THE GREAT CARDINAL MERCIER, a saintly and learned theologian, used to say: "Give me a Priest fully appreciating the gift of his daily Mass, preparing it well, offeriing it devoutly, living the grace of his Mass; I tell you, this Priest will be ready for canonization when he dies."  I apply this statement to the faithful: Give me a Catholic fully realizing the doctrine of the Mass, really and truly living the grace of daily Mass, and I, too, will show you someone who will be a saint at the hour of death.
    I am preaching the reign of the Sacred Heart.  But the reign of the Sacred Heart presupposes an enlightened mind, a full appreciation of the meaning of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as much as that is possible.  The Mass is the only wonderful thing on earth -- the rest is mere shadow.  This is the obsession of my life; this is the foundation of the crusade that I am preaching.  In the measure we give to Priests, to Religious, to the faithful, the true meaning, the true sense, of this message of faith and love, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we are preaching eloquently, victoriously, through His Blood and Chalice, the Reign of the great King Who was Crucified for us, the Reign of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, Who wrought this miracle.
    One day Our Lord appeared to a privileged soul who asked Him this question: "Lord, what can I offer Thee for the glory of Thy Father, for Thine own glory and for my sanctification?"  The answer came back: "One more Mass!"
    Let us then speak strongly and clearly about Holy Mass.  May Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament be close to us to help us to properly understand the doctrine and the theology of the Mass.

LOVE, TO UNDERSTAND
   The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest and most sublime act of adoration, of worship and of reparation in the Church.  Mass is the summary of all supereminent action, the only supereminent, supreme action.  Everything is poor and insignificant if it is at a distance from the Altar. Whereas, on the contrary, everything becomes bright and brilliant and heavenly when mixed with the Precious Blood in the Chalice.
    "Come Holy Ghost. . . . ,"  come and shed light and fire, so that we may really grasp and live the Mystery of mysteries, this Gift of God par excellence.  "If you only knew," Our Lord said to the Samaritan woman, "If you knew the Gift of God!"  If we only knew what we call in simple language, "Holy Mass!"
    Very often a strong fiath is lacking in our spiritual life to grasp and realize these astounding  beauties.  But more than faith, LOVE -- burning love -- a lacking to appreciate and live these truths.  I say "love" because the mystery of the Altar, the Eucharistic immolation, is disclosed only to loving souls.  Sometimes we find a poor woman, a poor ignorant man, a boy or girl, who grasps many things we do not grasp, BECAUSE THEY LOVE.
    Only those who love penetrate the mystery of the Chalice.  That is why I insist so much on the virtue of charity.  "Come Holy Ghost!"  If you read ten books abut the Mass, you would understand nothing without light from above, without love.  What a pity to find good souls with a real child-like devotion, but with a mania for relics and devotions, and who do not appreciate the Mass.  Do you know why?  Because it is DAILY?  If Our Lord had said, "I will allow a Priest to say Mass and to give Holy Communion once a  year, after a ten-day retreat in preparation," then we would appreciate it better.
    But, O Lord Jesus, what have You done in Your divine foolishness of love?  You have permitted all Priests to celebrate Holy Mass every day and Christians to receive You in Communion every day.  We do not say, "What a miracle is the sun," because we see it every day.  Yet what are all the miracles put together when compared with the miracle He wrought at the Last Supper, on Calvary, and which He works every morning at the Altar?  They are as flowers compared to Paradise.

A SCALE OF VALUES
    Notice, please, that I start speaking of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and not of Holy Communion.  Why?  Because Holy Mass is the fountain; Communion, wonderful as it is, is the torrent.  In the first place, the Chalice; in the second place the Communion rail.  Never change this order.  It is indeed sad to know that too often we separate the Sacrifice of the Mass from the Sacrament of Communion.  We even give the first place to Communion.  This evidences a lack of doctrine, and ignorance of the Catechism.  For many, Holy Communion is the Liturgical Ceremony, the "golden key," as it were, that unlocks the Tabernacle door so that Jesus may be received in Holy Communion.  This is not doctrinal.  We should maintain the doctrinal scale of values: first, the Chalice on the Altar; then the Communion rail and the Tabernacle.  Note well, there is no Mass without Communion -- at least that of the Priest.  But neither is there Holy Communion for the Priest nor for you without the Fountain, the Chalice, Holy Mass.

