Little Imelda was just five years old when, one day in 1327, she went to her parents and expressed her greatest desire: to receive her First Holy Communion immediately.
You can imagine the joy and surprise Imelda’s parents felt upon hearing such a request from so young a child. But Imelda had to wait. At that time, laity received communion only on special occasions, and children made their First Communion after their twelfth year.
For the next few years, Imelda spent most of her time contemplating Jesus in the Eucharist and the ecstasy of one day receiving Him into her soul. Periodically, she asked again to make her First Communion. Even though the answer was always the same, she never stopped asking.
When Imelda was nine, she was permitted to enter the Dominican order as a postulant. Her thoughts and prayers still centered on Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist.
Two years later, on the Feast of the Ascension, she made her request again. The answer came back the same: “No, Imelda, not yet. Soon, but not yet.”
After Mass, all the sisters left the chapel. Soon they found that Imelda was not with them and hurried back to find her. There she was kneeling before the tabernacle and gazing with sparkling eyes upon a Eucharistic host miraculously suspended above her. Seeing this, the priest gave her her First Holy Communion.
Imelda received Jesus with keen joy and adoration. Her communion with Him was so complete that He called her soul to be in heaven with Him immediately.
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