Eucharist.

I love taking Communion- at my church we call it the Eucharist- more than virtually anything else. "This is My body. This is My blood." It is intimacy with God. And it is tangible and unconditional to how I feel or what I can say. This hard numb year, that tangible, unconditional, every-week intimacy with God was more important than I could ever express.

A couple of months ago, I started helping to serve the Eucharist at church. For fifteen straight minutes, I get to repeat, "The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation" over and over, as people drink wine and receive it- receive Him. I am strengthened by doing this more than I ever predicted.

At our church even small children can take Communion if they've been baptized. I was curious as to what the rationale behind this was, and so I picked up a little informational booklet on the topic. The explanation given moved me a ton. I may be 22, but I think this applies to adults completely as well.

"Psychologists have helped us to see that there is a level of human understanding... that is non-verbal and non-rational. We now know that this unconscious level responds to reality as it is conveyed by means of symbolic forms and actions...
Children experience much that they cannot verbally articulate. We do not delay the first bath until the child understands hygiene, nor do we require knowledge of nutrition prior to the first meal.
The child experiences many baths and many meals- really experiences them- and at the most basic human level apprehends their meaning through the experience. Children may not understand the Holy Communion, but they certainly understand acceptance and rejection.

What we as adults need to understand is that all our intellectual articulations about this sacrament are but feeble human attempts to comprehend the basic mystery of God's unconditional loving acceptance of us, His children.
Reception of the sacrament by those among us who don't "understand" as we "understand" should serve as a reminder to us that we must always experience grace before we can talk truly about it."

-from "Why Children Receive Communion", Rev. Ronald Fisher