In his book, The Mass: The Presence of the Sacrifice of the Cross, Charles Cardinal Journet provides a following insight into the question: For Whom is Mass Offered?
The Mass can be applied on 3 levels:
- General fruit – the intention of the Church Militant herself – who prays at each Mass for all the faithful, living and dead, and fro the salvation of the whole world.
- Special fruit – the intention of the priest insofar as he is a minister of the Church: “Stipends serve as a witness of the interior gift of the faithful, a sign of their desire to divest themselves of something in order to participate more directly in the Savior’s sacrifice of the Cross… And if, as the Church wills, her ministers are truly the labourers of the Gospel, if they live by the altar just enough to be crucified on the altar each day with Christ, then there will be no scandal except for the Pharisees” (131-2).
- Particular fruit – the personal intention, whether that of the priest or of the faithful.
Prodigal Catholic 