The Best of Things

"When we receive Holy Communion, we experience something extraordinary -- a joy, a fragrance, a well being that thrills the whole body and causes it to exalt."    

                                          --St. John Vianney  

As any of you who often read what I write (thanks, by the way) know, I generally only take the time to write on here if something profound has happened in my life or some major event is happening in the world.  This time, however, I am going to take a step back. What I am writing about here is not some new experience that I had, but rather a simply normal experience which ought to have been profound.

What I want to write about, as you can guess from the picture above, is the Holy Mass. This is the event which happens every single day in countless Churches across the world, and yet it is often taken for granted. When I sit down to think about what I might say in one of these posts, usually I think of the biggest things happening in the world and try to figure out if I have anything to add to the discussion. Most of those days are days when I made it or will make it to Mass, and yet somehow it slips my mind to write about this. Somehow in the chaos of work, relationships with the people around me, other responsibilities I have, and the constant flow of BREAKING NEWS: on twitter and elsewhere the reception of the Eucharist at Mass becomes routine and isn't what jumps to mind when I think of the greatest things of the day.

And yet, I must admit, this is tragic. The Mass, the place where the God of the Universe steps out of heaven down onto the altar and is present in the bread and wine transformed into Him, offered up as a re-presentation of His one sacrifice on the altar of Calvary, ought to be as profound of an experience as St. John Vianney suggested above. The profound reality of God Himself taking on the form of wheat bread and grape wine simply so that His people may receive Him and have union with Him is an earth-shattering, life-changing truth which is the ONLY remedy to the problems in the world. If you are looking for the Lord in the world, if I am searching for Him in the midst of trouble, all we need to do is go to Mass, to receive Him, and to adore Him.

Does this mean I'm done talking about other things? Of course not. What it hopefully does mean, though, is that I (and I pray, any of you who read this) will take more time each day to thank God for the greatest gift on Earth, the gift of His Only Son, the gift I get to receive every day in Mass.

"It would be easier for the world to survive without the presence of the sun than to do without Holy Mass."              

                                                                                          -St. Padre Pio 

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