are extinguished, and the door of! the empty tabernacle is left open, jin Rome the Pope washes the feet of 13 poor persons, all of them priests. On Maunday Thursday the yearly consecration of the holy oils takes, place, each bishop consecrating sufficient quantity of these oils for the wants of his diocese during the ensuing year. These oils are three in number—the oil for the sacrament of extreme unction, that for anointing those who are baptized, and also for anointing the priest's hands at his ordination, and the sacred chrism, a mixture of the oil and balsm used in the sacrament of confirmation and at the consecration of bishops. On Rood Friday the services will be at 9 o'clock. On this day the church commemorates the Passion of Christ, so that it is the saddest and most solemn day in Holy Week. The officiating clergy appear in black vestments and prostrate themselves before the altar which is still stripped. No candles are lighted, the organ is not j played no? are the bells rung. Th'ej most striking and singular feature of the Good Friday liturgy in the ommission of holy mass. In its place is the mass of Presanctified, in which the priest receives in holy communion a host consecrated on Maunday Thursday. The Blessed Sacrament is bourne from the repository or chapel where it was placed the previous day, while the choir sings the hymn Vexilla Regis (“The Banners of the King"). Good Friday is not a holy day of obligation. The church forbids the giving of holy communion to the faithful, except as viaticum to the dying. The ceremonies of Good Friday are most solemn and he who follows them in a true spirit and devout meditation cannot help but realize what our Lord has done for the redemption of mankind. Gn Holy Saturday the services will begin at 6 o’clock. The ceremonies begin with the blessing of a new fire that has been kindled with a flint and steel. From this fire 1, a candle with three stems and placed on a reed is lighted and carried up the church by a deacon, who three times chants the words “Lumen Christo.” The paschal candle is blessed by the deasop who fixes in it five grains of blessed incense in memory of the wounds of Christ and the precious spices with which He was anointed in the tomb, and afterwards lights it from the candle on the reed. The blessing of the candle is followed by the reading of the twelve prophecies, and after that the priest, goes in ' procession to bless the font. The water in the font is scattered, toward the four quarters of the world, to indicate the Catholicity of the church and the worldwide efficacy of her sacraments; the priest breathes on the water in the form of a cross and plunges the paschal candle into the water, for the Spirit of God is to hallow it, and the power of Christ is to descend on it lastly; a few drops of the oil of cathechumens and of the chiem are poured into the font, in order to signify the union of Christ, our anointed King, with His people. On the way back from the font the Litany of the Saints is begun, and when it is ended the altar is decked with flowers and the mass is begun in white vestments. The pictures and statues in the church that have been veiled since Passion Sunday are uncovered. The organ and bells are heard again and the joyful Alleluia is resumed. Why does the church make use of ceremonies in the celebration of her sacred mysteries? That we may serve God not only inwardly with the soul, but outwardly with the I body by external devotion that we I may keep our attention fixed, in-J crease our devotion and edify others; ' that by these externa) things we may be raised to the contemplation of divine inward thing®. Other services at the St. Augustine church are as follows: Wednesday evening at 7:30, rosary and sermon; Thursday at 2:30, Eucharistic Stations and at 7:30 Lenten devotions; Friday from 2 to 3, veneration of the cross, and at 7:30 Lenten devotions. There will be opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Penance on the following days: Wednesday, Friday and Saturday afternoons and evenings. Saturday, the vigil of Easter, is a day of fast and abstainonce.