JUST WHAT IS HOLY MASS?
    But, exactly, what is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?  It is Christ, the God-Man, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, adoring and praising God the Father and the Blessed Trinity at the Altar, with you and in your name.  A God praising God; a God adoring God.
    What is Holy Mas?  It is Christ, the God-Man, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, offering on the Calvary of the Altar the thanksgiving due to God His Father; making atonement for sin; the only perfect divine atonement and thanksgiving, with you and for you.
    What is Holy Mass?  It is Christ, the Judge of the living and the dead, the God-Man, Son of God and Son of Mary, imploring with you and for you, a deluge of graces and blessings, through the Power of His Wounds, through the Power of His Cross, through the Power of His Blood and through the Power of His Sacrifice.
    If all this is true, then doctrinally we can say that Holy Mass is a daily Christmas.  The Crib is the Altar: the hands of Our Lady, the hands of the Priest.  Yes, in every Mass we can say, "Puer natus est nobis," a Child is born, a little Boy is born, the Son of God and of Our Lady, far more little than in the Crib but still the same Christ.  At the Altar as in Bethlehem is sung the same Gloria in excelsis, for the Savior is born, He is there on the Altar; ther is but one Jesus . . . . Christmas, Incarnation, every day.
    There is something else -- the Last Supper.  Who was the Pontiff at the Last Supper? Jesus.  Who is the Pontiff at the Altar?  He took the bread; he took the wine; He takes the bread, He takes the wine: "Do this in My Name and for My glory, to commemorate My death; say with Me (I will be your power): 'This is My Body, this is My Blood.  Take, eat, and drink.' "  Divine banquet, heavenly banquet, the greatest of wonders!  Oh, that marvellous Gospel brought from Heaven by Christ Our Lord, the Last Supper.
    And Calvary?  Calvary, too, is there, though He can no longer suffer.  There is but one Victim, Jesus, which means Savior.  He is wounded unto death.  Blood flows from all His wounds.  In fact, He is but one great wound from His Head to His Feet.  Is the victim of the Mass the same Jesus?  He is.  There is but one Jesus, crucified, but at the Altar there is a difference.  It is true that at the Altar we have the adorable Victim of Calvary, but with one great difference: now His wounds are glorious.  He keeps His wounds, the pierced hands, the pierced feet, the open side, but they are the sunshine of paradise.  Yes, on the Altar during Mass is the same Victim of Calvary, but now a risen, a glorious Victim.
    We can also say that the Sacrifice of the Mass is the Feast of the Ascension.  Not only Christmas, the Last Supper, not only Calvary, but also the Ascension.  He seems to say to us, "Come, my little ones, come.  Take these wings, My arms, and together let us go to see, to embrace My Father and your Father."  This is the Ascension, renewed during Mass at the Altar.
    Is there more?  Yes.  He says to His Father, "Father look at My little ones.  They love You through My Sacred Heart, they bless You with My lips; they adore You through My wounds.  May I command?  Send down the Paraclete."  And so we have Pentecost renewed.  In fact we might say all the feasts of the Church are renewed at the Altar; in that one half hour of grace and mystery are celebrated the Feasts of Christmas, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Ascension, Pentecost.  That is why Holy Mother Church says that Holy Mass is the official, divine omnipotent prayer, always reaching the throne of the Blessed Trinity.  Jesus alone can say, "When I speak, I command.  My Father must always listen to Me."  Why?  Because it is a God praising God, a God adoring God, a God thanking God; it is a God offering atonement, petitioning, blessing.  The Father cannot say, "Wait."  No. In that case, Jesus would not be God. But He is God as well as the Father; His is the only powerful prayer reaching the throne of the Blessed Trinity.  Through HIm, with Him and in Him everything becomes divine.  Praying with Him you are divinized; through His lips you are singing a divine  hymn; you are loving through His Heart.  Then you are close to the Trinity; you are knocking at the door of the Father with His hand; the door of the Heart of the Father, and then the door is opened, because it is the Son knocking with you and you with Him.  Isn't this a marvellous thing?
