Visit 29 Jesus Eucharistic and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

I. The altar is another Calvary, where Jesus immolates Himself each day for love of us.

II. The same love which fastened Him by nails to the cross, binds Him, still for our sakes, to the altar.

III. Let us assist at the eucharistic sacrifice as if present with the Mother of Jesus, the beloved disciple, and Mary Magdalen at the foot of the cross.

CONSIDERATIONS.
Jesus Christ is present in the Holy Eucharist to dwell in our midst, to receive our respectful homage and adoration, to bless us with graces, and to become the food, the very life, of our souls in holy communion; but He has also placed Himself in our hands under the visible appearance of bread and wine to enable us to present Him as a sacrifice to the heavenly Father. dddGreat is the dignity and immeasurable is the utility of the Mass. It is a sacrifice of Adoration, Propitiation, Thanksgiving, and Impetration. dddSt. Leonard of Port Maurice in " The Hidden Treasure" expatiates upon the four chief debts, that we discharge towards God, through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in the following manner: ddd" The first obligation, by which we are bound to God, is to honor and adore Him. It is indeed a precept of the natural law itself that every inferior owes homage to his superior, and by so much the higher the superiority, so much the deeper the homage, that should be offered. Whence it results that, as Almighty God possesses a greatness utterly unbounded, there is due to Him an unbounded honor. In holy Mass Almighty God is honored as He deserves, because He is honored by Jesus, Who, placing Himself in character of Victim on the altar, with an act of wonderful submission, adores the Most Holy Trinity, even as it is adorable—in such manner that all other acts of homage, by all other beings, vanish before the face of this self-humiliation of the God-Man, as stars vanish before the sun. dddIt is told of a holy soul (Sanct. Jure. p. 3, c. x.) that, enamoured of God, the fire of her love flashed forth in a thousand longings. ‘ O my God/ she said, ‘ my God, would that I had as many hearts, as many tongues as tliere are leaves on the trees, atoms of the air, and drops in the waters, that I might so love Thee and so honor Thee, as Thou deservest! Oh,had I but in this hand all creatures, I would place them at Thy feet, so that all might melt away in love before Thee; and' then, oh! that I might but love Thee more than-all of them united—yes, more than all the angels, more than all the saints, more than all paradise! ’ One day, when she had done this with the utmost fervor, she heard herself thus answered by Our Lord: ‘Console thyself, my daughter; by one Mass, heard with devotion, thou wilt render to Me all that glory which thou desirest and infinitely more.’ dddThe saints and angels after all are but mere creat ures, and their homage is therefore limited and finite; whereas in Mass, Jesus humbles Himself— a humiliation of infinite merit and value; and thus the homage and honor which we, through Him, give to God in Mass, is an homage and honor infinite. ddd"The second obligation by whicn we are bound to God is to satisfy His justice for the commission of so many sins. Oh, what a measureless debt is this! One single mortal sin so weighs in the scales of Divine Justice that to satisfy for it all the good works of all the martyrs and of all the saints who have existed, who exist now, or ever shall exist, would not suffice. And yet with the holy sacrifice of the Mass, viewed according to its intrinsic preciousness and value, satisfaction may be completely made for all committed sin; and that you may understand how ranch you are thus obliged to Jesus, attend to what I now say. Although truly He is the very One offended, yet, not contented with having satisfied Divine Justice for us on Calvary, He hath bestowed, and doth continuously bestow, on us this method of satisfaction in the holy sacrifice of Mass; for, as there is renewed in Mass the offering which J esus hath already made on the cross to the eternal Father for the sins of the whole world, that same divine blood which was once paid down as the general ransom of the whole human race comes to be specially applied to each of us individually, by being offered in Mass for the sins of him who celebrates, and of all those who assist at so tremendous a sacrifice. dddNot that the sacrifice of Mass by any means cancels our sins immediately, and of itself, as does the Sacrament of Penance: but it cancels them mediately, calling down various aids of interior impulse, of holy aspiration, and of actual grace, all tending towards a worthy repentance of our sins, either at the time of Mass itself or at some other fitting time. Therefore, God alone knows how many souls issue from the filth of sins through the extraordinary aids which come to them by this divine sacrifice. And here reflect that although indeed Ihe man in mortal sin is not aided by the