The Most Beautiful Thing This Side of Heaven

Why the traditional Holy Mass is the supreme icon of Christ—and why the effort to suppress it is a form of anathematizable iconoclasm

Fr. Faber and Fr. Newman

When I first came across the famous quotation of Fr. Frederick Faber (1814–1863)—“the Mass is the most beautiful thing this side of heaven”—I remember thinking it was over-the-top Victorian sentimentality. It did not seem to fit my experience growing up in suburban New Jersey; it didn’t even fit my later extensive exposure in col…