Explanation
“The priest bowing down before the altar, and saying the Confiteor , represents our Saviour loaded with the sins of mankind, prostrate at his prayers in the garden, and falling into a bloody sweat and most painful agony. The priest going up to the altar and kissing it, represents our Saviour going to meet his enemies, and receiving the treacherous kiss from Judas. When he goes to the book at the corner of the Epistle, forms the sign of the cross, and reads the Introit , he represents our Saviour seized, bound, and led captive to the courts of Annas and Caiphas, where he was struck across the face, blindfolded, buffeted, spit upon, and treated with the greatest indignity, by the servants of the high priest, as if he were a mock prophet.”