Shortly after my ordination to the priesthood, almost 40 years ago, I was on a visit to the Discalced Carmelites in Avila, one of the cloistered nuns asked me: ‘Father what do you feel when you have Jesus in your hands at mass? This question made me more grateful for the great gift of my priesthood and the great gift of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is God’s greatest gift to all of us yet so many Catholics today and even some priests do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is much more than a symbol or a reminder of the presence of Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: ‘In the most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore, the whole Christ is truly present, and substantially contained. This presence is called REAL…because it is presence in the fullest sense’. On a hilltop near Cape Town, South Africa, a gun is fired every day at noon. The firing of the gun once served a beautiful purpose. It signalled that a ship, on its way from India, had arrived in the harbour with a cargo of goods, and was in need of supplies of food and fresh water. A beautiful exchange resulted. But that was a long time ago. The gun is still fired today but it is an empty ritual. The ritual has still one thing going for it; most people know the story behind it. The Eucharist celebrates a beautiful event – the gift that Jesus made of his life on our behalf. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we tell that story again. But like anything that is repeated over and over again, there is a danger that it may become just a ritual. During these past few weeks because of the corona virus we were unable to attend mass and its amazing how many people miss mass and are anxious to return to mass, which hopefully from the 29th. of this month we will be able to. The number of virtual masses has increased exponentially over these last few weeks, we have even installed a webcam in our church.These virtual masses have been a great source of encouragement for people, especially those who were cocooned. Pope Francis recently reminded us while these virtual masses served a great purpose during this pandemic, but a virtual mass is not the same as attending physically a mass. The church is a community that comes together to pray and support each other. Again because of the covid19 we were unable to have first communion in our parishes and its amazing how all of the children were upset that they could not have their first communion. Hopefully soon we will have a date for them to make their first communion. Something which I as a priest find very motivating, is bringing communion to those who are sick and bed-ridden, one of the commonest greetings is ‘you are very welcome to our home with the Body of Christ’. Because of the inaccessability of the Eucharist during these past few weeks hopefully we will learn to appreciate much more this wonderful gift of the Eucharist. I remember a talk in Rome of one of the personal secretaries of St. Pope John Paul 11; he told us that the Pope served his mass as a preparation for Pope’s own Mass. When we return to our public masses, hopefully we will appreciate much more this wonderful gift of the Eucharist.