sacrifice as a propitiation,' it yet avails as supplication; and therefore all sinners ought to hear many Masses, in order to obtain more easily the grace of conversion. To souls that live in grace it gives a wonderful force, tending to maintain them in their happy state, while it immediately cancels (according to the most common view) the guilt of all venial sins, provided, at least, that as a whole they are repented of, according to what St. Augustine clearly says (Sup. Can. Quia passus, de Consecr. dist. 2): ‘ He who devoutly hears holy Mass will receive a great vigor to enable him to resist mortal sin, and there shall be pardoned to him all venial sins which he may have committed up to that hour.’ dddNor should this surprise; for if, as St. Gregory narrates (Dial. 1. 4, c. 57), the Masses which a poor woman caused to be celebrated every Monday for the soul of her husband, who had been enslaved by barbarians and was thought by her to be dead, caused the chains to be loosened from his feet, and the manacles from his arms, so that ever while these Masses were being celebrated he remained free and unchained, as he himself declared on his return; how much more must not we believe such a sacrifice to be most efficacious for the loosening of spiritual bonds, such as venial sins, bonds which, hold the soul, as it were, imprisoned, leaving it no power to work with that freedom and fervor with which it would work were it not for these impediments? 0 blessed Mass, setting at liberty the sons of God, and satisfying all the penalties due to so many offences! ddd"You will, perhaps, say to me, It suffices, then, to hear one single Mass to strike off the heaviest debts due to God through many committed sins, because, Mass being of infinite value, we can therewith pay to God an infinite satisfaction. Not so fast, by your leave; because, though indeed Mass is of infinite value, you must know, nevertheless, that Almighty God accepts it in a manner limited and finite, and in degrees conformable to the greater or less perfection in the dispositions of him who celebrates or who assists at. the sacrifice. e Quorum tibi fides cogniia est, et nota devotio,’ says Holy Church, in the Canon of Mass, suggesting by this method of speech that which the great teachers expressly lay down (De Lug. dist. 9, n. 103); namely, that the greater or less satisfaction applied in our behalf by the sacrifice becomes determined by the higher or lower dispositions of the celebrant, or of the assistants, as just now mentioned. Now, then, consider the spiritual bewilderment of those who go in search of the quickest and least devoutly conducted Masses, and, what is worse, assist at them with little or no devotion. And while I earnestly exhort you to attend many Masses, I yet admonish you to have far more regard to dev oiion in hearing than to the number heard; because, if you shall have more devotion in one single Mass than another man in fifty, you will give more honor to God in that single Mass, and yon will extract from it greater fruit, in the way called ex opere operalo, than that other with all his fifty. dddIt is true, indeed, as a grave author asserts, that through one single Mass, attended with singularly perfect devotion, it might possibly'happen that the justice of God would remain satisfied for all the transgressions of some great sinner. And this is quite in harmony with what the holy Council of Trent teaches; namely, that by the offering of this holy sacrifice God grants the gift of penitence, and then by means of true penitence pardons sins the most grave and enormous. ‘ Hujus guippe oblatione gratiam et donum pomitentice concedens crimina et peccqia etiam ingentia dimittit’ (Sess. xxii. cap. 2). ddd Yet notwithstanding all this, since neither the internal dispositions with which you attend Mass are manifest to yourself, nor the amount of satisfaction which corresponds thereto, you should make sure to the best of your power by attending many Masses, and by attending with all the devotion possible. Blessed are you' if you maintain a great confidence in the loving mercy of God, which shines so wonderfully forth in this divine sacrifice; and with lively faith and devout recollection- attend as many Masses as you can; for I declare that, doing this with perseverance, you may attain to the sweet hope of reaching heaven without any intervening share in purgatory. To Mass, then, dearest friends, and never allow yourselves to utter the thought, ‘A Mass more or less is of little consequence.’ ddd‘'The third obligation is that of gratitude for tne immense benefits which our most loving God hath bestowed upon us. Put in one heap all the gifts, all the graces you have received from God,— so many gifts of nature and of grace, body, soul, senses, and faculties, and health, and life itself; yes, the very life, too, of His Son Jesus, and His death suffered for us, which in themselves immeasurably swell the great debt which we owe to God,—and how shall we ever be able sufficiently to thank Him? dddThe way most fully to thank our good God is taught us by holy David, who, led by divine inspiration to speak with mysterious reference to this divine sacrifice, indicates that nothing can sufficiently render the thanks which are due to God, excepting holy Mass. ‘ What return shall I offer to the Lord for all the benefits which He hath bestowed upon me? ’ And answering himself, he says, ‘ I will uplift on high the chalice of the Lord;’ that is, I will offer a sacrifice most grateful to Him, and with this alone I shall satisfy the debt of so many and such signal benefits. Add to this that the sacrifice was instituted by Our Redeemer principally in recognition of the beneficence of God and as thanks to Him; and therefore it bears as its most special and worthy name the ‘Eucharist' which signifies an ‘Offering of Thanks.’ dddHe Himself also gave us the ex ample when, in the Last Supper, before the act of consecration in that first Mass, He raised His eyes to heaven, and gave thanks to His heavenly Father: ‘ Elevatis oculis in cailum, Tibi gratias agens fregit.3 0 divine thanksgiving, disclosing the chief end for which was instituted this tremendous sacrifice, and which invites us to conform ourselves to the example of our Head, so that in every Mass at which we assist we may know how to avail ourselves of so great a treasure, and offer it in gratitude to our Supreme Benefactor-I And all the more, since the beloved Virgin, and the angels, and the saints, rejoice to witness this our tribute of thanks to so great a King. ddd" But the immense benefit of the holy sacrifice of Mass does not end here. It is in our power by means of it to pay the fourth debt due to God, which is to supplicate Him, and to entreat new graces of Him. Try to realize to yourself how great are your miseries both of body and of soul, and the need, therefore, in which you are of having recourse to God, in order that at every moment He may assist and succor you, for assuredly He alone is the end and the beginning of all your good, whether temporal or eternal. On the other hand, what courage, what heart have you for asking new benefits, seeing the utter ingratitude with which you have failed to respond to so many favors already bestowed on you,—nay, seeing you have even turned, into offences against Him the very graces He gave you? dddBut still take courage, take heart. If you do not deserve new bene fits, your good Jesus has deserved them for you. He has desired for this end to be for you in Mass a pacifying Victim, a supplicatory sacrifice, for obtaining from the Father everything of which you have need. Yes, yes, in holy Mass our dear beloved Jesus, as the chief and supreme Priest, recommends our cause to the Father, prays for us, and makes Himself our Advocate. If we knew on some occasion that the great and blessed Virgin was uniting herself with -us in prayer to the eternal Father to obtain for us the graces we desired, what confidence should not we conceive of being heard? dddWhat hope, then, what confidence should we not have, knowing that in Mass Jesus Himself prays for us, offers His most precious blood to the eternal Father for us, and make Himself our Advocate! 0 blessed Mass! 0 mine of all our good I " St. Jerome distinctly declares: ‘ Without doubt the Lord giants all the favors which are asked of Him in Mass, provided they be those fitting for us; and, which is a matter of greater wonder, ofttimes He grants that also which is not demanded of Him, if we, on our part, put no obstacle in the way ’ (Cap Cum. Mart. de Celeb. Miss.). Whence it may be ^aid that Mas* is the sun ot' the human race, scattering its splendors over good and wicked; nor is there a soul so vile on earth who, hearing holy Mass, doth not carry away from it some great good, often without asking, often without even thinking of it. dddThis is the lesson conveyed by the famous legend told by St. Antoninus of two youths, both libertines, who went one day into the forest, one of them having heard Mass, the other not. Soon, it is said, there arose a furious tempest, and they heard, amid thunder and lightning, a voice which cried ‘ Slay! ’ and instantly came a flash which reduced to ashes the one who had not heard Mass. The other, all terrified, was seeking escape, when he heard anew the same voice, which repeated ‘ Slay! ’ The poor youth expected instant death when lo! he heard another voice, which answered, ‘I cannot, I cannot; today he heard, Verbum caro factum est; his Mass will not let me strike.’ Oh, how many times hath God freed you from death, or at least from many most grievous perils, through the Mass which you have at tended! dddSt. Gregory assures us of this in the fourth of his dialogues: ‘ It is most true that he who attends holy Mass shall be freed from many evils and from many dangers, both foreseen and unforeseen.’ ‘He shall,’ as St. Augustinsums it up, ‘ be freed from sudden death, which is the most terrible stroke launched by Divine Justice against sinners ’ (Sup. Can. Quia passus, de Consecr. dist. 2). ‘ Behold a wonderful preservative,’ says the saint, ‘ against sudden death: attend holy Mass every day, and attend it with all possible devotion.’ St. Bernard sums it up thus, that more is to be gained in one single Mass (here we must understand him of its intrinsic value) than by distributing your means to the poor, or going on pilgrimages through all the most famous sanctuaries of the world. 0 unbounded riches of holy Mass! dddGrasp well this truth: it is possible for you to gain more favor with God by attending or celebrating one single Mass, considered in itself and in its intrinsic worth, than by opening the treasury of your wealth and distributing the whole to the poor, or by going as pilgrim over the whole world and visiting with utmost devotion the sanctuaries of Rome, of Compostella, of Loretto, Jerusalem, and the rest. And this most reasonably follows from the position laid down by the angelic St. Thomas, when he says that in Mass are contained all the fruits, all the graces, yea, all those immense treasures which the Son of God poured out so abundantly upon the Church, His spouse, in the bloody sacrifice of the cross." dddThe Mass is also a very powerful means of ob taining relief for the souls in purgatory. St. Jerome says that by every Mass, not only one, but several souls are delivered from purgatory and he is of opinion that the soul, for which the priest says Mass suffers no pain at all while the holy sacrifice lasts. The Fathers of the Council of Trent declare that by the sacrifice of the Mass the souls in purgatory are most efficaciously relieved. dddDuring the life of St. Bernard, one of his monks who was taken sick and died, shortly after appeared to his brother monks to thank them for his deliverance from purgatory. " Which of our many prayers," he was asked, "did most to release you from your pain? " " Come with me," he said, and leading them to the chapel where Mass was being offered up he exclaimed: "This, above all else, was my greatest help; it was through this august sacrifice that Our Lord has • shown mercy to me." dddSo great is the power and virtue of this sacri fice to help the suffering souls that one Mass has in itself more efficacy than all the other good works which have been done since the creation of the world. dddBlessed Bertrand of Garriga, we are told, was accustomed to celebrate Mass every day for the conversion of sinners; and being asked by one Father Benedict, a prudent man, why he so rarely said Mass for the dead and so frequently for sinners, he replied: " We are certain of the salvation of the faithful departed, whereas we on earth remain tossed about in many perils." Then Father Benedict said: " If there were two beggars, one with all his limbs sound, the other a cripple, which would you compassionate most? " " The one certainly who can do least for himself/’ replied Father Bertrand. "Then," said Father Benedict, " such certainly are the dead, who have neither mouth to confess nor hands to work, but who need our help; whereas living sinners have mouths and handswherewith to take care of themselves." Still Bernard was not convinced; but the following night a terrible vision of a departed soul appeared to him, and with a bundle of wood pressed and weighed upon him in a wonderful way, waking him up more than ten times and vexing and troubling him exceedingly. Next morning he called Benedict to him and related the vision of the night; and then, going to the altar, religiously and with many tears, he said Mass for the faithful departed; and thenceforth the offering of the holy sacrifice for the dead became one of his favorite devotions. dddIf then, Christian readers, we desire to offer to the Divine Omnipotence a worship fitting His majesty; if we wish to return thanks to Him for the many and inestimable favors heaped on us; if we wish to make atonement for our manifold offences and to gain for ourselves and for others the graces and blessings needed for body and soul; if we wish to help the souls of our dear ones who still linger in the pains of purgatory, we shall find the suitable means of doing this in the great sacrifice of the Muss. There Christ is both priest and victim representing in person, and offering up His death and passion to His Father, first, for the adoration, praise, honor, and glory of the Divine Majesty; secondly, in thanksgiving for all His ' benefits; thirdly, for obtaining pardon for our sins; and, fourthly, for obtaining grace and salvation . for us, by the merits of that same death and passion. It is, then, a remembrance of the passion of Christ, a solemn adoration of the Divine Majesty, a most acceptable thanksgiving to God, a powerful moans of obtaining forgiveness of ojir sins, and a most effectual way to obtain of God all that we want, coming to Him, as we here do, with Christ and through Christ. ddd0 Jesus! bless me, that these most important considerations on the dignity and utility of the Mass may produce good fruit in my soul.

