Chapter 7
Section 7 of Guide for Catholic Young Women, Especially for Those Who Earn Their Own Living by Rev. George Dichon. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapters 19-21. Chapter 19. How to Assist at Mass. How shall I spend my time at Mass? It seems sometimes so long. I do not know what to do. My mind is filled with distractions. It is a simple matter to attend at Mass.
You come to worship God and to pray. No particular way of doing so is laid down. Each one is free to do those things that come most natural to him. Some say the rosary and occupy their minds with good thoughts while they do so. Others have a book with prayers for Mass, which they follow.
All this is very well. Others get to understand the meaning of the different parts of the Mass, and they follow the Holy Sacrifice better with such prayers as they find in their own hearts. For example, at the confitior, they strike their breasts with the priest and are sorry for all their sins and make acts of contrition. At the offertory, when the bread and wine are offered to God to be used in the sacrifice, they offer themselves body, soul, memory, will, and understanding, all that they are, all that they have, and all that they hope for, to God, that he may do what he pleases with them.
and determining that all shall be devoted to him and used in his service. All this will take up a good deal of time and be very profitable. When the bell is rung the first time, that is, at the Sanctus, they can begin to think more especially of God, of his greatness and goodness,
of his majesty and love, and their own lowness and meanness in comparison. This will bring them along to the elevation when the Holy Host in the chalice, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, is elevated or raised on high by the priest.
Then they can simply bend down their bodies and their souls at the same time in a simple, profound, deep act of worship and adoration of God, who is elevated on high on purpose to receive it. After the elevation, we can prepare for the communion that follows when the priest receives the most precious body and blood.
If you do not receive at the Mass, at least you may do what you would do if you were going to receive. You can say with the priest, Lord, I am not worthy. You can beg the Lord to visit your heart.
You can ask the same graces as if you did receive. Then you can thank him for all his goodness and all that he has done for you, which will occupy your time until the close of the Mass. Now, is not this a good way to hear Mass?
It seems to me that it should come natural to everybody. I am confident that many among educated people prefer this way to any other. They shut up their books and let their souls have free liberty to raise themselves as they find most natural and most fitted
to promote the love of God, the end and object of all devotion. Pious thoughts, good desires, and prayers of every sort and in any order will suffice to make the hearing of Mass profitable. Returning home from church, after an hour thus devoutly spent, I am sure you will not forget the sacred character of the day,
nor go into places dangerous to your soul, nor keep any evil company. The same modesty and recollection you brought from church will attend you everywhere, and when night comes around you will be ready to exclaim before you retire to rest, What a happy and useful day I have spent! One day in thy courts is better than a thousand. It is better to be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the ungodly.
Psalm 83, 10 With a light, cheerful heart you will commend your soul to God, now prepared with good courage to fight the good fight of faith against all the enemies of your salvation for the oncoming week. Chapter 20
Of Reading Good Books It will frequently happen that you will have leisure time at your disposal. When the work of the day is over in the afternoon, in the long evenings of winter, and especially on Sundays, the time will be your own, and you can do what you like with it.
and it will be a happy thing for you if you pass it so as to increase the spirit of devotion. But you feel tired, perhaps, and unable to pray. We cannot always be on our knees. We cannot always think. And it is not the Lord's will that we should overdo anything, not even prayer.
Now, there is a beautiful and easy way of spending one's time piously and of keeping up at the same time the spirit of prayer. That way consists in the reading of good books. We need to be entertained and to have amusement sometimes, that our minds may not get too worried and unable to think clearly and rightly.
The conversation of a good friend is very pleasant. It gives us this amusement without doing us any harm, and oftentimes it does us a great deal of good. Now, a good book is a good friend. The pages, it is true, do not look at us and smile in our faces.
They do not talk to us with all those sweet tones of a friend's voice. They do not talk aloud, but still they do talk to us. They give us many new ideas. They instruct us in many things we did not know before. Indeed, they can make us laugh and make us weep.
Who can read The Happy Death of a Saint without feeling the tears start from his eyes? Books are, next to sermons, next to the living voice of the preacher, the most powerful means to excite us to virtue. Get, then, at least a few books, and read them when you get a chance. Oh, says a good girl, I wish I could.
