Many parishes are stuck in what seems to be an endless, and fruitless, cycle of sacramental preparation for children; First Penance, First Holy Communion and Confirmation.

It doesn't seem to make any difference whether in a diocese First Holy Communion comes before Confirmation, or vice versa. Even delaying Confirmation until the teenage years makes no difference.

Lots of parish resources are poured into the sacramental preparation of children, and then we don't see those children and their families again.

Because they don't know how else to do it parishes feel stuck, and all parishes seem to be doing much the same kind of preparation.

However a few parishes have begun experimenting with different models for the sacramental preparation of children, and the initial fruit is good even though the different models require significantly more man-power and teamwork.

If you don't mind reading through cathartic layers of grief and pain explaining why the current models don't work as a lead in to a description of these experimental models, then these 9 pages are for you. P.S. There's a bit of ranting included too.

But our human grief and pain is only a drop in the ocean compared to the grief and pain of God at this situation. The desire of His Heart is for life-long relationships of deep intimacy with these youngsters, not for the precious sacramental gifts won by His Passion and Death on the Cross to be disdained so thoroughly.

If we desire to please Him, then we must whole-heartedly seek fruitful alternatives to replace our currently fruitless models of sacramental preparation of children.

Dear God, please send Your Holy Spirit to help us pioneer effective new ways of bringing children into the fulness of the sacramental life which You long for them to experience. Amen. 

Lord Jesus, grant us a holy dis-satisfaction with the way things are, and sufficient holy frustration to do whatever it takes to find and implement the new sacramental preparation pathways You have for us. Amen.  

The Gospel for this Sunday, the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, comes from a series of sections of Chapter 6 of St John’s Gospel, which began four weeks ago, and concludes this week. Between last week and this week one verse was skipped, v59, acting as a reminder that this whole discussion took place at Capernaum, home base for the missionary work of Jesus. It also bookends an earlier verse forming a syncope and in effect double underlining v58, viz

“This is the bread that came down/descended from heaven
Unlike your ancestors who ate (ephagon) and died (referring to the manna in the desert)
who eats (trogon) this bread will live (zesei) for ever.”

We often overlook the importance of location, but John has drawn attention to it for a reason.

Capernaum was where Jesus started His public ministry, and where He recruited many of His apostles, and where He returned to after each Galilean mission, and after each feast day pilgrimage to Jerusalem during His public ministry, until the final journey to Jerusalem culminating in His passion, death, resurrection and ascension.

Why?

Because this is the place where the greatest number of people have had the most long term relationship with Jesus (outside of Nazareth); where the most people have heard His teachings and have seen His miracles. Therefore up till this point it has been the epicientre for disciples of Jesus and for wannabe disciples of Jesus.

At this point anyone remotely anti-Jesus has already left the discussion.

And those who remain, who have considered themselves His followers, are now in a bit of an uproar over Jesus insisting that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood.

The stakes as Jesus has laid out are extremely high, participation in the divine life,
eternal life and
bodily resurrection on the last day.
The conditions are clear: eat His flesh and drink His blood.

It is decision time.

Is this intolerable, unacceptable language?
(Has Jesus jumped the shark?)

Is this incomprehensible, but the speaker has proved His trustworthiness to us? (I don’t understand, but I believe and trust in Jesus, and I’m willing to trust Him on this crazy stuff too.)

Some left Him for good.
A much smaller number stayed with Him.

Jesus was prepared to keep on going with His mission from God even if no one stayed with Him as a disciple.

What was the difference between those who left and those who stayed?
The quality and depth of his or her personal relationship and commitment to Jesus.

The apostles, and those who similarly strong relationship with Jesus stayed.

One, Judas, stayed to see how this would pan out, gambling on the chance of a big reward.

The rest left.

This a shakeout of a similar magnitude to Gideon and the shakeout of the army mustered to fight Midian and Amalek. Judges Chapter 7. From 32000 men, 22000 left; of the 10,000 left, only 300 were chosen (and in a weird way; lapping from the water’s edge). In that account, the reduction was so that the victory would be seen to be God’s and not resultant from the might of men.

With those who are left Jesus can build something long-lasting, eternally worthwhile, despite the presence of a few treacherous and curious ones who will eventually get shaken out.

May this underline for you that Jesus is not seeking celebrity -ever – at all.

What Jesus wants above all is true commitment and deep relationship.

Have you decided what your response will be?

Do you remember how high the stakes are?
This is the time to choose all or nothing.

