First Sunday of the Month

As I was dunking Oreos this afternoon, I was perusing through the Sunday paper & coupons. The P&G Brand coupons were there today. Yay for the First-Sunday-of-the-Month coupons! It as I thought "First Sunday of the Month" to myself, another LOUD THOUGHT smacked me in the face. Just a year ago- LESS than a year ago, the first Sunday of the month meant something other than just special coupons. In the United Methodists Churches that I attended growing up, the first Sunday was Communion Sunday. As I understand this, the UMC doesn't really have a set "standard" for frequency of communion. Some places serve communion every week, some once a month, some less often. If you are curious about John Wesley's views on the matter you may be interested in John Wesley, Sermon 101- Duty of Constant Communion. Of course, I'm not a part of the UMC anymore, but I dare say that many who are would be surprised at what Wesley said about Communion!

Growing up in the UMC, I've had various "forms" of "communion." We did hot dog buns with grape kool-aid at camp one year. Goldfish crackers and grape juice were popular in children's ministry. At some churches my dad pastored, we had homemade bread. At my last UMC, we used Matzoh.

I was listening to the conversion story of a man who joined the Catholic Church on Easter. He said that he attended Mass with his wife for many, many years. Because he was not Catholic, he was not able to receive the Eucharist. This was a big hurdle he had to overcome. At one point in his life he thought, "I could just bring my own packet of saltines to church." He admitted that this type of thinking came out of the chip on his shoulder from having to refrain from receiving the Blessed Sacrament. The man said that he now, as a Catholic, understands the severe error in his thinking, but at the time he thought his saltines plan was hilarious.
When I was coming into the Church last year, Bill and I talked about how you could eat crackers anywhere, but could only find Jesus in the Eucharist in the Church.

How blessed I am now to be a part of the Catholic Church! We receive Jesus Christ, Body & Blood, Soul & Divinity at EVERY MASS through the gift of the Eucharist. We don't have to wait for the first Sunday of the month! Jesus is available to us every day in the Mass!

P&G Coupons are only available the first Sunday of the month, so you'd better go dig those out of your recycle bin! Unlike the Eucharist, those coupons represent "limited time" offers with "expiration dates"!!