From Parishioner David T. E. Kirstein
About 4 years ago, in late summer of 2019, the Holy Spirit called me to come back to the Church. I had gone to Catholic high school but was never confirmed and certainly would not have considered myself Catholic back then. This being my first attempt to attend mass on my own as an adult, I was on the verge of being late and was unable to find parking. Frustrated, I verbally announced, “Not today Satan!” and drove to the 12:00pm mass at the HNOJ Cathedral. Before long, I was in RCIA at Our Lady of Lourdes, and was baptized, confirmed, and received into the Church on the Pentecost Vigil of 2020, the year of COVID. As fate would have it, I never again came back to the parish where I was “first called”, St. Andrew the Apostle.
… That is, until this past weekend. Having been confirmed the year of COVID, I had only one time been able to receive our Lord’s Precious Blood. As a now daily communicant, for years I have longed to be able to receive our Lord under this species. I have been asking around, talking to priests and faithful, asking, inquiring, hoping, waiting, wishing that someone knew when they were going to bring back the Precious Blood. Finally, someone said that you were serving the Precious Blood here at St. Andrew.
It was as if I was receiving our Lord again for the first time. The anticipation, my heart racing, the joy and hope of watching my bride walk down the isle. After returning to my pew, I could not stand but only kneel as the grace and awe of receiving our Lord in this way made me weak and brought tears to my eyes.
Please know the grace that Christ and our Bishop has afforded this community: to be one of the parishes “first called” to serve the Precious Blood of our Lord again. If able, please receive our Lord under this species, and relish the communion that is ours in Christ.