How to Receive the Eucharist Devoutly

A religion teacher once gave her fourth-grade students a rather unusual assignment. She asked them to write a paragraph describing how they would spend the day if Jesus came to visit them. The children put their heads down and began to write furiously. However, one boy began to wave his hand in the air. “What is it, Johnny?” the teacher asked. Johnny replied, “How do you spell ‘Toys R Us?’”

What would we do if Jesus came to spend a day with us? This is a challenging question for all of us, not just for fourth-grade youngsters. Imagine how we would feel if the pope came to our house for a day. Needless to say, our preparation for his visit would undoubtedly be detailed. We would probably be concerned that everything be as perfect as possible. Yet, when we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we are visited by someone far greater than the pope. How much greater should be our concern when it is Jesus himself who visits us!

As we have seen, Jesus comes to us in a physical, sacramental way in the Eucharist. He does so in the context of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The liturgy is the most powerful and effective prayer, because it is a prayer not only of the individual speaking to God but of the entire Church speaking to God collectively. First, in the Liturgy of the Word we are fed with the Word of God. Then we move on to the liturgy of the Eucharist, where we witness the sacred moment of consecration (the transubstantiation of the species of bread and wine), followed by our personal encounter with Jesus in Holy Communion.

We know that in receiving Communion we are receiving a living person, not simply a piece of bread or a mere symbol of Christ. By being eminently aware of Christ’s real presence, our devotion is far more fervent than if we regard the Eucharist as a mere symbol. We know, then, that each sacramental encounter with Jesus in Communion makes himphysicallypresent within us for a short time, that is, until the host dissolves and no longer has the “accidents,” or physical properties, of bread, such as its chemical structure. But even then Jesus wants to linger on in a spiritual way after the physical presence has ceased. How do we prepare for and respond to that continuing spiritual presence?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1385-1387) gives us some basic guidelines on preparing for Holy Communion. Most importantly, the Church says, we should be in a state of grace. We have already seen that we can stymie the flow of grace by receiving Communion sacrilegiously – in a state of serious, unrepented, and unconfessed sin. Practically, this means that we should examine our conscience and, if we are conscious and certain of any grave or mortal sin which requires that absolution of a priest, we must receive the sacrament of reconciliation beforehand. At the same time, we should repent of any less serious wrongdoing, since these lesser, or venial, sins can hinder to some extent the flow of grace.

Furthermore, the Church requires that we must normally observe a period of at least one hour of fasting before receiving Holy Communion, and that our bodily demeanor (gestures clothing, and so on) ought to convey the respect, solemnity, and joy of this occasion when Christ becomes our guest. The purpose of this norm is to secure greater reverence for the Blessed Sacrament.

The eucharistic fast that the Church prescribes today is minimal (we should abstain from eating and drinking for one hour before receiving Holy Communion, although abstaining from water and medicine is not required at any time), and these guidelines are a rather recent development. For centuries the Church taught that people should abstain from all  food and drink, even water. From the preceding midnight, and older Catholics today still have memories of observing this stricter fast. At the same time, many Catholics today personally choose to observe a stricter fast as a sign of their respect and devotion for the Blessed Sacrament. This is certainly a worthy practice.

The Church’s teaching on the preparation required for Holy Communion is quite basic, and common sense dictates it is appropriate to give even more care and attention to receiving the living God into our hearts that what is prescribed. It is to our advantage to take specialmeasures to prepare ourselves for Holy Communion, because the fruit it produces in our lives depends on the disposition with which we receive it. St. Bernard of Clairvaux once remarked, “God will manifest himself to you just as you show yourself available to him.” When people complain that they fell like the “receive nothing when they go to Communion, they are often only betraying their own lack of preparation beforehand.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque once recounted a vision she had during Mass. In this vision she saw Jesus in the host as the priest was giving Communion. She noticed that Jesus stretched out is arms and seemed eager to be united with some people, while he seemed to enter the mouths of others only because he was being dragged in by cords and bands to which he was bound. Later, our Lord explained the meaning of this vision to St. Margaret Mary. He told her he willingly entered into the hearts of those who were careful to please him and who took pains to prepare themselves beforehand. But he resisted the hearts of others because they were lukewarm Christians who did little in the way of preparation’ they had allowed faults and imperfections to permeate their lives with little for no resistance. He explained that he entered the hearts of these people only because of the promises he made when he instituted the sacrament of Holy Eucharist.

In order to outgrow our minimalist mentality, to learn how to cooperate with God, and to open ourselves up to the abundant graces and fruits available in the Holy Eucharist, we can look for advice to the holy saints who have preceded us. St. Alphonsus Liguori, who is recognized as perhaps the greatest of all moral theologians in the history of the Church, is one good source of practical and sound advice in this area. He himself had a profound devotion to the Eucharist, experienced the real presence of Christ in miraculous ways, and was a renowned teacher of devotion to the Eucharist. In his blood on the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, he addressed the critical question of how best to prepare ourselves for receiving our Lord Jesus in Holy Communion. He observed sadly that, even though many people were receiving Communion quite frequently, “so many souls after so many Communions make so little advance in the way of God.”

Although one Holy Communion is enough to make a person a saint if received with enough love, so few people who receive Communion make major strides toward holiness in doing so. St. Alphonsus recognized that something is wrong with the way in which most persons receive the Eucharist. “The problem,” he wrote , “is not in the food. The problem is in the want of due preparation on the part of the communicant.” When he studied the lives of the saints, he realized they reaped abundant blessings from their Communions because they took great care in preparing themselves. For example, St. Aloysius Gonzaga devoted three days to preparing himself to receive Holy Communion.

So let’s ask ourselves some questions about how we can prepare ourselves to receive Communion most effectively. How can we maximize our openness to all forms of healing through this sacrament? How do we advance more and more in our spiritual lives, thereby experiencing greater spiritual healing? How do we prepare ourselves for our emotional healing, so that all the various facets of our personalities might be better integrated? How do we prepare ourselves for physical healing so that our bodies might be healed while receiving the Body of Christ in the Eucharist? How do we incorporate ourselves more perfectly in a societal or communitarian dimension onto the Mystical Body of Christ?

This excerpt is from the book The Healing Power of the Eucharist, by John H. Hampsch, C.M.F., originally published by Servant Books, an imprint of St. Anthony Messenger Press. This and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.