The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: The Wedding of Your Soul to Christ and the Role of Sacrificial Love

Be there for the wedding of your soul to Christ during every single Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and value the vital role of sacrificial love in cementing your union to Christ, happily forever after. 

GOD IS SO IN LOVE WITH YOU!!

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Dressing Appropriately During the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as One's Soul is Wed to Christ

THE WEDDING OF YOUR SOUL TO CHRIST AND THE ROLE OF SACRIFICIAL LOVE

You arrive in church for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and while genuflecting reverently as a sign of respect, love, and submission to God's will, begin hearing the most delightful wedding music.

The Lord has selected a song just for you!  No one else can hear it. 

The Bridegroom of your soul has planned a very beautiful wedding, as any caring groom would, and is so happy that you have accepted His magnificent offer of salvation and sanctification.

Jesus has paid such fine attention to detail.  He also  spent extravagantly, and paid the bill for everything with His own life.  He is even the wedding Banquet!

Why has Jesus been this lavish?  Because God is so in love with you!

The Lord cares for you so much that He made attending Holy Mass a commandment, one of only ten.

As you kneel down to converse with God you see the tabernacle raised up on a stand for this wedding, the way the monstrance always is during Eucharistic Adoration.


Don't miss:  Be There During the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Wed Your Life to His

BEGIN WITH CHRIST'S BLESSING

As you begin conversing intimately with your Divine Bridegroom prior to Holy Mass and prepare your heart to enter into a mystery, Jesus comes to you and places His fingers on your lips, and blesses them.  Why?  Soon, you will venerate and kiss His sacred wounds.   

Something very special is happening here! 

Something very special happens at every single Holy Mass. 

Shortly after that, the Child Jesus comes to you and He also blesses your mouth.  He is so very little, and stands on the seat of the pew right in front of you.

This gesture symbolizes the devout faithful's collaboration with the Holy Innocents in the search and rescue of precious, immortal souls.

The battles for souls are fought, and they are won, in God's house: Two House Tours in Seven Minutes that Will Benefit Your Soul Forever.

God grants so many graces to mankind every single time our souls are wed to Christ.  Your Divine Bridegroom invites you to enjoy this sacred union every single day.

STAND AT THE PILLAR

As the congregation stands early in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, you see that every single person is standing at a pillar; each one stands before their own individual pillar in imitation of Christ during His Scourging.

Why did the Lord show that to you?  Because every person who obediently attends Holy Mass and weds their souls to Christ travels with Him along the Way of Sacrificial Love.  By their very presence they are loving sacrificially.

Don't miss: "Soul, Help Me!"

As you travel along the Way of the Cross with Jesus throughout Holy Mass, the Lord inspires you to kiss each one of His Sacred Wounds as He is scourged at the pillar.

Kiss, venerate, and consider them one at a time, one by one by agonizing one.  His Precious Blood covers your lips as It pours forth for us...Jesus is very deeply touched by your tears.

Many people have never been taught, and so they do not know, that God's love pours forth upon humanity constantly throughout the entire Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in many different ways. 

If we really knew and understood what is taking place, including how much God loves us and what our responsibility is to God in return, our hearts would absolutely break every single time we had to miss the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Sometimes the Lord does ask this sacrifice of us, having to miss Holy Mass, and in this way we learn to suffer patiently while growing in sacrificial love. The Bridegroom of our souls is so pleased when we crave Him, and when our love for Him continues to grow deeper and more perfect.

God's love defies our human understanding. 

THE WEDDING HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

Throughout the entire Holy Mass, you are shown many references to the soul’s wedding and also to sacrificial love. 

Our behavior during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass should reflect what is actually happening.  When it does not, this clearly indicates a lack of understanding of what takes place each time Holy Mass is offered.

WEDDING ETIQUETTE

There is a particular way of behaving during a marriage ceremony.  In a similar way and in much more profound measure, we must behave reverently during Holy Mass each time it is celebrated. 

Why?  Because we are in the presence of God, and we are participating in the re-presentation of Christ’s sacrifice and of our redemption.

Jesus mystically suffers His Passion and Death as we stand in the crowd on Calvary.  What are you doing as Jesus calls you by name from the Cross and tells you He loves you?  As He gives you His Mother?  As He forgives everyone?  As He pours forth everything He has for us. As He longs for our love in return.   

