PART II.
ON THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS
Our Lord said to St. Mechtilde: Receive it as a most certain truth, that if any one hears Mass devoutly and fervently, I will send him, for his consolation and defence in the hour of his death, as many of the glorious spirits who stand around my throne as he shall have heard Masses with devotion. And on another occasion he said: However guilty a man may be, however inveterate the enmity of his heart against me, I will patiently bear with him whenever He is present at Mass, and will readily grant him the pardon of his sins, if he sincerely ask it.
Be ever ready, then, to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and strive to penetrate your soul with the spirit of the prayers which follow; they contain the true method of hearing Mass, and are most availing with God.
PRAYER BEFORE MASS.
O ALMIGHTY, everlasting God, seeing that it is the true faith of thy Church that the holy sacrifice of the Mass instituted by thy Son is infinitely pleasing to thy divine Majesty, and renders thee an infinite worship and
