Dominus Est

--It is the Lord!

That's the name of a little 63 page book we got at Mass yesterday evening. Written by The Most Reverend Athanasius Schneider, it contains the Reflections of a Bishop of Central Asia on Holy Communion. The visiting priest, Fr. Stravinskas, who had the books available after Mass, also wrote the publisher's foreword, which is strikingly similar to his homily last evening. :o)

Here's a little blurb from the back of the book:
"Holy Communion is not simply a convivial moment of spiritual nourishment; it is the most personal encounter possible in this life between the faithful Christian and his Lord and God. The best interior attitude for this encounter is one of receptivity, humility, and spiritual childhood. Such an attitude, by its very nature, is expressed through gestures of adoration and reverence. We have eloquent witnesses to this truth from the tradition of the Church, summarized by the sayings cum amore ac timore (with love and fear) from the first millennium and quantum potes, tantum aude (dare to do as much as you can) from the second. To illustrate how this attitude manifests itself, the author shares stories of three "Eucharistic women" known to him from the Soviet Underground. This book encourages Catholics of the third millennium to treat the Lord, in the august moment of Holy Communion, in a manner appropriate to the Church's tradition."

The preface of the book is written by Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, the secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The book also has the endorsement of the former prefect of that dicastery, Francis Cardinal Arinze.

The book was first published by the Vatican's own library in Italian, but has been translated to English and published by Newman House Press. You can order from their website if you like.

I found particularly poignant a section in the book describing the "attitude of reverence" we should have for the Body of Our Lord as being like that of a child, who humbly allows himself to be fed.

One paragraph says, "In Holy Communion, we receive the Word-made-Flesh--made Food for us little ones, for us children. And so, when we approach Holy Communion, we can remind ourselves of this gesture of the prophet Ezekiel or of the word of Psalm 81:11, which one finds in the Liturgy of the Hours on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi: "Open your mouth, and I will fill it" (dilata os tuum, et implebo illud).

The book is filled with wonderful little nuggets. I'm thinking they might make good gifts for some liberal priests and other Catholics that I know. *evil grin*