May the heavenly Father grant you the gift of being able to say with Simon Peter
“To whom shall we go?
You Lord have the words of eternal life.
We believe that You are the Holy One of God.”

…and then to act on it by committing yourself to full membership of a Christian community where the Eucharist is celebrated with a validly ordained priest (Roman Catholic, Eastern Rite Catholic or Orthodox) – whatever that takes. That’s full sacramental life, full community life, and full acceptance of the apostolic teaching preserved in those communities, and to a committed prayer life (personal and communal). Acts 2:42 (These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers)

Wherever you see that your commitment is currently nil or partial in any of these areas, beg God for the grace to make full commitment in those areas.

The stakes are of eternal significance.
Do not delay your active response to Jesus.
​
Amen.

​The Gospel for this Sunday, the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, comes from a series of sections of Chapter 6 of St John’s Gospel, which began three weeks ago, and will conclude next week. Between last week and this week one verse overlaps, v51, acting as the conclusion to last week and the introduction to this week. In this Sunday’s section Jesus makes astounding claims and promises that offend the sensibilities of His hearers.

In 2021 we actually celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary this Sunday, but it seems important to complete this John 6 series.

There is no way for us earthly creatures to access the things of heaven; doing that is completely beyond our capabilities. A very poor analogy is that a cat cannot become a dog, no matter how hard it tries.

The only way for us earthly creatures to access the things of heaven is if citizens of heaven give them to us.

And Jesus is promising more than things of heaven, He is promising partaking in the divine life of God.

All through John 6 when Jesus says life, it is always a reference to ‘zoe’ life, eternally divine life, not to ‘bios’ life (physical life) nor to ‘psuche’ life (soul life).

He tells us that He is the living bread that descended from heaven, and that if anyone eats of this bread (of Him) then that person will live forever.

Why? Because divine life will then have become part of them, just like earthly food becomes part of us – as the saying goes ‘we are what we eat’.

Jesus then tells us ‘And this bread which I will give/offer for/on behalf of life of the world is My flesh (body)’.

The divine gift of this living bread will only be initiated through the passion and death of Jesus.

Only through His complete sacrifice of His body through His death can we be given this gift beyond all our comprehension.

At this point those listening to Jesus erupt in violent disputation.

He wants us to eat His flesh?

He wants us to cannibalize Him?

There are places in the bible where cannibalism is mentioned, corresponding to times of extreme desperation, usually as a result of famine and often in siege conditions. So being reduced to cannibalism was viewed as a horrible curse, and one of the worst punishments that God could give. It was also viewed as the physical horror that accompanies the spiritual horror of apostasy; two sides of the same coin.

To which Jesus responds ‘Amen, Amen, I tell you unless you eat (phagete) the flesh and drink (piete) the blood (haima) of the Son of Man, you have no life (zoen) in you’.

Yes! Yes!
And did I mention that you need to drink My blood as well?

Otherwise you will not (as in never) have divine life in you.

Not only that! If you eat My flesh and drink My blood you will not only share in the divine life of God – but on the last day your physical bodies will be raised back to life as well.

Yes! I really mean you have to eat Me!

‘Whoever eats (trogon)
to gnaw/crunch/ grind with teeth/munch My flesh
and drinks (drink, imbibe) My blood has eternal life
and I will raise him/her up (anastesto) at the last/final day.

For My flesh is real/true (alethes) food/meal (brosis)
and My blood is real/true drink/beverage (posis)

Whoever eats (trogon) My flesh and drinks (pinon) My blood
remains (menei) abides/waits/stays in Me, and I in him.

Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because/through of the Father
so also who feeds on (trogon) Me will live because/through of Me.

This is the bread that came down/descended from heaven
Unlike your ancestors who ate (ephagon) and died (referring to the manna in the desert)
who eats (trogon) this bread will live (zesei) for ever.’

Yes! I really mean you have to eat Me!

There’s no other way for Me to give you My life, divine life, and bodily resurrection too!

In next week’s Gospel section we will see the various responses to these declarations of Jesus.

But He wants your response now.

Will you take Him at His word?
Will you remember the sign of the miracle of the feeding of the 5000, and trust in His word even if you can’t comprehend it?
Do you believe that He is the only Son of the Father, the only one who has descended from heaven, sent by the Father to give us eternal life?

Then you must eat Him; you must eat the flesh of Jesus and you must drink His blood.

How?

His offer is free, but it definitely is not cheap.
He paid for it with His life on the Cross.

