I give thanks and praise for the gift of the Eucharist

Firing Line, the PBS public affairs program hosted by the late William F. Buckley, Jr., not only won an Emmy Award (in 1969) but set a broadcasting record as the longest-running television show: 1,504 episodes over 33 years. The last Firing Line was in 1999.

Over the program’s history only one guest was invited back seven times: English journalist and author Malcolm Muggeridge. Muggeridge’s last appearance was in 1985. He was 82 then, and he had only recently been received into the Catholic Church.

In the interview Buckley asked Muggeridge what it meant to him to receive the Eucharist, and Muggeridge replied along these lines: “In old age this has been the most fulfilling thing. Consider that since the last supper there has probably never been an hour on Earth pass but somewhere someone is giving, and someone else is receiving, the body and blood of Christ. And to think that I am allowed to participate.”