by Abbé Astruc
I think that now you see how, by uniting yourself to Jesus, either sacramentally or spiritually, by participating in His interior and exterior life, you do communicate as the Priest does. But you must make the likeness in every way complete. The Priest, saying Mass, is not selfish; he shares his Host with others. So should you do also. You partake of Our Lord in intimate Communion, but you must not keep Him only for yourself. Let Jesus, abiding within you, find His way through you into other souls. To those of your own family, to your friends, to all who live with you, be as a living Eucharist Table. Make them to sit down at the festal banquet of your heart and of your soul; let them share in your thoughts and your affections, your words and your works; to each one give with generous charity the Jesus Who dwells in you. In the words of St. Francis de Sales, strive ever to have “Jesus Christ in your mind, in your heart, on your breast, in your eyes, in your hands, on your tongue, in your ears, and with all your footsteps.” And then give Him out to all, bestow Him freely, make Him in some way reach all who pass you by, all who happen to come near you. “Thou art My living Sacrament,” Jesus once said to a mystical soul of our own days. “I give Myself to thee, and through thee to souls.” He says the same thing to you.
It seems to me that now you can see clearly what this Communion with Jesus is, and that you have understood how easy, and how possible at every moment, is this manner of spiritually communicating. Let your life, then, become one continual Communion with Jesus. And so you will accomplish the third act of your Mystical Mass [thus exercising your priestly role most fully according to your state in life.]
And now, devout Christian, ever bear in mind that your soul is priestlike, and that there is a Mass that you must say. Each day, and many times during the day, ascend the altar of your heart, and repeating the words of the Priest: “Introibo ad Altare Dei,” say your Mystical Mass. Say it, in the first place, for yourself, that you may ever remain the faithful friend of Jesus; say it for your family and your friends, for all who are dear to you, and whom you love, that Jesus may bless and protect them; say it for Our Holy Mother the Church, and for your own country, that Jesus may shorten their time of strife and trial, and hasten the day of deliverance and triumph.
A priestly soul, Blessed Jacinta
Remember, too, that, as the Priest says his Mass, so you should say yours – in a holy manner, with faith, with devotion, with love. And once again remember, that your Mass is one that is ever begun, but never finished and that you must ever continue to say it, until the call of the Angel of Death. Then only will you finish it. Your last word on earth will be your“Ite Missa est,” and from Heaven you will give the eternal answer,
Sr. Lucia's 'Mass' ended on Feb 13, 2005
“Deo Gratias.”
