Getting the most from Holy Mass

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nkelly

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Dear all,

I’d love to hear some suggestion from you good people on prayers
that can be said privately at Mass. I’m thinking of prayers for the Holy souls and priests etc. How should I offer the Holy Sacrifice to God the Father? Should I ask the Blessed Virgin or my guardian angel?

What prayers would you suggest at the consecration? “My Lord and my God I adore You” etc.

Any suggestions would be most welcome. The Mass is too precious to waste.

God bless,
Noel.
 
Have you read the Testimony of Catalina on the Holy Mass? A friend gave it to me and it helped me better understand the great gift of the Holy Mass. You can get the document at www.greatcrusade.org.
 
Dear Noel,

Maybe we are a little slow in responding, for I’m not aware that private prayers are appropriate during mass, unless I am simply misunderstanding you. I have actually seen elderly folks who were raised in the latin tradition praying their rosary during the liturgy. This is a great devotion, but not appropriate during mass.

Possibly you meant adding our own “intentions” when the priest pauses … there are two places, one for those living, and the other for the deceased who are dear to us and may be in purgatory. Also, we can include private intentions when the priest pauses at the prayer of the faithful just before the offertory.

Otherwise, we just unite with the priest and pray “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands … for our good and the good of ALL His Church.”
I personally always am lifted by this prayer, “Through HIM, with HIM, and in HIM …” because the Lord taught me something very special about this many years ago.

Communion time has some special moments of silence where we are united to Our Lord and can speak to Him as our heart inspires us.

I suppose my advice to you is let the Holy Spirit move your heart during the consecration, using words that are devotional to you alone, or simply and wordlessly …Adore! If one of us shares a meaningful prayer with you, by all means feel free to use it. But don’t be locked into it as a permanent habit, and let the Lord lead you, for each personal experience of liturgy may be slightly different than the last.
 
esr said:
Have you read the Testimony of Catalina on the Holy Mass? A friend gave it to me and it helped me better understand the great gift of the Holy Mass. You can get the document at www.greatcrusade.org.
Click to expand...
Thanks es. Yes, I have a copy of that booklet. I found it useful.

I’m looking for a second opinion so to speak. Maybe there’s more or something better I could be doing? Just looking for further suggestions.

God bless,
Noel.
 
Joysong said:
Dear Noel,

Maybe we are a little slow in responding, for I’m not aware that private prayers are appropriate during mass, unless I am simply misunderstanding you. I have actually seen elderly folks who were raised in the latin tradition praying their rosary during the liturgy. This is a great devotion, but not appropriate during mass.

Possibly you meant adding our own “intentions” when the priest pauses … there are two places, one for those living, and the other for the deceased who are dear to us and may be in purgatory. Also, we can include private intentions when the priest pauses at the prayer of the faithful just before the offertory.

Otherwise, we just unite with the priest and pray “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands … for our good and the good of ALL His Church.”
I personally always am lifted by this prayer, “Through HIM, with HIM, and in HIM …” because the Lord taught me something very special about this many years ago.

Communion time has some special moments of silence where we are united to Our Lord and can speak to Him as our heart inspires us.

I suppose my advice to you is let the Holy Spirit move your heart during the consecration, using words that are devotional to you alone, or simply and wordlessly …Adore! If one of us shares a meaningful prayer with you, by all means feel free to use it. But don’t be locked into it as a permanent habit, and let the Lord lead you, for each personal experience of liturgy may be slightly different than the last.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice Joysong.
This morning at Mass, I imagined that there were loads of angels worshiping God during the Sanctus. It certainly gave me a sense of reverence.

God bless you.
Noel.
 
When we offer the Communion gifts of beard and wine we do so as an entire family of God’s children. We offer ourselves, all that we have done, all that we have failed to do, all that we have suffered, all the joys, all the worries, all the hopes, we offer everything of ourselves just as we are and unite it to Jesus who becomes Truly Present in the Eucharist under the appearances of Bread and Wine.

At the Offertory we may sing the hymn which usually have beautiful words to help us to focus on our offering of ourselves and uniting it with Jesus’ Sacrifice of Calvary which we are about to mystically enter into or we can make some silent prayer as the gifts are taken to the Altar and are being prepared for the Consecration. The silent prayer we make can be in any words and is in conjunction with the part of the Mass where the Priest says ‘Lift up your hearts’ and we all say ‘We lift up our hearts’.

