Give What You Receive

Lectio Divina

... I received ... what I also handed on to you....

1 Corinthians 11:23

Library

You know by now what I'm reading, or attempting to read. Brown, The Ecumenical Revolution, in the chapel stall; America and Hospitality on the night-table.

Log

This Sunday is a special solemnity: the celebration of the institution of the Eucharist, the memorial of Jesus Christ's gift of his body and blood as signified by his offering of bread and wine to his followers in a ritual meal of fellowship. Christians believe that in offering himself through the bread and wine, Jesus was offering us the very life of God; and that in our celebration of the Eucharist, our commemoration, memorial, and re-presentation of Jesus' offering, we continue to receive God in Christ, who is made manifest in our ritual. Let us receive with gladness what God has given to us in Jesus Christ; with Saint Paul, let us hand on to others what we received; and in our ritual offering of the bread and wine made Christ, let us become a real offering, as truly made Christ as the bread and wine, to God and our neighbor.

The brothers from the Province of Saint Augustine have returned from their triennial chapter in Pittsburgh. We are at full strength as a novitiate fraternity again. I'll miss the serenity of a smaller household, but what we lose in solitude we may gain in solidarity when we live in concord, no matter how large, and at times unwieldy, the fellowship.

Published the latest issue of The Caperone yesterday and will have a link for you in a few days. Also coordinated the evening meal, but I didn't bake or cook new dishes. (My novice brother fried some plantains, but that was all we did that was fresh.) We had so many leftovers from the celebration for Brother Harold and from our own meals the previous week, that it would have been a sin and a shame not to consume what we had been given! With roast chicken and gravy, red potatoes, white rice, mixed vegetables and plantains, biscuits, cranberry sauce, and assorted desserts, we had a Thanksgiving meal in June, a little eucharistia.

Today, Mass at with the men at Lompoc. This evening, we receive the company of the friars who comprise a committee for the oversight of initial formation for the North American and Pacific Capuchin Conference. They will be interviewing the novice brothers and the solemnly professed friars this week in evaluation of the novitiate program. Now it's our turn to be evaluators!

Weather

Much less heat than yesterday. Spring is back again.