Take, Bless, Break and Share
I envision Eucharistic renewal taking place here at Holy Family in many, many ways. We have already hosted Cardinal Cupich sharing his inspiring presentation Take, Bless, Break and Share. The Cardinal highlights four action words and he underscores one of my biggest suggestions of how to approach the Eucharist, namely as a verb more than a noun. The action of the Eucharist is what generates the most meaningful flow of grace.
If you missed his presentation, you can access it at holyfamilyparish.org/bemore, or on the Be More page of our website.
As a follow up to his talk, we are offering Remain in Me, a five-session series designed to engage us in further reflection and discussion. Each session includes video presentations from myself and members of our staff as well as speakers from the larger Archdiocese. The dates and titles are:
The Imperative of Worship –
Wednesday, January 15
The Eucharist as a Matter of Life and Death – Wednesday, January 22
The Eucharist as a Summons to Participation – Wednesday, January 29
From the Sacrifice of Jesus to Our Sacrificial Living –
Wednesday, February 5
The Eucharist is the Sacrament of the Lord’s Abiding Presence –
Wednesday, February 12
However, I also envision inspiring and challenging each other to look at the Eucharist differently than how we have perceived it – in new, relevant and creative ways. Here is an example:
Eucharist as an Epiphany
We celebrated the Solemnity of Epiphany last weekend. The story that is unique to the Gospel of Matthew tells us a powerful story of Christ’s presence revealed to Kings, led by a star. When you research the meaning of Epiphany, two religious definitions appear first:
• The manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles
• The manifestation of the Divine into human life
It also has secular definitions such as:
An epiphany is a sudden, intuitive perception or insight into REALITY,
usually instigated by something small or commonplace.
REALITY has always been an essential aspect of the Eucharist. We believe that Jesus intended for us to realize and ritualize His REAL presence every time we celebrate the Eucharist. During EVERY Eucharistic celebration, we should be open to sudden, intuitive perceptions of Christ’s REAL presence manifest in many simple and commonplace things such as the gathering of a grateful community, the proclaiming of scriptural stories connected with our stories, the music, and the elements of bread and wine that are staples of most meals.
I know that each of you have unique ways of looking at the Eucharist. Please continue to craft them and refine them, even if they are from the river of our long-standing tradition, which tells us that the Eucharist is:
• A Sacrament
• Food for the faith journey
• Gathering the folks, telling the stories and breaking the bread
• The best way for us to express our identity as ‘The Body of Christ’
In addition, perhaps the quintessential paradigm for our Movement of Growth…MORE
In the Eucharist, through the power of the Holy Spirit, bread, wine, stories and WE…
Become MORE.