Confessions of a Serial Forward Reader

They said to him, "Lord, give us this bread always." John 6. 27 - 40

As a third generation Forward Day by Day reader, I was raised to collect the little booklets, until I ran out of space and technology provided them for me online. However, in my Daily Office book there are pages from Forwards over the years which I have torn out and paper clipped to the page with the specific reading. It makes for a messy Daily Office book, but it is such a joy to revisit some of my favorite meditations. Today's is one of those. I have no idea what year it is from, but included in the meditation is a quote from Dom Gregory Dix's book The Shape of the Eucharist which describes so beautifully Christ's command for us to be intimately connected with him through the celebration of the Eucharist. Dom Gregory said,

"Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance, for every conceivable need, from infancy and before it to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacles of earthly greatness to the refuge of fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth. Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a crop of good wheat; for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting in an examination or for Columbus setting out to discover America."

More and more the weight of the wafer bears down in my hands when I receive it at the Eucharist; what a powerful way to be reminded of the greatest of all Love. Truly there was never another command so obeyed.