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I had never heard that story about Augustine abstaining from Communion when he was in his dying days, in order to do public penance.

I know what this author, George Sim Johnston, means when he says we tend to treat Communion as a piece of birthday cake that everyone has a right to. I experienced this within myself, once, when I had violated the (already trivial) fast by popping a peanut M&M in my mouth on the way to church.

I thought "Oh shoot, now I can't receive Communion." And then I thought, "What will people think if they notice I didn't go up? Will they wonder whether I'm in mortal sin?" In other words, an attack of spiritual vanity.

So I stayed behind, and --- because Communion at a weekday Mass in our little Day Chapel is like a Chinese fire drill --- I did feel peculiarly isolated even though I was praying for Spiritual Communion.

Our Eucharistic tendency of "come one, come all" has tended to degrade reception of Our Lord to the level of a public utility.

I'm going to think carefully about Ratzinger and Augustine.