I have never been taught to read, and I'm now too old to learn. Besides, I have no opportunity for learning. There is no one to teach me, and I haven't the time. Now, do not be cast down on that account. There is one beautiful book at least we can read, and that is The Crucifix.
What fountains of knowledge and true wisdom it contains. You can look at it and think over what it means from one year's end to another, yet you will never reach the bottom of it. Saint Bonaventure, who wrote so many beautiful things, was asked where he got them all.
What book said he learned them out of? There is my book, said he, pointing to the crucifix. All my knowledge, all my thoughts, come from that. Another lovely book you have, that you can read, though you never learned a letter of the alphabet,
it, and that is the rosary. Millions who could not read a word have read that book every day. Get someone to teach you the meaning of the mysteries, and you will never fail to have the best of books always at hand. There is no need then to be cast down because you cannot read. Only keep your heart simply directed to God, and he will make up abundantly for all that is lacking. Many of the saints have not been able to read, but they could pray and think of Christ's
sufferings, and love for them wonderfully well. But why say a word about those who cannot read, since they cannot read what you say? That is true, but somebody else may read it to them, or tell them, and then my object will be accomplished, which is to give everyone such instruction and consolation as is necessary for them. If you can read, then it is the Lord's will that you should make use of this gift, for he requires us to make good use of all our talents
and opportunities, to whom much is given, of him much will be required. St. Luke 1248. Chapter 21. Of Reading the Bible. You need not, however, have a great many books. A few good ones are all sufficient to furnish food for your souls. Such books can be read over and over without getting tired of them. They will always renew some good impression and excite in you a strong desire to regulate your life so as to please God better. There is one book far above all others that have
ever been written or ever will be. That is, the Holy Bible. This book is different from all other books because we can put the most entire confidence in all that is written in it. Why? It is God himself, the Holy Ghost, that has caused it to be written for our benefit. This is what the Scripture itself says, All Scripture, divinely inspired, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice,
that the man of God may be perfect, furnished unto every good work. 2 Timothy 3.16 Especially is this the case with the New Testament, which is better fitted to our times and circumstances, which is for the most part plainer and easier to be understood, and which tells us all that has been done for us by our Savior and his apostles.
In the Old Testament, I would advise you to select such parts as you can read with understanding and profit, and not those which are above your comprehension or not applicable to your situation. There are many prophecies and accounts of ceremonies and some narratives which, though edifying, no doubt, to those who understand them, are only curious and without profit to those who do not. Some things are better let alone.
Perhaps some person who is acquainted with the different books will advise you what to read and what not. In the New Testament it is different. Every part of it is full of holy instruction, and I am not at all afraid that any harm will come to a well-intentioned, pure-minded person from reading it. On the contrary, such persons will not fail to derive much good from it.
But does not St. Peter say, speaking of the epistles of St. Paul and the other scriptures, that in them are many things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and the unstable rest to their own perdition? 2 Peter 3.16 Undoubtedly he does, and nothing can be more true.
There are even things which seem perfectly plain and easy to understand that would certainly mislead any but a scholar, unless they were explained. Such things were understood well enough at the time they were written, because all the people were accustomed to use words in the sense in which the writers meant to use them. But now that language and manners have changed,
these words have lost the meaning they had at that time and convey a very different one to us. They must be explained or we shall be misled. Other things are very deep and difficult in themselves, even to scholars, and it is a real folly to set up one's opinions about them without an explanation.
It is the Church's office to guard and preserve the true sense of the Scripture, As you remember, the scripture itself calls her the pillar and ground of the truth. The Church, where the meaning of a passage is obscure, or has become changed in the translation from one language to another, has placed notes and explanations to preserve the original meaning.
There can be no objection to reading a Catholic Bible, and I find it strongly recommended to the faithful as the best of all books to read. Pope Pius VI declares that And he declares that See beginning of Catholic Bible
It is true, the proud and the evil-minded can injure themselves by their reading, But what of that? Cannot everything good be turned into evil by such persons? I have seen self-conceited and ignorant people do this, and to the great peril of their salvation.
Were the matter not so serious, one could not help laughing at the absurd sense sometimes put on the scripture by such people. Could they have either a little more learning, or a little more sense,
they would see what others see so plainly, how utterly ridiculous they have made themselves. Read then the Catholic Bible in the proper spirit, not for disputation or display of learning, but for the good of your soul. End of section 7
