The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Volume I

Every Catholic has heard that the Mass is a sacrifice. Dr. Nicholas Gihr wrote this book to show why that is true, and to show a priest what he is doing when he stands at the altar. Book One is the argument. It begins with what a sacrifice is at all, follows the question through the offerings of the Old Law to the Cross, and then proves that the Mass is that same sacrifice offered without blood: from Melchisedech’s bread and wine, from the clean oblation foretold by Malachias, from the present tense of the words at the Last Supper, and from the Fathers and the ancient liturgies. Gihr is just as exact about what the Mass obtains. He sorts out the fruit that goes to the whole Church, the fruit for those who are present, the fruit for the priest, and the fruit a priest applies by intention, and he explains why the Church says many Masses for one soul and why a High Mass obtains more than a low one.

The first chapter of Book Two completes this volume and walks up to the altar: why it must be stone and what lies sealed inside it, how it is dressed, the chalice and its linens, the six vestments and the virtue each one asks of the man who puts it on, the five liturgical colors, the wax candles, and a long defense of Latin as the language of the Mass. Each answer comes with the Church’s own prayers and decrees in hand.

Gihr wrote for priests and arranged the book so that an educated layman could read it with profit. This is the first of two volumes. Volume II goes through the rite itself.