During my recent talk in Birmingham, I explained the difficulties my husband and I went through in our early years of marriage with me being Protestant and him being a cradle Catholic.
Initially, we thought we’d solve the problem by going one weekend to a Protestant church and the next to a Catholic one.
It never failed, after church we’d always end up in a fight. So, I eventually conceded that we could just go to a Catholic Church, because it was *so* important for my husband to remain Catholic.
Each Sunday, I got more and more irritated that I couldn’t go up and receive Communion. My husband tried to explain that it was Christ, but that all sounded like yada, yada, yada in my ears.
So, one Sunday, I decided that I was going to go up and receive Communion because nobody was gonna tell me what to do.
I went up, took it and immediately felt awful—spiritually, emotionally, and physically. I went back to my seat and wondered how just a simple piece of bread could do that. I knew, though, that I would never go up to receive the Eucharist again unless I was Catholic.
After that day, I stopped fighting with my husband about Catholicism and started looking into it.
During the Q&A section of the talk, a lady asked me why I think I felt bad after taking the Eucharist like I did.
I said, “Well, because I took it out of pride. I was taking it sacrilegiously.”
She said, “I think God gave you a gift.”
Her response caught me off guard because I’d never thought of it that way. She was right, though. So right. We often think of gifts as things that make us feel good, not things that make us feel bad.
But, it was that horrible feeling that woke me up from my pride and humbled me which allowed me to consider the possibility that maybe the Eucharist was more than mere bread.
You just never know how God is going to get through to you, Catholic Pilgrims. Thankfully, He never stops trying.
Have a blessed Monday.
*st. Augustine Church, Pittsburgh, PA
