For Communion

Growing up Protestant, sacraments seemed fairly irrelevant to me. It was not until I turned fifteen that I decided to get baptized because I knew that if I accepted the terms of what baptism meant, by Protestant standards, then I needed to truly accept Christ and all that it meant to follow him. As a Methodist, I always wanted to be in the right mindset for communion and not take for granted what I was partaking in. When I met my husband, I recognized that his Catholic beliefs were particularly important to him. As he explained to me the sacredness of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, I admired his passion and love for seeing Communion in such a beautiful way—even if I did not see it that way myself. When we got married, I attended my first Easter Vigil in 2019. I had already gone to adoration with him a few times and found praying in front of the Eucharist to be such an impactful experience with Christ. At the vigil, I saw the catechumens and candidates partaking in their first Eucharist, and I was in such awe. All these people were willingly accepting the initiation rites of what the Church was asking of them. Now, they were receiving what they genuinely believed was the Body and Blood of Christ and joining with him in such a special way. The view in front of me was of such beauty, I considered what it would be like to be so close to Christ in receiving him in the eucharistic feast. I wondered: could I be closer to Jesus than ever before?