    Have you savored the words of the preface?  In all the prefaces even when they change, you will find the same thought: per quem laudant angeli -- through Him the angels and archangles, the principalities and powers, the thrones and dominations, through Him they parise God.  Even though they be angels, their prayers would not reach the Trinity. First they must pass, as it were, through the wounds and the lips of the God-Man, the Mediator between Heaven and earth.

HOLY COMMUNION
    But you might ask, "What part does Holy Communion play in this hymn of praise?"  Holy Communion is the sharing of the Christian, of all the faithful who communicate, in the Sacrifice of the Lamb.  Do you remember what Jesus said while dying in agony? "Consummatum est" it is finished.  Holy Communion is the Consummatum est of the Sacrifice -- the Sacrifice already offered.  By whom?  By the Victim Jesus.  To whom?  To His Father.  And then you come and you share in that praise, in that atonement, in that thanksgiving, in that Sacrifice, by your Communion, drinking from His Wounds, drinking His Blood, eating that Flesh that was torn to death for you and for me.
    Holy Communion then is the sharing.  You come, you eat, you drink.  The Sacrifice is not complete, crowned, as it were, with your Communion.  This is the full sharing.  You come, you eat, you drink.  The Sacrifice is now complete, crowned, as it were, with your Communion.  This is the full sharing of the faithful in the Mass.  But never forget, first by far, comes Jesus' prayer, Jesus' immolation.  Then, "Approach!"  He calls to you as when He called to His Mother, when Our Lady received Holy Communion from the hands of St. John.

THABOR AND CALVARY
    What then, according to this doctrine, is the Catholic Altar?  Let me answer by two comparisons.  First, the Altar is Mount Calvary.  But there is a difference: the calvary of our Altars is enveloped in the sunshine of paradise, of glory.  Why?  Because the Victim Jesus is the risen Jesus of Easter Day.  He keeps His Wounds, but they are now glorious.  For all eternity He will keep those Wounds, and in the Beatific Vision you will see Him wounded unto death through love for us.
    Another comparison: The Altar is Mount Thabor, where Our Lord was Transfigured.  Again with a difference: the Altar is indeed Thabor, but Thabor covered with the red cloud of the divine, adorable Blood shed on Calvary.  Behind a white, thin veil is the astonishing reality of the Last Supper, the marvelous reality of Mount Calvary, the wonderful reality of Mount Thabor.  This is your daily Mass.  There is but one Jesus, celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
    Sometimes it is stated that the Mass is the "renewal" of the Sacrifice of the Cross.  Is that exact? No. It is true that because we are dealing with a great mystery it is not easy to find the proper terminology to express the reality.  But it seems to me a better expression can be found than renewal, for this seems to imply "another one."  For instance, yesterday I gave a lecture, today, using the same notes, I repeat it.  This is a renewal.  Is that the Mass?  One Mass, two Masses, ten, one hundred Masses?  No, there are not one hundred, one million Masses; there is only ONE Mass, the one celebrated by the Pontiff Jesus on that first Good Friday.  That same Mass is prolonged at the Altar through the centuries. Is the sun you see today a renewal of the sun created by God millions of years ago?  Not at all.  It is rather the prolonging of the same sun down through the centuries.  It is the same with the Mass.  Christ, the Son of God, the Victim, the Pontiff, celebrated one Mass and that one Mass is exactly the same Mass I celebrated this morning and will celebrate tomorrow; the last Priest who will offer the last Mass before the final judgment will be celebrating the one, first and last, Mass celebrated by Our Lord at three o'clock on Good Friday.
    I have heard people say, "Oh, what a wonderful experience it would have been if I had been on Calvary, if I could have had the grace, the honor and the joy of seeing with my eyes My King, my Master and my God wounded to death and dying for me.  Ah, if I had been there!"  And I have replied, "Then you missed Mass this morning?"  "Oh, no, Father."  "Then why do you say, 'if I had been on Calvary?'  This proves you don't know your catechism. This morning you were on Calvary, just as truly as was Our Lady, as Mary Magdalen and St. John, at three o'clock on Good Friday.  Don't say, 'If I had been there.'  This is a lack of doctrine, a lack of faith."

