Fourth Monday after Pentecost
Summary of Today’s Meditation
We will meditate this morning upon the occupations of the soul during Holy Mass, and we shall see how suitable it is to 
occupy ourselves: First, with the passion and the death of Jesus Christ; second, with the ends of the Sacrifice; third, with the love which God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son testify to us in this mystery. We will then make the resolution: First, no longer to assist at Holy Mass from habit or routine, without some fixed and precise object to prevent the soul from being distracted; second, to occupy ourselves with one of the three considerations we have just indicated. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Council of Trent: “Therein is immolated in an unbloody manner the same. Jesus Christ who on the altar of the cross immolated Himself in a bloody manner.”
Meditation for the Morning
Let us honor the most holy Virgin upon Calvary as being the most finished model of the spirit which ought to animate us during the Holy Sacrifice. Occupied wholly with what was passing before her eyes, with the glory of God and the salvation of the world, for which she offers the adorable Victim, with the love of God who delivers up to death His innocent Son, and with the love of the Son who delivers up Himself, she offers herself and immolates herself in spirit in order to make of herself with her dear Son but one sole and same victim. Let us admire her sublime occupations and adore the Holy Spirit, who produces them.
FIRST POINT
How Suitable it is to Occupy ourselves during Holy Mass with the Passion and Death of Our Savior
What, in fact, can be more suitable than to think of what passes before our eyes? Now, at the altar, everything speaks to us of the passion and the death of the Savior: the cross surmounts the tabernacle and is seen upon all the sacred vestments; the stole represents the chains by which Jesus was attached to the pillar; the girdle the scourges which lacerated His flesh, the maniple the cords with which He was bound; the passing to and fro of the priest from one side to another of the altar recalls to mind the different tribunals at which He was made to appear. The Mass itself is a lively and real reproduction of the sacrifice of Calvary; it is the same Victim and the same Priest. It is true that in it Jesus Christ borrows the person of a man to render His invisible priesthood visible; but in reality it is always Jesus Christ who consecrates, Jesus Christ who immolates Himself, Jesus Christ who prays. Is not all this to show us that during Holy Mass we ought to meditate upon His passion and death, inspired by the same pious sentiments with which we should have been animated had we assisted, together with Mary and St. John, at His agony upon Calvary; that consequently, we ought to sacrifice ourselves, body and soul, to the great living God, in order to form, with Jesus Christ, but one sole victim?
SECOND POINT
How Suitable it is to Occupy ourselves during Mass with the Ends of the Sacrifice
These ends, as we have already shown, are, first, to render to God the worship of latria by a supreme esteem for His greatness, respect for His lofty majesty, and submission to His supreme dominion over us; second, to thank Him for His numberless benefits; third, to make reparation for the offence of sin, and to inspire ourselves with a lively desire to destroy its reign upon earth; fourth, to ask God for all the succor and all the graces of which the whole world stands in need, and which we ourselves also need. Now what can be more suitable than to occupy ourselves with all these holy things? Not to do so would be, first, to miss the object of the Sacrifice, because these are its ends; second, it would be to deprive our soul of the most excellent resources of piety, since we can think of nothing which is better, nothing which is more glorious to God, nothing which is more useful to ourselves; it would be, third, to render the prayers of the liturgy unintelligible to us, because these ends are, as it were, the key which opens the meaning of them.
THIRD POINT
How Suitable it is, during Mass, to Occupy ourselves with the Love which God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son Testify to us in this Mystery
God the Father, at the moment of the Sacrifice, opens His bosom to give us His Son, in order that He may be our victim, our pontiff, our mediator, our food, our consolation, our all; and God the Son, accepting this mission, gives Himself to us without reserve, offers and immolates Himself for us, remains with us as the companion and consoler of our exile, the supplement of our religion and of all our duties towards His Father, the model of all virtue and of all holiness, the life of our life, the strength of our weakness; in a word, He spends Himself wholly for us. Now where God is so prodigal of His love, what can be more suitable than for us to occupy ourselves with this love, than to exert ourselves to render to so good a Father, to so generous a Son, love for love, and to imitate the blessed spirits, overwhelmed by an eternal ecstasy of love in presence of the eternal love of God? (St. Chrysostom, de Sacerd., lib. 3, cap. 2) Do we occupy ourselves during Holy Mass with some of these thoughts, according as grace attracts us?
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