Likewise, our response is free, but it isn’t cheap.
It requires total commitment to Jesus; and giving Him the Lordship of our lives.
It also requires a total commitment to His body, the Church, and all that She teaches in His name and in His authority. Always we are saved ‘as a people’ and not as individuals.

That’s what it takes to eat His body and to drink His blood in the bread and wine consecrated at a Mass offered by a validly ordained priest.

Only the Roman Catholic church, in her Latin rite and her Eastern rites; and the various Orthodox churches (Greek, Russian, Coptic etc) have valid ordinations that trace back to the Apostles present at the Last Supper prior to the crucifixion and death of Jesus.

When a validly ordained priest takes the bread and uses the words of Jesus ‘This is My body’, and takes the wine and used the words of Jesus ‘This is My blood’, the bread and wine become the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.
We believe this because Jesus said so.

And that is enough for us.

Is it enough for you?

Your answer has consequences.

And the stakes are far too high (divine life, bodily resurrection, union with Jesus) for you to even consider avoid answering, or to even consider delaying your answer.

If the answer is Yes
​
*Then seeking membership of a church with valid ordination has to become top priority for you.
*If you already have membership through Baptism, but have lapsed from attendance at the Eucharist (Mass), then you have to rectify that pronto, which includes a good confession first.
*If you already have membership through Baptism, and have some kind of regularity of attendance at the Eucharist (Mass), is your current commitment commensurate with the enormity of the gift? Recommit yourself to Him, to the Eucharist, and to His church, and ask Jesus to show you how He wants you to express that recommitment in concrete action.

The Gospel for this Sunday, the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, comes from a series of sections of Chapter 6 of St John’s Gospel, which began last week, and will continue for three more weeks. The only section missing from this series is the account of Jesus walking on the water, which takes place in verses 16 to 23. This Sunday’s section leads up to Jesus proclaiming, ‘I am the Bread of Life’.

To the request that Jesus would always give us the true bread from heaven, He replies: ‘I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger (crave, be needy), whoever believes in Me will never thirst.’

How are we to understand this emphatic reply and this very great promise?

Obviously we get hungry and thirsty every day, otherwise we wouldn’t be motivated to eat and drink. Most of us don’t experience the poverty or the extreme environmental conditions that produce the deepest levels of hunger and thirst. But those who have experienced being reduced to such desperate levels never forget it - and are often haunted by those memories.

At those desperate levels, people become willing to do desperate things to satisfy those intense cravings, and will accept poor substitutes for true food and drink (eg rats and urine).

So what kind of hunger and thirst is Jesus talking about?

Could it be emotional hunger, spiritual hunger, or something else?

• Internet searches reveal that hungers of the heart include:
• Meaning and purpose in life
• Commitment and connection to something greater, something worthwhile in life
• Relationships of quality and depth
• Healing from life’s hurts
• Intimacy
• To be listened to, and to be really heard
• To be loved and appreciated
• To be accepted for who we are, and not just for what we do, or what we can do
• To belong
• Yearning for times of solitude
• Desire for deep peace, on the inside, and with everyone else, especially those closest to us

That is the human experience, isn’t it?!

There is an emptiness in our hearts that nothing in this material world can fill.

Often the more material things we have, including success, the deeper that emptiness feels. Many biographies include something along the lines of ‘I thought that if I got to the pinnacle of …… that this would make me happy; but it didn’t; I felt more lost and empty than ever’.

Here’s where those famous words of St Augustine make sense:

Great are You, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; Your power is immense, and Your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we men, who are a due part of Your creation, long to praise You – we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that You thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising You may bring us joy, because You have made us and drawn us to Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.

Other spiritual writers talk about a God shaped hole in our hearts, that can only be truly filled by Him, and Him alone.

Nothing else suffices, nothing else satisfies.

We do try and stuff that hole with sport, entertainment, work, partying, marriage, family, possessions, success, music, gardening, politics, study, and with addictively dangerous things too.

But nothing fills that hole except God Himself.

Experiences of God help fill that hole better than everything else, but experiences are fleeting, and as nothing compared to God Himself.

Experiences of God give us only a taste of Him; and leave us craving for more.

Let’s remind ourselves of the kind of bread that Jesus wants to be for us. Those barley loaves were fresh, tasty, nourishing; crunchy on the outside, and satisfyingly a little chewy on the inside; the solid kind of bread an army can march on, the kind of bread that provides the essential nourishment for daily life, and the base upon which everything else is ‘icing on top’.

