The Cross is the Fountain of All Grace: This is why we need the Mass and Mary

As we increase our focus on the crucifixion of Christ our Lord this Lent, Pope Saint Leo the Great reminds us that the cross of the Christ is the fountain of all blessings. All graces are mediated to us through the cross of Christ (see quote below).
I would add Pope Leo’s words reveal why devotion to the Holy Sacrifice to the Mass and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary are absolutely essential. If all grace (100% of all grace) comes to us through the cross of Christ then this entails that we should be wholeheartedly devoted to the Holy Mass since every Mass is the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. Consequently, we can say that all grace comes to us through the Holy Mass.
Secondly, Mary’s place at the foot of the altar, as a mother who suffers as she beholds her innocent Son, the Son she shares with God the Father, suffers for all men. Mary’s Immaculate Heart, the heart of a perfect mother, is united to the Sacred Heart of her Son in this moment. When Christ proclaimed from the cross: “Behold thy mother!” He declared her to be the Mother of the Church – the Mother of every Christian – the Mother of every person. As such, she participates in the cross of Christ in a unique, special, and particular way. She is associated with human redemption more than any other created person. The only person who comes close to knowing and experiencing Christ’s suffering is His Mother Mary. If we don’t love her and draw near to her, we cannot fully appreciate the sacrifice of Her Divine Son for us.
From a practical point of view, if the Holy Mass is truly the same sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, then the liturgy should be revered and respected by all. To goof around in the Holy Mass, to chew gum, to answer cell phones, to talk, to “modify” the rubrics, to clap, to add prayers, to subtract prayers, that is, to reduce the solemnity is to make a mockery of the death of Christ. If the Church, clergy and laity, do not honor the Holy Sacrifice with tender love and devotion, then our Church will continue to suffer scandal, sacrilege, and vocation crises. Why? All grace comes through the Holy Mass. If we don’t honor Christ’s words and presence in the Holy Mass, they we are not disposed to receive these graces.
From Pope Leo the Great’s Sermon on the Passion (8):

Our understanding, which is enlightened by the Spirit of truth, should receive with purity and freedom of heart the glory of the cross as it shines in heaven and on earth. It should see with inner vision the meaning of the Lord’s words when he spoke of the imminence of his passion: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Afterward he said: Now my soul is troubled, and what am I to say? Father, save me from this hour. But it was for this that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your Son. When the voice of the Father came from heaven, saying, I have glorified him, and will glorify him again, Jesus said in reply to those around him: It was not for me that this voice spoke, but for you. Now is the judgment of the world, now will the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.
How marvellous the power of the cross; how great beyond all telling the glory of the passion: here is the judgment-seat of the Lord, the condemnation of the world, the supremacy of Christ crucified.

Lord, you drew all things to yourself so that the devotion of all peoples everywhere might celebrate, in a sacrament made perfect and visible, what was carried out in the one temple of Judea under obscure foreshadowings.

Now there is a more distinguished order of Levites, a greater dignity for the rank of elders, a more sacred anointing for the priesthood {here St Leo speaks of deacons, priests, and bishops – their existence is caused by the cross}, because your cross is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces. Through the cross the faithful receive strength from weakness, glory from dishonour, life from death

The different sacrifices of animals are no more: the one offering of your body and blood is the fulfilment of all the different sacrificial offerings, for you are the true Lamb of God: you take away the sins of the world. In yourself you bring to perfection all mysteries, so that, as there is one sacrifice in place of all other sacrificial offerings, there is also one kingdom gathered from all peoples.

Dearly beloved, let us then acknowledge what Saint Paul, the teacher of the nations, acknowledged so exultantly: This is a saying worthy of trust, worthy of complete acceptance: Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.

God’s compassion for us is all the more wonderful because Christ died, not for the righteous or the holy but for the wicked and the sinful, and, though the divine nature could not be touched by the sting of death, he took to himself, through his birth as one of us, something he could offer on our behalf.

The power of his death once confronted our death. In the words of Hosea the prophet: Death, I shall be your death; grave, I shall swallow you up. By dying he submitted to the laws of the underworld; by rising again he destroyed them. He did away with the everlasting character of death so as to make death a thing of time, not of eternity. As all die in Adam, so all will be brought to life in Christ.

Ex Sermonibus sancti Leónis Magni Papæ (Sermo 8, De passione Domini, 6-8: PL 54, 340-432)

Very beautiful and very powerful. The final reminder of the resurrection of Christ in this passage gives hope to our Lenten sacrifice.

Comments Policy: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic. If your comment contains a hyperlink to another site, your comment automatically goes into "Comments Purgatory" where it waits for release by way of moderation.