MIRACLE OF MIRACLES
    And now, to stir up your faith, permit me to relate to you some remarkable experiences I have been privileged to have.  Many years ago I was in Naples on the feast of St. Januarius.  Through the kindness of a Prelate I was allowed to hold in my hands the glass vial containing the congealed blood of the martyr who died so many centuries ago.  It did not look like blood, this thick, solid, black mass, yet I was assured it was the blood of the saint.  The Prelate said to me, "Now that you have seen this, you are going to see something quite different.  Stay close to me."
    Then we went to the Basilica with the vial in a sort of monstrance.  The Church was packed with men, many of them scientists.  While the Litany of the Saints was being chanted the Prelate passes back and forth in the Sanctuary at the Communion rail showing the monstrance for all to see.  Suddenly he whispered to me, "Father, look, look."  The black substance had disappeared.  The vessel was red, the blood seething -- you could hear it.  The miracle was evident.  At once the crowd cried out, "Vivat Sancte Januarius!"  Then they began to sing the Te Deum.  As I looked at the seething blood of the saint who had died a thousand years before, I felt the shock of the supernatural, for it made a deep impression.  But that emotion lasted but a minute or two.  Why?  Because after a short while I was saying to myself, "Well, this is certainly supernatural, this is a miracle, this is wonderful, but . . . what is this compared to my Chalice?  Nothing, a plaything!"  And my emotion vanished.
    There is a scale of values in spiritual matters.  There is a number one miracle, there is a number two miracle, and there is a miracle number three.  Number one, by far, the Chalice.  Number two, the conversion of St. Paul or of St. Augustine.  Number three, that little miracle of blood of St. Januarius.  I wouldn't return to see the miracle when I have my daily Mass.  Faith is lacking for many of us.  Some of us would even miss Mass to witness a miracle like that.  For that little lamp, you miss the sun!  For that little flower, you miss the stars!  I am sure you understand what I mean.
    Another example.  One day while in France I was in my room preparing a retreat when someone knocked on my door.  It was a great friend of mine, a saintly Priest.  In a low voice he said to me, "Father Mateo, follow me to the sacristy.  I have been sent here by the Bishop to show you a great treasure."  Beneath the coat I thought I saw a surplice and a stole.  We arrived in the sacristy.  He unfolded a corporal and lit two candles.  Then he placed a deep pyx on the corporal and knelt down.  I did the same.
    "The Bishop asked me to bring this treasure to you.  He will call for it tomorrow.  Open it, Father."  I opened the pyx.  It was full of blood, red and fresh, and in the blood a white, consecrated host, intact.  (For more than a month, I was told.)  It seems the Bishop had sent some drops of the blood to be analyzed, asking for a report.  The report came back, "Perfect human blood!"  If the chemist had known where it came from, he could have added "divine blood."  "What a wonderful miracle!"  you say.  Yes, it was, but once more, this is not a first class miracle.  This is not the Mass.  You see blood here, yes, but blood is shed there, at Mass; and the prayer of Christ is there.  But that bleeding host is not the official immolation of Our Lord, it is not His official atonement, it is not His official thanksgiving.  If then you had to choose between keeping that bleeding host and seeing it for a whole week and going to Mass, if you are doctrinal, if you are theological, you will say, "I prefer to leave aside the bleeding host and not miss my Mass."  If you speak and act like that, then without having a doctorate you are a doctor in theology like the Little Flower.
    To stir up your faith and to enkindle your love still more, listen to this remarkable case.  I was celebrating Holy Mass in a private Chapel in Europe.  I don't know why, but a man who was scandalizing the people by his scornful attitude was present.  It was really shocking the way he acted; they could feel the fury in his eyes, in his lips that were saying,  "Stupid, ridiculous people, kneeling.  I am the only intelligent person here."  It was truly satanic.  But the people were struck, you may be sure, when at the Consecration this man feel on his knees, trembling and staring at the Altar, wide-eyed, apparently seeing something astounding.  What happened?  An attack of madness?  His body shock with sobs.  He continued to stare at the Altar as though he were dazzled by the sun.  What a change!
