http://www.theworkofgod.org/Devotns/Euchrist/holy_eucharist_teachings.asp
This is a wonderful website to see how our early Church Fathers regarded the Holy Eucharist. And to think that at one time, not that long ago, I thought that Catholics weren't "being fed!" 30 Years ago I thought I wasn't being fed in the Catholic Church. The 70's were such a strange time. I don't recall mention of the Blessed Sacrament and the REAL PRESENCE of CHRIST in the bread and wine. I hardly saw a rosary and devotional books weren't around and if so, they were only in the hands of those precious white-haired ladies who went faithfully to daily Mass and prayed those "old traditional prayers" on those odd beads and from small books. To me it was so old fashioned and so traditional, it didn't seem freeing. I actually felt somewhat sorry for those old ladies and gentlemen who did those things. God in his divine humor, played a joke on me~ and now I smile and laugh thinking about it, but not without a slight pang of regret at my presumptious albeit ignorant attitude back then. What brought us back to the Catholic Church? Tradition and the Blessed Virgin. When we first returned and went to Mass on December 8 (NOT a coincidence!) I asked my husband for a rosary and that was my most cherised gift on Christmas Day, 2004, a lovely blue rosary! What else brought us back to the Church? No doubt, little old ladies, praying their rosaries and praying prayers from stodgy, traditionalism-trapped prayer books! The joke was most certainly on me! ~ Thank you to all who passed before me, who diligently prayed daily for people like me. Those of us who had to prance down the prodigal path and ended up in the muck of the pig sty. Thank you dear ladies, and elderly gentlemen who faithfully stayed in Holy Mother Church on your knees and before the Blessed Sacrament, praying for the lost souls, the wandering sheep, and the scattered flocks. My hair is now turning grey, and I have 3 rosaries! I cherish and pray daily....almost daily the most holy rosary with Our Lady. I have a long way to go to be as faithful as you were. Pray for me, and I'll pray for you that one fine day, we'll meet merrily in Heaven.
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If we ex-charismatics had any idea at all in the 70's that Jesus was truly in the Mass as He has been for 2000 years, we would have been on our face! (as sometimes I think we should be now) What were we thinking when the priest held up the precious body and said "this is Jesus"?
Remember all those years of being at
prayer meetings when the "spirit was moving" and the repeated choruses were being sung over and over (not vainly repeated) and we thought "this is it." Little did we know what we were missing! The beauty of Catholicism is that Jesus is there regardless of whether the music is good, my mood is up down or sideways, or whether the homily is stirring or not. He is present as He promised to be in the Blessed Sacrament. To quote from Nancy Honeytree, a vintage Christian artist: "How could I go so long without seeing Him"
or from Love Break Through (Phil Keaggy and Keith Green: "All my life I've been searching for that crazy missing part" Yes the Eucharist it's a crazy concept(to those who don't understand), but the little part I had been searching for and needing my whole christian life.
Thanks for your blog.
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