This week I’d like to use this column in the bulletin to address an important aspect of our life together. For most, these reminders will seem unnecessary, but experience shows that regular reminders about these matters are indeed necessary. I know mistakes about these matters are not usually the result of ill-will or obstinate refusal, but simply because no one has ever taken the time to teach about them. I offer these reflections not to scold anyone or to make anyone feel badly, but rather to help us all to give proper reverence to the Most Blessed Sacrament. Like I said, many of these things will sound obvious to most, but experience shows that it is necessary to raise these issues. Who can receive the Eucharist? You must be Catholic to receive the Eucharist. Holy Communion not only builds communion in the life of the Church, but it also presumes communion. You must examine your conscience and confess all serious sin and receive absolution before receiving the Eucharist. You must fast for one hour before receiving the Eucharist. When you receive the Eucharist at Mass, do not snatch it from the priest, deacon, or extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. If you receive on the tongue, this is not an issue. If you receive in the hand, allow the minister to place the host on the palm of your hand. Please hold your hand in such a way that the Host will not slide off of it. It must be flat. Then, you take the hand underneath and place the host in your mouth. Do not grab it from the minister or fumble with it. Do not break the Host, walk away with the Host, bless yourself with the Host, or do anything with the Host other than consume it. Please, if you receive in the hand, step to the side and immediately consume the Host so that the minister sees you consume it. (Many times at funerals and weddings, we see people take the Host away and not consume it. It puts the priest or minister in an awkward position because we have to go and ask the person to either consume it or we have to take the Host back. It is embarrassing not only for the person, but also for the priest. None of us enjoys doing that. The same thing holds true at Sunday Mass, so please consume the Host in the sight of the priest or minister.) No one is permitted to break the Host in order to bring a piece of it to someone back in the pew or at home. Children who have not received First Holy Communion cannot receive the Host and no one should break a piece of the Sacred Host and give it to them. No one is permitted to take the Host that has been received in order to bring it to someone else. These things are absolutely forbidden. If you have not been instituted as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at St. Patrick Parish, please do not approach the priest, deacon, or Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at Mass with a pyx asking for Hosts. As guardians of the Blessed Sacrament, we need to have certitude that all proper care is being taken with the Eucharist. Those who have been instituted to administer the Eucharist to the homebound must be properly trained and follow the proper ritual. If you desire to be instituted as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, then you should contact the parish office. Those who are instituted to administer the Eucharist to the homebound must go immediately from Mass to the person receiving the Eucharist. You cannot carry the Host with you while you run errands etc. The Eucharist is never to be kept overnight in someone’s home. It is to be brought to the sick and consumed by them immediately. No one may reserve the Eucharist in their own home. I know that sometimes “tone” does not always come across accurately in a letter, so let me assure you that the tone which I intend when I write this is one of trying to be helpful (but clear). It is not my intention to sound like I am scolding anyone. We do, however, want to make sure that the Most August Sacrament of the Altar is treated with the absolute reverence and honor to which it is due. Sometimes laxity and bad habits slip in. Some folks may never have even learned this to begin with, so this is all meant to be helpful. Your Brother in Christ, Fr. David Barnes

I spent five days last week on my annual retreat. Five glorious days of complete silence. Phone off, email off, no TV, radio, or another human voice. I know for some people, that sounds like a kind of punishment, but it was so great. I admit that I don’t think I’d want to do that kind of retreat in the winter when I couldn’t sit outside for hours, but this time of year, it was perfect. I stayed in this little wooden hermitage–a cabin–on the property of a monastery of nuns. It had a little porch on it (I love porches), a bed, a desk, a nook to eat meals, and an oratory for prayer. It was in that little oratory–made of all wood with a small altar and three icons on the wall–that I had Mass each morning. The rest of the day was spent walking, praying, and reading. Almost every time I go on retreat, I expect some life-changing revelation, but that rarely happens. Instead, almost every time I go on retreat, I am simply reminded of the basics of living a Christian life and the life of a priest. It is a little humbling actually. Retreats, more often than not, are for me, a reminder that I should pray, read, love God, love my neighbor, be humble, trust in Divine Providence, embrace the Cross, abhor sin, and hope in the Lord. Basic stuff, but I seem to require a yearly reminding of it. Each day during the retreat, I read several chapters of a spiritual book about those (and other) topics. Almost every chapter, I would think, “Well, this is kind of basic stuff.” Then I’d think, “So, if it is so basic, you probably should be a lot more advanced in it than you are!” I also finished a wonderful novel. It was one of those books that I didn’t want to end. Written by Singred Undset, the book is entitled, “Olav Audunsson.” It is filled with such deep humanity. There were times in the novel when I would have to put the book down because the author’s capacity for describing the interior life of the characters–their pain, their love, their hatred, their fears, their desire for redemption–was so vivid that I couldn’t bear the reality! I think that the novel is so brilliant because, as you read it, you recognize yourself in its pages. Speaking of recognizing ourselves . . . . This week Pope Leo XIV canonized two new saints, Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis. St. Carlo is the first millennial saint added to the Church’s canon of saints. Both were young men who lived extraordinary lives of holiness and virtue. They are pictured on the front of the bulletin this week. The saints help us not only by praying for us, but they assist us by their example. They remind us that people just like us can become saints. They remind us that ordinary people can become extraordinary saints. Every assignment I’ve ever had as a priest has either been a school or had a parish school attached, so while January is the beginning of the Calendar Year, and Advent is the beginning of the Liturgical Year, it’s really September when everything seems actually to begin. So, these days everything is beginning. As we begin another year together, let’s remember to take some time each day to read, to pray, and to reflect. Taking a little time each day to do these things can help us all to live the other hours of the day with greater meaning. Setting aside time every day for a little bit of prayer, a little bit of reading, and a little bit of reflecting can help to remind us of those basic things that we tend to forget. Those little moments each day can remind us that there is a God who loves us, who desires for us to be close to Him, who wants to save us, who can save us, who wants to forgive us, heal us, and give us graces to help us to love Him, to love others, to overcome sin, and to become more like His Son. A little bit of solitude each day can save us from forgetting what is most important, the basics. And remembering and living these basics is how ordinary men and women become extraordinary saints. Your Brother in Christ, Fr. David Barnes