Lorrie:
I joined the Church this past Easter, at my First Communion I noticed I was in the line where the deacon was handing out the Body of Christ and I jumped into the line where the priest was doing it. Maybe it was wrong, but I definitely wanted to receive my first communion from a priest.
I, too, was Confirmed this past Easter, Lorrie, although I received my First Holy Communion earlier on February 13. My experience was quite unusual since my pastor accepted my private Profession of Faith and heard my first confession on Saturday and then admitted me to Communion. I received my first Communion the next day at a regular Sunday Mass and not even the presiding priest knew I was doing it. He was the associate pastor and I had been received into the Church by my pastor, who had not yet told the associate pastor of his decision.
The section of the church where I sit is served by EMHC’s because of the layout of our church and the priest is facing away from us when distributing Communion to his line. So I received my First Communion from an EMHC and the priest never saw me do it. To be pefectly honest, at the time I didn’t even
think about
who I was going to receive from. I was literally shaking from a combination of excitement and awe at what I was about to do and the only thing I was thinking about was **Who **I was about to receive.
Later I went to the First Communion Mass for the children of our parish and during his homily our pastor said to the children that he hoped they always remembered him and Father Lawrence since they would be receiving their First Communion from them. Afterwards I was thinking about it and told my pastor that I absolutely could not remember
who had given me my First Communion. I only knew it was one of the EMHC’s. He smiled and said the EMHC may have distributed it but that he/she had not
confected it. I smiled back and said “Well, then, looking at it that way, I received my First Communion from Father Lawrence.”
And that’s the way I have looked at it ever since, even if someone else did place the host in my hand.
In His love,
Rhonda (who
never line jumps
)