Only the real thing, the real God-thing satisfies; and that God-thing has been generously lavished upon us the Eucharist – in Jesus incarnate under the forms of consecrated bread and wine.
This is Himself, whole and entire, body, soul, blood and divinity, available to us whenever we come to Him through reception of Holy Communion.

Sacramental Holy Communion is the greatest gift God can give us - because it is Himself.

Spiritual Holy Communion, through which we express our longing, consciously or unconsciously, for the fullness of sacramental Holy Communion, is a real but partial participation through desire in that full reality.

During lockdown many of us have rediscovered spiritual communion through the prayers that are often provided at online Masses. There are many such prayers, usually written by Saints, used at those online Masses, but even our own prayers of the heart expressing our desire for sacramental union with Him are acceptable in His sight.

Over the years I have listened to my protestant brothers and sisters talk about how deeply meaningful and how profoundly they have been moved in their hearts on those Sundays when they have Communion in accordance with the various ordinances of their faith communities; and even (shudder) they ‘take’ communion outside those rites and ordinances. What they have been experiencing is spiritual communion; and it is real, valuable, grace-filled, yet it falls short of the fullness of sacramental communion.

Is it possible for a well made spiritual communion to be more grace-giving than a poorly made sacramental communion? Yes it is, but it wouldn’t happen very often.

In this way is Jesus our Bread of Life.
In this way Jesus satisfies the deepest hunger of our souls.
In the Eucharist.

That’s the Bread of Life, the kind of daily bread we primarily pray for unceasingly in the Our Father; a prayer that includes seeking God’s providence for all our other daily needs as well.

Lord Jesus, please give us that Bread, Your sacramental self, always. Please Lord may we never be deprived of You in sacramental Holy Communion via lockdown conditions – or any other conditions - ever again! May all the deprivations we face, and have faced, through pandemic lockdowns, only serve to awaken in us deeper hunger for You; deeper hunger for Your Eucharist, deeper hunger for You in the Eucharist, because absolutely nothing else can truly satisfy our hungry and thirsty hearts. Please Lord Jesus, lead our precious brothers and sisters in faith to full communion with You in the Holy Eucharist, please take away all the obstacles that are preventing their loving hearts from receiving You in full sacramental Communion. Amen.

In many countries, including Australia, we are now in the extraordinary situation of being without sacraments for the foreseeable future, due to efforts to minimise the effect of the coronavirus.

Being without Mass, sacramental Communion, Confession and the encouragement of worshipping together as a community and catching up with each other is going to be extremely difficult for everyone.

(In some places Confession and Eucharistic Adoration may still be possible, so check with your local diocesan and parish websites.)

These things are gold, but we do have access to silver, since the Church teaches that God answers our desires for these good things. For example you may remember you were taught there were three kinds of baptism, by water, by blood (martyrdom) and by desire.

In a similar way there is sacramental communion and spiritual communion. While there are many good prayers of spiritual communion, and learning at least one of them by heart is recommended, all it really needs is expressing to Jesus that you want to receive sacramental communion, but are unable to, asking Him to come and visit you in your heart spiritually instead.

The PDF below (one A4 page) explains more about spiritual communion:

My Jesus, I believe that You are truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to possess You within my soul. Since I am unable now to receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as already being there, and unite myself wholly to You; never permit me to be separated from You.

It is also why we were taught that if we find ourselves in danger, a good Act of Contrition is the best thing to do. Again, the Act of Contrition is expressing to God our desire for His pardon and forgiveness, which is in essence a desire for Confession. There are many approved prayers of Acts of Contrition, find one you like best and commit it to memory.

My God, I am sorry for my sins
with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and
failing to do good, I have sinned against You
whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with Your help, to do penance,
to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads
me to sin. Our saviour Jesus Christ suffered
and died for us. In His name, my God,
have mercy. Amen.

Like the prayer of Spiritual Communion, praying an Act of Contrition daily during this extraordinary situation until the churches reopen is a good idea.

Thankfully there are options online for Mass

https://www.ewtn.com/tv/watch-live televises Mass 4 times a day (in Australia currently that means at 3am, 10am, 3pm and 11pm) although for us in Australia it will be the Mass from yesterday, and these times will change by an hour when daylight savings ends on 5 Apr 2020

https://www.youtube.com/user/ShalomWorldWide is where you can access recorded copies of Pope Francis' daily Masses. It is likely to be in Italian and without subtitles, but you should be able to pick up enough words and gestures to follow along.

