Power of the Eucharist

To be the men and women God intended us to be in our roles as priests, religious, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, husbands, wives and friends; children of God made in His image; to love with the love of Christ; to offer ourselves as holy and living sacrifices; to have faith and hope, and to increase in every other virtue; is possible only through the grace that comes through frequent reception of the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.

It is impossible to fulfill our purpose in this life without the Eucharist! Amen!

Go to confession and attend Mass often, daily if possible! It will change your life!

Our Best Defense!

We proceed on this journey stalked constantly by a vicious and cruel enemy, an enemy who hates us simply because we are created and loved by God! This enemy is cunning, calculating, and constantly scheming to launch attacks against us, which if successful, can result not only in the death of our body, but the eternal death of our soul! The enemy is Satan and his minions.

The good news is that God has provided the ammunition necessary to defend ourselves against these attacks! Without it we are as weak and defenseless as newborn babes! That ammunition is God’s grace!

Now most Christians, including myself will agree that one way to receive God’s grace is by earnestly asking for it in prayer! Now God is capable of all things and no man should presume to understand the mind of God, so we can probably all agree that God can bestow His grace upon anyone He wishes in any manner He deems fit!

From a Catholic perspective, the ammunition or grace of which I speak is the grace which is made available to us in the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ as He gives Himself to us in the Eucharist! However, to receive the fullness of the grace made available to us in the Blessed Sacrament, we must be properly prepared and disposed to do so!

What do we mean by properly disposed and prepared to receive our Lord?

First, we must firmly believe without a doubt in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist! We must then very humbly and thankfully acknowledge the greatness of the One whom we are about to receive into our bodies and souls!

Reflect if you will on this fact: the God who gives Himself to us in the Eucharist is the same God who created the incomprehensible vastness, complexity, and beauty of the entire universe, from the immeasurable magnitude of the cosmos to the awesome design and workings of the sub-atomic world! He is also the One who keeps it all in perfect balance in the palm of His Mighty Hand! This is the God for whom we must be properly prepared to receive, truly present in the communion wafer that is placed on our tongue or in the palm of our hand at Mass!

Our preparation to receive our Lord in the Eucharist begins in the sacrament of Reconciliation. This is how we make clean and presentable the house into which we are inviting our Lord! The grace that is conferred upon us in the sacrament of Reconciliation requires true contrition for our sins! True contrition is demonstrated by a firm resolve to avoid future sin! Although we are absolved of our sins in the sacrament of Reconciliation, our tendency toward sin remains. So, once again, we need God’s grace to continue to fight off future temptation when the enemy has us in his sights!

The next step in receiving our Lord in the Eucharist is to truly desire to receive Him, and welcome Him warmly into our hearts and surrender ourselves totally to Him. In this way we become the instruments through which others will come to know Him! We are reminded of this when we hear the priest speak these words at Mass, “The Mass is ended, now go in peace to love and serve the Lord!”

Receiving Christ in the Eucharist gives us tremendous power against the temptations of sin and is the Source and Summit of our Faith!

Sacraments, Grace, Nourishment

The sacraments were given to us by Christ. They are the means by which we receive the sanctifying grace that Jesus earned for us through his passion, death, and resurrection. Jesus, being God, knew that the sacraments would be the perfect and most fitting way for us to receive the grace he earned for us, since as creatures with bodies, we experience the sacraments with all of our bodily senses, sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. We hear the words used in the administration of the sacraments (“I baptize you in the name of the Father . . .” “The Body of Christ . . .” “Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.”), we feel, taste, and smell the bread, wine, water, oil and other matter used in the sacraments. God knows that we are best led to things spiritual through things that we can experience with our bodies. This makes perfect sense since it is also through our bodily senses that we are tempted and led to sin.

We must always remember that we consist of a body AND a soul. Just as the physical body is born, strengthened, nourished, healed in affliction, helped at the hour of death, guided by authority, and given a place in which to dwell, the soul is brought into spiritual life by Baptism; it is strengthened by Confirmation; nourished by the Holy Eucharist; healed by Penance; helped at the hour of our death by Anointing of the Sick; guided by God's ministers through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, and it is given a body in which to dwell by the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Every sacrament is important! As Catholics we are extremely fortunate to have the sacraments at our disposal. Our faith is centered on the sacraments, especially the Eucharist in which Jesus is present and makes himself available to us daily at Mass. Jesus Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist is our greatest source of nourishment and strength for our journey through life, the goal of which is to return to our Father in Heaven and experience the Beatific Vision (to behold God face to face)

As parents we love our children, we want only the very best for them, and so we provide everything humanly possible for them out of love and concern for their welfare. We desire for them to have the best life possible!


Well think about this! God is the PERFECT PARENT and we are all His children. If we, as imperfect parents, want the best for our children, how much more do you think God, the PERFECT PARENT, wants for all of us? He knows what is best for us and He wants the best for us which is exactly why He wants us to do His will (to live and behave in certain ways)!

It is similar to us wanting our children to do certain things and behave in certain ways because we know that it is in their best interest. Just as our children’s lives will be made better by following our direction and listening to our advice, our lives will improve beyond measure by following the direction of our Heavenly Father. God directs us and makes His will known to us through Jesus Christ! The teachings and truths of our faith have been passed on to us beginning with the Apostles and remain with us today in the one teaching authority of the Church referred to as the Magisterium.

In Matthew 7:24-27, at the conclusion of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says these words, 24 "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. 26 And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined."

Let us build foundations on the Rock and sustain and support those foundations with the grace Jesus provides through the sacraments!

Why the Sacrament of Reconciliation After Baptism?

We are regenerated, or, “born again” in the sacrament of Baptism. We are washed clean of all sin! However, this new life we receive does not abolish the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin that tradition calls concupiscence.

Following our baptism, we proceed through life constantly engaged in a spiritual struggle toward holiness and eternal life to which our Lord never ceases to call us. We NEED the effects of the sacrament of Reconciliation to assist us in this life-long battle.

Please prayerfully consider going to Confession no matter how long it has been since the last time you have gone! Experience Christ’s healing power, as well as His warm, loving, and forgiving embrace, as you listen to the words of absolution spoken by Christ Himself through the ministerial role of His priest.

Prayer After Receiving Communion

Jesus, Creator of the universe, we believe You are truly present among us under the appearance of bread and wine;

We acknowledge, that through the grace You offer us in this Eucharist, we grow closer to You, are healed of sin, and preserved from future sin;

Thank You for loving us so much!

We are Yours; we long to become the instruments through which others may come to know, love, and desire You;

Lord, please use us as You will to lead others to the grace You offer;

and may the sanctifying grace conferred upon us in this Eucharist today be shared with all those who will not, or cannot partake in this precious gift You offer! Amen!