How do you feel after taking the Eucharist?

[_Gemma]

How do you feel after taking the Eucharist? I’m doing RCIA and won’t receive it until I’m baptized next year, I’ve read about how some saints really love it and seem to have a special spiritual experience How do you feel when you take it, normal, happy, closer to Jesus or others, anything else?

 

[Julia_Mae]

How do you feel when you take it, normal, happy, closer to Jesus or others, anything else?

yes

Be careful, Gemma. No one else’s experience will necessarily be yours.

 

[Merlin89]

Yeah,really Gemma,you have to be careful to what you ask for or ask because it will seems like you do not have faith or trust in him and to remind you,holy Eucharist is a source of our life;it make us live for ever (i.e eternal life christ promise for those who drink his blood and eat his body worthily),and also the thirst to take him worthily will help you to be concious of yourself, always to live a life of chastity.I will advise you to just trust him blind-folded towards him no matter any situations.Dear,Pax christi.

 

[Dorothy]

It is your commitment to the truths of the faith that counts. Sometimes we are blessed with a very good feeling, and other times nothing at all. We need to ask the Lord for a strong faith that does not depend on feelings.
Leave the times of consolation up to Him, He knows how to sanctify us.

 

[AlanFromWichita]

Not so much a feeling, but a thought I sometimes have after receiving is that after 2000 years we have this sacrament still intact.

As far as “feeling” I usually don’t feel anything, but sometimes I feel a little wave of peace – I’m guessing it’s psychological on my part and not supernatural, but who knows? And besides, if it brings me peace, then who cares?

Alan

 

[Miky]

The important thing is to realise and truly believe the deep mystery that takes place when you take the Holy Eucharist. Mind you don´t create a link in your mind between receiving communion and a “good feeling”. To be honest I don´t feel any different most of the time (not saying there are no feelings attached to it). It may be even tempting for some to say something like:
I don´t feel anything, therefore it is not real / I received the Eucharist unworthily
However, THIS does NOT follow.
How many times have we been reading the Bible casually without realising what it really is - God´s Word - God Himself speaking to us - mere dust. Or how many times have we realised that God Himself decided to suffer in a human flesh - so much He loved us. And when have we properly appreciated or at least felt God´s existence, presence or love for us.

So do not be discouraged by a lack of “proper feelings”. As for those feelings, altough they may be present, I see them rather as a grace from God to those worthy and/or prepared to accept them (yet it depends more on God than on us to whom He gives and from whom He takes away) than an intrinsic part of receiving communion. And even though we, catholics, may and do generally feel “something”, we should always pay more attention to WHOM we receive that to WHAT we feel.

By the way, if you were just curious then I mostly feel happines, desire to be closer to Jesus or gentle sadness.

I am also happy for your conversion

 

[TheRealJuliane]

How do you feel after taking the Eucharist? I’m doing RCIA and won’t receive it until I’m baptized next year, I’ve read about how some saints really love it and seem to have a special spiritual experience How do you feel when you take it, normal, happy, closer to Jesus or others, anything else?

Our feelings aren’t important in the end. What IS important is that we receive the Precious Body and Blood of Our Lord, knowing that He instituted this sacrament for our benefit, and that we are prepared to receive Him worthily each and every time.

What I experience: Humility. Joy. Trepidation (knowing that I am truly UNworthy of his sacrifice). Love. Shame for my sins. A uniting with other Catholics all over the world. Awe. And, most of all,

GRATITUDE.

Don’t expect anything special, just pray to be present and fully open to Christ.

 

[Sebrina]

That was a really good answer, Miky. I’ve thought the same thing as the OP. I think I may have Eucharist envy.

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

The important thing is to realise and truly believe the deep mystery that takes place when you take the Holy Eucharist. Mind you don´t create a link in your mind between receiving communion and a “good feeling”. To be honest I don´t feel any different most of the time (not saying there are no feelings attached to it).

