Abundant Bread Crumbs

If we pay attention, especially if we allow ourselves to enter relational space and participate in connection, we will discover that communion is taking place all around us.

I am a person who has the sacred opportunity from time to time to lift bread and a cup before of a community while speaking life-giving words: “This is my body. This is the cup of salvation. Do this in remembrance of me.”

This is Eucharist, which literally means, Good Gift.

This kind of Eucharist, this kind of Good Gift, is a Sacred Prelude to a host of eucharists. There are many good gifts of food, nourishment, and connection, and I would say that the same spirit is present in them. After all, every moment of the story of Jesus is about incarnation — the Sacred discovered to be embodied, right in the midst of ordinary moments.

This makes me ponder. . . Among other things, the Eucharist may be an announcement — a proclamation — of eucharists. This is an invitation to experience God in the midst of one another. Where can we find such moments of everyday communion? If we look for them, I imagine we’ll find them all over the place.

Yesterday, in fact, I saw a Eucharist in the midst of the Eucharist.

Four children had gone forward along with the rest of the community to receive the Eucharist, but beyond that first bite, they were excited to discover that they were given huge pieces of the bread to take with them. Not just a little morsel, but an abundance of bread. So they came to the back of the worship space and showed their pieces to each other with joy on their faces. Then, they ate together with smiles, making bread crumbs all over the place.

I suppose in some traditions, this might be seen as risky – children holding something sacred and then making crumbs of it. But I don’t see it that way.  This is the kind of welcome Jesus makes, to children, to all of us. This is the kind of invitation that allows us to find God’s presence joyfully in one another, marveling at the good gifts we’ve been given.

Good gifts.

Eucharist.

Every day,
Every moment,
Every meal,
Every relationship.

–Renee Roederer

This post is part of a series this week. Feel free to check out the other pieces too:

Small, Enormous Kindnesses
The Time He Held Up the M&Ms
Solidarity Eating
“The Cup of Salvation!”