Throughout Lent, I have joined dozens of parishioners in reading and meditating on Matthew Kelly’s 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory. Last week, most of us completed the study and consecrated ourselves to Jesus in the Eucharist. Kelly’s goal is to help us believe in, appreciate, and adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament more fully and intimately. I have gotten great feedback from participants; I have been touched myself by many of the messages and I want to share a few here with you.
In one chapter, we are reminded of the story of the hemorrhaging woman. She had such great faith that she trusted that all she had to do was touch Jesus’ fringe, and she would be healed. Kelly reminds us, “Jesus was always healing people. The mistake we make is we set these stories and the people in them apart from ourselves. We don’t think we need healing.” He observes that if we are not physically blind, deaf, paralytic, or in need of an exorcist, we don’t recognize ourselves in those healing stories. But in reality, we are all of those things, if not physically, then emotionally or spiritually. Let us approach the altar with faith like that of the hemorrhaging woman, trusting that by just touching Jesus, He will heal us.
In another chapter, we learn how Jesus told St. Faustina, “When I come to a human heart in Holy Communion, my hands are full of all kinds of graces which I want to give to the soul. But souls do not even pay any attention to me; they leave me to myself and busy themselves with other things. Oh, how sad I am that souls do not recognize love! They treat me as a dead object.” Are we souls like that? Do we only see dead bread and dead wine, or do we receive our Communions fully conscious of Jesus who is alive and looking to pour out his graces on us?
Another great saint, Maximillian Kolbe wrote, “Jesus, You come to me and unite Yourself intimately to me in the form of nourishment. Your Blood now runs in mine, Your Soul, Incarnate God, compenetrates mine, giving courage and support. What miracles! Who would have ever imagined such!” What a lovely prayer this is for us to say after receiving Communion.
Scripture: Read Mark 14:22-24. What stands out?
Call to Action: Reflect on the messages above and allow them to transform your experience of receiving Communion.
