Fourth Week of Lent: Participate in His Meal

Participate in His Meal

Vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ’s holy institution, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood. ~Service of Holy Eucharist, Rite I in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, 335.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. ~ 1 Corinthians 11:26

We should not treat this meal lightly. There is a real sharing in the body and blood of Christ. Even if this is hard to define more exactly, the Lord Jesus is present by his Holy Spirit and he is opposed to anything in our lives that stands against him. Though invisible, Jesus is effectively the true leader or ‘host’ at this meal; we are meeting, not just in his name, but actually in his presence. Peter Walker, The Jesus Way, (Grand Rapids: Monarch Books, 2009), 85.

Daily Readings For the Week:

Monday – John 6:35-51

Tuesday – John 6:52-69

Wednesday – Luke 22:1-14

Thursday – Matthew 26:17-29

Friday – 1 Corinthians 10:1-22

Saturday – 1 Corinthians 11:23-32

Meditation For the Week:

"Our Lord Jesus took in His hands what in the beginning was only bread; and He blessed it, and signed it, and made it holy in the name of the Father and in the name of the Spirit; and He broke it and in His gracious kindness He distributed it to all His disciples one by one. He called the bread His living Body, and did Himself fill it with Himself and the Spirit… After the disciples had eaten the new and holy Bread, and when they understood by faith that they had eaten of Christ's …He took and mixed a cup of wine. The He blessed it, and signed it, and made it holy, declaring that it was His own Blood, which was about to be poured out. ...Christ commanded them to drink, and He explained to them that the cup which they were drinking was His own Blood: 'This is truly My Blood, which is shed for all of you. Take, all of you, drink of this, because it is a new covenant in My Blood, As you have seen Me do, do you also in My memory. Whenever you are gathered together in My name in Churches everywhere, do what I have done, in memory of Me. Eat My Body, and drink My Blood, a covenant new and old.", ~Saint Ephraim the Syrian, Homilies 4.4, ca. A.D. 350.

Prayer For the Week:

May your holy Body and Precious Blood be the food of eternal life for me, O merciful Lord and the healing of all my pains. Though I am unworthy, O Master, grant that with faith and love I may worthily eat your most pure Body and drink your precious Blood. O Lord, grant me to partake without condemnation of your pure Body and your precious Blood that I may glorify your righteousness. ~Prayers Before Communion in A Prayer Book in Accordance With the Tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, (Victoria, Canada: St Arseny Press, 2008), 122-3.