COMMUNION
Appropriate
Eucharistic Hymn
Henri Nouwen on the Emmaus Story
Communion creates community. Christ, living in them,
brought them together in a new way. The Spirit of the risen
Christ, which entered them through the eating of the bread
and drinking of the cup, not only made them recognize
Christ himself but also each other as members of a new
community of faith. Communion makes us look at each other
and speak to each other, not about the latest news, but
about him who walked with us. We discover each other as
people who belong together because each of us now belongs
to him. We are alone, because he disappeared from our
sight, but we are together because each of us is in
communion with him and so has become one body through him.
We ate his body, we drank his blood. In so doing, all of us
who took from the same bread and the same cup have become
one body. Communion creates community, because the God
living in us makes us recognize the God in our fellow
humans.
Gospel of the Day
Reflection:
What message does the Gospel have for me today?
In the Breaking of Bread and the Gushing of Wine
All
In the awesome name of God,
in the victorious name of Jesus,
in the mysterious name of the Spirit
We acknowledge our God and we wait;
we are still, we are silent and we wait.
(A brief silence)
Reader 1
We wait for the sounds of God and the sounds
of the sacrament:
the breaking of the bread and the gushing of the wine
the pain of sorrow and the pulse of hope
the echo of our name
and the bread in our teeth
a cup on our lips
and breathing at our side
as we wait for the sounds of God
the breaking of the bread
and the gushing of the wine.
(A brief silence)
[After each reading, the
reader breaks a piece of bread and pours a little
wine]
All
In the awesome name of God,
in the victorious name of Jesus,
in the mysterious name of the Spirit
We acknowledge our God and we wait;
we are still, we are silent and we wait.
(A brief silence)
Reader 1
We wait for the sounds of God and the sounds
of the sacrament:
the breaking of the bread and the gushing of the wine
the pain of sorrow and the pulse of hope
the echo of our name
and the bread in our teeth
a cup on our lips
and breathing at our side
as we wait for the sounds of God
the breaking of the bread
and the gushing of the wine.
(A brief silence)
[After each reading, the
reader breaks a piece of bread and pours a little wine]
Reader 2
We hear sounds in the distance:
the vibration of human lives
the crackle of fear and the murmur of distrust
the scramble for rice and the tearing of garbage the
shuffle of withered limbs and the sigh of rich tourists
the growl of empty bodies and the splash of spent blood
the breaking of the bread and the gushing of the wine.
(A brief silence)
Reader 3
We hear the snarl of a bullet and the snap of
a trigger
the sudden yell of unseen mines
the cough of smoking ruins
the whisper of desolation and the silence of a lifeless
field
the breaking of the bread and the gushing of the wine.
(A brief silence}
Reader 4
We hear the bleating of the lamb and the
breaking of the womb
the death of the lamb and the breaking of the tomb
a word that was healing and a God that was feeling
in the breaking of the bread and the gushing of the wine.
(A brief silence)
All
And we listen for the bursting of joy
and the bubble of children's faces
and the dancing of willows
and the surprise of open lives
the shout of mountains
and the laughter of a second birth
the leap of our spirit and the swirl of celebration
in the breaking of the bread and the gushing of the wine.
Sharing in bread and wine as
our sign of communion as community
“Communion creates community, because the God living
in us makes us recognize the God in our fellow
humans.”
Prayers and
Remembrances
Song: Appropriate Eucharistic
Song
