The Eucharist: God’s Greatest Gift
For 34 years, grateful teacher shares one of God’s greatest gifts with children
Beth Summers, a second-grade teacher at Holy Family School in New Albany, poses for a photo with Hadleigh Stocksdale, one of the students she helped prepare to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist on April 27 in the parish church. (Submitted photo)
By John Shaughnessy
One of the challenges of life is to keep finding joy, beauty and freshness in your world, from the work you do to the most valued relationships you have.
For the past 34 years, Beth Summers has been a second-grade teacher at Holy Family School in New Albany, a position that also comes with the responsibility of preparing her students to receive their first holy Communion.
So Summers is aware of the dangerous slide that can come when the years pass and people start to approach their work, their relationships and their life with a sameness, a staleness that leads them to take for granted what’s important, beautiful and life-sustaining—including what she considers as one of God’s greatest gifts.
“I feel if you have Jesus in your life and you’re receiving the Eucharist, there is always hope,” says Summers, a mother of three grown sons. “Sometimes, we go up to receive Communion and maybe we’re not thinking about the actual sacrifice that Jesus made for us. I believe it’s so important to remember that sacrifice.”
To make that sink in for her students—and fresh for herself—Summers adds a special touch to her yearlong preparations.
She used it right before 32 of her students received their first holy Communion on April 27 in the parish church.
‘My greatest hope for the rest of their lives’
“First Communion week is my favorite time of year,” she says with a joy that marks every word. “And my most favorite time is when we re-enact the Last Supper.”
That process begins with a meditation exercise during which everyone shuts their eyes and imagines they’re in the room with Jesus on Holy Thursday.
“I pretend that I’m Jesus and the kids are all the disciples,” Summers says. “We form our desks in a U-shape, and it’s covered with purple tablecloths. We bake bread in the class, we have sparkling grape juice, and we say the words that the disciples and Jesus said. And we do the feet washing in the class. At first, they’re a little nervous, and they giggle a little bit. Then they really embrace it and take it seriously. You can see they’re taking such care in washing each other’s feet.
“We try to give them, as close as possible, the experiences of being a real disciple of Jesus, of how those disciples felt when Jesus had them at the Last Supper. That’s why I love re-creating the Last Supper. Not only does it help the children, but it helps me to stay close to Jesus. I remember what happened to him later that night on Holy Thursday. It makes me continue to be grateful for what Jesus did—sacrificing himself for us on the cross.”
That feeling stayed with her students as they received their first Communion.
“It made me feel special because it was my first time receiving the Eucharist,” says Grace Sanchez. “I experienced Jesus in my heart.”
Her classmate, Amelia Wilburn, notes, “It made me feel safe and closer to God.”
Another second-grader, Elizabeth Kaelin, says, “It made me feel good because Jesus is in my heart, and I will always be with him.”
Summers hopes those feelings of gratitude and connection with Christ continue with the children.
“I actually give them a little notecard that says, ‘May you keep Jesus as close to your heart as he was on your first Communion day.’ That’s my greatest hope for the rest of their lives—that they keep Jesus in their lives, and that they continue to come to church and receive Communion.”
‘Just a true example of Christ’s love’
While Summers has kept that hope with each class, she has also continued to have the feeling of fighting back tears as she watches the girls in their white dresses and the boys in their suits approach the altar to receive the Eucharist for the first time.
“It’s very hard for me not to cry,” she says. “I can tell that they’re very proud. They’ve worked hard to prepare to understand everything about the body and blood of Jesus. I tell them this is one of the most important moments of their lives.”
After 34 years, Summers is now at the point where she is helping prepare a second generation of families for first Communion. She helped prepare Sara Raelson—the pre-kindergarten teacher at Holy Family—when Raelson was a second-grade student in 1994, and all three of Raelson’s children.
“I have just loved Beth since I was a student of hers, and when the time came, we knew we wanted her to be the homeroom teacher for our children,” Raelson says. “She has just always radiated positivity and is just a true example of Christ’s love.”
Summers stays close to the Eucharist in another defining way, as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion for her school and her parish.
“I am able to distribute Communion to both my current and former students during our all-school Masses,” she exclaims. “That is definitely one of the perks of my job.”
Summers has never lost the joy, the beauty and the freshness of her love for the Eucharist. As she shares that love with her students, she also keeps it at the heart of her life.
“I sometimes think of all the children I’ve prepared for first Communion,” she says. “Sometimes you feel like you want to do something that’s a big, great thing for the world. Finally, I focused on trying to make small differences in small things. In my little corner of the Earth, I feel like I’m making a difference in leading the children to Jesus.” †
