Read: 1 Cor. 11:23-32 Jn. 6:32-41

"Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself." (1 Cor. 11: 27-28)

We can rest assured in this fact and promise from the very mouth of the Lord Himself. He promised not only that "This is my Body...." and that "This is the cup of my Blood...." But He also commanded us to continue "Doing this in rememberance...." to renew His Presence in His followers for all time."Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Mt. 28:20)

From this starting point, we can begin to seek Jesus' Divine Presence in other distinct and different (both in kind and in degree) areas of the Sacred Liturgy without diminishing devotion to His Sacred Presence in the Host and in the Chalice.

We should begin this recognition of Presence of the Lord in the Holy Mass with the People of God that make up the sacred congregation on each Sunday that unites to experience anew His saving action for them. In this Presence we are speaking of a spiriutal Presence of Christ made phyiscal by the assembly of believers.

Jesus chose to become physically, corporeally present at the altar in the Mass through an instrument, the ordained priest. We don't have some kind of system of do-it-yourself Mass, or the possibility of Mass-at-home (even though for the "home-bound" a great comfort is found in televised Masses). The requirement is that Jesus Christ be present in the validly ordained priest, so that the Holy Eucharist can take place. Without the priest present, and even though the assembly were to speak the words of consecration, the bread would remain just bread.

The Mass is a celebration of the Real Presence, not only at the altar, but in our neigbhor as well.

Psalm 54: God is present, the Lord sustains my life.