Many of us who belong to the Assumption family have heard the story of St Marie Eugenie’s First Communion: at Christmas 1829, Anne Eugenie Milleret made her First Communion in the church of Sainte-Ségolène in Metz; she approached this sacrament not because her family sought it out of faith, but out of social convention.
At the moment of receiving Communion, she felt “a silent separation from everything to which she had until then been attached, in order to enter, alone, into the immensity of the One she possessed for the first time… at the instant I received Jesus Christ, it was as if everything I had seen on earth, even my mother, were no more than a passing shadow…”. She clearly heard a voice in her heart: “You will lose your mother, but I will be more than a mother to you. A day will come when you will leave everything you love to glorify me and serve this Church that you do not know” (quoted in Marie Eugenie Milleret, Foundress of the Religious of the Assumption, Sr Hélène Marie, 1992).
St Marie Eugenie would later refer to this moment as “the fundamental grace from which everything else flowed” (Ibid., Marie Eugenie Milleret). “By God’s mysterious choice, Anne Eugenie’s heart is transplanted for ever into that of Christ Jesus, in his Eucharistic mystery” (Ibid., Marie Eugenie Milleret).
This story stirs mixed feelings in us. On the one hand, it arouses surprise and deep emotion; on the other, a sense that this kind of experience is only for a chosen few and therefore does not concern us.
What do I remember of my own First Communion? That I got the giggles as I went into the church, because I felt nervous and tired. I had not slept well because they had put rollers in my hair to make ringlets in my straight hair; my sister had not rested either. My brother was dressed as a charro (in traditional Mexican costume), as was the custom. I was only six.
Many years passed before I discovered the full meaning of the Eucharist and the covenant I freely wish to renew each time I receive Communion. My children made their First Communion at more suitable ages, and my husband and I tried to make sure they had a meaningful preparation, and not just to tick the “ecclesiastical and social box”.
I witness the preparation our pupils receive for this sacrament at our school, the Instituto Asunción de México, and I truly admire it. The commitment of the team of catechists, and their vocation to help pupils and their families really grasp the enormous gift that the Eucharist is, make me wish my own children had received this preparation.
It is a journey of discovering the immense love of God, of discovering that His covenant is permanent and that He never leaves our side. It is a family commitment, because only consistency between the preparation the pupil receives and what is lived at home can bring the sacrament to life.
In every Communion we renew our faith, our hope, our joy and our promise to build the Kingdom every day. Every Communion is an opportunity to confirm that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). “God does not know how to, does not want to and cannot do anything other than love… Whoever loves God and knows they are loved by Him with infinite love learns to look at themselves, value themselves and care for themselves with true love… Whoever loves God knows they cannot live with indifference, unconcern or forgetfulness towards others. The only human response to any person we meet in life is to love them” (El amor lo es todo, Fr José Antonio Pagola, 2026).
Perhaps, if we give ourselves the chance to live each Communion as the encounter of Love that it is, we will stop thinking of Marie Eugenie’s experience as something purely mystical and unattainable and, each time we receive Communion, live it as the renewal of an indestructible Covenant of Love and as the day when the Kingdom knocks at the door.
And you, what do you remember of your First Communion? How do you live each encounter with Him today?
Lourdes Canales
Institutional Relations Coordinator
Head of EnREDaLA (Latin American Network of Assumption Schools)