minding us that through all ages and all over the world, it is the privilege as well as the duty of Christian people to "make Eucharist," and thereby to manifest their gratitude to God. The Preface, as it leads on to the Sanctus, has on certain feasts and seasons a proper section commemorating a particular mystery, and at one time the number of these was far greater than it is now.

SANCTUS AND BENEDICTUS

The Preface passes into hymns of praise: the Sanctus, the hymn of the Angels as Isaiah saw them in his vision (Isaiah 6:1-8) and John saw them in the Revelation (4:6); and the Benedictus, the hymn of welcome to Our Lord as he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. When they were first introduced in the west, in the fifth century, their use seems to have been limited, like that of the Gloria today, only to certain Masses; afterwards they became an invariable part of the rite.

Isaiah tells us that the Seraphim he saw in his vision covered their faces with their wings. With the same sense of awe, the Celebrant bows down as he uses the Angels' hymn. The people likewise bow during the first part of the Sanctus. At the beginning of the Benedictus, all sign themselves with the cross, asking as it were a blessing from the Lord whose own blessedness they proclaim. As we draw near to the climax of our worship, it is fitting that we should join in the song that expresses the perfect worship of heaven. From this we turn to that which is not only one of welcome, but was also the herald of the passion.

THE EUCHARISTIC PRAYER

The dialogue and preface have led us, through the Sanctus, into the prayers of the Canon of the Mass. The word