The Holy Mass

The Greatest Practice

Of all the practices recommended to us by our holy religion — morning and evening prayers, prayers before and after meals, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Rosary, the Way of the Cross — the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest, the most precious, the most holy, and the most effective path to the salvation of man.

The Holy Mass was instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself at the Last Supper. There He ordered His Apostles to do the same as He had done, saying: "Do this in commemoration of Me".

The Four Intentions

When we attend Holy Mass we must keep in mind the four intentions for which this Sacrifice is offered, and it is good to teach them to our children in simple words:

1. AdorationWe recognize our dependence on God, Lord of our life and death.
2. ThanksgivingFor the benefits He has granted us.
3. ReparationFor our sins and negligences.
4. PetitionTo implore God for the graces we need to save ourselves.

We may also ask God for other gifts and benefits through Holy Mass, and that will be very good; but we must never forget these four great intentions. We may also offer the Mass, in union with the priest, for some particular end: to obtain the grace to practice a virtue, to overcome a temptation, or to obtain a special favor for ourselves or for our neighbors.

How beautiful it is for each member of the family, before leaving for church, to know the concrete intention for which he or she will offer his or her Mass.

The Same Sacrifice of the Cross

The Mass is the means by which we become an extension of Christ: through the offering of ourselves with Christ, through the consecration of ourselves to Christ, and through communion with Christ, for the greater glory of the Most Holy Trinity and the sanctification of our souls.

The Mass reminds us at once of God's condescension toward man and of man's ascent to God. It highlights the parallel mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemption, and applies their fruits to us. While the manger and the Cross manifest God's love for humanity, the Mass shows us His love for each one of us individually. That is why the Mass should occupy the whole place in our life, like a sun that gives light and warmth to transform and elevate all creation and return it to its Creator in a hymn of thanksgiving.

Is the Mass the Same Sacrifice of the Cross?

It is the same Sacrifice. He offered Himself once and for all: "By this will we have been sanctified once and for all through the oblation of the Body of Jesus Christ" (Heb 10:10). The Mass is not a new sacrifice, but the same Sacrifice made present in the present time. "Christ, risen from the dead, dies no more" (Rom 6:9).

The Sacrifice of Our Lord consists in His complete renunciation, an immolation that began in the first instant of His earthly life and ended on the Cross of Calvary; and above all in preferring the Father's will to His own, a preference that remains eternally in heaven. Sufferings pass; the act of having suffered remains. That is why St. John, in his vision of heaven, saw Jesus thus: "there stood a Lamb as slain" (Apoc 5:6).

The Difference Lies in the Manner, Not in the Victim

What distinguishes the Cross of Calvary from the Mass

Note well: the Real Presence of Christ in the tabernacle is not, strictly speaking, a sacrifice, because there the outward sign of the consecration is lacking.

Our Savior, to make us share more intimately in His Sacrifice, imposed a condition on Himself: He will not offer Himself on the altar without His priests. Outwardly it is the priest who offers, in the name of all the people; inwardly, it is always Christ who offers.

To Whom Is It Offered?

To God alone. Because the Mass is an act of adoration, because the dignity of Jesus Christ, Victim and Sacrificer, is infinite, and because an offering made to a creature would be idolatry: the end of a sacrifice is to recognize God's preeminence and His lordship over all creation.

However, the Mass may be offered in honor of the Angels and the Saints: to thank God for the wonderful way in which He rewarded their virtue, to implore graces through their intercession, to celebrate their virtues and triumphs, and to encourage us to imitate them. It is a very ancient custom to gather beside the tombs of the martyrs, on the anniversary of their death, to celebrate Mass in honor of their memory.

For Whom It Is Offered

God always receives the infinite praise of the Mass, even when the celebrant is unworthy of his office, because Jesus Christ is at once the Priest and the Victim. The Mass is offered to God alone, but for the benefit of the whole Mystical Body of Christ. That is why the Mass includes the Memento of the living and the Memento of the dead.

The living are the members of the Mystical Body who are still on earth: each one of us. A beautiful prayer to offer for sinners who are about to die:

The dead are the souls in purgatory. Charity demands that those of us who have access to Christ's oblation do not forget those members who can no longer offer the Holy Sacrifice. If only we had someone to think of us when we are in purgatory! Let us not forget the departed, who from there implore our prayers and Masses.

