𝗗𝗼𝗺 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗗𝗶𝘅, 𝗢𝗦𝗕, 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗡𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗱𝗼𝗺 𝗔𝗯𝗯𝗲𝘆, 𝟭𝟵𝟱𝟮

𝐼𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑑𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑢𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡, 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙮, 𝐷𝑜𝑚 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑡. 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡’𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 ‘𝐷𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑒,’ 𝐷𝑖𝑥 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑒:

“Was ever a command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable circumstance, for every conceivable human need from infancy and before it to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacles of human greatness to the refuge of fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth. Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a good crop of wheat; for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination or for Columbus setting out to discover America; for the famine of whole provinces or for the soul of a dead lover; in thankfulness because my father did not die of pneumonia; for a village headman much tempted to return to fetich because the yams had failed; because the Turk was at the gates of Vienna; for the repentance of Margaret; for the settlement of a strike; for a son for a barren woman; for Captain so-and-so, wounded and prisoner-of-war; while the lions roared in the nearby amphitheatre; on the beach at Dunkirk; while the hiss of scythes in the thick June grass came faintly through the windows of the church; tremulously, by an old monk on the fiftieth anniversary of his vows; furtively, by an exiled bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp near Murmansk; gorgeously, for the canonisation of S. Joan of Arc -- one could fill many pages with the reasons why men have done this, and not tell a hundredth part of them. And best of all, week by week and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of Christendom, the pastors have done this just to make the plebs sancta Dei -- the holy common people of God.” - 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘺, 1945, p 744