Our lives are sprinkled with encounters with God. We learn about the nature of Jesus through Scripture. We experience God’s love in the daily rhythm of our prayer. We see the face of Christ in our loved ones and the hands of Christ in those who serve. We may feel God’s presence particularly when in nature, serving others or when we hear a kind word.

But there is one place where he is uniquely and physically near:  the Eucharist. This is where we celebrate and recognize Christ’s true love for us and where the miracle of God’s physical presence is available to us.

The Eucharist joins us together as one in community with God and each other. As we focus our hearts on the act of love that is the Eucharist, we open ourselves to a life intended by God … one that opens us to many wonders and signs. Remembering this gives communion on Sunday an entirely new meaning, albeit one that has been recognized from ancient times. St. Augustine described the Eucharist:  “O sacrament of devotion! O sign of unity! O bond of charity!”²

For many faithful Catholics, then, it was an unthinkable sacrifice to be unable to participate in Holy Communion during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the relaxation of pandemic protocols, that sacrifice can now end for those who can return to the liturgy in person. Once again, we can participate in the “source and summit of Christian life.”³

As a reminder of the power of the Eucharist, three members of the Diocese of Saginaw have shared their lived experience of Jesus through Holy Communion. The reflections on the following pages contain their stories. Each is an invitation to join your parish community in this sacred practice where we encounter Jesus truly present in the sacrament that fills and refills us over and over again.

¹  Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, Italian National Eucharistic Congress, 2016.

²  In Joannis Evangelium, 26, 13.

³  Catechism of the Catholic Church 1324.