Approaching the Eucharist with Reverence

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let us pray. Hail Mary, full of grace, Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hello, and welcome to the Saint Richard and Columbia Falls and the Saint Charles Borromeo and Whitefish Parish Podcast Project. Just wanted to thank Shannon for all the help with the production that goes on and all the hard work he does in spreading the word about Parish Podcast. And if you like it, please, spread the word to your, parish priests wherever you are.

I just wanna go through a few things, a few items related to Saint Charles and to Saint Richard during this, beautiful season of Lent and to offer a reflection about reception of the Eucharist. At Saint Charles and Saint Richard, we both have very vibrant communities. There are great people, a lot of new folks, and, we also have a lot of mainstays. So it's nice to have the cross section that we do of the very young and the mature and we have a lot to learn from one another, and it's important that we pray for one another. At the Confiteor or at the beginning, I confess to Almighty God. Near the end of it, we ask, I ask you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God. I just wanted to ask that question. Do you? Do you pray for one another? Because we say and we beg one another to do so.

It's very important for us to maybe step back and read the mass. We have the Lumen Christi Missal and the Saint Michael hymnal available to everybody at both parishes. And it has the order of mass in both of them. It might be a good spiritual exercise during Lent to take 1 when you have some time alone, Come into church, make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, and just go through the mass and read things very carefully. You might wanna just take the Confiteor or the Gloria, which we do not say or sing during Lent, and we will at the Easter Vigil. And also look at the Creed, very solemn words and very beautiful statements. They aren't so much statements. These are acts of prayer and worship and reverence to our Lord, who's with us in word and sacrament, and he continues to give himself to us in the Eucharist. So it might be a good idea for a spiritual exercise to do that. Also, it's a great idea to do a Gratitude Rosary. On each bead of the rosary, much like the divine mercy chaplet, think of something for which you're grateful, visible or invisible. Could be your parents, could be a certain memory you have. It really brings you consolation. And so there are many ways in which we can deepen our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving during this holy time of Lent.

Speaking of which, both parishes have stations of the cross at 5:30. Anybody's welcome. We have different people, over at Saint Richard, leading the Stations of the Cross. It's really neat. Might be a family, Might be people going through OCIA, the order of Christian initiation of adults. And, it's really good to go to the stations to remind ourselves what we are waiting for and we're preparing for for holy week and to appreciate what our Lord went through for us and for our salvation. So we have Stations at 5:30. We have fish fries at both places although at St. Charles, the Knights decided to mix it up a little bit. And so they have a different course on the menu every week, so you may wanna check with them or any one of the friendly, nights over there at Saint Charles. But, generally, over here at Saint Richard, that's where I am right now, they have cod and, clam chowder and all sorts of good stuff.....coleslaw, and sometimes they have dessert, but at both places are great.

Over at Saint Richard, however, we have takeout. So if you wanna call and order for takeout, you can do so. And I can assure you I've been to both places. It's one of the great advantages of being a pastor at 2 parishes. You get a sample of the fair at both, parishes. And believe me, the Knights and the CCW at Saint Richard as well as the Knights and, other, women and men who volunteer sure make it, worthwhile and they do such hard work. So please be sure to thank them for what they do if you can. And, also, we have Adoration at Saint Charles on Wednesdays from 10 in the morning until noon. It's a good way to sit with our lord. And at Saint Richard, we have adoration on Saturdays from 11 to 1, confessions from 11 to 1 at Saint Richard, as well as we have Benediction at 1 o'clock. Then I go over and we have confessions over at Saint Charles. At Saint Richard on Saturday, we also have confession at 11. At Saint Charles, we have confession at 3 on and then at Saint Charles, we have mass. Then on Sundays, the Latin Novus Ordo is celebrated at 8 AM at Saint Richard, and then the Novus Ordo in English, 10 AM at Saint Richard, and then the noon, mass over at Saint Charles. And so on every first Saturday, after the 5 PM mass, we have, great traditions of potluck. So you can bring whatever you like. Potato soup, you can bring in chili, you can bring in whatever you wanna do. Last week, they had a, specific fair of, corned beef and cabbage, but they also had lots of salads and everything. So it's great for the kids too. They get dessert. And, it's just a really end for the adults. They get dessert. So it's just a really nice way to, you know, engage with your fellow parishioners, build community.