This is true. Don’t get caught up in feelings. I used to feel the most wonderful things with everything- Mass, communion, prayer, Confession, etc. About two months ago the consolations went away, and the desolation set in. I remember praying in the church one evening right after I got out from Confession, and I got this most terrifying sense of desolation and being completely abandoned. I then felt that strong feeling like you get before you break out in tears, which was even more peculiar in that I couldn’t even cry despite usually breaking out in tears over the slightest thing. Furthermore, my anxiety has been off the chart when I go to confession each week to confess the slightest venial sins and imperfections, when prior by what must have been pure grace, it would subside so I could make it through confession okay.

Now when I go to Mass, receive communion, etc. I feel nothing. That’s okay though because I know that when I feel nothing it means God is closer than he ever was before. Prior to receiving communion, while the altar boys are reciting the Confiteor, I recite the Act of Contrition to myself and then go up to the communion rail to receive. As I kneel there, I look up at the big crucifix and mentally tell Jesus, “I love you. I adore you. I want to be united to you. Please fill me with your Most Sacred Heart, you’re burning heart of charity” while I wait for the priest to come to me with communion. I leave it at that and don’t go expect to feel anything. I would describe my experiences as more of an emotional intellect thing. Like when you “fall in love with someone” and get those warm fuzzy feelings, but after awhile they go away and you just love the person for who they are, if that makes sense.

Don’t get hooked on a feeling.

 

[Cath4life]

For me personally, it is the greatest gift ever As a person that suffers from depression, I wake up in a very low state, but after I receive the HolyEucharist, I can go about my day with a new sense of peace and perseverance. I realize not everyone can receive the Holy Eucharist daily, but for those that can and are in a state of grace, there is nothing like it in this world!

Like a previous post says, not everyone is going to feel the same way.

 

[AlanFromWichita]

Gemma,

Others have pointed out that experiences range widely, and that one experience is not to be preferred over another because what is important is the mystery that is taking place.

That’s all fine, but it also sounds like you are being characterized as being overly concerned about what the experience is or should be. I didn’t read your OP that way. I thought you were just excited about it in anticipation and wanted to hear a little “appetizer” story or two.

When you receive you first host, if you don’t feel some sort of emotional reaction I’d be surprised. I mean, walking across the stage to get a diploma from a school is something we can hardly do without it making a memory. Clearly receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus the Christ, in the Holy Eucharist, is going to make a memory. I’m totally excited for you.

I have a prayer for you:

Dear Lord, thank you for bringing Gemma to the Church and to create this thread. When Gemma does get to receive the Eucharist, I pray that Gemma experience wonderful consolations of Your design, if it be Your will. Amen.

(If you find the prayer too intrusive, just strike the second sentence. )

Alan

 

[maltmom]

Welcome Home!!! May God bless your journey.

God made us with feelings and emotions. I don’t think we can ever completely separate ourselves from them. I find it difficult to express my experience the first time I received the Eucharist.

Please keep us updated on your journey. I’ll be praying for you.

 

[R_C]

Don’t focus on the feelings, lest the Lord, to test your love, remove them…to receive Christ means that we acknowledge that He is giving Himself entirely to us, with the fullness of His divinity, with the fullness of His love. Truly it is God that you are receiving…even if you had reached the highest possible holiness, your finite heart still could not perceive a fraction of the infinite love that is being poured into it.

Love Christ as much as possible when you receive the Eucharist. The spouse knows that “it is more blessed to give than to receive”…it is beautiful, then, when we approach the Lord not with the intention of receiving Him, but rather, with the intention of giving ourselves entirely to Him, in body and soul. Yes, we may not be much of an offering before the Almighty, but in His eyes each of us is worth an ineffable price: each of us is worth His life.

There are many devout works on preparing to receive the Holy Eucharist. The fourth book of the Imitation of Christ is dedicated to this. Also St. Francis of Sales wrote about this, specifically in Ch. XXI of the “Introduction to the Devout Life” and on the specific moment, he said:

go with the fullest trust, but at the same time with the fullest humility, to receive that Heavenly Food which will sustain your immortal life.

And after having said the sacred words, “Lord, I am not worthy,” do not make any further movement whatever, either in prayer or otherwise, but gently opening your mouth, in the fulness of faith, hope, and love, receive Him in Whom, by Whom, and through Whom, you believe, hope, and love.

