St. Thomas Aquinas says, “The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.” Living the Christian life culminates in our participation in the Eucharist. We are truly in God’s presence at this moment. The Eucharist as the source of my faith life. Sure, it’s a mystery and sometimes you just have to believe, but once you believe, you start to comprehend just what it means to be Catholic and how important our faith is. Looking at the Eucharist displayed in the monstrance we realize that Jesus came to show the world just how much God loves and cares for each and every one of us. And through his life, he showed us how to live, by dying on the cross he brought us salvation, and before he died, he gave us himself in the Eucharist.
During adoration we are truly in his presence and this is when I feel most connected with God. The first time that I experienced adoration was at a youth group retreat. If was my first retreat helping with the youth group and when the monstrance was brought out, I had no idea what to expect. Needless to say it was an interesting experience, but I wasn’t focused, I didn’t know the songs we sang, and my knees really hurt from kneeling on the floor. But it wasn’t until I was on a retreat that upcoming Oct when it started to click. But when I really made the connection was when we went to a FOP at Steubenville. A priest had been telling us for a while about how amazing these things were and we decided that it was worth a shot. We drove down there and boy were we surprised. My friend and I had always secretly thought the charismatic Christians were odd. What the heck were they doing with their hands in the air praising Jesus? Yet, that night we became one of them, thanking Jesus for all he had done for us.
It was at Stuebenville when my world collided and I found Jesus at the center and had met him face to face. It was also in that moment when I saw and felt the embrace of the whole Catholic community. This was when I realized that my relationship with Christ had begun.
I’ve realized that when I’ve finally come to the source, being in the presence of the Eucharist with our Lord, things make sense. And after each encounter, I always leave a new person, wanting to become closer to Christ.
