The ceremonies of the Church not only render divine service more solemn, but also rivet our attention and lift it up to God. Our mind is so active, so volatile, so full of distractions, our imagination so fickle, that we have need of some external objects on which to fix our thoughts.
Almighty God considered ceremonial so indispensable to interior worship that we find Him in the Old Law prescribing in minute detail the various rites, ceremonies and ordinances to be observed by the Jewish Priests and people in their public worship. What is the entire book of Leviticus but an elaborate ritual of the Jewish church. Not, indeed, that external rites are to be compared in merit with interior worship, but because they are as necessary for nourishing internal devotion as food is necessary for our animal life.
Our Savior, though He came to establish a more spiritual religion than that of the Hebrew people, did not discard the outward forms of worship. He was accustomed to accompany His religious acts by appropriate ceremonies.
In the garden of Gethsemani "He fell upon His face"(411) in humble supplication.
He went in procession to Jerusalem, accompanied by a great multitude, who sang Hosanna to the Son of David.(412)
At the Last Supper He invoked a blessing on the bread and wine, and afterward chanted a hymn with His disciples.(413)
When the deaf and dumb man was brought to Him, before healing Him, He put His fingers into his ears and touched his tongue with spittle, "and, looking up to heaven, He groaned and said: Ephpheta, which is, Be thou opened."(414)
When He imparted the Holy Ghost to His disciples, He breathed on them(415) and the same Apostles afterward communicated the Holy Ghost to others by laying hands on them.(416)
The Apostle St. James directs that if any man is sick he shall call in the Priest, who will anoint him with oil.(417)
Now, are not all these acts which I have just recorded--the prostration and procession, the prayerful invocation, the chanting of a hymn, the touching of the ears, the lifting up of the eyes to heaven, the breathing on the Apostles, the laying on of hands and the unction of the sick--are not all these acts so many ceremonies serving as models to those which the Catholic Church employs in her public worship, and in the administration of her Sacraments?