Dear All,
Tomorrow we are celebrating the feast of The Body and Blood of Christ, Eucharist, Communion. We have chosen some very different reflections on this theme.
Many children make their First Communion on this feast, or around this time, so we could include them and their families as we listen to today’s blessing, ‘May the Mind of Jesus’ from the In Tune with Heaven CD.
Hoping you will find material here that is good for your reflection and with love from us
Disclosing the Loving Face of God
Bread is more than bread: it points to the One who broke bread with his friends. Water is more than water: it points to our spiritual birth. Wine is more than the fruit of the vine, made by human hands. It becomes for us the blood of Christ, the cup of salvation. Most profoundly, all the elements remembered in the Great Thanksgiving point beyond themselves to the great story of our re-creation. Food and drink, clothes and homes, mountains and rivers, oceans and skies – all become transparent when nature discloses itself to those with eyes to see the loving face of God
Eucharist
We share the gifts of the Eucharistic table, conscious of so many in our world who are starved of love and goodness, whose hearts are weighed down by struggle and pain; whose spirits are crushed by the heartlessness of others; whose lives are disheartened, as their hopes are eaten away.
May we, in the strength and promise of Eucharist, resolve anew to bring:
- a heart of love to all who experience hatred and rejection;
- a heart of compassion to the sick and suffering;
- a heart of justice to those who are unfairly treated;
- a heart of forgiveness to those from whom we feel estranged;
And above all else, a heart of courage, to offer something of that hope and love which our love yearns for today.
Communion
by Xavier Le Pinchon
We have to be educated by the other. [Y]our heart cannot be educated by yourself. I mean, my heart cannot be educated by myself.
It can only come out of relationship with others. And if we accept to be educated by the others, to let the other explain to us what happens to them, how they feel, which is completely different from what we feel, and to let yourself immerse into their world so that they can get into our world, then you begin to share something which is very deep.
You will never be the person in front of you, but you will have created what we call communion, the capacity to share at a very deep level. And I feel that that is the essence of life, and that’s what Jesus came to teach us. Learn how to enter into communion with your neighbours – the way he called it, neighbours. And then you will discover something completely new.
Jim Branch: You give them something to eat
He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” Luke 9:13 (
“You give them something to eat. It seems that a significant amount of doing ministry involves figuring out what you’ve got and then figuring out how to give it and who to give it to. You see, God gave you something wonderfully unique and specific, something that only you can give. It may feel like only five loaves and two fish among so many, but in His hands it is more than enough to satisfy a multitude and still have some left over.
“You give them something to eat,” Jesus is saying. “Because I gave you something that only you can give. First give it to me, and then I will give it back to you in abundance. Only then will you be able to give it to them, whoever your ‘them’ may be. And in the giving of ‘it’ to ‘them’ you will find that there is enough to feed you as well.” Incredible.
There is one other small thing to notice in the text however, and it is really not small at all. Once we are willing enough and courageous enough to give Jesus our little loaves and fish, he does something really amazing with it. He takes it, then He blesses it, then He breaks it, and then He gives it. Now all of that sounds pretty great except the breaking part.
Because, it seems, in Jesus’ economy we can’t be multiplied enough to be given, we can only be broken enough to be given. It is in the breaking that the abundance comes. It is in the breaking that the multiplying occurs, just as it will be for each of us. If we really want to have something of depth and substance to give to those around us, it will usually involve some sort of breaking.”
