Sharing one bread

Week 1: Weekend

Reading

1 Corinthians 11.23-31

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgement against themselves. For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged.

Reflection

Holy Communion is where we learn what it means to receive and to be the Body of Christ.

Selina Stone writes in Tarry Awhile, “To be invited around the Lord’s table, is a privilege that none of us deserve. As we gather around the table that is not our own, at which we are guests, we are reminded … of the reconciling work of Christ even while we tarry for this reconciliation in our experience. Of course, we experience moments of this reconciliation in the meantime … Our hope is built up by these moments.

“The Eucharist … is a time when we accept a gift that tells us a truth that even we might like to deny: that we are all children of God and siblings of one another … it is through Christ’s life, death and resurrection that we have been reconciled to God and to one another.”

Watch

Reflect on how Christians are united - but also sometimes divided - by the Lord's table.

...and pray

for deeper unity in the Body of Christ.

Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2024.