What you need
to know for
Your First Holy Communion
First, you have to know
Where God Is
and how He will come to you in Holy Communion
The
TABERNACLE
Inside
the
Tabernacle we find
the
Real Presence
of Jesus Christ —
Who
Lives
in the
HOLY EUCHARIST
under the appearances
of bread and wine.
It is the
most holy
of all places on the Earth!
Why?
Because Jesus Christ really
and truly lives there — and, not
only there —
but
in every Tabernacle
in
every Catholic
Church
in the world!
(Tabernacle)
If you were to
open the golden doors of the
Tabernacle
(each door has an Angel
on it, praying to Jesus inside) …
… you would see the
Most Holy Eucharist
in a golden cup called
the Ciborium
(chee—bore—e—um)
which looks like this:
The
Ciborium
The Ciborium
holds all
the Hosts
that will be
given out during Holy Communion at Mass
This is what the HOST
looks like:
(Host)
To our eyes
— the HOSTS appear to be simple, small,
round, wafers like the one above
But something WONDERFUL is
going to happen to them!
As you see right above: the
Host
is round, white, and tastes like bread —
but in fact it
really and truly
becomes the
Body of Christ
that the priest places
on your tongue.
The
Host contains
ALL
of
Jesus:
His
Body
His Blood
His Soul
and His
Divinity
(“Divinity” is
another way of saying that He is God).
Remember:
the
HOSTS are kept in
the Ciborium
and
The
CIBORIUM
is kept inside the
TABERNACLE ...
(Tabernacle)
In other words,
The
HOST
|
is kept |
in the
CIBORIUM
|
which is kept |
in the
TABERNACLE
|
The most important
thing to remember is that:
Jesus
Christ —
Who is GOD
— is
in
the
HOST
the
Host
is also called the
Holy Eucharist
But that is not all!
The
Holy Eucharist
is also
in the
Chalice!
The
Chalice
is a gold cup that holds the Blood of
Jesus Christ. And not just His
blood …
but
All of
Him
—
Just like the Host!
This is the Chalice:
Before
the priest consecrates
the wafer (bread) and the wine at Holy Mass,
they are only that:
bread and wine.
But
after
the priest Consecrates the round wafer and
the wine in the cup —
the
bread becomes
the Body of Jesus Christ
and the wine
becomes the Blood of Jesus Christ.
Really and truly!
When we go to
Holy Mass the priest
consecrates
(offers up to Jesus’
Father in Heaven)
the bread and
wine:
and after he does
this, they become
the Body and Blood of Jesus!
In other words,
after
the priest consecrates
it:
It is no longer
bread.
It is no longer wine.
It becomes Jesus
Himself!
(He is hidden under what
we call the “appearance” of bread and
wine.
In other words, it still
looks like bread and wine)
but now it is really
the BODY
and the BLOOD
of Jesus
Who gives Himself to us
in HOLY COMMUNION.
The priest offers the
Holy Eucharist
up to God
PRAYER BEFORE COMMUNION
(Before you go
to receive Holy Communion, you should say this
prayer:)
“O LORD
Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,
Who by the will of the Father and the Holy Ghost,
Died for us on the Cross
and by Your death, You gave life to the world:
deliver me by this,
Thy most sacred Body and
Blood,
from all my sins and from every evil.
Make me always to obey Thy commandments
and never let me be separated from Thee.
Amen.”
Here the priest is offering to you
the Holy Eucharist,
the Body of Jesus at Mass
And when you go to receive Holy Communion,
the priest first says to you:
“The
Body of Christ”
After you open your mouth and hold out your
tongue, the priest places the Host on your
tongue, and you say:
“Amen”
You have just received
Jesus on your tongue, and He
goes into your body and soul and you become
filled with
Grace and
become very pleasing to God! Angels
gather all around you (although you will not
see them — but they are there!) — right beside
you, singing praise to God for the most beautiful
gift He just gave you: Himself!
The Most Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass
If you could see all that is
really
taking place at Holy Mass, you would see something
like the picture above.
Do you see Jesus above the Altar?
Do you see His Father?
Do you see all the Angels?
They
are all there, during Holy Mass,
but usually, in this life, you cannot see them.
Ask God to help
you to love Him more
and more all your life. He will love you
and protect you, and be with you,
all your life!
The Most
Holy Eucharist