For a little
meditation while attending the Mass, read how the movements and prayers of
the priest mirror the events of Christ's Passion,
Resurrection, and Ascension.
Now that your mind understands, you've got to get your heart right. Consider
this advice from Pope St. Pius X of most happy memory:
The Holy Mass is
a prayer itself, even the highest prayer that exists. Is is the Sacrifice
dedicated by our Redeemer at the Cross, and repeated every day on the Altar.
If you wish to hear the Mass as it should be heard, you must follow with
eye, heart, and mouth all that happens at the Altar.
Further, you must pray with the priest the holy words said by him in the
Name of Christ and which Christ says by him. You have to associate your heart
with the holy feelings which are contained in these words and in this manner
you ought to follow all that happens on the Altar. When acting in this way,
you have prayed Holy Mass.
Don't pray at
Mass, but pray the Mass. |
And please read
this excerpt from Pope Pius XII's Mediator
Dei in which he explains how we of the royal priesthood should approach
the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:
91. But there is
also a more profound reason why all Christians, especially those who are
present at Mass, are said to offer the sacrifice.
92. In this most important subject it is necessary, in order to avoid giving
rise to a dangerous error, that we define the exact meaning of the word "offer."
The unbloody immolation at the words of consecration, when Christ is made
present upon the Altar in the state of a victim, is performed by the priest
and by him alone, as the representative of Christ and not as the representative
of the faithful. But it is because the priest places the divine victim upon
the Altar that he offers it to God the Father as an oblation for the glory
of the Blessed Trinity and for the good of the whole Church. Now the faithful
participate in the oblation, understood in this limited sense, after their
own fashion and in a twofold manner, namely, because they not only offer
the sacrifice by the hands of the priest, but also, to a certain extent,
in union with him. It is by reason of this participation that the offering
made by the people is also included in liturgical worship.
93. Now it is clear that the faithful offer the sacrifice by the hands of
the priest from the fact that the minister at the Altar, in offering a sacrifice
in the name of all His members, represents Christ, the Head of the Mystical
Body. Hence the whole Church can rightly be said to offer up the victim through
Christ. But the conclusion that the people offer the sacrifice with the priest
himself is not based on the fact that, being members of the Church no less
than the priest himself, they perform a visible liturgical rite; for this
is the privilege only of the minister who has been divinely appointed to
this office: rather it is based on the fact that the people unite their hearts
in praise, impetration, expiation and thanksgiving with prayers or intention
of the priest, even of the High Priest himself, so that in the one and same
offering of the victim and according to a visible sacerdotal rite, they may
be presented to God the Father. It is obviously necessary that the external
sacrificial rite should, of its very nature, signify the internal worship
of the heart. Now the sacrifice of the New Law signifies that supreme worship
by which the principal Offerer himself, who is Christ, and, in union with
Him and through Him, all the members of the Mystical Body pay God the honor
and reverence that are due to Him.
94. We are very pleased to learn that this teaching, thanks to a more intense
study of the liturgy on the part of many, especially in recent years, has
been given full recognition. We must, however, deeply deplore certain
exaggerations and over-statements which are not in agreement with the true
teaching of the Church.
95. Some in fact disapprove altogether of those Masses which are offered
privately and without any congregation, on the ground that they are a departure
from the ancient way of offering the sacrifice; moreover, there are some
who assert that priests cannot offer Mass at different Altars at the same
time, because, by doing so, they separate the community of the faithful and
imperil its unity; while some go so far as to hold that the people must confirm
and ratify the sacrifice if it is to have its proper force and value.
96. They are mistaken in appealing in this matter to the social character
of the eucharistic sacrifice, for as often as a priest repeats what the divine
Redeemer did at the Last Supper, the sacrifice is really completed. Moreover,
this sacrifice, necessarily and of its very nature, has always and everywhere
the character of a public and social act, inasmuch as he who offers it acts
in the name of Christ and of the faithful, whose Head is the divine Redeemer,
and he offers it to God for the holy Catholic Church, and for the living
and the dead.This is undoubtedly so, whether the faithful are present - as
we desire and commend them to be in great numbers and with devotion - or
are not present, since it is in no wise required that the people ratify what
the sacred minister has done.
