minutes for a ‘black’ Mass.[1] No doubt a priest works up to a high rate of speed largely out of anxiety to meet the wishes of his congregation, yet the sight is distressing to one who knows how much is squeezed into the twenty minutes. An ordinary worshipper merely sees the rapid irreverent genuflections and the desperate hand movements which are supposed to be reverent crosses over the sacrament, but the mutilation of the prayers is much more deplorable: nearly all are direct and more or less familiar petitions to the Almighty, and one cannot but fondly hope (for the priest’s sake) that he is wholly unconscious of the meaning of his orisons. It is difficult, no doubt, when a large congregation is shifting uneasily on the benches, and perhaps another priest is frowning upon you from the chancel, waiting for his turn. Certainly there are very many priests who acquit themselves with edifying devotion, but the majority run through their Mass (apart from pressure) in the allotted twenty minutes; and, since it takes a priest nearly an hour to say Mass in his early practising days, one can imagine at what price the high speed is obtained.
The Mass is rendered rather ludicrous sometimes from an opposite reason—through its undue prolonga-
- ↑ A black Mass—in which the priest wears black vestments—is shorter than usual: hence it is that black vestments so often adorn the shoulders of an ordinary secular priest. Green vestments are worn on a common, saintless day; red for a martyr or the Holy Ghost; white for virgins, confessors and all great feasts; purple for sadder festivals; and gold for any purpose.