    When the Mass was over, the person rushed into the sacristy as I was taking off my vestments.  "Please, tell me what have you been doing at the Altar?"  "Why, I have been celebrating Holy Mass."  He demanded to know what Mass is.  I explained to him the same Jesus, who was nailed to the Cross on Calvary, and who shed the last drop of His Blood for us sinners, does the same thing on the Altar but in an unbloody way.  "That is what we call the Mass."  Imagine my surprise when the man claimed to have seen what I have just described.  When I asked him to tell me just what he had seen, he told me he saw me come from the sacristy to the Altar and reading from a big book and going back and forth.  "Then you bowed, you said something; and then you lifted up a round white object, when suddenly you disappeared and in your place, I saw wonderful personage with arms outstretched; what beauty, what majesty!  I can still see that face, those features, those eyes, the blood gushing from those wounds.  His lips were moving as though He were talking to someone.  And His body was shining like the sun.  Then after some time, this wonderful personage disappeared and you returned."
    That this man had indeed witnessed something extraordinary was proved by his conversion and subsequent fervent life.  He was privileged to see with his eyes what you and I should see each morning with the eyes of faith.  It is to stir up your faith and to enkindle your love that I give you these lessons.  Each day your faith and love, like a flame, should increase and grow, so that you will never become accustomed to a sort of routine of being there close to the Altar during Mass.  "Increase my faith, increase my love!"
    Now, after all this, is there any miracle that can possibly be compared with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?  Not one.  Take if you like, all the wonders wrought by Our Lord during His three years of public apostolic life; add to them the many miracles wrought by Our Lady at Lourdes, the countless miracles of all the Saints: all this is like an electric light compared to the sun.  The sun is Holy Mass, the only great, wonderful, marvelous miracle. The only first-class miracle.
    In Europe I have known a poor little peasant girl who like Bernadette used to take care of sheep.  I meet her through the ArchBishop who invited me to talk with her and to give my opinion about her case.  He told me he had her case examined by five eminent theologians.  They told him she was a second Margaret Mary.  She spoke to me simply, plainly and at great length, for she had confidence in me.  She enjoyed an extraordinary privilege, that of seeing what goes on at the Altar as you see me sitting here.  For her there was no veil during Holy Mass.  For her Mass was Calvary, as on Good Friday.  And in  her simplicity and candor she thought everyone enjoyed the same privilege as she.  She was forbidden to speak to anyone about what she saw.  There were miracles to prove that she really was what she seemed to be, a Margaret Mary.  All this I learned from her.
    We must be very careful about such things.  There are too many sisters and ladies and girls who claim to have visions.  95% of those who say, "I see" are sick or the devil is there.  There are exceptions, certainly.  But in these cases Our Lord knows how to prove that it is not madness, not hysteria nor sickness, but that it is really He.  How?  By conversions and humility.  I have met some of these prophetesses who are proud and far from bringing about conversions.  If you tell them, "You are mistaken," and they get angry and excited, be sure the devil is there.  When they told Margaret Mary, "You are crazy," she smiled and said, "Perhaps, why not?"  But Our Lord proved she wasn't crazy, for He sent Father Claude de la Colombiere, who was a saint and a learned man, and who soon let it be known that he believed in the reality of Margaret Mary's visions.
    Ordinarily, however, you must be extremely diffident; you musn"t believe everything you hear about visions and stigmata.  I receive hundreds of letters containing ridiculous, stupid, absurd things.  If I told you some of these things you would laugh for three days and three nights!

THE MASS IS OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE
    Now let us apply this marvelous doctrine of the Mass to our spiritual life, to our personal needs.  With the lights of our retreat, we see important things are lacking in our souls.  We are craving for many graces; to obtain these graces we have to become saints -- humble, obedient.  Ask for these graces, for this mercy of the Sacred Heart, per Ipsum, cum Ipso et in Ipso.  Place these petitions on the Altar with the Consecrated Host; place them in the Chalice, in His Precious Blood.  Then the Pontiff, Jesus, will say, "Abba, Father, behold!"  Jesus is always heard because He is God as is the Father.  He is praying with you, and for you -- what a wonderful impetration!  "Through Him, with Him, and in Him. . . ."  Ask any favors you wish.  I do not say health, no; but ask for those things that will make you saints, loving.  Ask for the gift of love through Him.  Oh, you will love this way of praying.  I take Him to witness.  If He does not give you that, then He is not God.  He deceives you.
