one sunday evening my friend asked if i would serve communion in his place. after service he thanked me. and i thanked him in return and added that it was in fact what i needed that evening. i really love serving communion. sharing a sacrament with a stranger. looking the other in the eye and acknowledging we have more similarities than differences. in a small way being apart of their personal moment of faith. it's good for me. because i have many doubts. and these days it seems i have more questions than answers. more abstract uncertainties than grounded truths. more darkness than illumination. over the past month i've come across two quotes that put my feelings about communion into words more simply and beautifully than i have attempted to do here.
ronald rolheiser:
but i go to eucharist daily too for another reason, a more personal one: this is the one place where i can be faithful, where i can essentially measure up. i can't always control how i feel or how i think and i can't always measure up morally and spiritually, but, inside of my perpetual inadequacy and occasional doubt and confusion, i can be faithful in this one deep way. i can go to the eucharist regularly.
marilyn mcentyr:
we navigate those bafflements best when we cling to our "sure and certain hope" - that we are held firmly in our seeking by one who will not let us go - and when we share the eucharist that nourishes us even in our darkest uncertainties."
love those. and yes to what you said, too. :) it's one of the few 'activities' that feels holy -- and certainly not from anything i am personally doing, but b/c of the space i have entered into again and again with each person who approaches me to be served.
Posted by: beth | 29 June 2009 at 09:04 AM