In every Mass, ask God to make you a great saint. Is this too much to ask? It is not too much. Does not Jesus tell us in the Gospels that for a cup of cold water given out of love for Him He will in turn give paradise? How then, while offering to God the blood of His most blessed Son should He not give you a hundred heavens if there were as many? He wishes to give us all the virtues and all the perfections, which are required to make us saints, and great saints!

Ask more and more and ask great things of Him, and remember that we ask of a God Who does not become poor by giving and therefore, the more we ask for, the more we shall receive. St. Jerome clearly tells us that, "The Lord grants all the favors which are asked of Him in the Mass, providing they are good for our souls, and He often gives us that which we have not asked for if we on our part put no obstacles in the way." The next experience is told by St. Antoninus of two young men who went one day into the forest. One had been to Mass that morning, the other had not. A furious storm started and they heard in the middle of thunder and lightning a voice, which cried "Slay!" and instantly came a flash which reduced to ashes the one who had not been to Mass. The other, terrified, was trying to escape when he heard again the same voice which repeated "Slay!" The poor youth expected instant death when he heard another voice which answered, "I cannot, I cannot; today he heard Verbum caro factum est; his Mass will not let me strike him."

How many times has God saved us from death or at least from many most serious dangers through the Masses we have attended! St. Gregory assures us that "He who attends Holy Mass shall be freed from many evils and from many dangers, both visible and invisible. St. Augustine tells us "we shall be saved from sudden death which is the most terrible stroke launched by God as the Divine Justice against sinners, for they will have no time to repent. Behold a wonderful preservative against sudden death," says the saint. "Go to Mass everyday, and attend with all possible devotion." There is an opinion which some attribute to St. Augustine that, during the time of Mass the human frame grows no older, but keeps the same essential strength in which it was at the start of Mass.

One Mass, because of its real value is sufficient to empty purgatory of all souls in the process of being purified and place them all  in paradise. This Divine Sacrifice also assists the holy souls as a great act of prayer for the Church, which not only offers Mass for souls that are being purified, but prays during the Mass for their freedom. Know that the fire by which these souls are covered is one so devouring that, according to the opinion of St. Gregory, it is no less than that of hell. Greater than all the possible martyrdoms that can be seen, or felt, or even imagined here below. One Holy Mass not only shortens their pains, but also offers great immediate relief to these poor souls. It has even been said by some that while Mass is being celebrated for a soul, the fire, most devouring, postpones its severity and no pain is suffered by that soul for whom the Mass is being celebrated until Mass is finished.  At every mass many souls are freed from Purgatory and fly to heaven.

St. Peter Damian, when left an orphan at a very young age, was placed in the house of one of his brother who gave him the worst of treatment to the extent of making him go barefoot and in rags; in short, causing him to endure in every way the most extreme poverty. He happened to find some money on the road one day. Just imagine how excited he must have been, he thought he  had found a treasure, but how was he going to spend it? His necessities suggested many ways. At last, after thinking and re-thinking, he decided to give it to a priest so that he might celebrate a Mass for the holy souls in Purgatory. From that time forward, the scenes of his fortune changed. He was taken home by another brother who loved him as his son, clothed him properly and sent him to school and finally he became that great man and great saint! See how from one single Mass obtained at a slight personal inconvenience all this happiness began.

Source: St. Leonard of Port Maurice, Hidden Treasure.