Practical devotion of the day: the purposes of the Holy Mass

1. From praise to God: latreutic end. Every spirit praises the Lord. Cycle and earth, day and night, lightning and storms, everything blesses its Creator. Man's soul, praying, joins nature and adores God; but the adorations of creatures are all limited. Only in the Mass the SS. Trinity is honored as much as it deserves, by Jesus, by God himself, as Victim; with the Holy Mass, we give God an infinite honor. In hearing Mass, do you think this is the first of the prayers?

2. Satisfies the justice of God: propitiatory end. With sins man can commit an infinite injury, because it is an outrage to the infinite Majesty of God; but how to compensate him if every good he can offer him is finished? He replaces Jesus with his Precious Blood, and, in the Mass, by offering him to the Father, he dissolves our debt, he obtains the forgiveness of guilt and punishment due to sin; and in Purgatory he pays for souls and frees them from flames. Reflect on so much goodness of God.

3. Thank God, and beg for new graces: Eucharistic and impetratory end. How will we be able to thank God for all the gifts he gives us? With the Holy Mass; with it we offer God a gift worthy of him, his own Son in thanksgiving. Furthermore, to obtain new graces, which the Father can deny us, if we ask them for the merits of Jesus that are applied to us by the Holy Mass? In hearing the Mass let us also offer it for these four purposes. And you may not even know why you listen to the Mass.

PRACTICE. - Offer to God all the Masses that are celebrated.