In the spirit of the Eucharistic Revival occurring in our American church, Fr. Placid continues our series on How the Eucharist Has Touched My Life: “What does the Eucharist mean to me? The Eucharist helps me to move beyond my comfort zone. When I receive the body and blood of Christ, I am aware that communion connects me with others who also received it. It is not an intellectual grasp but something palpable and a brake on whatever negative thoughts I may have with someone in the room. Because they have received the Lord, they also are connected to Him as I am in that moment. When we realize that fact, I think we should meditate on the magnitude that reality has in our life: it changes our behavior.
Another point to consider is that the Eucharistic Liturgy is an antidote to secularism and how secularism operates in a person. To think in a Eucharistic perspective is about putting ourselves not just at the Last Supper but understanding what Jesus is doing and what we are memorializing, which moves us beyond a “this-world” viewpoint. The Liturgy asks us to know we are eating and drinking with the God who created and redeemed us by his death and resurrection. What is more: the sacrifice as a meal connects us to the “end of the age,” where all will be at the heavenly banquet for eternity. When we do all the gestures, reading, and singing carefully, they allow that reality and truth to permeate and make a deep impression on a person.”
For more information on the Eucharistic Revival, please visit www.eucharisticrevival.org
Eucharistic Blessings,
Your brothers of New Clairvaux
