Holy Communion
The Eucharist, or Holy Communion, nourishes us for the rest of our days on earth. As Christians together we make up the mystical Body of Christ; in celebrating the Eucharist we unite ourselves with Jesus Christ our Head. Jesus said: 'I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever.'
The Eucharist is described as the source and summit of the Christian life. It is the origin for all our prayer, worship and activity, and it is the goal of everything we do. This is because in celebrating the Eucharist, we enter into communion with Christ himself, whose body and blood, soul and divinity are given to us under the form of bread and wine.
Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper. On the night of his betrayal and arrest, Jesus took bread and wine and spoke of them as being now his body and blood: signs of a new and everlasting Covenant between God and people which he was to establish by his death on the cross the following day.
Faithful to Jesus' command to 'do this in memory of me', the Church continues to take bread and wine and to speak Christ's words of consecration over them.
Children are prepared for their First Holy Communion when they reach Year 3 or above at school. We run a preparation course for children and their parents each year from January until June.
Grant, I beg of You, that I may receive not only the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord, but also its full grace and power. Give me the grace, most merciful God, to receive the Body of your only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, in such a manner that I may deserve to be intimately united with His mystical Body and to be numbered among His members. Most loving Father, grant that I may behold for all eternity face to face Your beloved Son, whom now, on my pilgrimage, I am about to receive under the sacramental veil, who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
St Thomas Aquinas