    You have examined your conscience and you have seen your miseries, your failures of the past and present.  How can you make up for all this?  How can you make reparation for your violations of the Rule and your Vows?  By doing penance?  Taking the discipline in honor of the five Wounds of Our Lord?  Wearing the hairshirt five times?  Praying night and day?  What good is all that to make up for one single sin?  If you have committed one mortal sin in your life you should be in hell.  How can you make up for one single sin?  By placing your repentance, your tears of sorrow in the Chalice.  Mingle them with the Blood of Jesus.  Then the Redeemer, the Mediator, will say, "Father, here is My Blood -- this is her repentance.  My Blood!  This is her atonement!"
    You see clearly that Our Lord has spoiled you, He has overwhelmed you with miracles.  You are so rich you could be crushed under the weight of these millions of graces.  How can you be truly grateful?  "Father, I am thanking for her," says Jesus.  "Poor little thing, she cannot thank you. But through My Lips she pays her debt of gratitude."  This is perfect thanksgiving.  Jesus is your thanksgiving, for your Baptism, for your faith, for everything.
    There is a hundred times more spiritual profit from the offering of one Mass than by the ecstasies of the Saints. For what comparison is there between the ecstasy of a Saint and your offering the Divine Victim with the Priest?  An ecstasy is a prayer, a private prayer; but Holy Mass is the public, official prayer of Christ -- but Christ with you and you with Christ. Miracles and ecstasies are silver, copper; Mass is gold.
    Now I am going to let you in on a secret -- the secret of my spiritual life.  When I travel on the train, I say, ten, twenty "Masses of St. John" -- Masses in honor of the Blessed Trinity.  There is no prayer like that.  I have but three devotions: My Mass, my Breviary, my Rosary.  The Breviary is beautiful but you cannot compare it with the Mass.  There is no prayer like the Mass.  As I travel I offer my Mass on the Altar of the Holy Will of God, offering It in union with the thousands of Priests saying Mass continuosly, perpetually.  I am tired, I cannot prepare conferences -- I offer Mass instead.  I said four or five Masses this morning.  I do it the whole day.  It unites my heart, my will with Priests at the Altar.  When I awake during the night, the first thing I do is to take the shortest form of the Mass of St. John, "Suscipe . . . Offerimus . . . "  "Hoc est enim Corpus Meim" . . . . "Hic est enim Calix Sanguinus Mei . . . ."  "Domine, non sum dignus . . . ."  "Corpus Domini Jesu Christi . . . . Sanguis Domini Jesu Christi, custodiant animam mean in vitam aeternam. Amen.!"  I hope to die saying Mass -- between two Consecrations.
    You may have your private devotions, certainly.  But that all of them may become divine, priceless -- the Rosary and the rest -- put them as a drop of water in the Chalice of your Mass . . . . in the morning and all through the day and night.
    Now you might ask, "What do you mean by 'the Mass of St. John?' "  I call this practice "The Mass of St. John" only to give it a title.  It is really Jesus' Mass.  What was the Mass offered by Jesus?  The Mass offered by Jesus at the Last Supper was the most simple of Masses, the shortest of Masses, lasting but a few minutes.  St. John's Mass as he offered It for Our Lady was the same -- short, simple, consisting however, of the same three elements, the same three prayers: Offertory, Consecration, Communion.  The offering of the bread and wine, then: "This is My Body -- This is My Blood."  Then the Communion prayers -- "Lord I am not worthy, etc."  That's all.  That is enough.  That is Mass.  All the rest is a frame.  If at the Altar, I said only those prayers, my Mass would be a valid Mass.  I can't do that because it is forbidden by the Church.  But it would be a genuine Mass.