When you have received it kindle your heart to adore the King of our Salvation, tell Him of all your own personal matters, and realise that He is within you, seeking your best happiness. In short, give Him the very best reception you possibly can, and act so that in all you do it may be evident that God is with you.

Do not focus on the feelings…souls who greatly advance in the spiritual life do not long for the sweetness of the Bread of Life, but for the bitterness of the Cup of Suffering…however, rest assured that, if it be God’s will, He will offer you some sweet roses every so often…

s. Padre Pio, who was second to none in the discernment of spirits, told one of his spiritual daughters:

(Holy Communion) is all mercy, internal and external. Feel free to pray Jesus that He may allow you to feel Him sensibly.

(In Holy Communion, Jesus) finds delight in His creature. (Holy Communion) is a fusion. As if two candles were to melt together and become indistinguishable.

(During Holy Mass, we should) feel compassion and love. We should assist like the Blessed Virgin. Like St. John to the Eucharistic sacrifice and the cruent one on the cross.

Above all else, try to be recollected after the Holy Communion for at least 15 minutes. Do not leave the Church at once, or start talking wordly affairs, turning your back on His Majesty, on your divine Spouse, leaving Him alone. He longs to be there with you! (Lk 22:15)

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Don’t focus on the feelings, lest the Lord, to test your love, remove them…to receive Christ means that we acknowledge that He is giving Himself entirely to us, with the fullness of His divinity, with the fullness of His love. Truly it is God that you are receiving…even if you had reached the highest possible holiness, your finite heart still could not perceive a fraction of the infinite love that is being poured into it.

Love Christ as much as possible when you receive the Eucharist. The spouse knows that “it is more blessed to give than to receive”…it is beautiful, then, when we approach the Lord not with the intention of receiving Him, but rather, with the intention of giving ourselves entirely to Him, in body and soul. Yes, we may not be much of an offering before the Almighty, but in His eyes each of us is worth an ineffable price: each of us is worth His life.

There are many devout works on preparing to receive the Holy Eucharist. The fourth book of the Imitation of Christ is dedicated to this. Also St. Francis of Sales wrote about this, specifically in Ch. XXI of the “Introduction to the Devout Life” and on the specific moment, he said:

Do not focus on the feelings…souls who greatly advance in the spiritual life do not long for the sweetness of the Bread of Life, but for the bitterness of the Cup of Suffering…however, rest assured that, if it be God’s will, He will offer you some sweet roses every so often…

s. Padre Pio, who was second to none in the discernment of spirits, told one of his spiritual daughters:

Above all else, try to be recollected after the Holy Communion for at least 15 minutes. Do not leave the Church at once, or start talking wordly affairs, turning your back on His Majesty, on your divine Spouse, leaving Him alone. He longs to be there with you! (Lk 22:15)

Responses like this one are why I LOVE this forum SO MUCH!!!

 

[_Gemma]

The important thing is to realise and truly believe the deep mystery that takes place when you take the Holy Eucharist. Mind you don´t create a link in your mind between receiving communion and a “good feeling”. To be honest I don´t feel any different most of the time (not saying there are no feelings attached to it). It may be even tempting for some to say something like:
I don´t feel anything, therefore it is not real / I received the Eucharist unworthily
However, THIS does NOT follow.
How many times have we been reading the Bible casually without realising what it really is - God´s Word - God Himself speaking to us - mere dust. Or how many times have we realised that God Himself decided to suffer in a human flesh - so much He loved us. And when have we properly appreciated or at least felt God´s existence, presence or love for us.

So do not be discouraged by a lack of “proper feelings”. As for those feelings, altough they may be present, I see them rather as a grace from God to those worthy and/or prepared to accept them (yet it depends more on God than on us to whom He gives and from whom He takes away) than an intrinsic part of receiving communion. And even though we, catholics, may and do generally feel “something”, we should always pay more attention to WHOM we receive that to WHAT we feel.

By the way, if you were just curious then I mostly feel happines, desire to be closer to Jesus or gentle sadness.

I am also happy for your conversion

Thank you

 

[_Gemma]

Gemma,

Others have pointed out that experiences range widely, and that one experience is not to be preferred over another because what is important is the mystery that is taking place.

