Below are some of the sources I've gathered on the issue of the Holy Sacrifice Ceasing during the time of the Great Apostasy/Antichrist. If anyone is aware of others, please post them in this thread. **********************************************************************************Cardinal ManningThe Holy Fathers who have written upon the subject of Antichrist, and of these prophecies of Daniel, without a single exception, as far as I know,—and they are the Fathers both of the East and of the West, the Greek and the Latin Church—all of them unanimously,—say that in the latter end of the world, during the reign of Antichrist, the holy sacrifice of the altar will cease. [73] In the work on the end of the world, ascribed to St. Hippolytus, after a long description of the afflictions of the last days, we read as follows: “The Churches shall lament with a great lamentation, for there shall be offered no more oblation, nor incense, nor worship acceptable to God. The sacred buildings of the churches shall be as hovels; and the precious body and blood of Christ shall not be manifest in those days; the Liturgy shall be extinct; the chanting of psalms shall cease; the reading of Holy Scripture shall be heard no more. But there shall be upon men darkness, and mourning upon mourning, and woe upon woe.” [74] Then, the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible, hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking-places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were, from the face of the earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early centuries.Manning, Archbishop Henry. The Present Crisis of the Holy See . Desert Will Flower iPress. Kindle Edition. *************************************************************************************St. HippolytusThe Churches will mourn with a great lamentation, because no more oblation will be offered, nor incense, nor worship acceptable to God. The sacred buildings of the churches will be like [abandoned] houses; and the precious body and blood of Christ will not be manifested in those days; the liturgy will be extinguished; the singing of the psalms will cease; the reading of Holy Scripture will no longer be heard. But there shall be darkness upon men, and mourning upon mourning, and woe upon woe.(tributus Liber de Consum. Mundi, § 34.)**************************************************************************************St. Francis de SalesIs it not written that the revolt and separationmust come (2 Thess. ii. 3), and that the sacrifice shallcease (Dan. xii. 11), and that the Son of Man shallhardly find faith on earth at his second visible return(Luke xviii. 8), when he will come to judge ? Answer :all these passages are understood of the affliction whichantichrist will cause in the Church, during the threeand a half years that he shall reign mightily ; but inspite of this the Church during even these three yearsshall not fail, and shall be fed and preserved amid thedeserts and solitudes whither it shall retire, as theScripture says (Apoc. xii.). The Catholic Controversy, p. 62*******************************************************************************************St. AlphonsusIt is true it will cease on earth at the time of Antichrist: the Sacrifice of the Mass is to be suspended for twelve hundred and ninety days; that is, for three years six months and a half, according to the prophecy of Daniel: And from the time when the continual sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination unto desolation shall be set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred ninety days.5637 Yet the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ will never cease, since the Son of God will always continue to offer himself to his Father by an eternal sacrifice, for he himself is the priest and the victim, but an eternal victim and an eternal priest, not according to the order of Aaron, of which the priesthood and the sacrifice were temporary, imperfect, and inadequate to appease the anger of God against rebellious man, but according to the order of Melchisedech, as David predicted: Thou art a priest according to the order of Melchisedech.5638 The priesthood of Jesus Christ will, therefore, be eternal, since, even after the end of the world, he will always continue to offer in heaven this same victim that he once offered on the Cross for the glory of God and for the salvation of mankind.de Liguori, Saint Alphonsus. The Saint Alphonsus de Liguori Collection [30 Books] (p. 2161). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition. On this account the devil has always endeavored to abolish the Mass throughout the world by means of heretics, making them the precursors of Antichrist, who before all things will endeavor to abolish, and in fact will, in punishment of the sins of men, succeed in abolishing the holy sacrifice of the altar, according to the prediction of Daniel: And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice because of sins.de Liguori, Saint Alphonsus. The Saint Alphonsus de Liguori Collection [30 Books] (p. 4368). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition. ************************************************************************************************St. Robert BellarmineTHE FOURTH proof is taken from the fact that it is certain the persecution of Antichrist will be the most severe ever known, to the extent that all public ceremonies and sacrifices of religion will cease.Bellarmine, Robert. On the Roman Pontiff, vol. 2: Books III-V (De Controversiis) (p. 35). Mediatrix Press. Kindle Edition. Next, the fact that in the time of Antichrist, on account of the atrocity of persecution, the public office and daily sacrifice of the Church will cease, which Daniel clearly teaches: “From the time when the continual sacrifice will have been taken away for 1290 days.” In that place, by the consensus of every writer, he speaks on the time of Antichrist. Furthermore, Irenaeus, Jerome, Theodoret, Hippolytus the martyr and Primasius all express the same thing, that Antichrist is going to forbid all divine worship which is now exercised in the churches of Christians, especially the most holy sacrifice of the Eucharist. That this sign has not yet been fulfilled is evident from experience. From that we can gather three things. 