Baking bread at two o'clock in the morning
It's a good thing I slept in this morning. I had work, and then immediately two hours of yoga, and finally got home at 9:30 p.m., after stopping for the ingredients for bread.
We have Chapel four days a week, at noon. (Apparently, back in the day when it was all young male seminarians, Chapel was in the morning. But as things progressed, they ( Read more... )
The bread sounds yummy.
I would suppose that if a person has come to expect "high church" like ceremonies for their sacraments, changing would be difficult. I think that is one of the reasons why Catholics have so much trouble attending other churches even when they become disenchanted with the Catholic church. To me Communion is a very personal experience. One of the most moving Communion services I was at was at a women's conference and we were encouraged to dance down the aisle to the alter and after we had the bread and dipped it in the cup someone put oil on our wrists and put a ribbon over our clasped hands and reminded us that we were "women of God." The music was joyful, the people were whispering, and the service was being held in an old college auditorium. I cried and felt held in the arms of God. I think we have to be open to different expressions of the sacraments. Some people feel that if you aren't fully submersed you are not baptized. And yet when you do that at someones home swimming pool with the children's toys floating in it and the neighbors playing and making noise in theirs next door you have to make that your special moment without the ceremony of a tank in a church. B often had communion at the "rail" where at my church the deacons passed it to you in the pew with great ceremony and lovely organ music. We need to remember that for the early Christians communion was part of a meal in a house church. There probably wasn't a lot of ceremony, it was probably the host reminding the diners that Jesus asked them to do this in remembrance of him. There was probably a pause and some under the breath thoughts and they ate the bread and drank the wine and remembered. I think that is the most important part. To remember when we eat the bread and drink the wine, no matter what the atmosphere is. To me it is that private remembering and connecting that makes communion so important. I love that the church we go to now does communion every Sunday. It makes worship that much more of a connection for me, that much more of a restorative.
I am not belittling your feelings. I still have problems with noisy children in church. I have to work at ignoring them. I grew up in a church where the service was a solemn adult experience and noisy babies and children were asked by the minister to be escorted out if the parents didn't do it on their own. It made for awkward moments sometimes but the quiet worshipful atmosphere was very important to me. I have adjusted as we have gone to other churches and had other experiences, but I still cringe when the pastor is preaching and some child is trying to get someones attention during the service. Ask M how we kept them quiet in church. They were always very good, as long as you didn't know what they were quietly doing.
Savor your homemade communion bread and remember.
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