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by William J. Barry (Author)
Imprimatur.
I have endeavoured to select from the beautiful treasures which the Liturgy offers, in almost inexhaustible variety to the choice of even a careless explorer, those which fall more frequently under the observation of the faithful, and which are, consequently, of greater present utility. To explain the historical origin of the Sacramentals on which I have written, their mystical meanings, and the practical lessons to be drawn from them, constitutes the triple end kept in view in the composition of this treatise. Whether I have succeeded is a question which I leave to the decision of my readers.
No statement, historical or rubrical, is advanced which has not been substantiated by the authorities at my disposal. The Treatise on the Festivals, by Benedict XIV; Migne's Cursus Theologiae et Scripturae; the Liturgical Institutions of Fornici, the Authentic Decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites; Cardinal Bona's Treatise on the Liturgy; Hierurgia, and the Church of our Fathers, by Dr. Rock; and the large Catechisms of Guillois and Gaume, are the books which I have most frequently consulted.
The Church is a perfect copy of Jesus. She is the Incarnation continued, and if Jesus lived a hidden life, and taught in public and in private, and suffered, she has imitated and still imitates Him in all. Jesus "spoke to the multitude in parables things hidden from the foundation of the world," and so in the first ages the Church explained the great mysteries of the Blessed Eucharist and the Trinity to the children of the household only, whilst to the scoffing Jew and heathen she spoke not at all of them, or in guarded and mystic language. And why? - To exclude them for ever from the fountains of life-giving grace? Little would we know of the tenderness of her motherly heart towards the erring children bought by the Blood of Christ her Spouse if such were our thought. She but obeyed the divine injunction, "cast not your pearls before swine"; she was waiting until, by her holy preaching and holy life, she would soften those hard hearts to receive the impress of love from the Ever Blessed Three and the mystery of Christ's Body and Blood.