1) Antichrist has not yet come, since the continual sacrifice is still in force. 2) The Roman Pontiff is not the antichrist, rather, he is quite contrary to him, since the Pope carefully honors and guards the sacrifice which Antichrist is going to take away. 3) The heretics of this time, apart from all other things, are precursors of Antichrist since no one more ardently desires to altogether abolish the sacrifice of the Eucharist than they.Bellarmine, Robert. On the Roman Pontiff, vol. 2: Books III-V (De Controversiis) (p. 37). Mediatrix Press. Kindle Edition. **************************************************************************************************Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week: and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail: and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation, and to the end.Bishop Challoner Note - [27] "The abomination of desolation": Some understand this of the profanation of the temple by the crimes of the Jews, and by the bloody faction of the zealots. Others of the bringing in thither the ensigns and standard of the pagan Romans. Others, in fine, distinguish three different times of desolation: viz., that under Antiochus; that when the temple was destroyed by the Romans; and the last near the end of the world under Antichrist. To all which, as they suppose, this prophecy may have a relation.Jerome (commenting on St. Hippolytus's opinion)But Hippolytus has expressed the following opinion concerning these same weeks (B): he reckons the seven weeks as prior to the return of the people from Babylon, and the sixty-two weeks as subsequent to their return and extending to the birth of Christ. But the dates do not (p. 548) agree at all. If indeed the duration of the Persian Empire be reckoned at two hundred and thirty years, and the Macedonian Empire at three hundred, and the period thereafter up to the birth of the Lord be thirty years, then the total from the beginning of the reign of Cyrus, King of the Persians, until the advent of the Savior will be five hundred and sixty years. Moreover Hippolytus places the final week at the end of the world and divides it into the period of Elias and the period of Antichrist, so that during the [first] three and a half years of the last week the knowledge of God is established. And as for the statement, "He shall establish a compact with many for a week" (Dan. 9:27), during the other three years under the Antichrist the sacrifice and offering shall cease. But when Christ shall come and shall slay the wicked one by the breath of His mouth, desolation shall hold sway till the end.Commentary on Danielhttps://tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm****************************************************************************************************Daniel 7:25 And he shall speak words against the High One, and shall crush the saints of the most High: and he shall think himself able to change times and laws, and they shall be delivered into his hand until a time, and times, and half a time.Bishop Challoner Note - [25] "A time, and times, and half a time": That is, three years and a half; which is supposed to be the length of the duration of the persecution of Antichrist.St. Jerome". . .And he shall crush the saints of the Most High, and will suppose himself to be able to alter times and laws." The Antichrist will wage war against the saints and will overcome them; and he shall exalt himself to such a height of arrogance (A) as to attempt changing the very laws of God and the sacred rites as well. He will also lift himself up against all that is called God, subjecting all religion to his own authority."Commentary on Daniel*****************************************************************************************************
2 Thess. 2:4 Who opposeth, and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God.Bishop Challoner note[4] "In the temple": Either that of Jerusalem which some think he will rebuild; or in some Christian church, which he will pervert to his own worship: as Mahomet has done by the churches of the east.From the Original Rheims NT Translation AnnotationNot that he shall suffer them to worship God by their old manner of sacrifices, (all which he will either abolish, or convert to the onlyadoration of himself: though at the first to apply himself to the Jews, he may perhaps be circuмcised
and keep some apart of the law) for it is here said that he shall sit in the Temple as God. That is, he
shall be adored thereby sacrifice and divine honor, the name and worship of the true God wholly
defaced. And this they think to be the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel, mentioned by our
Saviour, prefigured and resembled by Antiochus and others, that defaced the worship of the true God
by profanation of that Temple, specially by
abrogating the daily sacrifice, which was a figure of theonly sacrifice and continual oblation of Christ's holy body and blood in the Church, as the abolishing ofthat, was a figure of the abolishing of this, which shall be done principally and most universally byAntichrist himself )as now in part by his forerunners) through out all Nations and Churches (thoughthen also Mass may be had in secret, as it is now in nations where the secular force of some Princesprohibiteth it to be said openly.) For although he may have his principal seat and honor in the Temple
and city of Jerusalem, yet he shall rule over the whole world, and specifically prohibit that principal
worship instituted by Christ in his Sacraments, as being the proper Adversary of Christ's person, name,
law, and Church, the profanation and desolation of which Church by taking away the sacrifice of the
altar, is the proper abomination of desolation, and the work of Antichrist only.
Topic: The Ceasing of the Holy Sacrifice during Antichrist's reign (Read 124 times)