MYSTERY

(From μύειν τὸ στόμα , to shut the mouth ; hence μυστήριον , mystery .) Something secret, hidden from human comprehension, or revealed only in part. The term is applied both to doctrines and facts. By the usage of the Church it also denotes that inscrutable union in the sacrament of the inward and spiritual grace with the outward and visible sign. Hence in the early Church the sacraments were denominated “mysteries,” and the term derived a still greater force, from the secrecy which was observed in the administration of those ordinances. More especially, however, was the holy communion thus designated, as we learn from the ancient Fathers, who speak repeatedly of the “sacred” and “tremendous mysteries,” in allusion to this sacrament. With this application, the term appears in our own Communion Office, where Christ is said to have “instituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges of his love, and for a continual remembrance of his death.” We are also exhorted so to prepare ourselves, that we may be “meet partakers of those holy mysteries;” and after their reception, thanks are rendered to God , that he has vouchsafed to “feed us who have duly received these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of his Son , our Saviour, Jesus Christ .”