Gift OF Jesus: Holy Communion

Homily On Holy Communion

  Dear boys and girls,  I would like to congratulate you today because you look like princes and princesses in your shining, beautiful pants and shirts, dresses and crowns. You are happy and all smiles today and your parents, teachers and relatives are proud of you. They want to keep the sweet memory of this day by taking your pictures. They also want you to remember this day through out your life by giving you beautiful gifts like small bibles, beautiful rosaries, shining prayer books and other precious gifts. My question is why we all are happy today and why do we celebrate this day as the most important day of your life? You might have heard of Napoleon Bonaparte the French emperor who conquered most countries of Europe and wished to conquer the whole world. Somebody asked him a question. What is the most important day in your life. They expected answers like the day of his coronation as emperor, the day of his royal wedding, the day of his famous victories. But he said, “The most important and the most memorable day of my life is my First Communion Day.” For each one of you this day should remain as the happiest and most memorable day of your life. 

Why this is the happiest day of your life? It is because you are receiving the biggest celebrity, Jesus our God and Savior, as the guest of honor into your hearts and lives, for the first time, in Holy Communion. It means somebody very, very big is coming to stay with you, bless you, protect you and guide you. That is why we have all these celebrations. The next question is how does Jesus come to our hearts? Jesus comes to our hearts in the form of consecrated bread and wine. Do you see Jesus in the bread and wine? No. Can you taste Jesus or touch Jesus or smell Jesus in the Holy Eucharist we receive today? No. Then why do you believe that you are receiving Jesus in Holy Communion? It is because Jesus said that he would be there in the consecrated bread and wine. Nothing is impossible for God. So Jesus is really present in the consecrated host and wine. Ever since his resurrection on Easter Sunday Jesus has a glorified body. In Holy Communion we are receiving that glorified body of Jesus. That is why we cannot see or touch or taste Jesus’ human body and blood when we receive Holy Communion. 

 The next question is why Jesus comes to us as bread and wine, as food and drink? You know the reason. We cannot live many days without eating or drinking. It means food is essential for the life of our bodies. In the same way spiritual food is essential for the

life of our souls.  And the food for our souls is the body and blood of Jesus. That is why Jesus said that we would be spiritually dead if we don’t eat his body and drink his blood. Hence you have to receive Jesus in the Holy Communion every time you participate in a Holy Mass and you have to receive Jesus after asking his pardon and forgiveness for your sins and with great reverence and respect. 

A final question: What will you do after receiving Jesus in Holy Communion? First, you have to invite Jesus into your heart. Then you have to thank Jesus for coming to your heart. Then you have to tell him all your needs and the needs of your parents, relatives, teachers and friends. Finally you must remember that you are carrying Jesus to your homes and schools as Jesus’ mother Mary carried Jesus to her cousin Elizabeth. It means that you have to behave well because you are carrying God Himself in your heart and soul. When you are alone tell Jesus living in your soul, about your parents, relatives, teachers, pastors, friends and their needs. Ask Jesus to make you a good boy or girl, an ideal student and a well behaving and obedient son or daughter. 

 I would like to thank every one who prepared these boys and girls to receive their first Holy Communion and remind the parents of these children that it is how you live and how you practice your faith in the family that is going to influence your children. Hence continue to train them in Christian faith and its practice, not by advice but by exemplary Christian lives. God bless you.

Authorship
 (Fr. Tony)
 www.stmaryastoria.com/Homily_on_First_Holy_Communion__3_.pdf

The Vocation

Priest and Sister

 Courtesy: Catholic news agency
 ...They were going to get married.Now he is a priest and She is a sister...

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Apr 12, 2018 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- Before discovering their vocations, Fr. Javier Olivera and Sister Marie de la Sagesse were engaged and planning their wedding. God had other plans.
Speaking to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish language sister agency, Fr. Olivera said that they both grew up in Catholic families and that “our parents knew each other when they were young.” They saw each other frequently when they were children.
“I had really left the practice of religion. When I was 19, I came back from a back-packing trip to Peru and I met her. I asked her if she believed in virginity until marriage, because for me this was kind of an invention by the Church. She laid out the principles so well about purity, from faith and reason, that it impacted me. I met a woman who knew how to defend what she believed and who was at the same time very intelligent,” Olivera commented.
Soon after that conversation, they began dating. At that time both of them were studying law. He was at the National University at Buenos Aires and she was at the National University at La Plata.
Fr. Olivera said that “it was like any other courtship but we tried to take advantage of cultural life through music, literature and philosophy. We read books together, we'd go out for coffee. We had a group of friends with whom we attended conferences of Argentine Catholic authors.”

“I started to practice the faith, to pray, to go to Mass on Sundays. All in large part thanks to her, to God mainly, but to her as an instrument,” said the priest. He added that they also prayed the rosary together.
For her part, Sister Marie de la Sagesse, whose baptismal name is Trinidad Maria Guiomar, told ACI Prensa that what she most appreciated about her then-boyfriend was “his sincere search for the truth without fearing the consequences.”
The couple got engaged  when they were 21 and decided to get married after college, two and a half years away.
The discovery of a vocation
One day Trinidad Maria's older brother broke the news that he would be entering the seminary, and she remembered, “we were reeling from it  because we weren't expecting that.”
“I had a car and with my fiancée we decided to take him to the seminary, which was in San Rafael, Mendoza Province,” she said. They both decided to stay in the area a few days so Javier could visit some friends who were in the seminary, and Trinidad Maria could visit some friends in the convent.
“When we got back, we talked about how crazy all that was, that her brother had left everything, the possibility of having a family, an important career. We began to ask ourselves, ‘What would happen if God called us to the religious life?’ The first thing we said was 'no' and that that was crazy because we were having a really beautiful engagement and we were already buying things to get married,” Fr. Olivera recounted.
Weeks went by “there was this constant thought in my soul about what would happen if God called  me, if I had to leave everything, why not be a priest? How to know if the best way to get to heaven for me is the priestly life or the married life? Where can I do the most good?”
After so many doubts he decided to tell his fiancée about his vocational concerns, who confessed to him that she “was thinking the same thing” after her brother entered the seminary.

However, neither one of them made a decision. “Since we still had two years before  finishing law school, that was a great excuse to not yet enter the seminary or the convent,” Fr. Olivera said.
They had “a very prudent monk” as a spiritual adviser, who told them: “Look, that is an issue between each one of you and God. No one can interfere with souls.”
For her part, Sister Marie de la Sagesse told ACI Prensa that “it was a long period of discernment, at least two years, until God clearly showed me the consecrated life, and I could not doubt that he was asking of me this total surrender.”
After finishing their studies, both embraced their vocations. In 2008, when they were 31, he was ordained a priest in the Diocese of San Rafael, and she made her final vows in the congregation of the Sisters of the Merciful Jesus.
Fr. Olivera is currently a university professor and has a blog called “Que no te la cuenten”  (Find out for yourself). He has written a book on vocational doubts entitled “¿Alguna vez pensaste? El llamado de Cristo” (Have you ever thought about it? The Call of Christ).
Sister Marie de la Sagesse lives in southern France and has an apostolate in Saint Laurent Parish in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon.
Regarding their story, she said that “I consider it a special grace that both of us were called almost at the same time. So kind and thoughtful of Divine Providence, who doesn't miss a detail . And what I really appreciate is that we're still friends and not just us, but our families too.”

This story was originally published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language sister agency. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.