We delighted in celebrating this month three First Communion Masses. We congratulate the many children who have now joined us at the Table of the Lord. Also, we thank their catechists for sacrificing so much to teach them so well! Please keep these new Communicants and their teachers in your prayers.
We do well to remind ourselves at a special time like First Communion that the heart of the Catholic experience of the Eucharist is this: the same Jesus who gave His life for us on the Cross, gives Himself to us in sacramental form, as our food and drink in the Sacred Host and the Precious Blood. He becomes “really present” in the Eucharist. He Himself says that He becomes food and drink so that we may draw life from Him: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will draw life from me.” The life flowing from Jesus as He died upon the Cross is shared with each of us when we eat His Body and drink His Blood in Communion.
Our children in our First Communion classes have heard this truth over and over: we receive the Holy Eucharist in order to draw life from Christ, as branches draw life from the vine. We are then sent out from the celebration of the Mass with the mission to live by His life, to follow His way, and to be His presence wherever we go. We thank Him for such a wonderful gift and we congratulate our children as they have reached this important milestone on their journey.
Let us pray. “We give you thanks, merciful Lord, for the grace of your Sacraments. Direct our way, keep us in awe of you, guard our lives, and make our steps firm through the prayers and intercession of all the Saints. Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and above all the earth. We give you honor and glory now and forever. Amen.”