That’s all fine, but it also sounds like you are being characterized as being overly concerned about what the experience is or should be. I didn’t read your OP that way. I thought you were just excited about it in anticipation and wanted to hear a little “appetizer” story or two.

When you receive you first host, if you don’t feel some sort of emotional reaction I’d be surprised. I mean, walking across the stage to get a diploma from a school is something we can hardly do without it making a memory. Clearly receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus the Christ, in the Holy Eucharist, is going to make a memory. I’m totally excited for you.

I have a prayer for you:

Dear Lord, thank you for bringing Gemma to the Church and to create this thread. When Gemma does get to receive the Eucharist, I pray that Gemma experience wonderful consolations of Your design, if it be Your will. Amen.

(If you find the prayer too intrusive, just strike the second sentence. )

Alan

Thank you for that, and yes you are right I’m just excited and interested about taking the Eucharist, I’m not expecting it to be a certain way.

 

[_Gemma]

Don’t focus on the feelings, lest the Lord, to test your love, remove them…to receive Christ means that we acknowledge that He is giving Himself entirely to us, with the fullness of His divinity, with the fullness of His love. Truly it is God that you are receiving…even if you had reached the highest possible holiness, your finite heart still could not perceive a fraction of the infinite love that is being poured into it.

Love Christ as much as possible when you receive the Eucharist. The spouse knows that “it is more blessed to give than to receive”…it is beautiful, then, when we approach the Lord not with the intention of receiving Him, but rather, with the intention of giving ourselves entirely to Him, in body and soul. Yes, we may not be much of an offering before the Almighty, but in His eyes each of us is worth an ineffable price: each of us is worth His life.

There are many devout works on preparing to receive the Holy Eucharist. The fourth book of the Imitation of Christ is dedicated to this. Also St. Francis of Sales wrote about this, specifically in Ch. XXI of the “Introduction to the Devout Life” and on the specific moment, he said:

Do not focus on the feelings…souls who greatly advance in the spiritual life do not long for the sweetness of the Bread of Life, but for the bitterness of the Cup of Suffering…however, rest assured that, if it be God’s will, He will offer you some sweet roses every so often…

s. Padre Pio, who was second to none in the discernment of spirits, told one of his spiritual daughters:

Above all else, try to be recollected after the Holy Communion for at least 15 minutes. Do not leave the Church at once, or start talking wordly affairs, turning your back on His Majesty, on your divine Spouse, leaving Him alone. He longs to be there with you! (Lk 22:15)

Thank you for the information,

 

[Miky]

You are welcome, Gemma

I think I may have Eucharist envy.

Such an “envy” (desire) is something you should really be grateful for. Remember that the more you love someone the closer you wish to be to him. And of whom else but God can it be said that we are in Him and He in us when we receive communion?
Have a nice day

 

[animalis]

The Eucharist is the sacrament of sacraments, and the focal point of the people of God. Indeed it is a personal reception, but the linkage of the people in church amongst the sacrament cannot be acheived in any other way on earth itself, the footstool of God to be translated into the Kingdom of God at his throne. When the sacrament is injested with the common in the church and throughout the world, it is treasure to say I am now in essence in heaven among the saints here on my way in hope to the afterlife. So to consider our own personal feelings or thrills or pleasures should be allowed by your self to be trumped by the needs of the church as you are linked to them. Not by your own strength do we serve the church. As it is said in the twenty-first psalm, “Be thou exalted, O Lord, in thy own strength: we will sing and praise thy power.”(Ps 21:13) God is exalted in the reception of the sacrament, and our pleasures are suborinate to being faithful to him under the pain of the cross, which is not in vain because God is exalted in it. To be faithful to this sacrament is what we beg to cooperate, as the catechism says, “Only when we humbly acknowledge that ‘we do not know how to pray as we ought,’ are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. ‘Man is a beggar before God.’”(CCC 2559)

 

[Vouthon]

The Catholic mystics have all described incredible experiences before, during and after partking of the Holy Eucharist. In many cases, the act of receiving Holy Communion leads them to union with God, in effect, a union of “indistinction” with God, in which the mystic is so aware of the intimate bond created between the body, blood and personhood of Christ through transubstantiation and their own body and soul, such that they perceive no difference between themselves and Christ but have truly put on Christ and can say with Saint Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

I’m going to quote for you from the writings of Hadewijch of Antwerp (a great medieval Beguine, Dutch mystic), Johannes Tauler and Saint Faustina Kowalska.

