Stanley L. Jaki.

The Mass is the most enduring, the most unparalleled rite in religious history. This fact deserves that ever new efforts be made to bring out the reasons for this unique reality.

The principal reason is, of course, the reality of Jesus, and the fact that the institution of the Mass at the Last Supper was the overriding aim of his life. All of Jesus' deeds, all of his teaching served the purpose of preparing the Apostles for the significance of that Supper and indirectly all those who believed in him and were to believe in him.

The Apostles and their successors have always held indeed for their principal mission the re-enacting of what Jesus did at the Last Supper.

As to the faithful, they showed from the start a visceral hunger for the food which the re-enactment of that Supper alone could secure.

Such are the three main themes set forth in the three chapters of this book. It echoes what a non-Catholic British politician put, a hundred years ago, in words of inimitable conciseness, namely, that for Catholics "it is the mass that counts."