“All of the Christian virtues come from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass... When the sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated with all its splendor, with all its expression, with all its signification, there is no way we can leave worse than when we came. Unless we have a heart of stone, or unless we understand nothing of the ceremony, or we do not unite ourselves to it at all, it is impossible not to come away better, not to come away more pure, because we have just come close to Heaven.”
- Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
Although many other private colleges may be renowned for the proficiency of their graduates, St. Mary’s College lays claim to its own unique reputation by providing the Catholic student not only with a traditional teaching of Philosophy, Theology, and the other liberal arts, but also with regular, every-day access to the sacraments, the liturgy, and the divine office. It is the goal of St. Mary’s to equip its students with the tools that are needed to combat the errors attacking the Church; the strongest of these means is our spiritual life. Just as our intellects must be cultivated in order to achieve a firm education, so does the life of the soul, in order to continue in its progress, require that one abundant source of grace which is constantly available to us: the Mass. For these reasons, the College supplies its students with the opportunity to unite as an entire body on a weekly basis and participate with the priest in the greatest mystery of all time. It is in this mystical spring that each Catholic student finds the strength to continue in his daily studies, to persevere through the trials and struggles which challenge him, and to re-submit himself to the Will of God. As the reenactment of Christ’s Sacrifice on Calvary, each individual Mass is permeated with innumerable graces for the inundation of the faithful. Nevertheless, their distribution relies solely on the disposition of our hearts, and so the responsibility of opening ourselves to the grace of God is in our hands. Even if we feel no profound change after assisting at Mass, God always rewards us a hundred-fold for the little amount of time we willingly spend in His presence.
All these wonderful resources are available to the faithful at any Mass. What makes the student Masses of SMC unique is the participation of the student body in the responses of the servers. This distinctive characteristic allows each individual to bring himself closer to the Mass through an audible participation in the responses and through the hymns and chants of the choir. St. Mary’s College provides its students with a weekly Mass in order that the undergraduates may have the Mass as the foundation of their spiritual life, and that they may grow in the life of grace and in love for the profound mysteries of the liturgy.
