Re-membering: putting ourselves back together as the sisters and brothers we once have been.
Carter Heyward
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I thought: strange word, remember. To put the members together again, to re-configure. The past passing through one’s heart.
Andre Brink
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Re-membering: putting ourselves back together as the sisters and brothers we once have been.
Carter Heyward
Image: The Eucharist, Daniel Bonnell
Remembering as at the heart of the Eucharist. “Do this in anamnesis of me”- not simply looking back but bringing a past event into the present. In the interplay of past, present and future – our remembering ignites the hope that is in us. Our future (Jesus) has already appeared.
Being present: living life now, as gift. We don’t make God present: God is. I AM. “Now is the time for God to act” (Eastern Liturgy)
“Becoming what we are”
All that we are, all that we do, all that interests us in the world [we offer]…Not so that it remains as it is, but so that it no longer refrains from being what it is at depth. So that it becomes what it truly is.
John Zizioulas
Image: Mary’s Pondering Dream in Her Ninth Month, Daniel Bonnell
Fostering a Eucharistic heart and mind is appreciating our need for change. Such transformation- seeing things as they really are – is about coming home to ourselves, breaking the bread of our lives and finding fulfillment there.
“Living appreciatively”
Eucharist 2, Daniel Bonnell 
Communion Cup, Daniel Bonnell 
Eucharist and Dove #2, Daniel Bonnell
Entering into communion with Jesus “opens the possibility of gradually letting go of our many resentments and choosing to be grateful”.
Henri Nouwen
Thinking is etymologically related to thanking. We need not force ourselves into a gratitude we do not feel.
We think…we make connections….
we recognize how life-denying failing to connect can be….
we ask for the gift of gratitude….
and experience freedom as we shift the centre of gravity from ego, from self…to the Other.
The images in this post are paintings and drawings by the American artist, Daniel Bonnell. Some comments from the artist:
-eyes of humility see perfectly
-the mystery of seeing is seeing the mystery
-there is one supreme creative act–the Eucharist
-when I pick up the brush I am handed the Eucharist.
And as we contemplate the mystery of the eucharist, Ola Gjielo’s Serenity gives us a beautifully mysterious setting of O Magnum Mysterium.
O magnum mysterium,et admirabile sacramentum,ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,iacentem in praesepio!Beata Virgo, cujus viscerameruerunt portareDominum Iesum Christum.Alleluia!
O great mystery,and wonderful sacrament,that animals should see the newborn Lord,lying in a manger!Blessed is the virgin whose wombwas worthy to bearthe Lord, Jesus Christ.Alleluia!
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click on the link below.
