The First Clarinet -The First Communion

Yesterday, I sat in the car at the end of my driveway and waited for my daugther to get off the bus. She had an orthodontic appointment, and we had to hustle or we wouldn't make it.

While I waited for her to hop in the car, I noticed Alexis, the sixth grader who lives next door. She was walking down her own drive, waiting for her brother to get off the bus. Alexis strolled down her driveway, playing a clarinet. I could tell that she was really hoping that the little kids on the elementary bus would take notice. She was not only in middle school now - she had an instrument!

I watched the little scene with a note of pessimism. Yeah, she loves the clarinet now, but how will she feel about it in six months? Will she still be eager to play it when it's practice time and nobody is listening?

I realized, with shame, that I was doing the same thing an editor did when I wrote an article about my daughter's First Communion. I wrote about my great joy. That, finally, I had someone from my family joining me at the Altar to receive Our Eucharistic Lord. No longer alone, I had someone to walk the aisle with me. Someone dear to me to talk to about how wonderful it was to be Catholic. My joy could not be contained.

Yes, but how will you feel if she falls away from the Sacraments? Many parents have to deal with that. Do you have any fears that she won't stay Catholic?

Uh! You have got to be kidding me! I wanted to shoot back a very indignant response.

But really, isn't that exactly how I responded to Alexis' joy at playing the clarinet in her driveway on a warm August afternoon?

It is a joyfilled moment. We should drink in these moments. Praise God for days like today.

And maybe let the pessimistic thoughts fly away.

Life is a gift. Today is filled with good things. And sometimes we have to protect our hearts from letting our own thoughts steal it all away.

The First Clarinet -The First Communion

Celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi

It is difficult to describe the joy and peace I sensed when I received the Most Blessed Sacrament for the first time--as one who is truly in union with Christ.


To be honest, I wondered if my overactive imagination was partly responsible for the profound experience I had when I knelt afterward, but each time, He has come again with that same deposit of peace. Each time, I recognize the Presence of Jesus Christ inside me and know that He is transforming and equipping me for service. I suppose there will be times in the next few decades when I do not sense Him so readily or feel anything profound, but I am comforted by the thought that He will come, regardless of my feelings, and bring to me precisely what I need every time I receive Him.

It saddens me when I consider my first forty years. I’ve “sat in on” many Catholic Masses through the years; I had no idea what I was missing. Without giving it much thought, I believed what those Catholics were doing was basically the same thing I did every time my Protestant church celebrated Communion. Not so. Protestant Communion was never efficacious for me; it never equipped me to live the life Christ marked out for me. While lovely and inspiring, it was merely symbolic.

Dear brother and sister in the Faith, do you know what you have in this Sacrament? Do you pause before receiving Our Lord and contemplate it all with wonder? If so, have you ever spoken about such things with a non-Catholic? Your evangelical friends are quick to ask you if you have asked the Lord to come into your heart. Have you ever asked them if they know what it is like for Him to come into the heart, the soul, the arms, the legs, and into one’s entire being? My friend, you have access to the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord.

Why not tell somebody?

Blessed Feast of the Body of Christ. Go to Mass this weekend and celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi.

Celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi