Today Father gave First Communion to six children at our Latin Mass. What a perfect day for a First Communion. The words corpus Christi actually mean "the body of Christ." When we receive Communion-we actually receive Jesus-not a piece of bread or a sip of wine. So this is a very important-in fact the most important day-of a Catholic's life since this is when the person actually eats the body (and drinks the blood of-if applicable) of Christ.
And these kids actually help the rest of us in our spriritual journey-this is an opportunity for a plenary indulgence for the rest of us. But we need to make a good Confession within 8 days of the First Communion to get this indulgence. This Confession can be either the week before or the week after the First Communion.
Father told us in his homily today that for the benefit of the "doubting Thomases" among us that a consecrated host has actually been changed to human tissue and the blood of Christ took on the property of real blood-including coagulation.