The Four Fruits of the Mass

1. General Fruit, destined for all members of the Mystical Body.
2. Special Fruit, for those who attend the Holy Sacrifice with the required dispositions.
3. Fruit of the Intention for which the Mass is offered.
4. Personal Fruit, for the priest who celebrates it.

But whatever the intention, the benefit we receive will depend on the dispositions with which we hear Mass.

Offering Ourselves with Christ

Where does our obligation to offer ourselves at Mass with Christ come from? From the fact that we are members of the Mystical Body, incorporated into Christ by Baptism. Pope Pius XII taught in Mediator Dei: by Baptism, Christians are made members of the Body of Christ the Priest, and by the character imprinted on their souls they have been ordained for divine worship; they share, according to their condition, in the priesthood of Christ Himself.

That is why the Mass is not the Sacrifice of Christ alone, but also that of the whole Mystical Body. A person who is not baptized could be present and follow the ceremonies intelligently, but in the strict sense he does not "attend" Mass, because to attend is to offer oneself together with Jesus Christ, and for that one must be incorporated into Him. Not only are we permitted to offer ourselves with Christ: we are obliged to do so, because the Head alone is not the whole Christ; the Head and the members are needed.

On Our Lord's part, the Sacrifice is complete, of infinite merit. On our part it is incomplete, and it is completed with the passage of time, to the extent that we do not draw back from our immolation together with Jesus Christ. This is how we understand the words of St. Paul: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the tribulations of Christ for the sake of His Body, which is the Church" (Col 1:24). The sufferings of Christ are complete as regards satisfaction and merit, but not as regards their application. The Sacrifice of Christ, on our part, will end with the death of the last member of the Mystical Body.

The Three Principal Parts of the Mass

1. Offertory — the oblation.
2. Consecration — the immolation.
3. Communion — the reception.

They are the indispensable elements of every sacrifice, and they remain together: every offering demands a consecration, and every consecration presupposes a communion, because love calls to love.

From this comes the extreme importance of centering our lives on the Mass. We must offer ourselves, as Christ did on the Cross; consecrate ourselves, dying to our life of sin in order to live from now on the life of Christ; and unite ourselves to Someone stronger than we are, communicating with Christ through the reception of His Sacred Body, so that, identifying ourselves more and more with Him and belonging more to Him than to ourselves, we may be capable of divine and supernatural works. And so offer, through Christ, a perfect prayer to the Most August Trinity.

Only when we offer our sacrifices to God in union with the Sacrifice of Christ are they transformed into gold! Just like the small drop of water that falls into the chalice and becomes wine. That is how "through Him" and "in Him" our sacrifices acquire all their value.

Living the Mass as a Family

The Mass must be lived, and that has two moments.

The first is the ritual offering, in union with Christ: at Mass I offer myself completely, and I offer in advance the hours that still remain to me.

The second — too often forgotten — is as important as the first: carrying out that offering throughout the day, in the midst of the occupations and actions of the day. This is what is known as "living my Mass." The father's work, the care of the home, the children's lessons, an annoyance accepted without complaint, a help given to a neighbor: everything can be offered with Christ, and everything, united to His Sacrifice, acquires infinite value.

Not everything ends with the Ite, missa est. On the contrary, that is when everything begins. Because when a person offers himself, totally, with Christ, how is it possible for him to think, speak, and act like those who have never offered themselves? Let us remember: God gives Himself to the one who gives himself, and God is not pleased with half-hearted offerings. God will never let Himself be outdone in generosity.

A Threefold Preparation

• Doctrinal Preparation

  Through reading, hearing the word of God, and studying as a family. It is the most fruitful, because it shows us the great value of the Mass and urges us to study the great dogmas of the Faith, of which the Mass is like a meeting point: the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Redemption, grace, and glory.

  If many souls stop progressing, or instead of advancing go backward, the main cause is usually their spiritual anemia: total or partial ignorance about the Mass, which is the center of their lives. Let us rise above ignorance and apathy; let us study these great truths and share them with others.

• Liturgical Preparation

  The ceremonial of the Mass is a singular help for understanding the doctrine. The Church has multiplied the ceremonies to present, in the form of simple images, the fundamental theology of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Teaching our children the meaning of each gesture — why we kneel, why we strike our breast, why we keep silence — is teaching them the doctrine without their noticing it.

• Ascetic Preparation

  That of the heart and the will. Of the three, it is the most important, and it should be the constant concern of our life. Its purpose is to make us more and more conformed to Christ. The more we can be victims with Him, the more beneficial our Mass will be for us and for our neighbor.