97. Still, though it is clear from what We have said that the Mass is offered
in the name of Christ and of the Church and that it is not robbed of its
social effects though it be celebrated by a priest without a server, nonetheless,
on account of the dignity of such an august mystery, it is our earnest desire
- as Mother Church has always commanded - that no priest should say Mass
unless a server is at hand to answer the prayers, as canon 813 prescribes.
98. In order that the oblation by which the faithful offer the divine Victim
in this sacrifice to the heavenly Father may have its full effect, it is
necessary that the people add something else, namely, the offering of themselves
as a victim.
99. This offering in fact is not confined merely to the liturgical sacrifice.
For the Prince of the Apostles wishes us, as living stones built upon Christ,
the cornerstone, to be able as "a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." St. Paul the Apostle addresses
the following words of exhortation to Christians, without distinction of
time, "I beseech you therefore, . . . that you present your bodies, a living
sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service." But at that
time especially when the faithful take part in the liturgical service with
such piety and recollection that it can truly be said of them: "whose faith
and devotion is known to Thee," it is then, with the High Priest and through
Him they offer themselves as a spiritual sacrifice, that each one's faith
ought to become more ready to work through charity, his piety more real and
fervent, and each one should consecrate himself to the furthering of the
divine glory, desiring to become as like as possible to Christ in His most
grievous sufferings.
100. This we are also taught by those exhortations which the Bishop, in the
Church's name, addresses to priests on the day of their ordination, "Understand
what you do, imitate what you handle, and since you celebrate the mystery
of the Lord's death, take good care to mortify your members with their vices
and concupiscences." In almost the same manner the sacred books of the liturgy
advise Christians who come to Mass to participate in the sacrifice: "At this
. . . Altar let innocence be in honor, let pride be sacrificed, anger slain,
impurity and every evil desire laid low, let the sacrifice of chastity be
offered in place of doves and instead of the young pigeons the sacrifice
of innocence." While we stand before the Altar, then, it is our duty so to
transform our hearts, that every trace of sin may be completely blotted out,
while whatever promotes supernatural life through Christ may be zealously
fostered and strengthened even to the extent that, in union with the immaculate
Victim, we become a victim acceptable to the eternal Father.
101. The prescriptions in fact of the sacred liturgy aim, by every means
at their disposal, at helping the Church to bring about this most holy purpose
in the most suitable manner possible. This is the object not only of readings,
homilies and other sermons given by priests, as also the whole cycle of mysteries
which are proposed for our commemoration in the course of the year, but it
is also the purpose of vestments, of sacred rites and their external splendor.
All these things aim at "enhancing the majesty of this great Sacrifice, and
raising the minds of the faithful by means of these visible signs of religion
and piety, to the contemplation of the sublime truths contained in this
sacrifice."
102. All the elements of the liturgy, then, would have us reproduce in our
hearts the likeness of the divine Redeemer through the mystery of the cross,
according to the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles, "With Christ I am
nailed to the cross. I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me." Thus we
become a victim, as it were, along with Christ to increase the glory of the
eternal Father.
103. Let this, then, be the intention and aspiration of the faithful, when
they offer up the divine Victim in the Mass. For if, as St. Augustine writes,
our mystery is enacted on the Lord's table, that is Christ our Lord Himself,
who is the Head and symbol of that union through which we are the body of
Christ and members of His Body; if St. Robert Bellarmine teaches, according
to the mind of the Doctor of Hippo, that in the sacrifice of the Altar there
is signified the general sacrifice by which the whole Mystical Body of Christ,
that is, all the city of redeemed, is offered up to God through Christ, the
High Priest: nothing can be conceived more just or fitting than that all
of us in union with our Head, who suffered for our sake, should also sacrifice
ourselves to the eternal Father. For in the sacrament of the Altar, as the
same St. Augustine has it, the Church is made to see that in what she offers
she herself is offered.
104. Let the faithful, therefore, consider to what a high dignity they are
raised by the sacrament of baptism. They should not think it enough to
participate in the eucharistic sacrifice with that general intention which
befits members of Christ and children of the Church, but let them further,
in keeping with the spirit of the sacred liturgy, be most closely united
with the High Priest and His earthly minister, at the time the consecration
of the divine Victim is enacted, and at that time especially when those solemn
words are pronounced, "By Him and with Him and in Him is to Thee, God the
Father almighty, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory for
ever and ever"; to these words in fact the people answer, "Amen." Nor should
Christians forget to offer themselves, their cares, their sorrows, their
distress and their necessities in union with their divine Savior upon the
cross.
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