This solemnity brings back many wonderful memories and can open the door for our reflection on the meaning of the Eucharist at this point in our lives.
Many of us have vivid memories of eucharistic devotion growing up. We remember our first communion and the sense we had then of a special closeness to Jesus. Many of us remember holy hours, perpetual adoration times, benedictions or the eucharistic processions on Holy Thursday or Corpus Christi.
I suspect that some of us, like me, at various times in our lives, took the Eucharist for granted and lost a sense of the sacred, the intimate bond of this gift of his entire self to/for us, and we lost a sense of how the Eucharist missions us to share that self-giving love for others.
We can blame how busy we got, even how engaged we were in serving family and others. We might feel something was lost because of poor liturgy imagination and planning. It could be that we were hungry for “a good homily” to lift us up that we missed the gift of the Eucharist itself?
Can this grace of a feeling close to our Lord be restored? Can we open our hearts to receive that powerful, personal experience of love he offers us with his very self being broken and poured out for us? Can we imagine a renewed special moment when the minister offers us his Body and his Blood, while we stretch out our arms with a big smile and say “Amen,” meaning “Yes,” to the whole gift: “Yes, I desire to receive you into my heart. Yes, I so desire to let you heal me with your love and I really want to feel missioned by this sacrament to love as you’ve loved me”?
I believe this is possible because I’m experiencing a bit of it more and more these days, dealing with my diminishment. That journey has led me to re-discover an important tool Ignatius offers us, that is, locating and asking for the grace we desire. To ask for this gift of a “holy communion of love” we receive in the Eucharist is surely to ask for a grace our Lord dearly wants to give us.
I want to express my deepest gratitude to the many who wrote in response to my retirement. I was deeply consoled by the number expressing gratitude for all that this ministry has offered over the years. May the Lord who brought forth this ministry continue to bless it in the years to come.
Rev. Andy Alexander, SJ
Co-founder of Creighton’s Online Ministries, Retired 2025
I served at Creighton from 1996 to 2025. I served as Vice-president for Mission for three Presidents, directed the Collaborative Ministry Office and co-founded the Online Ministries website.
I loved seeing the number of faculty and staff who over the years really took up the mission as their own and made Creighton the Jesuit university it is today. I was also consoled to witness the website – a collaborative effort - touch the hearts of so many around the world.
I’m now living at St. Camillus – a Jesuit care facility in Milwaukee. Many of my days are spent dealing with my own health issues, as I carry out the mission we’ve been given, “to pray for the Church and the Society of Jesus.”
