Holy Thursday!

Holy Thursday is the day on which Our Lord celebrated the Last Supper and instituted His Most Precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist. It is also the day on which He gave us the sacrament of Holy Orders and instituted the Priesthood ordaining the apostles as His first priests of the Church. Catholics all over the world can participate in this great gift of the Church - the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. When I go to Mass I able to receive this gift of Christ's Body and Blood and hear the Priest - the minister to Christ - pronounce the words of Consecration and the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus. The priest says "On the night before He died for us Jesus took bread in His holy and venerable hands, and with His eyes raised to heaven to You, O God, His almighty Father, giving You thanks He said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to His disciples saying: 'Take this, all of you, and eat of it; this is My Body which will be given up for you.' In the similar way, when supper was ended, He took the precious chalice in His holy and venerable hands, and once more giving You thanks, He said the blessing and gave it to His disciples saying: 'Take this, all of you, and drink from it: for this is the chalice of My Blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of Me.' "

With St. Peter as the first pope the apostles went out into the whole world baptizing and converting people to Christ and His Church. This was the beginning of the Priesthood. Without priests we could not receive the Eucharist or many of the other sacraments. What a deprivation and tragedy this would be to not be able to receive the grace that comes from Jesus or to be washed clean of our sins in the sacrament of Penance. Where would be without priests? We would be lost! How often do we take priests for granted? We expect them to be there for us when we need them. Do we ever thank them for their "yes" to Christ's call? Men who have answered Christ's call to become a priest are very special because they have been consecrated to the Church and are given many graces by virtue of their Priesthood. They sacrifice a lot for their flock. We must never take their service for granted but we must pray for our priests that they may stay strong and remain faithful to their vocations.