Our Lady of the Most Holy Sacrament, Mother and model of adorers, pray for us, who have recourse to thee.

St. Joseph, pray for us, that,'like thee, we may die in the arms of Jesus and Mary.


PRAYER TO THE HOLY GHOST
0 Holy Ghost, Thou Teacher and Sanctifier, Who givest light and strength to my soul, bless me that I may be more faithful to Jesus, my Savior and my God, Who is hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, and that I may love Him more and more. In the light of the tabernacle I ask of Thee, 0 Holy Spirit, to fill my heart with pure desire for Jesus, the Living Bread. Give me grace to adore Him with the zeal and humble ven­eration of the holy angels; grant that His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that His will be done in my soul. Help me to thank Him for all His gifts, and, most of all, for Himself. By this Holy Sacrament He strengthens souls on earth, gives rest to souls in purgatory, and gladdens souls in heaven. He is the hidden manna, promised by Himself to all who overcome them­selves and love Him. May I taste the sweetness of Jesus! Set up more and more Thy kingdom in my soul, that I may keep my body under and bring it to subjection, lest I should be a castaway from Jesus and from Thee.

SPIRTUAL COMMUNION
0 Jesus, my Savior, Who art truly present in the Blessed Sacrament for the nourishment of our souls! since I cannot now receive Thee sacramentally, I humbly and earnestly beseech Thee to re­fresh me spiritually. I love Thee above all things and I desire to possess Thee within my soul. Come into my mind to illumine it with the light of heaven; come into my heart to enkindle therein the fire of Thy love. Unite me so intimately with Thee, that it may be no more I that live, but Thou that livest and reigneth in me forever.



FRUIT OF THE VISIT.
I. Behold Christ seated in thy heart as thy suffering Savior and reminding thee of the bitter passion and death that He endured for thy sins; reThe Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. gard thyself as a debtor, falling down before Him, and saying to Him entreatingly: ‘JHave patience with me, and I will pay Thee all " (Matt, xviii. 26).

II. Love Jesus, thy crucified Love with thy whole heart; so that, with a great desire and a strong resolution, thou mayest wish for nothing contrary to Him; mayest think nothing equal to Him, much less prefer anything to Him; and mayest love nothing, which does not, actually or virtually, tend to Him.

III. Ask Him for the spirit ot Self-Immolation/' so that by dying daily to ourselves, to our sins, to our bad habits and evil inclinations, we may imitate Him as our divine Model and follow Him faithfully in the Blessed Sacrament as well as on Calvary.'

EUCHARISTIC GEMS.
"During holy Mass the angels assist the priest, all the orders of celestial spirits raise their, voices, and the vicinity of the altar is occupied by choirs of angels, who do homage to Him, Who is being immolated."—St. John Chrysostom. dddAve Verum Corpus Natum.
Hail to Thee, true Body sprung
From the Virgin Mary’s womb;
The same that on the cross was hung
And bore for man the bitter doom.
Hear us, Merciful and Mild,
Jesu, Mary’s gracious Child!
From Whose side for sinners riven
Water flowed and mingled blood;
May'st Thou, dearest Lord, be given
In death's hour to be my food.
Hear us, Merciful and Mild,
Jesu, Mary’s gracious Child!