The Holy Eucharist

On this day in 1840, Father Champagnat received the Holy Eucharist for the last time, as his illness progressed.  In two days he would be dead.  He loved the Eucharist and even when so ill, received it as often as he could.  With the Solmenity of the Body and Blood of Jesus coming up next Sunday, this might be a good week to reflect on what the Eucharist means to us.  Is it the highlight of our Sunday, or of our day?
How well do we prepare for it?  how do we express our gratitude for it?  How do we live it in being "bread for one another"?  CCHS students love to sing the communion hymn written by Dana for the Denver World Youth Day in  1993:  We are one Body, which reminds us not only of a chance for intimate union with Jesus, but with the entire Body of Christ around the world.  "We do not stand alone."  And so the victims of the plane crash in Lagos, or the deaths of the Brunswick High School seniors killed in a car crash just north of Cincinnati just before their graduation, are our loss as well.  The pain and joy that is part of the human family come together in the Eucharist, in the Body of Christ given for many.  May we come to a deeper appreciation of what it means to partake of the most excellent gift.
Bro. Rene