1. The custom of placing a vessel containing blessed or Holy Water at the entrance of the Church has been handed down to us from the Apostolic age. Into this vessel the faithful dip the fingers of the right hand, and make upon themselves the Sign of the Cross, repeating at the same time the invocation of the Ever-blessed Trinity. As water denotes purity and innocence, by using it on entering a place of worship we are admonished with what purity of heart and mind we should appear in the presence of our Maker.
2. The Sign of the Cross, which we make upon ourselves in taking holy water, as well as on many other occasions, is a sign or ceremony in which, with St. Paul (Gal. vi. 14), we should place our greatest happiness and glory, as being a striking memorial of the sufferings and death of our Redeemer—that mystery whence are derived all our hopes for mercy, grace, and salvation. By the words that accompany this ceremony we are no less forcibly reminded that God whom we serve, although One in nature, exists in Three Persons really distinct from each other.
3. The first object that arrests the Christian's notice on entering a Church is the Altar with its Tabernacle and Crucifix. The Altar is the place of Sacrifice—another Calvary, as it were—whereon is celebrated, as Christ ordained, the memorial of His Passion and Death by the pure and unbloody Sacrifice of His Body and Blood. Upon the Altar we always see a Crucifix, or image of our Saviour upon the Cross; that as the Mass is said in remembrance of Christ's Passion and Death, both Priest and people may have before their eyes during this Sacrifice the image which puts them in mind of those Mysteries. The Tabernacle contains the Blessed Sacrament. It is to Jesus Christ, therefore, truly present within the Tabernacle, that we bend the knee in homage and adoration when we enter or depart from the Church.
4. As the Mass represents the Passion of Christ, and the Priest officiates in His person, so the Vestments in which he officiates represent those in which Christ was ignominiously clothed at the time of His Passion. Thus, the Amice represents the cloth with which the Jews muffled our Saviour's Face when at every blow they bade Him prophesy who it was that struck Him. The Alb represents the white garment with which He was vested by Herod. The Girdle, Maniple, and Stole represent the cords and bands with which He was bound in the different stages of His Passion. The Chasuble, or outward Vestment,