This is the second in a series of excerpts from an article written around the year 1800 by Reverend Father Leonard Gossine and republished in the March 31, 2015, issue of The Remnant:

[W]e must hear Mass in a three-fold manner. First, by remembering at the beginning of the Mass, that we ourselves should be the offering of reconciliation to God’s justice, but that Jesus, the Son of God, out of infinite love, gave Himself to us as an offering by which we become reconciled with His Father, perfectly glorify and thank Him; and though the priest stands alone at the altar, alone speaking, and with his hands offers the sacrifice, we must unite ourselves with him and offer the sacrifice with him. The first manner of hearing Mass is to perform the sacrifice with the priest, doing as far as we can, in spirit, that which he does, remembering that we have met not only to hear Mass, but at the same time to perform and offer the sacrifice with the priest.

To be continued…