We should also be joyful because during Holy Mass we are also celebrating a wedding, the union of each soul to its Savior!

Throughout Holy Mass Jesus continues pointing out the similarities between the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and a marriage celebration.

During the consecration, Jesus hopes that you make or renew your vows to Him.  Make sure you do that. It is so beautiful, meaningful, and unifying.

Perhaps you say with all your heart something like this: "Jesus, I love You and thank You.  I give myself entirely to You in return, and promise to love and honor You all the days of my life."

Jesus wants to hear us saying the words, and He wants us to mean them.  At the very same time, He is loving us and giving Himself to us completely.

UNDERSTAND WHAT IS TAKING PLACE AND ALSO FEEL IT
 
People are sometimes moved to tears during a wedding, perhaps when the bride walks up the isle, when bride and groom exchange a first glance, or when the bride is given to her bridegroom.  When couples exchange vows it is a very meaningful moment because of the great value of what is taking place, the surrendering of one's self for the benefit of the other.  These are very intimate and deeply felt moments.

At other times great joy is expressed because God's will is being accomplished, the couple loves sacrificially, a new union is created, family and friends are near...

How are we dressing, how are we acting, what are we feeling, what are we saying, how are we saying it during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass…all these things matter to Jesus as He loves us so lavishly and gives Himself to us without holding anything back.

  
JESUS BRINGS HIS CROSS CLOSE TO US

Jesus brings His Cross very close to us during Holy Mass. He brings the Cross as close as we want Him to.  God forces no one to accept the Cross. However, in order to be unified with Him to a high degree, you must not only accept It, you must also carry It. 

VENERATING HIS SACRED FLESH AND HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD


When Jesus brings Himself so close to where you are, you hug Him around His legs as He hangs on the Cross. You kiss the wounds on His legs, and the point of entry of the nail in His feet.

You find that you cannot not reach up to kiss His Sacred Hands nailed to the beam by our defiance, and so you lovingly take Blessed Mother’s hand and kiss it reverently instead, and are moved to tears by that moment.  Jesus and Blessed Mother's loving and courageous acts of surrender conquered our self-will and opened the doorway to paradise... 

At every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we wed her Son as He gives everything to our souls as a wedding present…Mother gives us her Son and our Bridegroom gives us His Mother...

She inspires you to place the intentions of others inside the sacred wounds of her Son on the Cross...   

Jesus also has you take the names of certain people that you see as words in the air that you can hold your hand, and place them within the wounds in His left hand.  This action has to do in particular with the priesthood, because priests consecrate with their hands.

When you kissed His wounds you also venerated Christ's Sacred Blood.  There is such profound intimacy involved in that action, again what comes to mind is the love between a husband and wife, but your act of love is more pure, more perfect, and it is deeply moving and also unifying because of the higher degree of sacrificial love.

JESUS HONORS OUR SACRIFICE IN RETURN

Jesus then comes to you and lovingly kisses your wounds.  Jesus knows what all of them are and as you are wed to the Divine Physician, He heals you... 



BIND YOUR SOUL TO CHRIST FOREVER

Sacrificial love is the most powerful force in the universe.

Sacrificial love is so strong that the bonds formed by it cannot ever be broken, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.

Wed your soul to Christ and allow sacrificial love to bind you to Him, forever.

UNIFYING SACRIFICIAL LOVE

"Gentle and humble Jesus, which of Your wounds should have been mine?"

We benefit immeasurably when meditating on Christ's wounds.  We make it more personal when we meditate on which of Christ's wounds should have been ours, and then venerate them...

Perhaps our feet have taken us to people or places that offended Him;  have we offended Jesus with our hands, with our minds, with our eyes...  Have we rejected His love and wounded His Sacred Heart?  Perhaps we have loved material things, prestige, our intellect, and/or other people above the Lord...

Receiving the Blessed Sacrament and making Sacramental Confessions are invaluable to our souls and they are also inseparable.  In order for our union with the Love of our eternal lives to deepen, we must receive the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance often.

