There is more to the mystery of the blessed Eucharist than the human mind can grasp. This examination is not meant to be a burden to consciences, but an opportunity to reflect gratefully from time to time on various aspects of the gift of the Eucharist.
While processing to Communion, do I realise that I am journeying toward the “Jerusalem above” to feast with angels and saints, with deceased friends and loved ones, with the entire mystical Body of Christ?
Do I recognise those around me as the Body of Christ, and add my voice, however halting, to the processional song that expresses our “union in spirit” and “joy of heart”?
Do I bow humbly to the Eucharistic Lord, to the servant of the Lord ministering to me, to the altar on which the Lord’s dying and rising is made present?
Does my veneration of the Risen Lord, really present in sacramental sign, open my eyes to the “divine presence” which “we believe is everywhere”?
As I eat the “Bread of Life,” do I realise that my own body is a “temple of the Holy Spirit”?
As I drink the Precious Blood, do I realise that Christ’s love poured out for me in sacrifice calls me to pour out my life for others?
Does this sacred banquet strengthen my yearning for a world in which the poor have enough to eat?
Am I grateful that the Eucharist has the “salutary virtue” to “remit the sins I commit daily”?
Do I let the Eucharistic Lord still my inner voices ready to speak in judgement of others’ piety and prayer?
Am I ready to “go forth in peace, glorifying the Lord by my life”?
Fr Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a monk of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. He teaches liturgy, liturgical music and Gregorian chant at St John’s University School of Theology-Seminary. This post was first published on 6 March 2018 on the Pray Tell blog, which promotes the ongoing renewal of the liturgy and its transformative effect in the life of the Church and the world. Reproduced with permission.
This article was originally published in the 2024 Ordinary Time | Winter edition of the Catholic Outlook Magazine. You can read the digital version here or pick up a copy in your local parish.
