Bodies. Blood. Bread. Brokenness. My children bring all of this into my life. Care for their bodies takes up hours of my day: washing faces, changing diapers, giving baths. Boyhood brings bloodied knees, scraped elbows, tears and band aids and doctor's visits. Feeding our family is nearly a full-time job in itself: planning meals, buying groceries, cooking dinner, baking bread. And brokenness? Well, families don't have to go far to find proof of faults and flaws and failings. We rub up against each other all day long. The Eucharist has never felt more real than it has since I became a mother. This is my body; take and eat; blessed and broken - almost everything I have learned about the love and sacrifice of parenting is wrapped up this sacrament at the center of my faith. So in celebration of this Sunday's Feast of Corpus Christi (the Body and Blood of Christ), here are 7 reasons I love the Eucharist - and 7 favorite posts to explain why... It re-members me back … [Read more...] about 7 reasons I love the Eucharist {the feast of corpus christi}
body of Christ
he is one
When you are the third child, especially the third of three boys, nothing comes new. Clothes, books, toys - all are gently loved or well-worn-out by the time they reach your hands. When you are still tiny, you accept this, of course. You don't know the world to be any other way. Your firsts are not earth-moving milestones. Your every move is not captured on video or preserved in photo albums. From day one your needs and wants cannot command complete attention. This truth is hard and humbling and healthy. For you and your parents. You are not simply a special snowflake. You are one among many. One year ago we met for the first time. My memories of birth are fast and foggy, snapshots of scenes. The first flash of him, wet and purple, his radiant heat in my shaking arms. His wavy dark hair and deep eyes squinting to see. My astonishment at his existence, the breathing weight of him on my chest, still startling after I carried him for nine long months below my … [Read more...] about he is one
we care about the crumbs
In our family's parish, we eat bread. (This is not a theological discourse on the real presence; this is a simple recipe.) Each Sunday, instead of the thin white wafers traditional to Catholic communion, our priest breaks brown bread. It is held high in his hands for all of us to see and heaped high on silver plates for all of us to eat. It wasn't what I was used to as a cradle Catholic. But I have come to love everything about this practice. I love that the simple bread is baked each week by members of our parish. It tastes like loving service. I love how our priests have to take time to break the wide flat circles into hundred of tiny squares. It tastes like holy transformation. I love that the Eucharistic ministers need the help of altar servers to hold the plates while they offer the Body of Christ. It tastes like living community. Most of all, I love what real bread requires of those of us who eat it. You have to hold it carefully in your hands so you don't drop whatever … [Read more...] about we care about the crumbs
start seeing sacraments: eucharist
Every week until my book comes out, I’ll share images around each of the 7 Catholic sacraments. Follow me on Instagram at @thismessygrace or tag your photos with #everydaysacrament. Let's start seeing sacraments together... . . . Eucharist. Source and summit. Body and blood. Christ at the center. I see it everywhere, this blessed-and-brokenness of the Christian faith. It's in our daily rhythms of eating and sharing at table. It's in our everyday actions of taking and breaking. It's in our ordinary offerings of sacrificing in love for each other. It's in this bread my husband bakes for our family every week, too. Every time I nurse the baby, I think of what it means to give of your self. Every time my husband harvested bowl upon bowl of vegetables from his garden, I thought about what it means to feed others. Every time we sit down at table to share another family meal, I think about what it means to gather together and give thanks. Every time we shared our harvest with friends … [Read more...] about start seeing sacraments: eucharist