In Australia on the free-to-air tv Channel 10 at 6am on Sundays there is Mass For You At Home (30 mins), which you can always record and replay at a more convenient time.

St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, has promised to live stream their 1.10pm and 5.30pm daily Masses via both their website https://www.stmaryscathedral.org.au/ and their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/stmaryscathedralsydney/

And these are only a few of the Mass options available online.

See what your local diocesan website is recommending or offering. For example, on Instagram @frjasonsmith will be live streaming a daily Mass.

Another thing that can be done is to join with the universal Church in praying the Divine Office (morning prayer, evening prayer, night prayer, or as much of it as you can manage).

For those who do not have copies of the prayer books at home to do this, some websites and apps make this possible to do.
https://divineoffice.org/welcome/
(although you will need to send them a request)
https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/liturgy/ scroll all the way down for the link, it will be according to the USA liturgical calendar.

You can order the prayer books online
(for Australia)
https://www.paulinebooks.com.au/search/search.cgi?search=divine+office

If you are new at this choose the Morning and Evening Prayer (black cover) https://www.amazon.com.au/Morning-Evening-Prayer-Not-Available/dp/0007211333
If you have money to burn, get the 3 Volume Divine Office which contains the Office of Readings
If these books look too heavy for you, go for the Shorter Morning and Evening Prayer (red cover), which covers everything but doesn't have the richness of the liturgical seasons and saints feast days that the black cover has.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Shorter-Morning-Evening-Prayer-Icel/dp/0007219873

If the Divine Office feels too complicated for you, then there is something similar at http://disabilityandjesus.org.uk/ called An Ordinary Office http://anordinaryoffice.org.uk/ specifically designed for people with disabilities who cannot access church buildings. If you have a Twitter account you can pray it via @DisabilityJ

All of these prayer options can keep us plugged into the prayer life of the universal church, and in unity.
………………………
There are lots of your friends who need this information,
so please share it around.

In all this we remind ourselves that God is in control. If He has permitted us to go through this dearth of the sacraments, then it is only so that He can bring a much greater good out of it. We can look upon this time as an opportunity to deepen our faith and to deepen our desire for Jesus. The more we do this, the shorter the time of trial will be, since we believe that Jesus longs for sacramental contact with us much, much more than we long for sacramental contact with Him. Pray for your priests, that this time is transformative for the better for them too. If nothing else, we will never take the sacraments for granted again!

Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us
St Joseph, terror of demons, pray for us

​I highly recommend the booklet ‘The Holy Mass – Testimony of Catalina’. It has had a profound and positive impact upon my inner participation at Holy Mass. You can read this booklet in PDF form at http://catalinarivas.excerptsofinri.com/. It tells the story of how Catalina went to Mass one day for the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord and how Our Lady showed her step by step how to really pray the Mass, part by part.
 
Here is an excerpt to whet your interest:
 
“Why must you all arrive at the last moment? You should have arrived earlier to be able to pray and to ask the Lord to send His Holy Spirit. It is He who grants you a spirit of peace and Who banishes the spirit of the world your worries, your problems and distractions in order to enable you to live this so sacred moment. However, you arrive almost when the celebration is about to commence and you participate as if it is an ordinary event, without any spiritual preparation. Why? It is the greatest Miracle. You are going to experience the greatest gift of God from on High and you do not know how to appreciate it.”
 
It is possible to go to daily Mass and get into a rut, and just go through the motions through habit and without engaging the heart. Reading Catalina's booklet is a way out of that rut.
 
The first step (and the step that leads to all the others) is making a personal consecration to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. This prayer from Pope Pius XII is a good starting point for that.  
 
Preparation is an important and essential ingredient. It has many aspects. You can read one of the Readings the day before. You can make spiritual communions. You can ask Our Lady to prepare you to receive her Son worthily. Aim to arrive at church early enough to do final spiritual preparations, and in time to separate your thoughts from what has gone on before. It is important to pray for the priest who will preach, that he will preach according to mind and heart of Jesus and in full harmony with His Truth. It is important to seek the intercession of the guardian angels of your parish etc, to intercede before God for the grace and help of the Holy Spirit to enable the congregation to participate fully in the Mass. Regular meditation upon the Passion of Jesus is also essential.
 
