77 Graces and Fruits of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Roman Catholic Imperialist)
What do you think of Holy Mass? Hear what a pious priest during a Great Plague in Germany was teaching the souls he was tending to:
77 Graces and Fruits to Be Derived from Devout Attendance at Holy Mass
1. For your salvation, God the Father sends His beloved Son down from Heaven.
2. For your salvation, the Holy Spirit changes bread and wine into the true Body and Blood of Christ.
3. For your sake, the Son of God comes down from Heaven and conceals Himself under the form of the sacred Host.
4. He even abases Himself to such an extent as to be present in the minutest particle of the sacred Host.
5. For your salvation. He renews the saving mystery of the Incarnation.
6. For your salvation. He is born anew into the world in a mystic manner whenever Holy Mass is celebrated.
7. For your salvation. He performs upon the altar the same acts of worship that He performed when on earth.
8. For your salvation. He renews His bitter Passion in order that you may participate in it.
9. For your salvation. He mystically renews His death and sacrifices for you His precious life.
10. For your salvation. He sheds His Blood in a mystic manner and offers it up for you to the Divine Majesty.
11. With this Precious Blood He sprinkles your soul and purifies it from every stain.
12. For you, Christ offers Himself as a true burnt offering and renders to the Godhead the supreme honor which is its due.
13. By offering this act of worship to God, you make reparation for the glory which you have failed to give Him.
14. For you Christ offers Himself to God as a sacrifice of praise, thus atoning for your omissions in praising His Holy Name.
15. By offering to God this oblation which Christ offers, you give Him greater praise than do the holy Angels.
16. For you Christ offers Himself as a perfect sacrifice of thanksgiving, making compensation for all failures on your
part to render thanks.
17. By offering to God Christ’s act of thanksgiving, you make ample acknowledgment of all the benefits He has bestowed upon you.
18. For you Christ offers Himself as the All-powerful Victim, reconciling you to the God whom you have offended.
19. He pardons you all your venial sins, provided you are firmly resolved to forsake them.
20. He also makes reparation for many of your sins of omission; when you left undone the good you might have done.
21. He removes many of the imperfections attaching to your good deeds.
22. He forgives you the sins, unknown or forgotten, which you have never mentioned in Confession.
23. He offers Himself as a victim to make satisfaction for a part, at least, of your debts and transgressions.
24. Each time you hear Mass, you can do more to pay the penalty due to your sins than by the severest work of penance.
25. Christ places to your credit a portion of His merits, which you may offer to God the Father in expiation of your offenses.
26. For you Christ offers Himself as the most efficacious peace-offering, interceding for you as earnestly as He interceded for His enemies on the Cross.
27. His Precious Blood pleads for you in words as countless as the drops which issued from His sacred veins.
28. Each of the adorable wounds His Sacred Body bore is a voice calling aloud for mercy for you.
29. For the sake of this propitiatory Victim, the petitions proffered during Mass will be granted far sooner than those that are proffered at other times.
30. Never can you pray so well as while present at Mass.
31. This is so because Christ unites His prayers to yours and offers them to His heavenly Father.
32. He acquaints Him with your needs and the dangers to which you are exposed, and makes your eternal salvation His particular concern.
33. The Angels also who are present plead for and present your poor prayers before the throne of God.
34. On your behalf the priest says Mass, by virtue of which the evil enemy will not be suffered to approach you.
35. For you and for your everlasting salvation he says Mass, and offers that Holy Sacrifice to God Almighty.
36. When you hear Mass, you are yourself in spirit a priest, empowered by Christ to offer the Mass both for yourself and others.
