Receiving Communion Together Creates Unity  

The Instructions (GIRM 86) say the purpose of the hymn sung during the Communion procession “is to express the communicants’ union in spirit by means of the unity of their voices… and to highlight more clearly the ‘communitarian nature’ of the procession.”  

The Rite of Communion is an expression and an experience of unity in which the Spirit, through our sharing one Bread and one Cup, actually brings about unity. 

We pray in Eucharistic Prayers I and III that, “partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit… that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.” 

In Eucharistic Prayer IV we ask the Father to grant “to all who partake of this one Bread and one Cup that, gathered into one body by the Holy Spirit, they may truly become a living sacrifice in Christ to the praise of your glory.” 

Father Henri de Lubac, S.J. (Catholicism), pours out a cornucopia of quotations from saints and mystics to recall the tradition that Eucharist is the “sacrament of unity in the Church”: 

St. John Damascene teaches: 

If the sacrament is a union with Christ and at the same time a union of all, one with another, it must give us real unity with those who receive it as we do. 

 ACTION Ask whether sharing Communion with baptized, separated Christians might help bring about communion. 

PRAYER: Make receiving Communion a prayer for unity.  

— Fr. David M. Knight

View today’s Mass readings on the USCCB website here

Easter season is the time to focus on the Holy Spirit. Starting on Easter Sunday, we will look carefully at how the Spirit is proclaimed, invoked, and presented to us in the Mass. Lex orandi, lex credendi: “As the Church prays, so she believes.”

After that, we will reflect on the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 11:2; Galatians 5:22), and at how the Spirit enters the life of those who believe.

As you read these reflections, ask for the gift of Understanding. Ask to really understand what you believe, what you see and hear at Mass. Go deeper into understanding the Mass than you ever have before. We experience the Faith when we become aware of its mystery. We hope you reflect deeply on the Mass and Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and find yourself more and more drawn into the mysteries of our Lord in the Mass and in His Gifts.