Please pray for those who will receive their first Holy Communion next Saturday, May 6th!  This is such a sacred time in the lives of our children. We pray they will remember this first encounter with our Eucharistic Lord with great joy and reverence!  It is a good time to remind ourselves about how we are to receive Our Lord Jesus!

        When you come close to our Lord, you bow and the minister says, “The Body of Christ.”  Then you say with faith and conviction, “Amen!”  That means you believe that this really is the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus.  It also means you believe in everything the Catholic Church teaches, because to be in communion with Jesus, you have to be in communion with his Mystical Body in the Catholic Church!

There are two forms of receiving Our Lord: on the tongue and on the hand. 

    I encourage people to receive Our Lord on the tongue.  The mouth should be opened wide enough, and the tongue should come out just a little over the bottom lip so that Jesus has a proper entrance into the temples of our bodies.

    Receiving our Lord by hand is done with the right hand placed under the left hand to make a throne for the Lord, close to the heart. When the minister places the Host on your hand, carefully pick up the Sacred Host with your right hand and place Jesus immediately into your mouth. Never walk away with the Sacred Host in your hands.