First Holy Communion (1st in series of 3)...

3rd Sunday of Easter

"If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so 
for one reason: Holy Communion." - St Maximilian Kolbe

 

In the spring of 1891, when Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity was

almost eleven years old she made her First Communion. Sensitive

by nature, especially to things sacred, she was profoundly affected

by her first reception of Jesus Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Tears of joy were seen to run down the young girl's face after 

her Communion.   Upon leaving the church, she said to a close friend,

"I'm no longer hungry.  Jesus has fed me."

On the afternoon of her First Communion, Elizabeth also encountered the prioress of the Carmel of Dijon for the first time.  The prioress, upon learning the name of the child, explained that "Elizabeth" means "house of God."  A few days later, she would send this same message to Elizabeth, writing on the back of a holy card:

"Your blessed name hides a mystery, 

accomplished on this great day. 

Child, your heart is the House of God on earth, 

of the God of love."

This theme of being the "house of God," then, was at first closely associated with the mystery of the Eucharist in the mind of Elizabeth. In a poem that she would later write to commemorate the seventh anniversary of her First Communion,  she meditates upon the day:

"When Jesus made in me His dwelling place, 

When God took possession of my heart, 

So well that since that hour, 

Since that mysterious colloquy, 

That divine and delicious meeting, 

I have aspired to nothing else but to give my life

In order to return a bit of His great love

To the Beloved of the Eucharist

Who reposed in my feeble heart, 

Inundating it with all of His favors."

Elizabeth once wrote the following words to a friend who had just made her First Communion: 

"If He came this morning into your little heart, 
it was not to pass through it and go away, 
but to remain there always."

Excerpt from article, The Saint of the Divine Indwelling

by Fr. Gregory Ross, O.C.D., S.T.L.

Painting: After the First Holy Communion ~ Carlo F Smith (1892)

Photo: St Elizabeth of the Trinity

Do you remember/can you figure out 

your First Holy Communion date? 

Do HEARTILY celebrate it!