Then at Saint Charles on Sunday, we have 1st Sundays of the month after the noon mass, we'll have bagels, coffee, and donuts. And after every 8 and 10 mass Saint Richard, we have coffee and donuts. So I'd just like to take this time out to talk about the bishops, extraordinarily noble, and very powerful, process of revivifying and calling fellow Catholics, brothers and sisters in Christ to, increase our reverence for and love of the Blessed Sacrament, Holy Communion. Jesus said, THIS IS MY BODY. THIS IS MY BLOOD. He didn't say, this is a symbol of my body or this is like my blood. And so at the first mass, at the Last Supper, Jesus changed the bread into His body and the wine into His blood. And so He said, Do this in memory of me. So we're to do this until the end of time at Holy Mass. And so the bishops were rather concerned by a Pew study that came out some years ago that said only around 35%. And I think this is a conservative, number. I think the number may be much larger, but 35% of Catholics, somewhere in that ballpark, believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. This is a real problem. This is a source and summit of our life. The source and summit of our sacraments. And so a good idea for maybe priests or if you go to a parish that is fairly cavalier, which some parishes are very cavalier about communion. They don't care whether people walk away with the Eucharist or they'll give the Eucharist to somebody who doesn't seem to know what they're doing and they're not Catholic and that's not right.

It's a disservice to them as well as a disservice to the brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone through the proper training to receive First Holy Communion. Whether they be a youngster or whether they be an adult. So what I do is it's a good idea in mass maybe at the first part of the homily before I do the, engage in the homily, I make announcements. There are certain announcements that need to be made, News about which our, parishioners need to know. So what I do is what I say is and especially at funerals and at, weddings. I said, if you're a Catholic, practicing Catholic in a state of grace, you can come forward for Communion.

You can receive on the hand or on the tongue, and either myself or the extraordinary minister of holy communion, the body of Christ, you need to say amen because you are consenting and assenting to everything that the Catholic church teaches on faith and morals and the priest actually has the right to refuse communion to someone who doesn't say amen. And so the body of Christ, Amen, one is to take it out of their hand and consume and put it in their mouth, put Jesus in their mouth, and to do it in front of the extraordinary minister of holy communion, or the deacon, or the priest. Not take 2 steps and look at the wall. As I say, do the Texas 2 step and look at the wall, and then consume it or just walk away. There are people who are into the occult who like to profane the Eucharist in their, awful black masses. And so also the faithful have a responsibility especially the Knights to watch people as they receive Holy Communion to make sure that they do receive and consume Holy Communion. It's blasphemy not to do so. So the Body of Christ, Amen, consume then proceed. And that is extraordinarily important. And I tell people, if they are, not practicing the faith and are welcome at Mass, of course, or if somebody comes from another, church or faith, if they'd like to receive a little, I guess, I'd call it a quasi benediction. It's not really a benediction.

If you'd like to come forward, as a gesture of unity you can with your hands crossed over your heart And what I do is I usually take the blessed sacrament, make the sign of the cross over the person and say, receive the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart. It's pretty simple. And they know what they're doing, and they really appreciate it. And it's really special for people who are preparing for first holy communion. If somebody does walk away with the Eucharist, you have as a an extraordinary minister, deacon, and a priest to follow the person. I've been at a, actually, it was at a priest's ordination, and no one was at a Chrism mass. When there was an archbishop from Portland who noticed someone walking away with the host, and he followed them. He has a pretty fast gait, and he confronted them. I mean, and you can usually tell when people come up. They sometimes don't know what to do and they're visitors or they're friends of people who are Catholics. So by all means, just ask, are you Catholic? And, if they're not, then give them a little, you know, say, receive the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart. Amen. That's usually the signal to go in peace. And so it's a good way to remind ourselves how important and who is the one who is most important in our lives and is the King of the Universe, which is Christ Jesus.

We should, receive our Lord with the dignity and reverence and the love, that is due to him because he gives himself to us, body, blood, soul, divinity. And as Bishop Vetter, Bishop of, Diocese of Helena says, he gives himself to us personally as well. He wants that personal engagement with us. He loves us so much. He wants to be part of our body, blood, soul, and humanity on a cellular, spiritual, physical, metaphysical, psychological way. So he wants to become part of the very fabric of our fabric of our being. He loves us so much. So it's good to encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ to do the same. There's a Eucharistic Congress coming up. I'll mention it in my next, podcast. It's in the diocese of Helena. There are many. If you're listening elsewhere, look up Eucharistic Congress. And it's very important, first of all, to start at home. Pray in gratitude for the Eucharist. And just know when you come to mass, you make a little pilgrimage to Jesus. And you sit at the foot of the master just like Mary did in Bethany when you're at church. You're making a pilgrimage to heaven, to Jesus, and it pleases him in the whole heavenly court. And so Eucharist also comes from a Greek word, Eucharistia, meaning Thanksgiving. So that's our final vocation as a Christian. So be grateful. You know, may God continue to lead you in your Lenten journey, your pilgrimage to Easter. And if you've fallen away fallen off the horse, regarding your Lenten observance, just get right back on. Our lord will be happy to see you get back on. So, may God continue to bless all of you.

Thank you again to Shannon at Parish Podcast, and I'll look forward to, another podcast within the next couple weeks as we grow nearer and nearer to the week that changed everything for all of us forever as Jesus threw open the wide the gates of heaven by his passion, death, and resurrection and ascension into heaven. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Thank you. God bless you. Have a great, vacation and an excellent Lent.