Starving for the Eucharist

“Can anyone receive Jesus into his heart and not die?” Blessed Imelda Lambertini

I lived in Spain during my childhood and it was there where I received my first Holy Communion. I attended mass every morning with the nuns, and when they went up to receive Communion, I longed to go with them. I had been given a book about the lives of saints, and one of the stories that caught my attention was about Blessed Imelda Lambertini. Imelda, just like me, longed to be allowed to receive Holy Communion, but in the 1300s, such a thing was not possible for a nine-year-old child. She would have to wait three years. On the Vigil of the Ascension when she was eleven years old, Imelda was quietly praying in the chapel as the sisters received Communion. Then Jesus did a little “miracle” of His own. After Mass, as one of the nuns was clearing the altar, she looked up to see Imelda with a Sacred Host suspended above her head in the middle of a glowing light. The priest was called at once, and he understood that Jesus Himself was making His desire known. The priest gave Imelda her First Holy Communion. Oh, how I longed for the same thing to happen to me. I would pray to Jesus to send one of the Holy Hosts to the pew where I was kneeling. Of course, that never happened. I had to patiently wait for May 20th to arrive, the day when I would finally receive Him for the first time. I was 8 years old.

As I grew older, my zest for the Communion waned. I still received it every time I went to Mass, but I was not as passionate about receiving it as I was as a child. I was more interested in the homily than in the Communion. As a matter of fact, I would try to find out in advance which priest was giving the mass. If it was a boring priest or one that tended to talk too long, I would try to go to a different mass. And yes, the Word and the homily are important, but that is just a tiny fraction of the mass. The most important part of the mass is the Eucharist when we receive Jesus in Body and Blood.

When the churches closed in 2020 due to the pandemic, and we were not able to receive Holy Communion, that’s when I realized what I was missing. Even though I attended virtual mass and received Spiritual Communion, it just wasn’t the same. My soul was starving for the Eucharist. Oh, how happy I was when the churches reopened. Even if I had to wear a mask, just the fact that I could receive once again Communion made it all worth it. And once again, my passion for the Eucharist was restored.

I confess that I still prefer to attend a mass with a priest that is a good speaker. This past Sunday, I went to mass to Church of the Little Flower. When Father Manny Alvarez entered the church, I did an internal happy dance because I love his homilies. But I no longer check in advance who is giving the mass. Even if the priest is not a great speaker, that is not going to keep me from receiving the gift of the Sacred Meal. In recent years, I have started taking a journal with me to mass. Taking notes during the homily helps me to turn a boring, long sermon into an interesting one. Even in the midst of a 20-minute long homily, the priest is going to say something interesting that catches my attention. By writing it down, I can meditate on it and it helps me concentrate better on the message that God has for me at that particular moment.

I hope that we never have to go again through another pandemic that shuts down our churches because that was a very tragic time. We never know what we have until we lose it, and not being able to receive the Eucharist at least once a week made most of us hungry for the Eucharist. 

I hope that just like Blessed Imelda, I always feel a deep desire to receive the Eucharist. Imelda was only able to receive it once because Jesus took her to heaven on the same day that she received her First Communion, but what a joyful moment to be able to be in an eternal communion with God. She is now the patroness of First Communicants. 

Blessed Imelda, pray for us.

Copyright © 2024 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.