Take heart! A joyous moment awaits you in the not-too-distant future. You will once again approach the altar and receive Jesus in the Eucharist. The sweetness of his Body and Blood will flood your soul and make you a living tabernacle of his love. He, in his glorified flesh, will touch you and fill you with the joy that comes from being in the presence of a friend.

But what about now? Now is the time of desire. It’s the time to embody the thirst of Jesus on the cross, the thirst with which he desires union with you and with me. Desire is what spiritual communion is all about. Spiritual communion is meant to spark in your heart here and now the desire for union with Jesus in the Eucharist. The deeper the desire, the more intimate the union with the Beloved when you receive him. The day of being united to your Savior and Redeemer will surely come. For now, we must prepare for this wondrous meeting, and every moment counts. 

Call upon him throughout the day: “Come, Lord Jesus!” “Jesus, I trust in you.” Ask for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: “Come Holy Spirit! Renew the face of the earth!” Embrace the silence and solitude of your apartment. Or, if the house is full, take time each day to pray as a family. Frequent the sacrament of confession where it is available. Especially in these holy days, ask for a contemplative spirit with which to accompany the Lord in his passion, death, and resurrection. 

Cultivating these practices in our daily lives, our desire for Jesus will become pure and holy like Mary’s most perfect desire.

“In her daily preparation for Calvary, Mary experienced a kind of “anticipated Eucharist” – one might say a “spiritual communion” – of desire and of oblation, which would culminate in her union with her Son in his passion, and then find expression after Easter by her partaking in the Eucharist which the Apostles celebrated as the memorial of that passion.” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia 56)

In the passion of our current time, and especially today, we stand at the foot of the cross with Mary. Here we are truly in union with Jesus through prayer, yet we also earnestly desire the most intimate union that comes with receiving him in the Eucharist. You, too, wait alongside Mary for your “after Easter” communion. Until that moment of heavenly sweetness and spiritual refreshment, live in the joy of holy expectation that arises from a deep desire for your first holy communion after this crisis is over. 

✠

Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)