4 Things You Need To Know About ‘Offering A Mass’ For A Loved One
“In the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the Church prays that God, the Father of mercies, will grant His children the fullness of the Holy Spirit so that they may become one body and one spirit in Christ. In raising this prayer to the Father of lights, from whom comes every good endowment and every perfect gift, the Church believes that she will be heard, for she prays in union with Christ her Head and Spouse, who takes up this plea of His Bride and joins it to His own redemptive sacrifice”
Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Pope John Paul II, (No. 43)
It is a very old Catholic tradition to offer masses for specific intentions. The earliest record is about 180 AD shows evidence of early Christians having a Mass said for a loved one, yet this is a very misunderstood practice.
4 Things You Need To Know About ‘Offering A Mass’ For A Loved One
1. There is no cost, but you can make an offering:
There are no price tags of Masses, no one can afford a single Mass anyway. It is however customary and encouraged to make an offering when requesting for a Mass. If you cannot make any donations, talk to your priest, you can ask for the Mass to be said anyway or you can make a donation later.
2. Masses can be said for the living and the dead:
Most people usually think of the Mass as something you offer for those who have died but they can also be offered for the living. The Council of Trent says:
And inasmuch as in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the mass is contained and immolated in an unbloody manner the same Christ who once offered Himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross, the holy council teaches that this is truly propitiatory and has this effect, that if we, contrite and penitent, with sincere heart and upright faith, with fear and reverence, draw nigh to God, we obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid.>[10] For, appeased by this sacrifice, the Lord grants the grace and gift of penitence and pardons even the gravest crimes and sins.
For the victim is one and the same, the same now offering by the ministry of priests who then offered Himself on the cross, the manner alone of offering being different. The fruits of that bloody sacrifice, it is well understood, are received most abundantly through this unbloody one, so far is the latter from derogating in any way from the former. Wherefore, according to the tradition of the Apostles,[11] it is rightly offered not only for the sins, punishments, satisfactions and other necessities of the faithful who are living, but also for those departed in Christ but not yet fully purified.
Twenty-Second Session of the Council of Trent. Chapter II.
3. Other intentions for the Mass:
The Mass can also be offered for a celebration or to show gratitude to God. Some people in some parts of the world do not know this is a Church practice. Can be birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
4. Saying a Mass is a source of many fruits and graces:
There have been so many fruits and graces that have physically manifested to many from the celebration of Mass. Healings, powerful conversion experiences, and so many spiritual graces too. Even Eucharistic Miracles too have happened in the middle of Masses as well to show that the Mass unlocks the whole power of Heaven since God himself comes to use in the Eucharistic Species.
The Mass is the highest form of worship in the Catholic Church. St John Paul II says:
“The Church believes that she will be heard, for she prays in union with Christ her Head and Spouse, who takes up this plea of His Bride and joins it to His own redemptive sacrifice.”
Above are the 4 Things You Need To Know About ‘Offering A Mass’ For A Loved One. Add yours in the comment.
