Day 38

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying,“Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.  Matthew 26:26-30

Eucharist is recognition. It is the full realization that the one who takes, blesses, breaks, and gives is the One who, from the beginning of time, has desired to enter into communion with us. Communion is what God wants and what we want. It is the deepest cry of God's and our heart, because we are made with a heart that can be satisfied only by the one who made it.

God creates in our heart a yearning for communion that no one but God can, and wants, to fulfill. God knows this. We seldom do.

We keep looking somewhere else for that experience of belonging.
We look at the splendor of nature, the excitement of history, and the attractiveness of people, but that simple breaking of the bread, so ordinary and unspectacular, seems such an unlikely place to find the communion for which we yearn.

Still, if we have mourned our losses, listened to him on the road, and invited him into our innermost being, we will know that the communion we have been waiting to receive is the same communion he has been waiting to give.

from With Burning Hearts by Henri J.M. Nouwen

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:
When do you yearn for communion/belonging? 

How do you attempt to satisfy that yearning?

What does it mean to you that no one but God can, and wants, to fulfill your yearning?

Meditate on these words of St. Augustine:  "My soul is restless until it rests in you, O God."
Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics

How can I possibly add anything to Henri Nouwen? All I will say is that for me Eucharist is about community and equality. It's about meeting Jesus by sharing with each other, recognising our oneness and being filled up to be sent out. Eucharist is about what we do with our faith, our lives outside of those church  walls.

Day 36

Chag Sameach!  Joyous Festival!  Happy Passover!

My father was a wandering Aramean,
and he went down into Egypt,
and he lived there as a small people,
and he became a great, powerful and numerous nation.
And the Egyptians treated us badly 
and afflicted us
and subjected us to hard labor.
And we cried out to the Lord,
God of our ancestors,
and the Lord heard our voice
and saw our affliction
and our toil
and our oppression.
And the Lord brought us out of Egypt
with a strong hand
and with an outstretched arm
and with great terror
and with signs
and with wonders (Deut. 26:5-8)

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Tradition dictates that this passage serve as the focus of midrash - an extended discussion about the meaning of the story and its relevance to our lives.  Recite the passage and consider how you understand the story of the Exodus and where you might find yourself in this story.

(taken from Gould Farm Passover Hagada)
Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics

For me this is part of a story, part of a heritage, part of the ongoing relationship between a people and their God. The ongoing retelling of the narrative at each Passover celebration reminds of our own Anglican retelling of the Last Supper in each Eucharistic prayer. There's something about the importance of remembrance and repetition as a collective and communal act.

"This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance" (Exodus 12:14)

"Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19)