267 Q. What are the ends for which the sacrifice of the Cross was offered?  A. The ends for which the sacrifice of the Cross was offered were:  first, to honor and glorify God; second, to thank Him for all the graces bestowed on the whole world; third, to satisfy God’s justice for the sins of men; fourth, to obtain all graces and blessings.

268 Q. Is there any difference between the sacrifice of the Cross and the sacrifice of the Mass?  A. Yes; the manner in which the sacrifice is offered is different.  On the Cross Christ really shed His blood and was really slain; in the Mass there is no real shedding of blood nor real death, because Christ can die no more; but the sacrifice of the Mass, through the separate consecration of the bread and the wine, represents His death on the Cross.

269 Q. How should we assist at Mass?  A. We should assist at Mass with great interior recollection and piety and with every outward mark of respect and devotion.

If you were admitted into the presence of a king or of the Holy Father you would be careful not to show any indifference or disrespect in his presence.  You would not be guilty of looking around or of talking idly to those near you.  Your eyes would be constantly fixed on the great person present.  So should you be at Mass, for there you are admitted into the presence of the King of kings, our divine Lord.  Your whole attention, therefore, should be reverently given to Him, and to no other.  How displeasing it must be to Him to have some in His presence who care so little for Him and who insult Him without thought or regard!  If we acted in the presence of any prince as we sometimes act in the presence of Our Lord on the altar, we should be turned out of his house, with orders not to come again.  But Our Lord suffers all patiently and meekly, though He will not allow any of this disrespect to go unpunished in this world or in the next.  Knowing this, some holy persons offer up their prayers and Holy Communions in reparation for these insults, and try to atone for all the insults offered to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.  They have united in holy society for this purpose, called the Apostleship of Prayer, or League of the Sacred Heart, now established in many parishes.  If you do not belong to such a society, you should make such an offering yourself privately.

In the Old Law the people brought to the temple whatever they wished the priests to offer up for them—­sometimes a lamb, sometimes a dove, sometimes fruit, etc.  The offering or sacrifice was theirs, and they offered it up by the hands of the priests.  In the early ages of the Church the Christians brought to the priests the bread and wine to be consecrated and offered up at Mass.  Now as the bread and wine used at the Mass must be of a particular kind, namely, wheaten bread and wine of the grape, there was some danger of the people not bringing the proper kind:  so instead of the people bringing these things themselves,