Catechesis Notes for the Week — Approaching the Sacrament —How should we come to the Lord’s Table? It is precisely our need for Christ that draws us to receive His body and blood. We come with repentant hearts, believing that we are sinners and that Christ alone is our salvation. We come confessing our sins and claiming the promise of His forgiveness. We come laying aside all the sins of others against us, forgiving them even as God in Christ has forgiven us. We come in prayer, asking for our Lord to fix our faith firmly upon the Words of Jesus: This is My body which is given for you…This is My blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. We come believing that Jesus actually gives us His true body and blood and that this heavenly food not only strengthens our faith, but with such strengthening it also produces in us the fruit of loving service to others. We come with a yearning to be freed from our sin and all the corruption that sin has brought into our lives. We come firmly believing that the Lord’s body and blood is spiritual food for our earthly pilgrimage and that on the last day it will bear the ultimate fruit in the resurrection of our bodies from the dead.

CP260802