You may have special intentions which you would like to offer your life for, I have mine and at the Offertory I make a short prayer offering my life united to Jesus for these intentiosn but always I ask for God’s Will.

As another poster said we remember the living and the dead at Holy Mass and we also remember those we pray for during intercessory prayers after the Homily.

At Holy Communion we know this is our most intimate time with Jesus so foremost in our hearts should be to express that we love Jesus either in silent words or with our hearts, then we offer thanks and adoration, then we can make some petition for others and if we ask just one thing for ourselves then ask to be transformed by this Eucharist, of course all of this done in love.

I would always encourage people, when they are making personal prayers to use their own words and say what is inspired to come into their hearts and minds and express that in their way to Jesus. The reason for set prayers and the Liturgy is foremost to offer thanks, praise and glory to God by His Will and Decree and secondly to spiritually enrich the community but because we should and must pray as a family at Mass and in union with each other by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can’t go off saying our own thing, it is important to pray together focused in using the same words. It would not be to our benefit nor the benefit of our brothers and sisters to be absorbed in personal prayer throughout the Mass, there are times for this during the Mass, but the majority of the Mass is where we all come together to pray as one, in Spirit and in Truth.

Aside from these times, during the rest of the Mass we must pray together and in union with the same heart and voice even if, as it often is, the Holy Spirit moves each person to be enlightened to different things from participating in the Holy Mass.

The Holy Mass is Jesus’ Eternal Sacrificial Prayer to the Father on our behalf and ministered by the Priest who acts mystically in the Person of Christ during Mass and we submit ourselves to this and enter into the Mass with the Priest who acts and serves for all of the Community. The Prayer of the Holy Mass therefore, is supremely powerful over all prayer because here we are mystically seen by God the Father in Jesus the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Don’t worry too much about your personal prayer at Mass, concentrate on entering into the Sacrifical nature of the Mass by simply offering yourself to Jesus and be recollected that Heaven meets Earth upon the Altar and that you are in the presence of God, the Angels and all of the saints and Saints.
 
Hello :tiphat:
nkelly, I really liked what you said about the Mass being too precious to waste. Brother Ernest, a Catholic Brother spoke a lot about this. He always said how powerful Mass is and how to really get as much as possible out of it.

Before Mass begins I am deep in prayer with thanksgiving and personal intentions. I place all my intentions on the altar through the intercessions of the Blessed Mother.

I also pray the Act of Contrition before Mass so I can be in as perfect a state of Grace as possible before receiving Our Lord.

At the raising of the Host I pray, “With this Communion I offer all my intentions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus”

At the raising of the Chalise, I place my daughter (mentally) in the Cup with the Precious Blood of Jesus. This is a very powerful way to help a family member who is in dire need of help.

The moment I receive Communion, I pray, “Sacred Heart of Jesus, May the whole world burn with love for you.”

These are the prayers I pray after EVERY Communion:
ANIMA CHRISTI -
PRAYER BEFORE A CRUCIFIX-
ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL
and of course private prayer.

This isn’t everything of course. I have a binding prayer that I love to pray. Also meditation on the wounds of Our Lord. I hope this helps.:blessyou:
 
For sure, everyone says the mass is the greatest prayer anyone can offer to God and I agree 100%. My prayers during mass are similar to a former posters.

During the raising of the host I say “My Lord and My God” and My Jesus Mercy", and during the raising of the Chalice, I say “Father,may the precious blood of your Son, Jesus Christ, wash away my sins and the sins of my family and friends, and may His passion pay for the release of the Holy Souls in Purgatory”

The latter part for the souls in Purgatory I added recently. I used to only pray for the holy souls in Purgatory occasionally almost as an afterthought, but from my readings, I have started to include them much more in my prayers. It is said that some saints are responsible for the release of millions of souls in Purgatory. Through their constant prayers and intercessions, they alleviate the sufferings of hundreds or thousands each day.

Imagine having that many souls interceding and praying for you when your time comes. Odds are you wouldn’t spend much time there, if at all. Some says the fires in Purgatory are as bad as the ones in Hell. IF that is the case, I’d rather not visit there at all.
 
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