Each Sunday towards the end of Mass, we come to the altar rail, receive Holy Communion, return to our seats and sit or kneel quietly for a while in contemplation. But in these quiet moments after we have received Communion, what prayers do we offer up? Perhaps we don’t pray at all, but in those quiet moments our thoughts turn to other things, like Sunday lunch or a planned visit to visit the grandchildren after Mass.

I recently came across this wonderful article, written by a priest; He writes, “A few years ago it became evident to me that my prayers after distributing Holy Communion to my congregation were wholly inadequate. As I sat on my seat on the altar I was finding it extremely difficult to express into words, what this moment meant to me. Looking through my book collection I read all the prayers I could get my hands on, but none seemed to be what I was looking for, so I gave up in frustration. However, each day I would pray to Mary our Blessed Mother asking her to teach me how to express my innermost feelings to the Lord. Sometime later I was preaching a retreat to a group of nuns when one of the elderly nuns came to visit me and said she felt she had a problem concerning her prayers after receiving Holy Communion. Feeling I had at last found a kindred spirit I asked her what she usually prayed and she replied, “I don’t pray anything, I just sit in silence and allow Him to love me.” At that moment I realised that Mary had indeed answered my prayers”

“I just sit in silence and allow Him to love me.”

What a simple, but moving description of what this moment means to us all.