Are You in Danger of Becoming Lukewarm?

I went to Confession on Saturday and one fault I accused myself of was arriving late for daily Mass a few times for no good reason. Usually it's because I stayed on the computer too long before starting to get ready. On those occasions I was only a minute or two late and the lector was just starting the readings.

Since I have no obligation to go to daily Mass I know it's not a sin, but what the priest said to me really made me think. He asked if I went to Communion on those occasions. Then he reminded me of how important it is to prepare for Mass and arriving early gives us a chance to do that. It's easy for us to take the Eucharist for granted and to grow cold in our love for Jesus. I thought of that today when I read a post on Terry Nelson's blog. It was talking about the faithful person who begins to fall into sin, but I think lukewarmness comes before that. Soooooo........

From now on, I'm leaving with a planned ten or fifteen minutes to prepare for Mass. If I'm late, I'm going to refrain from going to Communion and will make a spiritual Communion instead apologizing to Jesus for my lukewarmness. I hope this will give me a burning desire for Jesus in the Eucharist. Before he died in 2000, Fr. John Hardon said repeatedly that only heroic Catholic families would survive the attacks on the faith. I want to be one of those survivors and the best guarantee of that is to be on fire with love for Jesus rather than to be a fading ember.

Help me love you more and more every day, Jesus. Set my heart aflame like your Sacred Heart!