The Eucharist

Dear Parishioners,

Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we bring forth an offering to God of bread and wine, “fruit of the earth and work of human hands,” and they become for us the body and blood of Christ. It is not wheat and grapes that are brought forth, but bread and wine. It is God’s creation transformed by our work. Though we may have very little connection to the actual production of the bread and wine that are offered, they represent our work, the sacrifices we make each day to bring the world closer to God’s dream for it.

With God, nothing is wasted. Our smallest efforts – our prayers, our works, our sufferings – when united with Christ’s sacrifice, can be transformed into Christ’s very body and blood. We take what God has given us – our bodies, our lives, our talents and abilities – and use them to transform creation through our work. This is what we bring to the table, hoping that God will transform it –transform us – along with the bread and wine.

If we receive the Eucharist with the proper disposition, we are united not only to Christ, but in Christ to one another, as one body. When we prepare our hearts to receive the Eucharist, we offer our gifts to God, so that they may be multiplied and that we may become Christ’s body, united in our one faith as a sign of our one Lord, who is over all and through all and in all.

 God Love Ya!

 Fr. Reilly