Hajja Salesjana July September 2018

23 TheValueofaMass by anon Karl was able to do before he died: offer only one mass! Was it all worth it? It was. One simple mass gives more honour to God than all the prayers, penances and works of all the saints together. The entire Church cannot obtain so many graces from God as by one priest celebrating one mass . St. Francis de Sales called the mass “the fountain of all grace and the sun and life of the Christian religion.” St. Anselm wrote that one mass heard or said during a lifetime is worth more than a thousand for us after death. This leads us to check with ourselves how much do we appreciate the mass we either celebrate as priests or participate in as laity? Do we take it for granted? Are we aware of what is actually happening on the altar during mass? Do we make an effort to attend and be fully present or do we go half heartedly, counting the minutes for the mass to be over unaware of the abundant graces we would have at our fingertips were we to open our hands and hearts to receive them? Let us truly strive to fathom the beauty, the wonder and the awe of each and every mass. Let us celebrate it with the heart and participate in it wholeheartedly. We would surely be better off if we would do so! Karl Leisner was not a priest. He was imprisoned, however, with 1,893 priests in block 26 of the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, which was one of the most notorious German prisons during World War II. Here priests were treated badly sometimes they were literally whipped to death. Although not a priest, Karl was a seminarian. In fact, he was a deacon, and there was nothing in the whole wide world that he wanted more than to become a priest. But it looked as though Karl’s fondest hopes would never be realised because he was suffering from tuberculosis and knew that he would die soon. Then it happened! One of the most daring plots in a Nazi prison concentration camp was hatched. One of the prisoners was a French bishop, Bishop Gabriel Piquet. He agreed to ordain Karl Leisner a priest in the presence of many priests! On the morning of December 17, 1944, Karl, literally dying, was secretly ordained a priest. At the conclusion he was exhausted but thrilled beyond words. At least he became a priest - a priest forever! Fr. Karl died some time after. This is the daring story of a bishop and a group of priests who risked death in order that a seminarian might have the privilege of offering at least one mass. And that is all Fr.