    Learn these prayers by heart and then during the day you can live the wonderful grace of your Mass.  You have a few moments free -- say a Mass of St. John.  You wake up at night -- say a Mass.  You come into the Church for a visit or to make your adoration -- begin with a Mass.  "Receive, O Holy Father . . . . "  At the end of the day, offer a perfect act of thanksgiving, Holy Mass.
    This is the great prayer, the most wonderful of prayers.  I remember preaching in a big community in California.  The Mother Superior said to me one day, "Father, I want to thank you.  Yesterday after your conference about Holy Mass I went to the infirmary to see a poor sister who suffers terribly and who cannot sleep at all, especially during the night.  She was smiling.  "Mother, I have learned the secret of how to pass the night -- the Mass of St. John.  Thank Father for me for having told us about it."
    Yes, pray the Mass of St. John during the day, but especially during the night, because as you know, night is the hour of crime and sin.  Everywhere Our Lord is scourged horribly.  But nothing consoles the Sacred Heart, nothing puts balm into the Wound of His Sacred Heart, better than the Sacrifice you offer to the Blessed Trinity, through Him, with Him and in Him.
    May you live, and may you die, close to the Altar, saying: "Glory be to the Father, glory be to the Son, glory be to the Holy Ghost -- through Him, with Him, and in Him!  Increase my faith, increase my love.  Thy Kingdom come through the Chalice!"  Your life a Mass.  That is sanctity, that is fruitfulness.  You, the drop of water in the Chalice, transformed into the Blood of Jesus after the Consecration.  That is your share in the Sacrifice.

CONSOLATION AT THE HOUR OF DEATH
    Here is a consoling thought for all of you.  When you are dying, in that decisive hour of agony, the enemy of souls will be alert.  He is clever, he knows many things, he never forgets your sins.  Then at that last moment, he will say to you, "Do you remember, thirty or forty years ago, this and this, and that and that and the details? . . . . I have not forgotten  . . . . sins, unfaithfulness, ingratitude, failures in your family life, unkind and useless words . . . . Now the inexorable Judge is going to pass sentence.  He is Sanctity and you have not been a saint."
    Well, not all, but most of that could be true.  But you can say something to Satan that will vanquish him.  If in truth you can reply to your enemy, "Yes, yes, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, unhappily, most of what you say is true, but . . . ."  "But what?"  "You know as I know that for ten, fifteen, twenty years, I have placed all those miseries, those failings, into the Chalice every morning as a drop of water, I have drowned my miseries in the Chalice."  If you can say that, then you can be at peace.  It is true, he may say, that your prayers, your penances, have been inadequate.  But you can reply that your prayers, your penances have become absorbed in the Precious Blood of Jesus, then he has to retire, beaten, defeated forever.  He knows that this is the wonderful daily Redemption.  And if you could add, "I have done this ten, twenty, times a day," angrily he will return to hell.
    And there is something else.  The devil could try to tempt you to despair by reminding you of your ingratitude in return for all you have received, "You have been ungrateful, you who have been overwhelmed with graces.  And you have never given thanks the way you should . . . . "  If only you will be able to reply, "I am sorry, what you say is true, I have been ungrateful.  But I have drowned my ungratefullness, together with my miseries, my sins, in the Chalice; I have thanked through Him, with Him, in Him, during Mass."  If you can say this at the hour of death, you have nothing to fear from Satan.  You  will have silenced him, conquered him, forever.

    To close, one final and interesting observation.  Supposing I said to you, "The Church seems to have forgotten the greatest feast of all, the feast of the Most Blessed Trinity."  Perhaps you would say, "What do you mean, Father?"  I answer, "Our Lady is a mere creature; the Mother of God, but still a creature; and yet she has splendid feasts, with processions, flowers and High Mass: Immaculate Conception, Annunciation, Assumption, Immaculate Heart and so on.  And Saint Joseph and your patrons, all have grand celebrations.  Well, then, I ask what about the feast of the Trinity?  There is nothing special . . . no music, no flowers, no special vestments.  It is a Sunday like any other Sunday.  It is true there is a beautiful Mass on that day in honor of the Blessed Trinity, but that is all.  Has the Church forgotten that the feast of the Blessed Trinity is the greatest feast of all?"

The True Answer To World Peace
Triumph Of The Church