Motives To Raise Our Esteem Of Holy Mass, And To Dispose Us To Profit By It.

Motives To Raise Our Esteem Of Holy Mass, And To Dispose Us To Profit By It.

Mafs is the golden key of heaven, God the Father gives it you, and with it we may have all other blessings if we will. If then we find ourselves poor in virtue the fault muft be ours, for God, by this key, opens his treasures to us, and would liberally bestowed them upon us, did we not hinder him by not disposing ourselves to receive them. If we draw but little advantage from Holy Mafs, it is our own fault ; if our debts are still great, it is a sign we do not take care to pay them by the means God has so bountifully furnished us with.

St. Chrysostome says that the Angels are so well acquainted with the efficacy of the Mass, that they are in expectation till it begins, judging it the most favourable  opportunity to obtain favours for us of Almighty God.

All the value and efficacy which was originally in the bloody sacrifice on the cross is entirely translated to the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass, by which sacrifice the former is applied.

Though our sins are forgiven by abfo- lution, there commonly remains fome temporal punishment to be undergone either here or in Purgatory. Holy Mass, if well made use of, is abundant satisfaction to the Divine Justice for our debts, though never so great. What a comfort ought this to be to those who, by rcafon of their natural conflitution, are not able to practise many or great auderities ; and what return should we make to our Saviour for the fame.

If our devotion, in assisting at Mass, be great, our advantage will be also great; if little, it will be but little. We may gain more by hearing one Mass devoutly, than by twenty without devotion.

The Sacrifice of Holy Mass is but the general and particular means to give ourselves entirely to God, and to afk and receive from him all fort of graces. Endeavour daily to assist thereat ; firft, that you may worthily honour and adore God in all the extent of his divine perfections, and him for all the graces and favours his mercies have, and do daily bestow upon all his creatures ; particularly on yourself and all that relates to you, as  each one of his family, and to satisfy his justice for all your own fins, and to obtain of his good- ncfs thofe gifts and graces necessary not only for yourself, but for all those for whom he has shed his most precious blood.

The reason why we profit fo little by Holy Mass is, because we go to it with so little sense of the immense treasures which are communicated to us by means of it: as if the blood of a God were a thing of small account to merit us heaven, to obtain us pardon for our fins, to appease the Divine Justice, and to acknowledge worthily the favours God hath done us, and his love for us in the most blessed Sacrament; all which is performed by the means of Holy Mass.

That you may reap the intended profit for your soul, you must prepare yourself daily for hearing Mass, as if you were to communicate; that is, with as great purity as you can; and beg our Lord, who instituted this great Sacrifice, to renew the memory of his death and passion, and the efficacy of it, to grant you the grace, not only to assist at it, but alfo to partake of this divine myftcry according to his merciful designs.

And to partake more fully of the efficacy of Holy Mass when we consider it as a Sacrifice of propitiation for our sins, we must make acts of sorrow for them.

And when we ofFer it as an impetratory Sacrifice, we must actually request something in general or particular; otherways ve let the credit of the Son of God, which is communicated to us, remain useless and unprofitable. For as we all want merits which might find credit with God, we mufl not omit to offer thofe which Chrifi gained by the Sacrifice he offered on the Cross, which be has given to us, and they are applied and communicated to us by the Sacrifice of the Altar.

Whenever we have anything to ask of Almighty God, the true and best means to obtain it is to request it in consideration of the masses that are said upon earth, and in respect of the merits of the Son of God, which are applied to us by means of them.

Lady Lucy Herbert 

Prioress of the English Austin Canonesses at Bruges 

(1668-1744)