Recent celebrations of Easter, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and today's celebration of Corpus Christi ought to get us excited about our faith. Our faith, of course, has to do with bringing Jesus deeper into our lives. As a consequence, we choose to deepen our relationship with Him. That ongoing relationship began at our baptism and is enriched each time we pause to pray. While we celebrate Corpus Christi this weekend, we might spend some time pondering the title of this article. Let me explain.

During these days of the Year of Mercy we have ample opportunity to reflect upon mercy: God toward us… ustoward others. Among the countless ways to be agents of mercy, there are two sacraments of the Churchwhich are direct channels of mercy. Those two sacraments include the Sacrament of Penance (Confession)and the Sacrament of the Eucharist (Holy Communion). We are all well aware that the priesthood is thesacrament most closely linked to these two sacraments. However, we are privileged to have a permanentDeacon on our parish Staff. Deacon Wendt’s presence is a constant reminder of one of the many functions ofdeacons, including being an Ordinary Minister of Holy Communion.

Often we move toward and through the Sacraments of the Church with a relatively casual and sometimes passive approach. An attitude toward the sacraments like that can create a lack of awareness of what is really happening during the sacramental celebration. Consequently, we become dull to the power of the Holy Spirit who we grandly celebrate today on Pentecost. Technically speaking in the Church world, we teach the fact that sacraments need to follow a certain form. The Catholic sense of form is worth reflecting on to get a greater sense of the mystical. Additionally, with the recent communication from Pope Francis, even marriage, remarriage and divorce can quickly become misunderstood if we have an incomplete sense of the form of the sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

I hope each and every one of us take some time today and pray for our mothers, whether she is living or deceased. Our mom has chosen to make months, then years, then the rest of her life making sacrifices for us. I continue to admire the moms who can hold a growing child in their arms, often for hours, and not complain about how their back, arms, nor legs get sore. The connection and affection moms have to their children reap great dividends in the lives of those who claim to have good moms.

The obvious topic for this week's article is Holy Communion as we celebrate First Holy Communion for our Second Grade parish members. I hope that sometime today, if you are blessed to have one of the first communicants in your family, that you sit down with them and share the memory of your first communion. Otherwise, there is likely to be a young person in your life today, or this week and it will be beneficial to share your memory of first communion with them. These opportunities to reflect upon significant moments from our Catholic past will indeed remind our young people that holy communion means something to us since we've retained those memories for years. We need to do what we can to maintain our faith, and these seemingly insignificant ways can create a memory for our young people which will last a lifetime.