Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This time without public Masses has created a real hunger—and we know so many of you feel it! God will draw good even from this terrible deprivation: perhaps it will take the form of a renewed and deepened hunger for the Lord, and for his Body and Blood that he offers us in every Mass. The Eucharist itself is but a foretaste of the bread of heaven—a preparation for that wedding feast of the Lamb we hope to enjoy in the eternal city.
In the meantime, there are great ways of ‘training our palates’ to get ready for the Eucharistic Feast that will return someday soon for us as a parish. Many of these are spiritual—prayer, contemplation, acts of devotion—but today, we talk about something earthier: the family meal.
Each and every family meal can be a ‘eucharistic’ moment—a time of charity and being nourished in both body and soul. Now, before you roll your eyes at us and say “Yeah, right, explain that to my screaming three year old,” watch this episode of Closing the Social Distance, and hear us out! Our meals this side of paradise will always be imperfect, one way or another. But the way we enjoy the main meal each day helps train us for things well beyond table manners: it teaches us something about communion with each other, and that is what we await in the Mass!
Fr. Henry mentions the film Babette’s Feast in this episode: to find out more, click on the blue link. You can stream it on Amazon Prime and iTunes, too.
Stay well, and stay hungry—for God!
Oremus pro invicem—let’s pray for each other,
The Dominican Friars