The late Pope John Paul II declared this year to be the Year of the Eucharist. Of course, we know that the Eucharist is the very center of the Mass and our faith, but have you ever thought about what it truly means to you?
Growing up Protestant, in the Army chapel, we had communion once a month. We had little pieces of bread cut up and placed into a small round plate and little glasses of grape juice. (I once asked why we used grape juice instead of wine and was told that, although Jesus drank wine in the bible, it wasn’t fermented, thus it was grape juice.) The plate of bread and the glasses of grape juice fit into a round, stackable tray with holes cut in circles into which the plate and glasses fit. After the chaplain had said the proper liturgy, the ushers would pass the communion trays out down the aisles and people would consume it together. We left the little glasses in the pews in special little holders. The chaplain’s assistants would later gather them all, wash them, and put them back away.
I always felt that communion was solemn and important and loved the Sunday that we took communion. It may sound a bit shocking to those of you who grew up Catholic, but we even had communion services at several of our youth group parties, passing around a goblet of grape juice and breaking and passing a loaf of French bread. However, I always felt a little sad that there wasn’t anything special to commemorate the first communion or any classes to explain its importance. It wasn’t a Sacrament.
One of the reasons I became Catholic was because I wanted my daughters to have that special day marking their First Holy Communion, when they dressed like beautiful little brides and understood that what they were doing was important and a gift to us from Jesus. No other religion allows the worshippers to take their god into their own bodies in such a humble yet profound way. The bible talks about the body being a temple. The Eucharist allows us to truly visualize our bodies being that temple in a literal sense.
Thoughts for journal-writers:
