. . . That this weekend, we celebrate the First Communion of 70 of our children?

We are so grateful to Genevieve Rivera, our Director of Faith Formation, and her wonderful ‘formation team’ who have been preparing our First Communicants for this very special day. Those who have been part of this team are: Regina Kelley, Brandie Granke, Suzanna Ignacio, and Juana Taite! Thank you, so much! What would it be like if we were deprived of food and drink for months at a time? We would, of course, weaken and die. Do you remember what it was like to be deprived of participation in the Mass during the lockdowns caused by the Pandemic? We were hungry and thirsty to receive the Body and Blood of Christ but had to ‘make do’ with online liturgies and ‘spiritual communions’! We yearned to be physically present to our Lord JESUS, who is Himself physically present to us in the Most Holy Sacrament. Our physical absence highlighted all the more our hunger and thirst for the Eucharist, the Real Presence of Christ. As our Bishop shared at the time, this gave us a uniquely graced opportunity to be in solidarity with the many Catholics who are deprived of the Mass and the opportunity to receive Christ in the Eucharist, because of persecution! Our deprivation of the Eucharist because of the pandemic was a test of faith for many. Sadly, some have not returned to the Mass and have fallen into the too easy practice of ‘watching Mass’ online. But for many, many others, physical absence from Mass for a time only intensified the desire for the Real Presence! (As Pope Francis cautioned about limiting our participation in the Mass via livestreaming, “Virtual reality is not Reality.”) If there is just one thing which defines us as “practicing Catholics”, it is participation in the Mass, which the Church rightly calls the “summit and the source” of the Church’s life! St. Alphonsus Liguori asked this question, “How can a person receive Communion so often, and with so little effect?” His answer was two-fold: ‘A lack of preparation before and a lack of follow-through after receiving.’ If we fail in either, the result is a very half-hearted, even ‘routine’ reception of the greatest gift of our God’s love! Consider the preparation that our young ones have been making for their First Holy Communion! How can we be more prepared for the Gift? There was a beautiful prayer for Priests (often found in Sacristies), which simply read: “O Lord, help me to celebrate this Mass as if it were my very first Mass and as if it will be my very last Mass.” Today make this your prayer: “O Lord, help me to receive You today as if this were my very First Communion and as if it will be my very last Communion!” May the occasion of this First Communion present us an opportunity to be renewed in our love for our Lord in the Most Holy Sacrament – the Gift that truly keeps on giving!