Today’s communion intro…

Before I started hanging out with the sisters at the monastery, I thought monastic life was, well, boring. You go to prayer three times a day, mass once a day, and share all your meals with the other sisters. With all that structure, I assumed that everybody’s spirituality was, well, kind of boring, too. Or at least the same. Or at least steady.

But it’s not. In fact, there’s a lot more doubt and questioning in religious communities than you might think. After three years of dipping my toes into the monastic routine, I’ve come to realize that the sisters don’t go to prayer all the time because they’ve got it all figured out. No, they go to prayer all the time because they’re trying to figure it out. The structure of community prayer, worship, and meals doesn’t give them faith…it simply creates a space where they can wrestle with it.

That’s what this table can be for us. We don’t come to this table because we understand everything about the eucharist. We don’t come to this table because we’ve already found answers to our faith questions. No, we come to this table because it gives us a structure, it creates a safe place for us to receive God’s grace…even during those seasons when we’re lurking in the shadows of faith.

Come today.
Receive the bread, Jesus’ body, gift of grace.
Receive the cup, Jesus’ blood, gift of grace.

Let us pray. God, we thank you that faith is much less toggle switch and much more rheostat. We thank you, too, that we are welcome at this table no matter where our personal spiritual dimmer switch is set. Amen.

[Sharing the elements.]