obligatory, nor as more than a part of the priest's personal devotions. Where the custom in question is followed certain exceptions should be noted, viz., that on Christmas-day the Gospel for the festival of the Epiphany is read as the last Gospel; and that whenever a festival is celebrated on a day which has its own proper Gospel (as, e. g., when the feast of an Apostle is observed on a Sunday), the Gospel of the day that is commemorated serves as the last Gospel of the mass. The priest, reading the last Gospel, genuflects at the words, "And the Word was made flesh," in the Gospel ordinarily read, and at the words, "fell down and worshipped him," in the Epiphany Gospel.
Of the Days on which the Holy Eucharist should not be Celebrated
On Good Friday, the anniversary of the crucifixion of our Saviour, and the day when the Passion of Christ is contemplated by the faithful as if it were being really enacted before them, the sacramental memorial of that Passion is not celebrated. This has ever been the custom throughout all Catholic Christendom.
For similar reasons there should be no celebration of the Holy Eucharist on Holy Saturday. The mass which, in the Latin Church, is now celebrated on Holy Saturday belongs of right to the early hours of Easter-day, and anciently "was only celebrated after midnight at the close of the great Easter vigil." According to the mind of the Church of God in the early ages, there is some incongruity in the celebration of the holy Eucharist on days of fasting. May it not be due to a lower estimate of the importance of the strict observance of such days, that the perception of this inconsistency has been so largely lost? The opinion that by the appointment of a proper Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, for any day, there is indicated an intention that the holy Eucharist shall be celebrated on that day, cannot be justified. At no time should the holy Eucharist be celebrated unless the priest have present with him at least one other person who will assist at the mass. For a priest to celebrate entirely alone is contrary to the letter and the spirit of the mass-rite, and is "a reprehensible custom worthy of meet correction."