Consider praying for all of those who will be attending the same Mass with you, that they will receive the grace of conversions. ‘Two for the price of one’ specials are great, so do a deal with the Holy Souls, you pray for them, and they pray for the attendees. Do some spiritual reading with the writings of the Saints about the Mass and Holy Communion and Adoration on a regular basis. Their writings help us to soar out of our everyday muddy thinking and into the realms of God’s truth. Regular time in prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament outside of Mass also deepens our participation within Mass.
 
Then bring to mind before Mass, or at the Offertory, or both, the intentions for which you are offering the Mass, keeping in mind St Claude de la Colombiere who wrote:
‘When I hear Mass, when I offer the holy sacrifice as priest or as a member of the Church, I can with full courage and confidence defy heaven to do anything that pleases God more. Then I can ask for pardon and be sure of obtaining it no matter how great or numberless my sins. Whatever I hope for and desire I can pray for confidently. I can ask for great graces of every kind for myself, my friends, and my enemies, and far from being ashamed at asking for so much I shall know it is little in comparison with what I offer. My only fear is that I shall ask too little and not have a firm, unshakeable hope of obtaining not only what I ask but far more.
If we only knew the treasure we hold in our hands! Happy a thousand times those who know how to profit by the Mass!’
 
During Mass itself, a very good and simple way to keep focused, is to bow your head every time the name of Jesus is mentioned.  Try to pay attention when making the sign of the cross. It is helpful to make a sign of the cross when the priest says ‘May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, ..’ It makes the praying of the Creed come alive if you bow (as the liturgy invites) at the words ‘and was made man’.
 
During the homily it is easy to listen and to pray short prayers like ‘Jesus, Mary, I love you save souls’ over and over to win grace for those who are listening. You actually listen twice as well. At the epiclesis, when the priest holds his hands over the bread and wine calling down the Holy Spirit, we too, can pray a brief ‘Come Holy Spirit’. At the consecration, the little silent prayer ‘My Lord and my God’ can win an indulgence for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. At the right time, pray especially for the Pope and your bishop. Remember those who have died at the memento for the dead, those with anniversaries of death, those special to you etc.
 
At the priest’s communion is a special time to pray specifically for the priest (or priests) who are celebrating the Mass.
 
After Mass, linger in thanksgiving and prayer as long as you possibly can. During the day, make a point of saying a personal thank you to Jesus for such a great gift.

The following quotations will also help you:
 
Jesus to Mamma Carmela Carabelli, Thursday, July 25, 1968
'…Remember, My children, that whosoever receives unworthily My Body and My Blood, receives his own condemnation, and whosoever does not receive this Holy Sacrament with proper dispositions, will not be able to obtain the spiritual benefits for which I instituted the Holy Eucharist. And now I will explain:
It is not so much the preparation of words that I desire, but the interior concentration which makes you aware of a solemn act which you are about to accomplish, one which makes you acknowledge the grandeur of this gift and your unworthiness, and which leads you to reciprocate with love the greatest gift of love the Son of God has made to you by giving Himself wholly to you.
A good preparation is the guarantee of abundant fruit. You certainly will not be able to improvise in the few minutes that precede this solemn act of Communion, but by desire, you will be able to long for My coming to you from the moment of your first awakening in the morning.
If you knew how much I desire to meet with you, to come into your heart, to dwell within you! By desire, you can already receive Me spiritually and prepare your soul for the Sacramental meeting.
Pray to My sweetest Mother to help you to prepare well for the reception of Her bread, which is her flesh which She gave to Me and which I give to you as a pledge of holiness and eternal life.'
 
Jesus to Mamma Carmela Carabelli, Friday, September 13, 1968
'…Always keep lit the torch of faith when you prepare yourself for Holy Communion; do not do as the foolish virgins, for faith is indispensable to the things of God. Put in the oil of love and be certain that each Communion, prepared in this way, will bring forth its spiritual benefit. A Communion without preparation is an insult and an offence to My Heart. Be aware of this and make it known.'
 
Jesus to Gabrielle Bossis, July 23, 1942, ‘He and I’
'…Here I am. I was waiting for you. When My children receive Communion in the morning, I wait during the day for their little visit of thanks. Haven’t I deserved it? Just think what it means to receive Communion. How heartless not to say thank you! I gave all of Myself to My little children. Whoever wants Me may take Me. And those who receive, receive all heaven, for heaven is your Christ. But don’t ever take such an immense favour for granted. Think of each Communion as a first Communion…'

Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, pray for us
St Claude de la Colombiere, pray for us
​St John Vianney, pray for us