Transcript:
Another issue is the manner of receiving Holy Communion. The church was always concerned that the faithful may receive our Lord really present under the sacred species of bread and wine in a most prepared manner, internally disposed in the right manner, and also externally. Because the Holy Eucharist, the sacrament, is the greatest treasure that we have, because in this sacrament, there is present, not something, but someone, and no one is greater than our Lord Himself. And therefore we have to pay attention and be careful and be concerned with all things, even details, that are connected with our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. And the moment of Holy Communion is the highest moment in the life of a faithful because he is meeting our Lord so close, it is not possible to meet the Lord more closely than in the moment of Holy Communion.
Therefore, we have to approach him with an attitude which is shown in the Gospel, which the apostles showed as the saints, and even when the Lord appeared, the risen Lord, the first to whom he appeared, was Mary Magdalene, and her reaction when she recognized him. Firstly, she didn’t recognize him, and then she recognized him, and what did she do? She fell down immediately, fell down on her knees, and even more, she bowed her head and adored him and touched his feet. This is an example from the gospel, from the New Testament, and it shall also be an example for each Catholic when he approaches to receive our Lord. His body in the Holy Eucharist is his risen body. And therefore we, as the pastors of the church, the priests, and especially the bishops, have the duty to teach the faithful how to receive in the right manner our Lord with the interior disposition and the exterior.
And therefore I wrote a book. I made a research from the writings of the Holy Fathers of the Church the first centuries, and gave other examples how how they in which manner they approached these moments of the Holy Communion. And therefore we the most evident form is to imitate these examples of the gospel, also to kneel down to receive the Lord in this manner. And therefore, I think the church has to be renewed through of Eucharist. We have to put the Lord in the center of the life of the church, and as the great Pope, John Paul the Second, wrote in his last encyclical on the Eucharist, we cannot exaggerate in dealing with and giving honor to Jesus in the Eucharist. And therefore we have to pay attention even in the moment of the Holy Communion. We have to pay attention to adore Him, to kneel down to adore him when we receive him. In Holy Eucharist and St. Thomas Aquinas said in his famous hymn Lauda Sion Salvatorem that what you can do for Jesus in Eucharist, you should dare to do this quantum potest tantum aude. And another word of the same sequence. It is a sequence, sequence, sequence. There is a written petition to our Lord, “our Lord, come and visit us in these our days. Come and visit us,” and you will visit us in the manner as we worship you in the Holy Eucharist.