Get To Know the Lord! (Personally That Is!)

"To truly know Jesus requires discovering him personally," Pope Benedict XVI said at his weekly general audience.10/04/2006

While hearing about Christ through the Bible or through other people can introduce a person to Christian belief, "it must then be ourselves (who) become personally involved in an intimate and deep relationship with Jesus" in order to know he is truly the savior of the world, the pope said.

I can't think of a closer way of getting to know Jesus more than through frequent reception of the Most Blessed Sacrament. As a revert to Catholicism, I feel I have become closer to Jesus in the Eucharist and this continues to grow and is nourished through the grace I receive daily from this sacrament. The quiet moments while kneeling in prayer after receiving Him in the Eucharist are the most precious part of the Mass for me. Heaven truly comes to earth in the Mass and we can commune most intimately with the Lord. I wish I had understood this reality when I was a 13 year old kid before I left the Church. I was baptized and went through the motions of being Catholic but didn't get to know Jesus personally which is so important as Pope Benedict stated yesterday.

Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you; he who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My Flesh is food indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in me, and I in him." (Jn 6:53-56).

"What wonderful majesty! What stupendous condescension! O sublime humility! That the Lord of the whole universe, God and the Son of God, should humble Himself like this under the form of a little bread, for our salvation"

"...In this world I cannot see the Most High Son of God with my own eyes, except for His Most Holy Body and Blood."

- St. Francis of Assisi

So as Catholics, not only do we get to know Jesus personally but actually get to receive Him personally; body, soul and divinity through the Eucharist.