🥖🍷Communion: Belonging, together.

Help us in our remembering.

Where do you find belonging? What does it mean, really, to belong? Today is World Communion Sunday, an invitation to remember that, across borders and bloodlines, denominations and divisions, politics and preferences, we belong to Christ — and that Jesus has called us to belong to each other, too.

Mother Teresa is often quoted as saying, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”

What might gathering at the table help us to remember about belonging?

I share this in Every Season Sacred:

There’s something so profoundly human about sharing a meal. It’s the most essential thing in the world to eat and drink, and when we do it together, it fills our basic need for connection, too.

Perhaps this is why Jesus spent so much time eating with His disciples. There’s more than just physical nourishment that takes place around the table—the Spirit of God is there too. When we gather as a body of believers, we take Communion, eating the bread (or wafer) and sipping the wine (or grape juice). We gather to take and eat in remembrance of Christ.

“To eat this particular meal together is to meet at the level of our most basic humanness, which involves our need not just for food but for each other,” writes Frederick Buechner. “I need you to help fill my emptiness just as you need me to help fill yours. As for the emptiness that’s still left over, well, we’re in it together, or it in us. Maybe it’s most of what makes us human and makes us brothers and sisters.”

I hope that wherever you are (or aren’t) in your faith journey, this week will give you the words to turn to as you reflect on what it means to come to the table—to remember, to receive, and to belong.

ICYMI: Ashlee Eiland and Michael Wear both wrote guest liturgies for us this week about navigating belonging in divisive times. I’m grateful for this great cloud of witnesses who invite us to borrow words when we don’t have our own.

I’m also continuing to pray for those living in the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Helene. I had the joy of attending a podcast treat in Asheville about ten years ago (Upside Down Podcast!), and I have no words to see what has transpired in that beautiful community. God have mercy.

Communion Liturgy

I was commissioned to write a communion liturgy for churches, and I have permission to share that prayer with you here, too.

Communal parts are bolded if you want to use it more as a litany.

O Christ who sets the table, we remember.

Help us in our remembering.

We give thanks to You,

The One who does not turn

From humanity

But instead enters into it,

Gathering us into Your arms

And welcoming us as we are.

You are not a God of crumbs,

But of abundance.

Help us live into the feast

You’ve set out for us.

When we are weary,

You nourish our souls.

When we are empty,

You satisfy our needs.

When we are weak,

You make space at the table

And make us whole.

In a world that divides,

Bring us together.

Make us one as we break bread.

Transform us from the inside out.

As we share the cup, pour out

Your presence

And remind us of Your purpose.

Spirit of mystery,

Help us to receive Your gift

So that we may serve one another

As You’ve served us.

O God who gives,

How easy it is to thirst,

To hunger for what will never satiate.

When we wander,

Bring us back to the table.

In light of Your sacrifice,

Help us turn from selfishness

And turn toward each other

In Your perfect love.

We’re prone to forget.

Help us to remember,

Now and forevermore.

Amen.

Pray this with Your Kids

Pray this with your family this week.

Jesus, it’s so easy to forget Your big love for us. You are God, and because of Your love, You became human like us.

When we are together and pray together, it helps us remember just how much You love us. When we imagine time with you, we think of a delicious dinner around a table where everyone is telling stories and laughing.

Your love is like a giant feast, not a few tiny crumbs. We are hungry for Your love. Fill us up with Your love so we can share it with others. Amen.

(Every Season Sacred has a short prayer to share with your family for each week of the year.)

Photo by Jonathan Pielmayer on Unsplash

Prayer for a Meal Together

Consider borrowing this prayer from To Light Their Way this week before a meal. (You can find the whole prayer on page 26.)

O Jesus Christ, who says take, eat,
And do this in remembrance of Me,
We give thanks
For the gift of Your presence
And the gift of gathering at the table,
Sharing in our humanity and breaking bread
In the sacred space of together.

At worn wooden tables
Or tiny kitchen islands
Or trays in front of the TV,
We give thanks.

For access to abundance
And the hands that farmed each field
And picked each fruit and each vegetable,
We give thanks.

For clean water to scrub the dirt away,
For soil that helps good things grow,
And for sun that shines its face upon the earth,
Revealing Your glory,
We give thanks.

For the growing bodies and minds
Gathered around the table,
Hungry to be nourished and nurtured,
Never knowing what it’s like to have hunger pangs,
We give thanks.

For the cupboards full of breads and boxes,
Cans and containers,
For the cool refuge of a stocked refrigerator,
We give thanks.

For the chopping and the stirring,
For the measuring and the baking,
For the eager hands that make more mess than not,
We give thanks.

For the stained cookbooks with smudged pages,
For the lingering aromas dancing in the air,
For the meals that turn out nothing like the blog said,
We give thanks.

For the frozen chicken nuggets
And the bakery-fresh donuts,
For the boxed macaroni and cheese
And the backyard tomatoes,
We give thanks.

For the crust-off sandwiches,
For the grapes sliced four ways,
For the squeezed juice boxes,
And the accidental milk spills—
We give thanks for these, too.

For the spirited discussions,
For the exasperated sighs,
For the dramatic eye rolls,
And for the monosyllable answers,
We give thanks.

For the kitchen sink full of dishes,
For the cluttered counters,
For the table littered with crumbs,
For the floors waiting to be swept,
We give thanks.

For hands that are plunged into warm water,
Slipping into the routine of the holy ordinary
Of soap and bubbles
And “You wash; I’ll dry,”
We give thanks.

As we eat with our family,
May we throw open doors
To share our food with our neighbor,
For what is ours is really Yours.

May we be mindful of the foods we purchase
And how the choices in our cart affect another.
May we remember those who work long hours,
Stocking shelves or tending fields,
For their fingerprints line our shelves.

May we give out of what we have,
Even if it’s just a few loaves and a few fish,
For You desire for all to eat,
And we need not hoard
Our daily bread.

For this, we give thanks.
In all we prepare
In times of harvest
And times of lack,
May we remember
That we belong to one another,
Connected by our mutual need
For the Bread and Wine
That feeds our souls.

We give thanks for all these things
In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

October Reading Plan

The October Reading Guide is designed to help you navigate the chapters of Every Season Sacred and prayers of To Light Their Way, allowing you to deepen your connection to God amidst the rhythm of daily life.

Reading Plan For October

354KB ∙ PDF file

Download

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You’ll find a suggested reading schedule that aligns with important holidays and holy days. (Feel free to jump in any time—you’re always welcome to explore these reflections at your own pace.)

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