37. By offering this Holy Sacrifice you present to the Blessed Trinity the most acceptable of all oblations.
38. You offer an oblation precious indeed, of greater value than all things in Heaven and earth.
39. You offer an oblation precious indeed, for it is none other than God Himself.
40. By this Sacrifice you honor God as He alone is worthy to be honored.
41. By this Sacrifice you give infinite satisfaction to the Most Holy Trinity.
42. You may present this glorious oblation as your own gift, for Christ Himself gave it to you.
43. When you hear Mass correctly, you perform an act of highest worship.
44. By hearing Mass you pay the most profound reverence, the most loyal homage, to the sacred humanity of Our Lord.
45. It is the best means whereby to venerate the Passion of Christ and obtain a share in its fruits.
46. It is also the best means of venerating the Blessed Mother of God and increasing her joy.
47. By hearing Mass you can give greater honor to the Angels and Saints than by reciting many prayers.
48. By hearing Mass devoutly, you can also enrich your soul more than by anything else in the world.
49. For in this act you perform a good work of the highest value.
50. It is a signal exercise of pure faith, which will receive a great reward.
51. When you bow down before the Sacred Host and the sacred chalice, you perform a supreme act of adoration.
52. For each time that you gaze reverently upon the Sacred Host, you will receive a recompense in Heaven.
53. Each time you strike your breast with compunction, some of your sins are remitted to you.
54. If you hear Mass in the state of mortal sin, God offers you the grace of conversion.
55. If you hear Mass in the state of grace, God gives you an augmentation of grace.
56. In Holy Mass you spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ and drink His Blood.
57. You are privileged to behold with your eyes Christ hidden under the sacramental veil, and to be beheld by Him.
58. You receive the priest’s benediction, which is confirmed by Christ in Heaven.
59. Through your diligence in hearing Mass, you will also obtain corporal and temporal blessings.
60. Furthermore, you will be preserved from many misfortunes that would otherwise befall you.
61. You will also be strengthened against temptations which would otherwise have vanquished you.
62. Holy Mass will also be to you a means of obtaining the grace of a holy death.
63. The love you have shown for Holy Mass will secure for you the special succor of Angels and Saints in your last moments.
64. The remembrance of the Masses heard in your lifetime will be a sweet solace to you in the hour of death and inspire you with confidence in the divine mercy.
65. They will not be forgotten when you stand before the strict Judge and will incline Him to show you favor.
66. You need not fear a long and terrible Purgatory if you already, to a great extent, atoned for your sins by frequently assisting at Holy Mass.
67. One Mass devoutly heard will do more to mitigate the pains of Purgatory than any act of penance, however difficult of performance.
68. One Mass in your lifetime will be of greater service to you than many said for you after death.
69. You will attain a high place in Heaven, which will be yours for all eternity.
70. Your felicity in Heaven will, moreover, be increased by every Mass you hear on earth.
71. No prayers offered for your friends will be as efficacious as a single Mass heard and offered on their behalf.
72. You can amply recompense all your benefactors by hearing Mass for their intention.
73. The best help, the greatest consolation, you can afford the afflicted, the sick, the dying, is to hear Mass for them.
74. By this same means you can even obtain for sinners the grace of conversion.
75. You can also earn for all faithful Christians saving and salutary graces.
76. For the Suffering Souls in Purgatory you can procure abundant refreshment.
77. And if it is not within your power to have Mass said for your departed friends, you can by devout assistance at the Holy Sacrifice release them from the tormenting flames.
What do you now think of Holy Mass, O Christian? Can it be supposed that in the whole world there is any other good work whereby so many graces and fruits are placed within our reach? It is no longer possible to question the truth of the words of Father Sanchez quoted above: “If Christians only knew how to profit by Holy Mass, they might acquire greater riches than are to be found in all the things God has created.” We have indeed a precious storehouse in the Mass: happy he who can earn treasures so great at the cost of so little labor! Who would willingly miss Mass? Who would not delight in hearing it? Let us resolve never to lose an opportunity of hearing Mass, provided the duties of our state of life do not prevent us from doing so. To omit hearing Mass daily, merely from carelessness or indolence, would be a proof that we were either ignorant of or indifferent to the divine treasures it contains. God grant that those who read this book may in future appreciate more fully this pearl of great price, value it more highly, seek it more diligently!
Taken from THE INCREDIBLE Catholic Mass: AN EXPLANATION OF THE MASS by Fr. Martin von Cochem. O.S.F published in 1704.
Fr. Martin von Cochem, O.S.F. (1625-1712) was a German Franciscan priest and a learned theologian who entered the religious state while yet quite young, and after the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and the plague which followed it—which wrought such tremendous devastation to Germany that there was as high as eighty percent depopulation in some areas—he was appalled at the religious ignorance of his people. To rectify this deplorable situation, he set about to compose popularly oriented books on numerous religious topics. By far the most popular of his works, and universally acknowledged as the best, is the present book on the Mass, titled in its original English edition, Cochem’s Explanation of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and often simply called An Explanation of the Mass.
