Eucharistic Reflection - Do Not Know What To Do At Mass?



“It is extraordinary that there are to be found Christians, and those not a few, who grow weary and do not know what to do at Mass. 

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Can a sick man be tired of seeing the efforts made to cure him? Or can a person, loaded with debts, find it difficult to know what to do, in the presence of a powerful monarch who has offered him all his treasures? 

You do not know what to do at Mass? How is this? says Fr. la Colombiere, in his Reflections on this subject; have you never received any favor from God? Alas, we are surrounded, loaded, overwhelmed with His benefits, and we have never thanked Him as we ought.

At Mass, at least, give a thought to these various benefits; so many sins over- looked, so loving a Providence continually exercised in your regard, so sweet and so constant an effort to draw you to Him, to gain your heart, to make you holy. The graces that you receive in one single day would suffice to occupy you during the whole of Mass. Is not all this deserving of your remembrance? 

After re-passing through your mind all these benefits, say with holy confidence to the Eternal Father: Lord, these are the benefits I have received from Thee. But Thou sees this Host, this divine Body, this precious Blood, this adorable Sacrifice? This is what I offer Thee for so many benefits. I cannot doubt but that they are well repaid by so magnificent an offering. 

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But what can I render Thee, oh Lord, for having given me the means of acknowledging so' liberally the benefits of Thy Father, the means of expiating all my sins? I have only one heart to offer Thee. Wilt Thou deign to accept this heart, agitated by so many passions, and defiled with so many sins? It is at least broken with grief, and in this state I offer it to Thee. Thou opens to me Thine own; shall I dare, my loving Savior, to refuse Thee mine? O God of majesty! who am I, that Thou should deign to accept this sacrifice of my heart? It shall then be all Thine. 

Creatures shall have no part in it. Do Thou, then, my loving Jesus, be my Father, my friend, my Lord, my All. Since Thou art pleased to be content with my heart, how can it desire anything but Thine. I wish, in the future, to live only for Thee. Receive then, oh loving Savior of the world, the sacrifice made to Thee by the most ungrateful of mankind, to repair the injury which, up to this time, I have not ceased to do Thee by offending Thee." 

(From Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Father John Croiset, S,J.)


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