The Cross is the Fountain of All Grace: This is why we need the Mass and Mary

As we increase our focus on the crucifixion of Christ our Lord this Lent, Pope Saint Leo the Great reminds us that the cross of the Christ is the fountain of all blessings. All graces are mediated to us through the cross of Christ (see quote below).
I would add Pope Leo’s words reveal why devotion to the Holy Sacrifice to the Mass and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary are absolutely essential. If all grace (100% of all grace) comes to us through the cross of Christ then this entails that we should be wholeheartedly devoted to the Holy Mass since every Mass is the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. Consequently, we can say that all grace comes to us through the Holy Mass.
Secondly, Mary’s place at the foot of the altar, as a mother who suffers as she beholds her innocent Son, the Son she shares with God the Father, suffers for all men. Mary’s Immaculate Heart, the heart of a perfect mother, is united to the Sacred Heart of her Son in this moment. When Christ proclaimed from the cross: “Behold thy mother!” He declared her to be the Mother of the Church – the Mother of every Christian – the Mother of every person. As such, she participates in the cross of Christ in a unique, special, and particular way. She is associated with human redemption more than any other created person. The only person who comes close to knowing and experiencing Christ’s suffering is His Mother Mary. If we don’t love her and draw near to her, we cannot fully appreciate the sacrifice of Her Divine Son for us.
From a practical point of view, if the Holy Mass is truly the same sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, then the liturgy should be revered and respected by all. To goof around in the Holy Mass, to chew gum, to answer cell phones, to talk, to “modify” the rubrics, to clap, to add prayers, to subtract prayers, that is, to reduce the solemnity is to make a mockery of the death of Christ. If the Church, clergy and laity, do not honor the Holy Sacrifice with tender love and devotion, then our Church will continue to suffer scandal, sacrilege, and vocation crises. Why? All grace comes through the Holy Mass. If we don’t honor Christ’s words and presence in the Holy Mass, they we are not disposed to receive these graces.
From Pope Leo the Great’s Sermon on the Passion (8):

Our understanding, which is enlightened by the Spirit of truth, should receive with purity and freedom of heart the glory of the cross as it shines in heaven and on earth. It should see with inner vision the meaning of the Lord’s words when he spoke of the imminence of his passion: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Afterward he said: Now my soul is troubled, and what am I to say? Father, save me from this hour. But it was for this that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your Son. When the voice of the Father came from heaven, saying, I have glorified him, and will glorify him again, Jesus said in reply to those around him: It was not for me that this voice spoke, but for you. Now is the judgment of the world, now will the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.
How marvellous the power of the cross; how great beyond all telling the glory of the passion: here is the judgment-seat of the Lord, the condemnation of the world, the supremacy of Christ crucified.

Lord, you drew all things to yourself so that the devotion of all peoples everywhere might celebrate, in a sacrament made perfect and visible, what was carried out in the one temple of Judea under obscure foreshadowings.

Now there is a more distinguished order of Levites, a greater dignity for the rank of elders, a more sacred anointing for the priesthood {here St Leo speaks of deacons, priests, and bishops – their existence is caused by the cross}, because your cross is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces. Through the cross the faithful receive strength from weakness, glory from dishonour, life from death

The different sacrifices of animals are no more: the one offering of your body and blood is the fulfilment of all the different sacrificial offerings, for you are the true Lamb of God: you take away the sins of the world. In yourself you bring to perfection all mysteries, so that, as there is one sacrifice in place of all other sacrificial offerings, there is also one kingdom gathered from all peoples.

Dearly beloved, let us then acknowledge what Saint Paul, the teacher of the nations, acknowledged so exultantly: This is a saying worthy of trust, worthy of complete acceptance: Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.

God’s compassion for us is all the more wonderful because Christ died, not for the righteous or the holy but for the wicked and the sinful, and, though the divine nature could not be touched by the sting of death, he took to himself, through his birth as one of us, something he could offer on our behalf.

The power of his death once confronted our death. In the words of Hosea the prophet: Death, I shall be your death; grave, I shall swallow you up. By dying he submitted to the laws of the underworld; by rising again he destroyed them. He did away with the everlasting character of death so as to make death a thing of time, not of eternity. As all die in Adam, so all will be brought to life in Christ.

Ex Sermonibus sancti Leónis Magni Papæ (Sermo 8, De passione Domini, 6-8: PL 54, 340-432)

Very beautiful and very powerful. The final reminder of the resurrection of Christ in this passage gives hope to our Lenten sacrifice.

Comments Policy: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic. If your comment contains a hyperlink to another site, your comment automatically goes into "Comments Purgatory" where it waits for release by way of moderation.