The Priest's Craft: Mass: What Really Happens

When we are speaking of stepping down truth. You have the power of Christ in the Host, but it is on too high a level for use and in the service you have an arrangement for bringing down the power. Just as you step down electricity by means of voltage. We have got to step down truth; it has got to be put into terms that the uneducated can reach. People at all levels have to have the truth brought down to them, and we are told that the great Teachers give the truth to the people in the form that is needed at the time. They could not give it in its full splendor and purity. We have to try to lift ourselves out of our normal level of consciousness to a higher level and sometimes you step truth down so that you may step people up to a higher conception of things. We step truth down or step force down, in the Church because we are dealing with the world at large. We have people of different types and temperaments to deal with, some more or less primitive, some more advanced; some intellectual and some emotional there is enormous diversity. In the Church you have a wonderful scheme in which the teaching is brought down to all levels. Some people object to the Communion because it is a materialization of spiritual truth; some people say it is only by the working of faith in our hearts and spiritually that we take the blood and body of Christ. It all comes from the doctrine that matter is evil and not as holy as spirit. Matter is just as important as spirit. The remedy is to spiritualize our views of matter. It you receive the blessing of the Christ through the Host, you make of matter a vehicle for the spirit.

There is a tremendous radiation of power through the service of the Church, which goes out on all levels. You need not consider that a person is bound by what he is doing. If I use a typewriter to convey my meaning I am not bound by my typewriter.

If I make use of a car, or a train, or a steamer I do so in order to make my work more effective, but you do not say that I am bound by them. Therefore, if you decide to work through the ceremonies of the Church, it does not mean that you are bound by them and cannot work without them.

I think it is necessary to have a definition of what ceremonial is and what it is we do. I would define it as the intelligent use of forms that they may be the best expression of the life. The ceremonialist uses them to get the best effect for his purposes.

You would be surprised to know what an enormous amount of work is done by a Center like this one. Once I was doing an Ordination in Sydney and Bishop Leadbeater was telling me of the effect on the inner planes. On the buddhic plane the power went up to an enormous distance and even on the etheric level to a place some miles away.

The power from this church goes out to tremendous distance, and there are all sorts of arrangements with angels by which the power is distributed. The master told me that Holland was once the center of spiritual life for Europe. The amenities are preserved here, there is very little yellow press, and they have a tradition for standing for peace. Holland is a spiritual reservoir from which the forces are distributed to different parts of Europe. I only want to assure you that by using the Church in this way, with people who are trained in control of their bodies, who have also some degree of realization of the higher consciousness, you can do an enormous work for the helping of the world around you. If there were many such centers in the world, how very much could be done to change the whole aspect of the thought of this world.

It is a very good thing to take steps in physical world to bring about changes -- to have conferences and for people to come together to discuss things, and so on, -- but what is much more essential is spread the ideal thought, and to have that ideal thought very strong and definite in order that it may be very potent for influencing other people. I think the future of this Church is largely connected with that kind of work, largely because of infiltration of that kind of thought. Gradually these ideas come to permeate other Churches, and you will find that the current of religious thoughts flow in that direction. The same remarks apply to Masonic bodies. It is necessary to get people together and send out those forces into the higher worlds. The Masters once said that the best way in which people could help Them was in bringing others to Them; and one of the most effective way of helping people is by taking those steps in spiritual life which make us more effective channels of Their influence. You make citizens of the world, and set up the desire to be peaceful within them. That is the only way to bring about permanent peace, when you awaken the real passion for peace and brotherhood and the recognition of the One Life.