9781644135945

The Light of the World
for grace, pardon, light, protection, and assistance for us and for all men. Even though all others
have forgotten us, the Church continues to pray for us and to offer sacrifice for us.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is also our offering. At baptism the indelible character of
the sacrament was imprinted on our soul, which confers on us all the rights and privileges of
membership in the Church. By virtue of this character we have the right to approach the altar
and exercise our so-called priesthood of the laity. The right to sacrifice is ours. We have the
privilege of offering to the Father in heaven the body and blood of Christ. We are no longer
confined to the offering of the blood of animals or the common bread of sacrifice, as were
the men of the Old Testament. We are like Mary, who appears in the temple with Jesus in her
arms. We have an adequate means of supplying for all of our own deficiencies through the
offering of the heart of our Savior together with all His sufferings, His death, His merits, and
His virtues. All these belong to us. In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, His heart, His life, His
merits, His virtues, belong entirely to us. He supplies for us in the Mass; He prays, loves, offers
thanksgiving and satisfaction in our stead. We act through Him, with Him, in Him, with His
love and with His zeal for accomplishing the will of the Father. We pray to the Father through
the heart of Jesus, we love the Father with the love of Christ, we address Him in the prayers of
Christ, which must always be heard. We offer to the Father the blood of Christ in satisfaction
for our sins. This is the most excellent kind of piety, the most efficacious kind of prayer and
work. We act through Him, with Him, and in Him when we participate in the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass. Our offering is made in union with Christ, our high priest, and in union with His
mystical body, the Church.
We, Thy people sanctified through holy baptism, offer to Thy divine Majesty a pure, holy, and
spotless victim, the body and blood of Thy beloved Son. Since we hold in our hands the heart and
the blood of Jesus, and offer them up to the Father, He will surely hear us and grant our prayers.
Inspired by this confidence, and depending not upon our own merits but upon the sacrifice of
Christ, we pray with the priest after the Consecration for our beloved dead, for ourselves, and
for all our brethren. Joining with the priest we recite that most precious of all prayers, the Our
Father. We say it “through Him, and with Him, and in Him.” He prays it again through us, and
with us, and in us. He is the head, and we are the members; but we form one body, one Christ.
It is our privilege to offer Christ to His Father as our own gift. What a royal priesthood is
given us through our baptism, in that we are made living members of the Lord our head! In
offering the Savior to His Father we include ourselves also. The head cannot be offered without
the body and its members. If we were to exclude ourselves from this offering, we should maim
the body of Christ, for we are a part of Jesus Christ. In the bread and wine of the Offertory at
Mass we include ourselves. We desire to become victims of the holy will of God, like an animal
that is sacrificed to the Lord. We wish to die, to die to ourselves, to our passions, to sin, and to
all that may in any way be displeasing to God. We wish to be consumed by the fire of divine
love. We wish to make of our lives a complete holocaust to the Divinity, a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
of adoration, of satisfaction, and of petition. In this manner when we offer Christ, we
offer ourselves also.
“Be mindful, O Lord, of Thy servants and handmaids and of all here present, whose faith
and devotion are known to Thee. . . .” According to the measure of our faith and our spirit of
sacrifice, we reap the fruits of our offering.
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