benefits, and to realize that they are truly offered unto us.
Nor is it enough only to remember the history; for this also
the Jews and the ungodly can remember. Wherefore the Mass is
to be used to this end, that there the Sacrament
[Communion] may be administered to them that have need of
consolation; as Ambrose says: Because I always sin, I am
always bound to take the medicine. [Therefore this Sacrament
requires faith, and is used in vain without faith.]

Now, forasmuch as the Mass is such a giving of the Sacrament,
we hold one communion every holy-day, and, if any desire the
Sacrament, also on other days, when it is given to such as ask
for it. And this custom is not new in the Church; for the
Fathers before Gregory make no mention of any private Mass,
but of the common Mass [the Communion] they speak very much.
Chrysostom says that the priest stands daily at the altar,
inviting some to the Communion and keeping back others. And it
appears from the ancient Canons that some one celebrated the
Mass from whom all the other presbyters and deacons received
the body of the Lord; for thus the words of the Nicene Canon
say: Let the deacons, according to their order, receive the
Holy Communion after the presbyters, from the bishop or from a
presbyter. And Paul, 1 Cor. 11, 33, commands concerning the
Communion: Tarry one for another, so that there may be a
common participation.

Forasmuch, therefore, as the Mass with us has the example of
the Church, taken from the Scripture and the Fathers, we are
confident that it cannot be disapproved, especially since
public ceremonies, for the most part like those hitherto in