What Happens During Mass

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[Excerpted from Secrets of the Eucharist]:
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During Mass we’re part of the heavenly court. We’re surrounded by angels.
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Back a couple years ago I received a letter from a woman who lives in Minnesota. I get many letters, but this one touched me. She sounded very level-headed and recounted how, in 1986, during Consecration of the Eucharist, “I looked up and all of a sudden I could see with my physical eyes a multitude of adoration angels, suspended in a devout posture, encircling the altar, adoring the Eucharist — Jesus. Their presence enhanced the devotion to God within my own heart. At the very moment of Consecration, several angels were lying prostrate at the foot of the altar.
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“I noticed every single adoration angel positioned lower than the Eucharistic Host as Father held it up for all to praise and take notice of. Many were dressed in light, translucent gowns of heavenly colors shown in pinks, aqua, yellow, blue, and green, bathed in light. I was given the knowledge that these are adoration angels and their place before God is to adore the Eucharistic Jesus during Mass and they are always present during Consecration.”
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I have spoken to others and read historic cases that bear the vision out: During Mass, there is tremendous supernatural activity. The church is full of heavenly spirits.
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Especially present are the Blessed Virgin. St. Joseph, and the Archangel Michael, who is the Church’s protector. And the other angels. The countless angels. The angels just as there were angels present at Christ’s birth and His trial in the desert. Angels just as there were angels at His tomb after the Resurrection. They remind us that Jesus is special. He is not to be looked upon as just a historical figure. He exists at the spiritual plane and as such is closer to us than ever.
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Christ is Spirit. He is everywhere all at once and sends forth special blessings — His incomparable Presence — when we do what He told us to do and partake of the Eucharist.
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“For I shall see you again, and your hearts will be full of joy, and that joy no one shall take from you” (John 16:22).
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It’s during Mass that we “see” Him. It’s during the Eucharist that we are most closely in touch with Him. It’s during Mass that a window is opened to the spiritual dimension, and we are surrounded with the same light, the same joy, that Sister Faustina and St. Teresa of Avila felt enveloping them.
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During Mass God’s power manifests itself in a living light, a life-giving, joyful light that serves as the extreme opposite and antidote of darkness. It arrives to give us peace when we seek to do God’s Will and when we love with a pure heart.
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That’s how Christ appears: as Light. That’s how He came to Saul. We glimpse this light with angels. It’s the same kind of illumination that surrounds God’s messengers.
Recall in Scripture (Matthew 28:3) that in appearance one angel “resembled a flash of lightning while his garments were as dazzling as snow.” When Jesus ascended into heaven, there were angels once again, “dressed in white” (Acts 1:10), and His very Ascension, when He lifted on a cloud before the eyes of His apostles, reminds us of how His mother later arrived on a cloud at Fatima
and Medjugorje.
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“But at Mass we’re at a higher level than a visionary. Our communication is more profound than what occurs even during an authentic apparition. We are not communicating with our minds. We’re not usually seeing with our eyes, or hearing with our ears. We’re communicating from the depth of our souls and hearts.
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And we’re communing with Christ.
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It’s no surprise that at places such as Medjugorje, pilgrims have reported seeing the altar turn into bright lights or appear as if the priests were standing on heavenly clouds. It’s no wonder people have seen saints and angels. It’s no wonder that in church they have seen floating hearts. We may not see flashes of light, we may not hear voices from a cloud, we may not even sense angelic spirits, but one day, looking back from heaven, we’ll see that such a reality is more real than the physical world, and that we can truly touch that reality when we receive the Eucharist. Christ’s power flashes upon us. And the priest becomes His proxy. As a great theologian named Adolphe Tanquerey once wrote, “Each and every priest is, strictly speaking, a secondary minister of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Christ Himself is the principal minister.”
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–MHB
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