Obedient to this duty, the priest continues to do down the course of the ages, that which Christ Himself had done, who “in the days of His earthly life, with a loud cry and tears, offered up prayers and supplications . . . and was heard because of His reverent submission”.47Ibid., V, 7. This prayer has, without doubt, a singular efficacy because it is done in the name of Christ, “through our Lord Jesus Christ,” who is our Mediator with the Father, presenting to Him incessantly, His own satisfaction, His merits, and the infinite price of His Blood. It is truly “the voice of Christ,” who “prays for us as our Priest, prays among us as our Head”.48S. Aug., Ennar. in Ps. LXXXXV, n. 1: Migne, P.L., XXXVII, 1081. By the same token, it is always “the voice of the Church,” which takes up the sentiments and desires of all the faithful who unite their voices to the prayers and faith of the priest in praising Jesus Christ and, through Him, render thanks to the Eternal Father, obtaining from Him the assistance which they need in their lives every day and every hour. In this wise there is repeated daily, by means of the priests, what Moses once did on the mountain top, when, with his arms lifted up to heaven, he spoke to God and earnestly begged of Him mercy and favor for his people, who were suffering trials in the valley below.
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