The mystery of the feast.

The Eucharist -the simplest commandment, the richest of our rituals, and by far the most misunderstood. I was raised in a very Low Church environment. “Do this in remembrance of me” carved into the bench of our small-town Church of Christ.  Old people dutifully passing brass containers of unblessed wafers and little shots of grape juice; a dying faith in dying towns all across the heartland, modernist revivals wilting at the waysides. Why? Has modernity collapsed under its own weight, leaving the nihilism of postmodernism to fill the voids?  Instead of little country churches, we have meth. Instead of families, and communities with genuine purpose, direction and meaning, we have a meaningless existence temporarily satiated by the false gods of sports for the fathers, Netflix for the mothers and tiktoc for the children. How did it happen? Possibly because we stripped the meaning out of one of the most important sacraments of our faith. If there is not a real presence, or a genuine meaning in the sacrament, there will be no meaning in the motions behind it, they will soon cease, and the muscles behind the motions will atrophy.  As the church fell, the family fell, and as the family fell, society fell.

The idea of the Eucharist is not simply a ritual that one does by rote as in his morning ablutions. It is for one brief moment, heaven and earth coming together with the angels and archangels, and all Company of Heaven to magnify the glorious name of our savior Jesus Christ, saying “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts; Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory. Glory to thee, oh Lord Most High + blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”  

During this absolutely supernatural moment of praise, veneration, and worship of God the Father, we eat the flesh of his dear Son Jesus Christ, and drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. It is a chemical wedding where the sublime and the profane intermingle and for a brief moment we transcend this earthly shell and get a peek though the veil. That moment of transcendence stays with us, and we carry a little bit of Christ with us out into the wilderness.  It strengthens and fortifies us to forgive the unforgivable, to love the loveless and to follow the first and greatest commandment  to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.

My Burning Desire

My Lord and Savior

Please align my will with yours, my heart with your heart, my mind with your mind, that I may know true caritias, that my soul may be purified, all flaws and contaminants burned away in the everlasting forge of your sacred heart. May my love burn as your love burns; may it consume the world.  Amen

Lent

Lent, perhaps my favorite season in the Cristian year, a time for reflection, sacrifice and service. One last push before the return of our Invincible Sun, the birth of Ostara, and the other archetypes of spring, but before we can get there, we must first purify. Suffering is called for, not simply giving up sweets or the impossible task of surrendering coffee, but a willful self-sacrifice to get a person and their family though the lean times of the long dark purifying winter. February may be the ugliest time of the year, scant traces of snow, copious amounts of mud, and a wet-cold that settles into the bones. It is not just a time of self-sacrifice, but also giving of alms, talking on extra service and all the while doing it for the sake of the service itself, it is not simply to feed the ego by demonstrating piety to neighbors. While the ashes are applied they are soon washed away, no sackcloth is worn, no rending of the hair, sacrifice for its own sake, and quite heartfelt prayers to our Redeemer who we have not loved with our whole hearts and service to our neighbors who we have not loved as ourselves.  40 days to learn and perfect new habits, 40 days to become a better man, 40 days to reset the clock.

The Third Day of Lent ~ Prayer of Contrition

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men; We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed, By thought, word, and deed, Against Thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly Thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, And are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For Thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, Forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please Thee In newness of life, To the honour and glory of Thy Name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
~ Book of Common Prayer 1928