Man in Café (verse)
Paulding, Gouverneur
January i9, r927 THE COMMONWEAL 289 No very great stretch of imagination is necessary to understand that the Acts of the Apostles, where there is question of "the breaking of the Bread" in the...
...Who has not realized that a pic- ture of Mass, offered up in Notre Dame, Paris, after its desecration by the enthronement of Citizeness Aubrey as the Goddess of Reason, would help power- fully to a realization of the need of expiation...
...What they see they link up with what they have heard or already know...
...GOUVERNEUR PAULDING...
...Those who look upon the thousand turrets of the Milan Cathedral must have desired more than once to see just how the Ambrosian differs from the Roman rite...
...Anyone who has read a book about Spain has asked himself what the Mozarabic rite is like...
...But what men see they do not soon forget...
...For words are soon forgotten...
...These and a multiplicity of other Eucharistic subiects might easily be made vivid to our people by means of the silver sheet...
...It is also due in part to the fact that the modern man, anxious to know the reason why and wherefore of things, is desirous of ap- prehending something of the history of the origin of the Mass and its vicissitudes throughout the ages...
...If we have failed so far to produce a really master- ful screen portrayal of the Mass, it is owing no doubt to the great expense which such an undertaking would involve...
...To reproduce the Mass in a cheap, make...
...Who has not desired to see Urban II offering up the Holy Sacrifice at Clermont just prior to proclaiming the first Crusade...
...A film on the Mass will not only enliven preaching on the subject but will drive home whatever is said from the pulpit into the hearts and memories of men...
...And, since we felt at home in our caf~, If any stranger laughed we told him: "No, We never laugh at that old man and so If you must laugh go laugh across the way...
...shift and inadequate fashion would, of course, defeat the very purpose which such a film should serve...
...That this prejudice is entirely unfounded is abundantly plain from the conduct of the French who long since pressed moving pictures into service as a powerful agency of Eucharistic education...
...Certainly, if he saw Io,ooo,ooo Catholics going to the movies every week he would leave no stone un-turned to harness up this great engine to the service of religion and especially to the service of Jesus re-maining with us really and substantially in the Eucharist...
...Who has not desired frequently to see portrayed the touching scene of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered up at the midnight hour in Ireland during penal days when that meant such fateful consequences for the officiating priest...
...And on the other hand, what Catholic would long remain indifferent about pictures showing the different rites which are not only permitted but approved by the Church...
...January i9, r927 THE COMMONWEAL 289 No very great stretch of imagination is necessary to understand that the Acts of the Apostles, where there is question of "the breaking of the Bread" in the Upper Chamber at Jerusalem after the Ascension of Our Saviour, might be profitably amplified and made vivid for our people by means of the movies...
...Improving upon that famous saying one might pre-sume to declare that were the great Apostle, vigilant as he ever was for the instruction of his converts and ever ready to make use of any means at hand to tighten their grasp upon spiritual truths, to return to the world today he would not be unmindful of the power of the moving picture as an agency of religious instruction...
...This arises probably from the fact that the Mass does not form more frequently the topic of parochial sermons...
...in Caj "Tomorrow is the marriage" he would say, This ancient man whom we had come to know, Then we would lift our hats and watch him go Before we dealt the cards again to play...
...A Mass film, accurate, adequate, historically true, theologically orthodox, is a real need of the hour if our people are to keep alive in their hearts that love for the Mass which they have inherited from forbears who often enough suffered in their bodies to attend und keep in their Catholic life...
...Even the catechetical answers learned by rote in youth have an unhappy faculty of evaporating from the memory...
...It was Bishop Ketteller who years ago shocked his contemporaries by saying that if Saint Paul were to return to the world he would undoubtedly be a power- ful advocate of the press, if not a journalist himself...
...We whom he choseas friends could not betray His trust--knowing he had not long to stay-- And while he stayed with us at least no blow, No sneer should hurt the constant dream which lay So close behind his eyes, nor overthrow Such happy certainty of wedding day...
...If we can show them the Mass, in all its parts, in its origin, in its history, in its liturgical bearing, thenwe may be sure that whatever knowledge Catholic people have regarding the Holy Sacrifice will freshen up like a withered plant after a summer rain...
...Who has not desired at one time or other in his life to see just how Mass was celebrated in the second or third centuries in the Catacombs...
...Because every- thingpertaining to the Mass is surrounded with ven-eration and reverence there are those who feel that to film it would smack somewhat of commercialization...
...There are those who be- lieve that even with the magnificent numbers in at-tendance at Sunday Mass there is a gradual lessening of interest in it through a lack of understanding of its meaning and riches...
...It is really remarkable how many of our people are anxious to see carried out the various oriental rites approved by Rome...
...In the second place, there is an unreasonable prejudice against filming the Mass in the minds of those wh6 have not, as yet, learned that the latest and best in- ventions and devices of our modern life should be pressed into the service of religion...
Vol. 5 • January 1927 • No. 11
