The value of the Holy Mass said by 20 Saints
Only in Heaven will we understand what divine wonder the Holy Mass is. No matter how hard you try and how holy and inspired you are, you can only stammer about this Divine Work that transcends Men and Angels. And then we asked ... to 20 saints, an opinion and a thought on the Holy Mass. Here is what we can make you read.
One day, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was asked:
"Father, explain the Holy Mass to us."
“My children - replied the Father - how can I explain it to you?
Mass is infinite, like Jesus ...
Ask an Angel what a Mass is and he will answer you truthfully:
“I understand what it is and why it is done, but I do not understand, however, how much value it has.
An Angel, a thousand Angels, all Heaven knows this and so they think ”.
Sant'Alfonso de 'Liguori comes to say:
"God Himself cannot do that there is a more holy and greater action than the celebration of a Holy Mass".
St. Thomas Aquinas, with a luminous phrase, wrote:
"The celebration of the Holy Mass is worth as much as the Death of Jesus on the Cross is worth."
For this, St. Francis of Assisi said:
"Man must tremble, the world must tremble, the whole sky must be moved when the Son of God appears on the altar in the hands of the priest".
In reality, by renewing the Sacrifice of the Passion and Death of Jesus, the Holy Mass is so great as to be enough, alone, to hold back the Divine Justice.
Saint Teresa of Jesus said to her daughters:
“Without Mass what would become of us?
Everything would perish down here, because only It can stop the arm of God. "
Without it, of course, the Church would not last and the world would desperately be lost.
"It would be easier for the Earth to stand without the Sun, rather than without the Holy Mass" - stated Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, echoing San Leonardo da Porto Maurizio, who said:
“I believe that if there were no Mass, the World would have already collapsed under the weight of its iniquities. Mass is the powerful support that sustains it ”.
The salutary effects that every Sacrifice of the Holy Mass produces in the soul of those who participate in it are admirable:
· Obtains repentance and forgiveness of sins;
· The temporal punishment due to sins decreases;
Weakens the empire of Satan and the fury of concupiscence;
· Strengthens the bonds of incorporation into Christ;
· Protects from dangers and misfortunes;
· Shortens the duration of Purgatory;
· Provides a higher degree of glory in Heaven.
“No human language - says San Lorenzo Giustiniani - can enumerate the favors from which the Sacrifice of the Mass is source:
· The sinner is reconciled with God;
The righteous becomes more righteous;
Faults are canceled;
Annihilate the vices;
Nourished the virtues and merits;
· Confused the diabolical pitfalls ”.
If it is true that we all need graces, for this and the other life, nothing can be obtained from God like the Holy Mass.
San Filippo Neri said:
“With the prayer we ask God for the Graces; in the Holy Mass we force God to give them to us ”.
In particular, at the hour of death, the Masses, devoutly listened to, will form our greatest consolation and hope and a Holy Mass, listened during life, will be healthier than many Holy Masses, listened to by others for us after our death. .
"Make sure - said Jesus in San Gertrude - that, to those who listen devoutly to the Holy Mass, I will send, in the last moments of his life, as many of my saints, to comfort him and protect him, how many Masses he listened to have been well".
How comforting this is!
The Holy Curé of Ars was right to say:
"If we knew the value of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, how much more zeal would we take to listen to it!".
And St. Peter G. Eymard urged:
"Know, O Christian, that Mass is the holiest act of Religion: you could not do anything more glorious to God, nor more beneficial to your Soul than to listen to it piously and as often as possible".
For this reason, we must consider ourselves lucky, whenever we are offered the opportunity to listen to a Holy Mass, or to never back away from some sacrifice in order not to lose it, especially on the days of the precept (Sunday and Holidays).
We think of Santa Maria Goretti who, to go to Mass on Sunday, traveled 24 kilometers on foot, round trip!
Think of Santina Campana, who went to Mass with a very high fever.
Think of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, who celebrated Mass even when he was in such pitiful health conditions that a confrere had to support him, at the Altar, so that he would not fall.
And how many times did Padre Pio of Pietrelcina celebrate Holy Mass, feverish and bleeding?
In our everyday life, we must prefer Holy Mass to all other good things, because, as Saint Bernard says:
"He deserves more by devoutly listening to a Mass, than by distributing all his substances to the poor and by making a pilgrimage on the whole Earth".
And it cannot be otherwise, because nothing in the world can have the infinite value of a Holy Mass.
All the more ... we must prefer Holy Mass to entertainment, where time is wasted without any advantage for the Soul.
Saint Louis IX, king of France, listened to different Masses every day.
Some ministers complained that he could devote that time to Kingdom affairs.
