When did you find out about the Real Presence in the Eucharist

[robin_hood]

I am just curious to see other people’s discovery of the real presence in the Eucharist.
I am a cradle Catholic who discovered the real presence at the ripe old age of 28,and then ran back to the Church which I had left 2 years earlier.Now I just cannot get enough of the Mass and the Eucharist.
I always thought that I failed to know because in my formative years, the lights were on but nobody was at home.
I have since discovered many other Catholics who have had the same experience as me.
Please share your experiences
God Bless :whacky:

 

[JimG]

robin hood:

I am just curious to see other people’s discovery of the real presence in the Eucharist.

2nd Grade. But that was a LONG time ago.

Later, taking a college theology course based on Frank Sheed’s book “Theology For Beginners,” I gained a more philosophical understanding of it. But it was still the same thing: Jesus, whole and entire, under the appearances of bread and wine. And I got that in 2nd grade.

JimG

 

[Detroit_Sue]

I learned it in second grade, but I didn’t *realize *until I was about 35.
It breaks my heart that I disregarded Jesus for so long…

 

[Didi]

I’m with you there. I’m a cradle Catholic, in the past have been on fire, lukewarm and nearly dried up, but about five years ago found my way back, mostly due to the Eucharist! Scott Hahn’s conversion story and teaching on The Fourth Cup really helped me, as did EWTN, Catholic Answers and our local Catholic radio station (and, of course, The Holy Spirit :bowdown2: )

I, too, am saddened by all the years I didn’t realize it was really, truly Jesus there all along . Now I, too, LOVE the mass and Eucharistic adoration. Don’t you wish the whole world knew of His Holy Presence and His Love and Mercy for us??!!

For those of you who have had this knowledge and understanding since childhood – do you realize what a precious gift that is?!

 

[Ray_Marshall]

Like many, I was blessed in the 1950s with 12 years of parochial education, quite orthodox and I’m sure by the second or third grade, I had learned that Jesus was present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist.

But I didn’t think much about it. It became just something to do.

Like many, after high school graduation, I went off to college and pretty much abandoned my Catholic faith, not out of rejection, but mostly out of laziness. In my mind, I just felt it was too much of a big deal to get up and go to Church on Sundays. And nobody else I knew was going to Church.

I often thought of God, and hoped to find some woman whom I could marry who would get me back to Church. (That never happened).

But even though I forgot God, God did not forget me.

I would think about God regularly, was offered many opportunities by Him to return to the faith, but did nothing about it.

Finally, I read and did some things, some of them very “New Age’y” in the 70s and 80s and did return to the Church in 1981. And I slowly, with a few relapses fully rejoined the Catholic Church…

About 1985 or so, I was in Dubuque, Iowa, visiting a Brother and his family in Davenport. One Sunday, we decided to attend Mass at a Trappist Monastery at New Melleray, outside of Dubuque.

As I approached the Priest offering the Precious Blood at Communion, as I had often done, often in the past in a state of mortal sin, I wasn’t thinking anything special.

I can’t even vouch for the fact that at that moment I was even full of grace as I had been so casual in my faith.

It got to be my turn, and as I looked up at the tall Trappist Monk, he said to me “The Blood of Christ.”

It was like I had been hit with a sledge hammer. Absolutely stunned, my only reaction was “He believes that.”

Well, since then, I have believed it too.

Ray Marshall
Minneapolis

 

[maggiec]

When I received communion for the first time after my husband and I were re-married in the church. All I could say after I had received the Host was thank you Jesus, over and over again. When I got back to my pew all I could do was cry, knowing, finally, that I had really received Jesus. That was 2 months ago I am 56 and am a cradle catholic.
mcggiec

 

[dream_wanderer]

I was raised a Protestant but I have to admit I had ideas and suspicions about the Real Presence for years before I converted. I wondered why we, who were part of a group that interpreted the Bible literally…didn’t interpret the "This is my body’ verses literally. Why everything else was literal but when it came to that doctrine it was suddenly ‘symbolic’.??? It bothered me.

I don’t remember any ‘a-ha!’ moments…I think it was more of a gradual process. Perhaps God had just been preparing my heart for years like this before my actual conversion.

dream wanderer