A Letter From Our Pastor: Receiving Jesus With Awe and Wonder

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of the great joys of being a Pastor is celebrating First Holy Communion Masses. Our First Holy Communion Masses took place in May, and it’s such a special moment for the children... to see their joy, their wonder, and their awe as they receive Jesus in Holy Communion for the very first time. As we celebrate on June 19 the feast of Corpus Christi (the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ), my prayer for all of us is that we would receive Jesus in Holy Communion at every Mass as if it were our First Communion… that we would receive Jesus in Holy Communion with that same joy, that same wonder, and awe that we experienced when we made our First Holy Communion. My prayer is also that we would receive Jesus in Holy Communion not only as if it was our First Communion, but also as if it was our last Communion… our only Communion.

The feast of Corpus Christi allows us to renew our belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. At every Mass, ordinary bread and wine are changed into the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. At the moment of consecration, when the priest speaks the words of institution (the same words Jesus spoke over the bread and wine at the Last Supper: “This is my body…this is my blood”), we witness a great miracle… the miracle of the Eucharist. And not only do we witness this great Eucharistic miracle, but we also get to partake of it when we come forward to receive Jesus Himself, in Holy Communion. After the Consecration at Mass, the bread is no longer bread, the wine is no longer wine… it is really, truly, and substantially the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Acknowledging and coming to greater awareness of this sublime reality of what we believe about the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist impacts our Eucharistic Devotion and our Eucharistic Reverence that is such an important part of our spiritual life. That is why the Church refers to the Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the “source and summit” of the Christian life. On the feast of Corpus Christi, not only do we renew our belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, but we also renew and deepen our expressions of piety, our expressions of devotion, and reverence for Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist.

O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise, and all thanksgiving be every moment thine!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. John Blum, Pastor

Fr. John Blum, Pastor