“…With that he came in the form and clothing of a Man, as he was on the day when he gave us his Body for the first time; looking like a Human Being and a Man, wonderful, and beautiful, and with glorious face, he came to me as humbly as anyone who wholly belongs to another. Then he gave himself to me in the shape of the Sacrament, in its outward form, as the custom is; and then he gave me to drink from the chalice, in form and taste, as the custom is. After that he came himself to me, took me entirely in his arms, and pressed me to him, and all my members felt his in full felicity, in accordance with the desire of my heart and my humanity. So I was outwardly satisfied and fully transported. … [Then] I saw him completely come to naught and so fade and all at once dissolve that I could no longer recognize or perceive him outside me, and I could no longer distinguish him within me. Then it was to me as if we were one without difference. It was thus: outwardly, to see, taste, and feel as one can outwardly taste, see, and feel in the reception of the outward Sacrament. So can the Beloved, with the loved one, each wholly receive the other in full satisfaction of the sight, the hearing, and the passing away of the one in the other. After that I remained in a passing away in my Beloved, so that I wholly melted in him and nothing any longer remained to me of myself, and I was changed and taken up in spirit, and there it was shown to me concerning the hours…”

***- Hadewijch of Antwerp (13th centry), Dutch Catholic woman mystic ***

Now that my friends is what I call a “eucharistic experience” During her vision, Hadewijch is able to be in union with God as well as have the Eucharist, all the while having an erotic experience with God in the form of a man. It blow my mind the first time I read it. It reminds one of the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa and her almost orgasmic experience of the love of God as depicted by Bernini.

Now Johannes Tauler and the Eucharist (and don’t worry its not erotic like the above female mystic’s experience : ):

"…How can reason possibly grasp that immensity beyond all being where the precious food of the Eucharist is, in some marvellous way, made one with us, drawing us wholly to itself and changing us into itself? It is a union more intimate than any that the human mind can conceive, totally unlike any other change, a union more compatible than a tiny drop of water losing itself in the wine-vat and becoming one with the wine, or that of the rays of the sun made one with the sun’s splendour; or the soul with the body, the two together making one person, one being. In this union the soul is lifted above the infirmity of its natural state, its own insufficiency, and there it is purified, transfigured and raised above its own powers, its human operations, its very self. Both being and activities are penetrated through and through by God, formed and transformed in a divine manner, the soul’s new birth is accomplished in truth, and the spirit, losing all its native incompatibility, flows into divine union.

It is something like fire working on wood; the heat draws out all the moisture, the greenness and the heaviness. It grows warm, begins to glow, becomes more like the fire itself. As the wood slowly takes on the likeness of fire, the dissimilarity between the two grows less until finally, in a rapid movement, the fire takes from the wood its own substance; the wood becomes fire and loses at the same time its separateness and inequality, since it has become fire. No longer merely like fire, it has become one substance with the fire. Likeness is lost in union.

In the same way this food of love draws the soul above distinction or difference, beyond resemblance to divine unity. This is what happens to the transfigured spirit. When the divine heat of love has drawn out all the moisture, heaviness, unfitness, then this holy food plunges such a one into the life of God. As Our Lord himself said to St Augustine, “I am the food of the strong: believe and feast on me. You will not change me into yourself; rather you will be changed into me.”…"

- Johannes Tauler (c.1300-1361), Catholic mystic & Dominican priest

“…John Tauler teaches that the normal response to receiving communion should be contemplation. Such a total gift of self on Christ’s part requires a corresponding gift of self on our part, and such a union should result in the highest contemplation, all things being equal, which they usually aren’t. In our first passage he talks about levels of conversion, a relatively superficial level and a profound level, and this may help us understand why we are not all mystics, even though we go to communion…”

***- from a Benedictine blog ***

(continued…)