An Ancient Truth Leads Me

I wrote this nine years ago on my Facebook group, Daily Communicants:

Yesterday I was blessed to spend a few hours chatting with a new friend. When we shared our stories and I told her that I left the Church for 15 years and that the Eucharist was the reason I returned, she asked me probably one of the most important questions I've ever been asked.  She asked "What would it have taken for you to stay, to never have left?" Wow. I told her if someone had taught me what the Eucharist and the Mass were really all about, what an indispensable treasure we have in them, and that they are the deal breakers of Christianity as given to us by Christ and established by the Early Church Fathers and the first century Church, then I would never have left.  Like Jeff Cavins says in I'M NOT BEING FED:

“What will you exchange the very body and blood of Jesus Christ for? A better song, one that makes you feel better?  Will you exchange the body and blood of Jesus Christ for a home group where you can read the bible together? Will you exchange the body and blood of Jesus Christ for a prayer meeting?  What will you exchange the body and blood of Christ for?  That's a question we all have to answer.  What did we exchange it for? And what are you getting out of that today? How are you being fed?"

"We are fed as Catholics on a diet of the Word of God, and we are fed by his body and his blood, and this all takes place right there in the Mass.  A beautiful, beautiful thing."

If I had known this, if someone had ministered to me and driven this message home to me 25 years ago, I would never have left the Church. The key is falling in love with the Mass. When you fall in love with Jesus in the Eucharist, I mean fall HARD, you will never leave Christ's Church.

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