Consecration Aids: 16: Live the Mass!
Fr. Christopher Lee, SMM
L ET’S face the facts: in Christianity there is no one more important than Christ; and, in Christ, there is nothing more important than His Sacrifice. No matter how you look at it, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the very center of Christianity, and Christian life at its best can mean nothing short of LIVING the Mass.
To be more specific: Christian life must be a perpetual Offertory, an uninterrupted Consecration or immolation, and an eternal Communion. It must be a perpetual Offertory in the sense that the soul must be continually offering itself up to God, through Christ and with Him. It must be an uninterrupted Consecration or immolation, since there can be no Christian life without the element of immolation of one’s will to the will of God. Finally, our life must be an eternal Communion by which the soul unites itself to Jesus in the chains of love, and through Him to all the members of His Mystical Body.
Now did it ever occur to you, dear Slaves of Our Lady, that Holy Slavery, or the total consecration to Jesus through Mary, wouldn’t amount to much if it didn’t lead you to LIVE the Mass a little better each day? On the other hand, did you ever realize that the best way to LIVE the Mass is to really live your Holy Slavery of love?
I’d like to tell you how I came about making this True Devotion discovery. But first let me inform you that I am not generally given to over-sentimentality. Much less am I subject to flights of mysticism, even in the most orthodox sense of the word. Yet, I must admit – and I think you will too – that there are certain spiritual experiences that one never seems to forget. One such experience came to me one morning as I lingered on for a few minutes after the Mass had been said in our parish church. One by one, the little congregation had dispersed. The old sexton was cautiously snuffling out the last candle. Suddenly, I was overcome by a most uncanny feeling of loneliness. It was as though my soul were crying out frantically: “Why can’t the Mass last forever!”
No sooner had this feeling flooded the sanctuary of my soul than an altogether different one – like one wave riding on the crest of another – swept over my soul. This time it was as if a soft, penetrating voice were saying: “Mass can and does last forever in souls that know how to LIVE it.”
Strangely enough, it sounded like Mary’s voice, so soft yet penetrating was it. And if my memory serves me correctly, I had just been consecrated to her in Holy Slavery a few months previously.
At any rate, her message was clear: “Mass can and does last forever in souls that know how to LIVE it.” I was tempted, right then and there, to ask her to teach me how to live the Mass, but it was then that I realized that living one’s consecration to Jesus through Mary is the best means of learning how to live the Mass.
First of all, by my consecration had I not offered myself up to God, through the hands of Mary? Had I not offered up also all my actions and good works to Jesus through Mary? Had I not promised to work exclusively for their reign and for the honor and glory of the Most Holy Trinity? In a word, had I not offered everything that I have and everything that I am to the greater glory of God?
Author: Fr. Christopher Lee, SMM
This is the sixteenth in a series of articles covering Consecration Aids.
At the moment of Consecration at Mass, the priest says in Christ’s name, “This is My Body . . . etc.”. At this same moment, I, a Slave of Mary, say: ”I consecrate myself to Thee, body and soul, O my Jesus, through the hands of Mary. Do with me what Thou wilt. May my sacrifice be one with Yours!” The rest of my day then becomes an uninterrupted Consecration, as I strive to the best of my ability to live this total abandonment and complete immolation to Jesus through Mary.
What better dispositions then could I bring to the Offertory of every Mass than those of a Slave of Mary? What better way to make of my day a perperpetual Offertory than by living my total consecration to Mary?
The words of the Offertory now began to have a new meaning for me in the light of my Holy Slavery. “Receive , O Holy Father, Almighty and Eternal God, this spotless host, which I, Thine unworthy servant, offer unto Thee, etc. …”
But my life must not only be an Offertory, it must also be a Consecration, that is to say, a perpetual immolation on the altar of God’s will. Such is the nature of Christian life, indeed, that immolation and sacrifice, expiation and satisfaction await me at every turn in the road. The words of Christ will ever ring true: “If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself , take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mt. 16: 24).
Could we find a better way to consecrate our wills to God and to immolate them on the altar of His Holy Will than by consecrating them to Jesus through Mary?
At the moment of Consecration at Mass, the priest says in Christ’s name, “This is My Body . . . This is the chalice of My Blood, etc. . ” At this same moment, I, a Slave of Mary, say: ”I consecrate myself to Thee, body and soul, O my Jesus, through the hands of Mary. Do with me what Thou wilt. May my sacrifice be one with Yours!” The rest of my day then becomes an uninterrupted Consecration, as I strive to the best of my ability to live this total abandonment and complete immolation to Jesus through Mary. Finally, my day must be a continual Communion with Christ and with all the members of His Mystical Body if I am to LIVE the Mass perfectly. Here again, I saw, was where my total consecration to Mary was to bear its richest fruits.
Doesn’t St. Louis De Montfort tell me that Holy Slavery “is an easy, short, perfect and secure way of attaining union with our Lord, in which union the perfection of the Christian consists?” (T.D. 152) . Doesn’t he also say that by the practice of Holy Slavery “we exercise charity toward our neighbor in an eminent manner, seeing that we give him by Mary’s hands all that is most precious to ourselves – namely, the satisfactory and impetratory value of all our good works, etc. . . ?”
