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Short Explanation of the Prayers of Mass. 39
belongs to the priesthood, he says, in union with Jesus
Christ, who is the principal one that offers that sacrifice,
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost ;
thus declaring that he offers the sacrifice
by the authority of the three Persons.
The priest afterwards recites the antiphon Introibo ad
altare Dei I will
(" go unto the altar of God and the
"),
psalm Judica me Deus ("Judge me, O God").
He im
plores the help of God against the enemies who are laying
snares for him. Then expressing the pain that he feels
of seeing himself, as it were, rejected by the Lord, he
begs him to assist him with his light, and to console
him with the graces that he promised by leading him
into his tabernacle. Finally, he reproaches himself for
indulging in fear, for why should he be troubled when
he has with him his God in whom he should confide ?
Innocent III. 1
attests that the recitation before Mass of
the psalm Judica me was the custom of his time, that is,
in the twelfth century ;
and Cardinal Lambertini, after
wards Benedict XIV., 2 assures us that it was recited be
fore the eighth century. The psalm
is concluded with
the Gloria Patri. It was Pope St. Damasus who ordained
that each psalm should be concluded in this manner, It
is, however, believed that the Gloria Patri was intro
duced by the Council of Nice, or, as we are told by Baronius
3 and St. Basil, even by the Apostles, the Council
of Nice having added only these words, Sicut erat, etc.
Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini ("Our help
the name of the Lord"). Affrighted by the grandeur
of the act he is about to perform, and by the thought of
his unworthiness, the priest asks God s
help in the name
of Jesus Christ ;
and acknowledging himself guilty, he
accuses himself of his sins, not only before God, but
before the Blessed Virgin and all
is in
the saints, who on the
1
De Alt. Myst. \. 2, c. 13.
9
De Miss* S. 1. 2, c. 3.
8
Ann. 325.