Study our Savior on the Cross during your soul's wedding to Him and determine which wounds He willingly sustained in your place.

During the re-presentation of His Passion and Death acknowledge His innumerable patient, humble, and loving sacrifices and unfathomable mercy;  they are wedding presents for your soul.

Love Jesus in return by venerating His wounds, telling and showing Him that you appreciate His love, accepting His love, and sharing it with others.

"I THIRST" 

The Divine Bridegroom longs for every single one of His beloved to accept His love and love Him in return.

Love Him with your whole heart, and also love Him in place of others who do not. 

God is the genesis of love, and there is an unlimited supply! God's love is the perfect gift.  Recognize it, accept it, return it, and share it, lavishly, in imitation of Christ and Blessed Mother.  + + +

DIVINE INTIMACY

As you walk up the isle to receive Jesus, see the people before you as their souls, too, are wedded to Christ.  So many weddings!!  WOW.  +   God is so good!

Taste Christ's sacred wounds in the Eucharist and be very intimately unified with Him and His suffering.  The effects of this extend deep within humble and grateful souls...  Feel His Precious Blood purifying your soul, and ask that others be purified as well. 

DIVINE UNION AND CREATION

When our souls are unified with Christ, there is a procreative action that takes place and what is created depends upon the will of God and also upon how much of our will we have surrendered to the Lord.

The more sanctified we are, the more sincere we are, and the more loving and eager we are, the more perfect this union is between the soul and its Creator and Savior.    

Don't miss:  Divine Union and Creation.
  
WEDDING PRESENTS

Jesus has so many gifts for us! In fact, He is so incredibly lavish with our souls that He has become our wedding Banquet.  What do we ask our Divine Bridegroom for?  Who do we ask for.  Do we have any wedding presents for Him?  Do we ever ask Jesus what He would like from us.


REMAIN WITH JESUS

While praying after Holy Mass (oh how much we miss when we leave our pews right away while unified with Jesus so especially), the Lord has you experience the Sacred Host on your  tongue as a part of His Sacred Body that had been ripped off during the scourging at the pillar and landed on the ground.

A RETURN TO THE PILLAR

Then, He takes you to the pillar and has you kneel on the ground and reverently pick up a piece of His torn flesh off the ground with your tongue, and as you do so receive Jesus as a Sacred Host.

Jesus tells you that when the devout faithful suffer patiently, they are performing this profound act of reverence, this very intimate expression of their love for Him when He was suffering...

PERFORM THIS ACT OF LOVE ON BEHALF OF SINNERS

Jesus said that you can also do this in place of sinners, and through your patient suffering obtain graces for them as well.

"BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD" (Psalm 46:10)

Jesus wants us to remain in church following the conclusion of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, even if just for a short while.  He shows you an image of Himself embracing a soul who has just received Him in the Blessed Sacrament and is unified with Him, but that soul abruptly turns around and walks away leaving Jesus holding nothing!  There was no "Thank you," no love returned to the Lord, no "Goodbye," nothing. Nothing!

You have remained with Jesus and He tells you that since you had just celebrated the wedding of your souls and since there was a Banquet, there would also be dancing!  He invites you to dance, right in the isle next to your pew.

 Jesus is a very good dancer, do you know why?  His embrace is so gentle, and loving, and He is so caring. 

FUNDRAISING

Jesus does not want the devout faithful to ask people for money to fund their various causes before or after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  Guests are not solicited for various causes when they come to a wedding;  this just isn’t done.  Instead, the faithful are to go to our parents (God our Father and Blessed Mother) and ask them for what is needed.



WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WEDDING!

The sentiment at the conclusion of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: What a beautiful wedding!! 

Sacrificial love is the most powerful force in the universe.  Sacrificial love is so strong that the bonds formed by it cannot ever be broken, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.

Wed your soul to Christ, often, and allow sacrificial love to bind you to Him, happily forever after.

 © Joseph Karl Publishing and Apostolate Films/Michele Bondi Bottesi

    Images taken at Ss. Cyril and Methodius Slovak Catholic Church,
Sterling Heights, Michigan, U.S.A. Parish Website

  

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God is so in love with you!!

 

THE POWERFUL DEVOTION TO THE HOLY FACE OF JESUS

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