06-06-2026, 02:54 PM
Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908
FORTY-SEVENTH OBJECTION. I DO NOT NEED TO GO TO MASS: I PRAY TO GOD JUST AS WELL AT HOME.
Answer. Can you really pray just as well at home? Does not the holy silence of God's temple inspire you? Are you not affected by the evident devotion of the worshippers? And do you really pray to Him at home? Pardon me if I am wrong; but I have a slight suspicion that you do not pray to Him any more at home than at Church.
The real question, you see, is not to know whether you can pray to God as well at home as during Mass, but to know whether God wills that on Sundays and festival days you should hear Mass, and pray there instead of at home only.
Now, He does will it.
We have already discussed this together, and decided that the religious laws of the pastors of the Catholic Church are binding in conscience, because they are derived from the authority delegated to them by Jesus Christ. "He who heareth you heareth Me; and he who despiseth you despiseth Me."
When the Church commands us to be present at the celebration of Mass, on Sundays and festival days, it is disobedience toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and toward God, to neglect to go.
The reason which caused this law to be made is very important; the law itself, accordingly, is not less so. It is the absolute necessity of a public worship rendered to God.
We do not only live individually as men, as Christians; we are also a religious society; and this society, of which we are members, being established by God Himself, has duties to fulfil to Him, as well as each one of us in particular.
Now, the public worship of this Christian Society (or Church) is precisely this attendance at the Sacrifice of the Mass, which unites us all, in the presence of our God, in His temple, on days set apart for this purpose, some actually by God Himself,* others by our Lord, others by the Apostles or their successors.
To abstain from associating, at these solemn moments, with the rest of the Christian family, is to renounce, in some measure, the title of Christian, of child of God, disciple of Jesus Christ, and member of the Catholic Church.
Thus, it is a great sin to neglect hearing Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, without a real and good reason for so doing.
The serious nature of such negligence may be better understood as the grandeur, holiness, and divine excellence of the Sacrifice of the Mass is understood.
The Sacrifice of the Mass is the core of Religion.
It is the unbloody continuation, through all ages and generations, of the bloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
There is no essential difference between the Sacrifice of the Cross and the Sacrifice of the Mass. It is the same and the only Sacrifice, offered under a different form. The priest is the same; Jesus Christ in person offered the sacrifice on Calvary; on the altar He makes the sacrifice in the person of the priest. The victim is the same. His body poured forth His precious blood on Calvary; on the altar the same sacred body and precious blood are veiled in the semblance of bread and wine. The circumstances and appearance of the sacrifice are different; the substance is the same.
By the mysterious and divine words uttered by the priest, or rather by Jesus Christ, who speaks by His minister, the same miracle of love which was operated at the Last Supper, on Holy Thursday, is daily renewed on our altars. The bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and only preserve the mere appearance of bread and wine; so that there is really nothing on the altar, after the consecration, but the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ living, and thus uniting in the Blessed Sacrament, all the mysteries of His mortal and of His glorious life.
Seek, then, to understand the grandeur of your faith, and alter your language regarding it.
Come with the rest of your brethren, come to your Saviour; it is for you that He descends upon our altars, it is for your salvation that He immolates Himself in this great mystery. Without Him you cannot save your soul: and yet you neglect Him, you despise Him, you prefer futile occupations, follies, trifles of all kinds to Him!
Return to yourself, I beseech you, fulfil a duty which is as easy as it is serious and necessary.
Go on Sunday and prostrate yourself before your good God, to take a review of the week past, and make a holy provision for the week following. God will bless you, and you will feel happy.
FORTY-SEVENTH OBJECTION. I DO NOT NEED TO GO TO MASS: I PRAY TO GOD JUST AS WELL AT HOME.
Answer. Can you really pray just as well at home? Does not the holy silence of God's temple inspire you? Are you not affected by the evident devotion of the worshippers? And do you really pray to Him at home? Pardon me if I am wrong; but I have a slight suspicion that you do not pray to Him any more at home than at Church.
The real question, you see, is not to know whether you can pray to God as well at home as during Mass, but to know whether God wills that on Sundays and festival days you should hear Mass, and pray there instead of at home only.
Now, He does will it.
We have already discussed this together, and decided that the religious laws of the pastors of the Catholic Church are binding in conscience, because they are derived from the authority delegated to them by Jesus Christ. "He who heareth you heareth Me; and he who despiseth you despiseth Me."
When the Church commands us to be present at the celebration of Mass, on Sundays and festival days, it is disobedience toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and toward God, to neglect to go.
The reason which caused this law to be made is very important; the law itself, accordingly, is not less so. It is the absolute necessity of a public worship rendered to God.
We do not only live individually as men, as Christians; we are also a religious society; and this society, of which we are members, being established by God Himself, has duties to fulfil to Him, as well as each one of us in particular.
Now, the public worship of this Christian Society (or Church) is precisely this attendance at the Sacrifice of the Mass, which unites us all, in the presence of our God, in His temple, on days set apart for this purpose, some actually by God Himself,* others by our Lord, others by the Apostles or their successors.
To abstain from associating, at these solemn moments, with the rest of the Christian family, is to renounce, in some measure, the title of Christian, of child of God, disciple of Jesus Christ, and member of the Catholic Church.
Thus, it is a great sin to neglect hearing Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, without a real and good reason for so doing.
The serious nature of such negligence may be better understood as the grandeur, holiness, and divine excellence of the Sacrifice of the Mass is understood.
The Sacrifice of the Mass is the core of Religion.
It is the unbloody continuation, through all ages and generations, of the bloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
There is no essential difference between the Sacrifice of the Cross and the Sacrifice of the Mass. It is the same and the only Sacrifice, offered under a different form. The priest is the same; Jesus Christ in person offered the sacrifice on Calvary; on the altar He makes the sacrifice in the person of the priest. The victim is the same. His body poured forth His precious blood on Calvary; on the altar the same sacred body and precious blood are veiled in the semblance of bread and wine. The circumstances and appearance of the sacrifice are different; the substance is the same.
By the mysterious and divine words uttered by the priest, or rather by Jesus Christ, who speaks by His minister, the same miracle of love which was operated at the Last Supper, on Holy Thursday, is daily renewed on our altars. The bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and only preserve the mere appearance of bread and wine; so that there is really nothing on the altar, after the consecration, but the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ living, and thus uniting in the Blessed Sacrament, all the mysteries of His mortal and of His glorious life.
Seek, then, to understand the grandeur of your faith, and alter your language regarding it.
Come with the rest of your brethren, come to your Saviour; it is for you that He descends upon our altars, it is for your salvation that He immolates Himself in this great mystery. Without Him you cannot save your soul: and yet you neglect Him, you despise Him, you prefer futile occupations, follies, trifles of all kinds to Him!
Return to yourself, I beseech you, fulfil a duty which is as easy as it is serious and necessary.
Go on Sunday and prostrate yourself before your good God, to take a review of the week past, and make a holy provision for the week following. God will bless you, and you will feel happy.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre