Monday Musings - Dear God Forgive Us!

I have been treated as a spiritual leper over the years for simply sharing this basic Truth - we Catholics do not treat our Lord with the reverence, dignity and respect He deserves!

I am shocked at any priest who would line up multiple chalices on the altar and irreverently fill them with water and wine as if he were competing in a bar contest to see how quickly he could do so.

How can I remain silent when a priest drops the consecrated Host with such force, from such a height and with such apparent disregard for Whom he had been holding in his hands, that I can,  from my seat in the last pew in the Church, hear the Body of Christ as it violently crashes onto the bottom of the paten?

Who would not be upset with any priest who distributes the Body of Christ mute, refusing to voice the Truth that what I am about to receive is the Body of Christ?

All of these horrid abuses occurred last week in a parish I visited while traveling away from home. But tragically, these and countless other Eucharistic abuses, take place in far too many of our Churches. Is there any wonder that so few claiming to be Catholic actually believe that Jesus is present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity?

The Eucharist is supposed to be the source center and summit of our faith.  In practice, it is not. My educated guess (supported by the reports of numerous lay Catholics) is that increasing reverence for and belief in the Eucharist rarely, if ever, appears as the number one priority for parishes and dioceses. The trail of closed and locked Churches and empty pews every Sunday corroborate this tragic and sad reality.

There is no more important change needed in our Church than to promote and rediscover a sense of awe, belief and reverence for our Lord and Savior, Who is really, truly and substantially present in the Holy Eucharist.

We must treat Jesus as if we actually believe He is in our midst to be worshiped and adored and to be given as spiritual food to transform and sustain us along our temporary earthly journey .

Our failure to do so is offensive to Our Lord.

We can no longer wait for our priests and bishops to address this problem. We, as individual practicing and believing Catholics, must end God's suffering now - one soul at a time.

Love God as we ought and as He deserves!