Communion

 Back in the day for Catholics, Holy Communion used to be a reward for being good.  Since most people were just normal, that is, bad/good, they had to go to confession first to get a bit more squeaky clean.  Nuns used to forbid girls from receiving communion as a punishment for bad behavior.  As a sign of humility, a daily communicant would skip a day here and there.  And so on.  Then along came Pius X and he nixed a lot of this.  He said we don’t go as a reward for being good, we go because we are not good and want to be better.  I think of the steps in Recovery programs.  Some people think that they did the steps and are now pretty good, so they don’t need them on a daily basis.  I think of the steps like daily communion practice.  You need the steps on a daily basis because you know that you have flaws and are not all that good, or you are pretty good and want to get better, or you are OK now but don’t want to backslide.  Cunning, baffling and powerful is that thought, “Oh, I am doing well today, I don’t need to access any Power or God.”  You have gone from bad to good, and unless you try for better, you will go back to bad.  I have found it so.