CHAPTER II. THE HOLY EUCHARIST ASPERGES PSALM ROMAN CATHOLIC* Before the Chief Mass on Sundays. Antiphon LIBERAL CATHOLIC+ Before all Eucharistic Antiphon Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, O Lord, and I shall be clean: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Psalm I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills: from whence cometh my help. My help cometh even from the Lord: Who hath made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: and He that keepeth thee will not sleep. Behold, He that keepeth Israel: shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord Himself is thy keeper: the Lord is thy † Authorized edition, published by The St. Alban Press, London, Los Angeles, and Sydney. So that the sun shall not smite thee by day: neither the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: yea, it is even He that shall keep thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in: from this time forth for evermore. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen. Antiphon Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, O Lord, and I shall be clean: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. The Liturgy begins with the asperges, or purificatory ceremony. Asperges is simply the Latin for the opening words of the antiphon "Thou shalt sprinkle," for it is constantly the custom in the Church to use the first word or words of a psalm or canticle as its name. The procession having already stirred up people and assisted them to become united in thought and feeling, the celebrant by means of the asperges makes a special effort to clear out of the church any accumulation of worldly thought. He does this by sprinkling holy water, which has been strongly magnetized with a view to this sort of work. Upon reaching the sanctuary the priest kneels before the altar and sings the opening words of the antiphon: "Thou shalt sprinkle me," the choir and congregation continuing the melody from this point. The priest receives the aspergill, which has been dipped in the holy water, and, after making with it the holy sign of the cross over himself, sprinkles the altar thrice, as it is especially necessary that this part of the church should be carefully prepared for the reception of the tremendous force which is so soon to radiate from it. He need not scatter any large quantity of water in so doing, since the purification is produced less by the falling drops than by the will of the priest directing the energy stored in the magnetized water. With each throwing movement of the aspergill he aims this force in any desired direction, and it flows immediately along the line laid down for it. In this way he can direct a jet of force towards the cross above the tabernacle, across the altar to the candles, and so on. The clergy and choir are then aspersed, and finally the congregation; in each case a rush of cleansing force is shot out, which travels, when aimed at the people, down to the very end of the church, however large it may be. This outrush blows what looks like a vast flat bubble of etheric and astro-mental matter, a thought-edifice, ethereal, diaphanousa bubble which just includes the congregation. (See Plate 2.) Inside this the psychical atmosphere is purified, the bubble pushing Opp. page 38. 7 - PLATE 2 (Fig. 1). The Asperges Bubble as formed by the Celebrant. The priest stands at * (Fig. 2).Cross-section of bubble after aspersion of altar and sanctuary. (Fig. 3). Cross-section of western portion of hrhhla after aspersion of neople. The church is represented as if seen from above, the whole interior |