The Holy King said:
"If I spent double time in amusements ... in hunting, nobody would have fault."
We are generous and willingly make some sacrifices not to lose such a great good!
St. Augustine said to his Christians:
"All the steps one takes to go to listen to the Holy Mass are numbered by an Angel and a high prize will be granted by God, in this life and in eternity".
And the Holy Curé of Ars adds:
"How happy is that Guardian Angel who accompanies a Soul to the Holy Mass!".
Saint Pasquale Baylon, a little shepherd boy, could not go to the Church to listen to all the Masses he would have liked, because he had to bring the sheep to pasture and, then, whenever he heard the bell giving the signal of the Holy Mass, he knelt on the grass, among the sheep, in front of a wooden cross, made by himself, and thus followed, from afar, the Priest who was offering the Divine Sacrifice.
Dear Saint, true seraphim of Eucharistic love! Even on his deathbed he heard the bell of the Mass and had the strength to whisper to the confreres:
"I am happy to combine the sacrifice of Jesus with that of my poor life".
And he died at the Consecration!
A mother of eight, Saint Margaret, Queen of Scotland, went and took her children to Mass every day; with maternal concern he taught them to consider the messaline as treasure, which she wanted to adorn with precious stones.
We order our things well, so as not to miss the time for Holy Mass.
Let's not say we are too busy with matters, because Jesus could remind us:
"Marta ... Marta ... you get busy in too many things, instead of thinking about the only thing needed!" (Lk. 10,41).
When you really want time to go to Mass, you find it, without losing your duties.
St. Joseph Cottolengo recommended daily Mass to everyone:
to the teachers, the nurses, the workers, the doctors, the parents ... and to those who opposed him that he did not have time to go, he replied decisively:
“Bad economy of the time! Bad economy of time! ".
It is so!
If we really thought about the infinite value of the Holy Mass, we would crave to participate in it and we would try, in every way, to find the necessary time.
San Carlo da Sezze, going around the begging, in Rome, made his stops at some Church, to listen to other Masses and, during one of these extra Masses, he had the dart of Love in his heart at the time of elevation of the Host.
Every morning St. Francis of Paola went to the church and stayed there to listen to all the Masses that were celebrated.
San Giovanni Berchmans - Sant'Alfonso Rodriguez - San Gerardo Maiella, every morning, they served as many Masses as they could and with a demeanor so devoted as to attract many faithful to the Church.
Finally, what about Padre Pio of Pietrelcina?
Were there many Masses where you attended every day, participating in the recitation of so many Rosaries?
The Holy Curé of Ars was not really wrong in saying that "Mass is the devotion of the Saints".
The same must be said of the Love of the Holy Priests at the celebration of Mass:
not being able to celebrate was a terrible pain for them.
"When you feel that I can no longer celebrate, keep me dead" - Saint Francis Xavier Bianchi went to say to a Confrere.
St. John of the Cross made it clear that the greatest agony, suffered during the period of persecutions, was that of not being able to celebrate Mass, nor to receive Holy Communion for nine continuous months.
Obstacles or difficulties did not count for the Saints when it came to not losing such a high asset.
From the life of Sant'Alfonso Maria de 'Liguori, we know that one day, in a street in Naples, the saint was assaulted by violent visceral pain.
The confrere, who accompanied him, urged him to stop to take a sedative, but the saint had not yet celebrated and replied abruptly to the confrere:
"My dear, I would walk like this ten miles, so as not to miss the Holy Mass".
And there was no way to make him break his fast (in those days ... mandatory from midnight).
He waited for the pains to subside a little and then resumed his journey to church.
San Lorenzo da Brindisi, Capuchin, being in a town of heretics, without a Catholic Church, walked forty miles to reach a chapel, held by Catholics, where he could celebrate Holy Mass.
St. Francis de Sales was also in the Protestant country and to celebrate Holy Mass he had to go, every morning, before dawn, to a Catholic Parish, which was located beyond a large stream.
In the rainy autumn, the stream swelled more than usual and swept over the small bridge on which the Saint passed, but San Francesco was not discouraged, he threw a large beam where the bridge was and continued to pass, every morning.
In winter, however, with frost and snow, there was a serious danger of slipping and falling into the water. Then, the Saint made himself clever, straddling the beam, crawling on all fours, round trip, so as not to remain without the celebration of the Holy Mass!
We will never reflect enough on the ineffable mystery of the Holy Mass, which reproduces the Sacrifice of Calvary on our altars, nor will we love this supreme wonder of Divine Love too much.
“The Holy Mass - writes San Bonaventura - is the Work in which God puts before us all the love that has brought us; it is, in a certain way, the synthesis of all the benefits given ".