THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS
34b--THE ACCEPTANCE OF TRIALS PERMITTED BY PROVIDENCE
The state of grace is a requisite for offering Christ and for offering ourselves worthily in our Mass.
To profit fully from the Mass, the state of sacrifice is essential. We must accept the trials God sends. For how are we to become one with the Victim, unless we, too, are victims? When Jesus sees a growing desire for perfection in a soul, He makes it feel the weight of His Cross. That is what He said just a few years ago to a Visitation nun, Sister Louise Marguerite: "I will perfect in your heart the faculty to live and suffer, so that you may be able to understand and feel the sufferings of Mine." Corresponding to this desire of Jesus, she wrote: "Lord, I want to go straight toward You! I will break with whatever holds me back. If it is my friends, I will leave them. If it is something I have, I will give it away. If it is my heart, I will tear it out. If it is my body, let it be destroyed." It was this humble religious whom our Lord used as a channel for the overflowing abundance of His infinite love for priests.
Christ would increase in us if we would let Him. Our Lord let Himself be crucified on Calvary. On the altar He abandons Himself in the hands of His priests. What a Model of detachment!
We should take the "Christian risk," have faith in Providence, surrender ourselves utterly to the divine Will. Surrender of self! This means the great plunge into the divine Sea, the leap of the human soul into the depths of divine Love! Thenceforth, nothing on earth has power to trouble, disturb, or charm. Forever lost and submerged in the ineffable delights of the divine Will, the soul wills all that God wills, and as He wills! To reach this point, one must--of all necessity--have lost his earthly "foothold," abandoned earth's security and support. He must have "laid hold on" God's plan of salvation, the way a drowning man "lays hold on" a plank extended to him--with both hands! Now to grasp an object with both hands, one must first "let go" of everything else one may be holding--everything! For this is the "pearl of great price" of the parable. Whoever would possess it, must first sell all that he has!
[From 'Your Mass and Your Life,' to be continued . . .]
The state of grace is a requisite for offering Christ and for offering ourselves worthily in our Mass.
To profit fully from the Mass, the state of sacrifice is essential. We must accept the trials God sends. For how are we to become one with the Victim, unless we, too, are victims? When Jesus sees a growing desire for perfection in a soul, He makes it feel the weight of His Cross. That is what He said just a few years ago to a Visitation nun, Sister Louise Marguerite: "I will perfect in your heart the faculty to live and suffer, so that you may be able to understand and feel the sufferings of Mine." Corresponding to this desire of Jesus, she wrote: "Lord, I want to go straight toward You! I will break with whatever holds me back. If it is my friends, I will leave them. If it is something I have, I will give it away. If it is my heart, I will tear it out. If it is my body, let it be destroyed." It was this humble religious whom our Lord used as a channel for the overflowing abundance of His infinite love for priests.
Christ would increase in us if we would let Him. Our Lord let Himself be crucified on Calvary. On the altar He abandons Himself in the hands of His priests. What a Model of detachment!
We should take the "Christian risk," have faith in Providence, surrender ourselves utterly to the divine Will. Surrender of self! This means the great plunge into the divine Sea, the leap of the human soul into the depths of divine Love! Thenceforth, nothing on earth has power to trouble, disturb, or charm. Forever lost and submerged in the ineffable delights of the divine Will, the soul wills all that God wills, and as He wills! To reach this point, one must--of all necessity--have lost his earthly "foothold," abandoned earth's security and support. He must have "laid hold on" God's plan of salvation, the way a drowning man "lays hold on" a plank extended to him--with both hands! Now to grasp an object with both hands, one must first "let go" of everything else one may be holding--everything! For this is the "pearl of great price" of the parable. Whoever would possess it, must first sell all that he has!
[From 'Your Mass and Your Life,' to be continued . . .]
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