Introduction: Some years ago a priest would regularly remind our morning-Mass congregation that every Mass is an act of adoration, reparation, thanksgiving and petition. It seemed like a good idea to make those intentions more explicit in our own thoughts, so we recite the following prayer while traveling to Mass.
Heavenly Father, we offer You this Mass today in praise and adoration of the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We offer this Mass in reparation for our own sins and for those of each member of our family and extended families, and for all the sins committed against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
We offer this Mass in thanksgiving for the whole work of creation and redemption—for the work of the prophets, for the special work of John the Baptist, for your infinite love for us, for sending your divine Son to save us, for everything that Jesus said and did and taught us by word and by example, for all of his miracles and for giving us His body and blood, soul and divinity in the Holy Eucharist, for his suffering and for dying for us upon the cross, for his glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven, for the outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, for the gift of the Church, for the priest who will celebrate this Mass, and for all the priests who will celebrate Mass this day, especially those who celebrate Mass in faith and obedience and with reverence.
We offer this Mass in thanksgiving for every personal blessing You have given us—for the gift of the families we were brought up in, for the educations we received, for our providential meeting and marriage, for each of our children and their spouses and for each one of our grandchildren, for the blessing of excellent health and medical care almost all of the time, for the health problems that make us appreciate normal good health all the more, and for the healings that you have wrought in ourselves and in others for whom we have been asked to pray.
We thank you also for the breastfeeding and covenant and rosary insights, and for those who have helped us share those gifts with others and for all those who have been helped in anyway by those gifts. We thank you for all our benefactors.
We offer this Mass in solemn petition for authentic reform and renewal in the Church, for all the conversions needed in ourselves, our children and their families, for a rebirth of modesty and chastity, for a stop to contraception and sodomy and abortion, and for a culture of life.
We offer this Mass for the total welfare of our family and all our benefactors and for the continuation of good health, for the healing of all those for whom we’ve been asked to pray, for our pastor and his efforts to evangelize his parish and for all the needs of our parish.
Sheila and John Kippley