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The Joy of the Mass, Part 2: Holy Communion

© Kathryn Morse

A few personal thoughts

There's a favorite song in some Protestant churches with the words, "What a fellowship! What a joy divine!" They describe how I feel about Holy Communion.

This past weekend I didn't get to go to Mass. But Sunday morning I was traveling with relatives when we passed a Catholic church as people were arriving for Mass. My heart leapt for joy at what was about to take place. If I had been driving we would have stopped. I longed to go in and spend some special time with the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, my Redeemer.

A few years ago, I taught the children's Sunday school class in a Presbyterian (USA) church. We did the book of John and I think I started my journey to Catholicism then. It, of course, wasn't the first time I had read the book of John, but spending at least four hours a week preparing each chapter lesson plan was the most time I had spent with the Gospel of John.

Each chapter of John reveals something about the character of Jesus. Chapter six is the "Jesus, Bread of Life" chapter. Some of the words Jesus spoke were:

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to enternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.* verse 27a

I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. verses 32-33

I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. verse 35

But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. verses 50-51

I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of he Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread of heaven . . . verses 53-58