Rector's Reflection:

We break this bread to share in the body of Christ.
We, being many, are one body, for we all share in the one bread.
 
The fraction sentence seems like such a little thing. Blink and you’d miss it.
 
It is those words we say at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, when the bread is broken, just before we are fed from God’s table, from God’s own self, and share in Holy Communion with the Maker, the Christ, the Spirit, with one another, and with all creation.
 
The fraction sentence is functional. It is meant to give space for us to physically break the bread.
However, it is more than just liturgical filler.
 
At St. John’s, we follow a rhythm in our prayer—a rhythm that changes quite a lot from week to week but also has a constancy to it.  
 
It embraces the spiritual principle of stability. This is not to say that we are never discomforted or challenged. Stability and rhythm allow the different to grab us and help us to grow.
 
We will be using this particular fraction sentence for the next few weeks. Pay attention. It is a statement - a hope, a prayer, a dream. And in its simplicity, I believe there is a beauty and elegance.

Like a small drip of water that shapes stone. I pray that it, alongside the whole flow of our liturgy, may shape our hearts and our lives to be more compassionate, more joyful, more generous, and more loving followers of Jesus in the world.
 
Thanks be to God!

 

 

 

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