If access to Eucharist, was not available to you, would the foundation of your own faith life be shaken?
The book, Journey of a Celiac's Soul: A Second Chance at Life, is meant to act as a vehicle for encompassing the present changing realities within the Catholic Church. From the Priest Shortage, the new Communion Service, whether Priests should be allowed to Marry, or allowing for Women's Ordination, all comprise the new reality of your faith life. The passengers on this vehicle include Catholics world-wide as well as individuals of all faiths. The particular travel route covers a personal exploration of the history and enlightening tradition of this sacrament. This hands-on book, is your ticket to embark on your own journey of your soul, in addition hiding in plain sight are solutions to the Priest Shortage and visages of women's past roles within our Church history.
With the current hemorrhaging shortage of Catholic Priests, who is going to be around to consecrate the hosts for Communion? How are you, or any other Catholic, going to enrich their own faith lives without being able to actively participate in this beautiful sacrament? That scenario is becoming a closer reality for any Catholic today. With the current shortage of Priests, should Rome, utilize threads of its own past tradition to solve this Priest shortage issue at hand? Should the Church, as well, finally acknowledge their own Church's early history of Women Bishops, Deacons, and Priests, to begin to help fill this urgent need? Does the tradition of Celibate Priests under Canon Law, need to be changed to allow Priests to marry? Did Jesus, really intend for His sacrament of love, to become a sacrament of division, in terms of access to it?
Previously, access to Eucharist was driven exclusively by the vehicle of Celiac Disease, until the new low-gluten host emerged. The hierarchy then assumed that the issue concerning the wheaten host was resolved. Hardly, for those Catholics who had a reaction to ingesting this host. Their access to Eucharist continues to remain an unresolved issue. Celiac disease, an autoimmune disease had come into my life, meaning any foods containing wheat, rye, or barley, could not be eaten. The ramifications of any medical life threatening diagnosis can certainly be life altering to say the least. When I was diagnosed with Celiac disease, my doctor told me,"in six months I would have been six feet down in the ground" which certainly was a sobering thought. Celiac disease, not only affected my body but as well, had taken up residence on the Church Altar Table, in the Communion host. At that moment of realization, the startling fact that I would no longer be able to receive Communion surfaced, for the Church Law stipulated that wheat must be present in the host.
Covid -19, literally caused any Catholic to get a sense of what your faith life would be like, week after week, month after month, with your own loss of access to Communion. The Catholic Church is a Sacramental Church, in which our individual lives are intertwined in our actual participation in this sacrament. This is the reality which should embody the very heart and soul of this sacrament for us all.
Jesus certainly shook up the foundation of the presiding religious leader's by questioning their law. I choose to follow Jesus' example of openly questioning both the law and authority behind that law. Would your own religious foundation be shaken, when you realize that the notion, of our Church's tradition / law as never having changed is really not so?
Did you ever wonder how the Eucharistic sacrament, as we know it today, has evolved in History? What about the present form and size of the Eucharist? Have we always received the host and wine in the same manner?
What will your personal journey have to offer yourself? You will never know, until you embark on your own Journey of Your Soul!