Sunday, June 2: The Inner and Outer Yes

Practices

• Prayerfully re-read these passages again in the manner of Lectio Divina, reading them aloud to engage more of your senses and feel the vibrations in your body. What do you hear for your journey now?
• View this one-minute video on the Eucharist by Thomas Keating. You may want to repeat the viewing, especially after you’ve meditated or journaled on it.  What is evoked?

If you wish, you may re-read the full email reflection here: https://mailchi.mp/coutreach/2024-word-of-the-week-june2

I watched the video clip of Father Keating commenting about the Eucharist. Jesus issued a two-way invitation: I will dine with you, identifying with you, and ask the same from you. This clip took me back to a snowy January in Snowmass, CO, participating in a 10-day retreat and taking Eucharist twice daily alongside Father Keating and the rest of the monks. I couldn’t grasp the full reality at the time, so overwhelmingly welcoming as it was, yet I was truly beholding what I am, becoming what I receive.

I had to leave the Snowmass table and move back into my world, equipped to see Christ in the people, tasks and events that awaited me. Seeing Christ in those closest to me and in daily tasks allows joy and deep contentment to well up from my Christ center into them. Contemplative practices keep that wellspring open and flowing. <3 linda

Linda, thanks for sharing your retreat experience at Snowmass. I will never get there but I felt I was there with you! Sharing in CO is so valuable. I did visit Chrysalis House in Warwick  NY many years ago. I was looking at the Board of Directors bios and saw that Mary Dwyer was at Warwick  That brought back some memories of CO when it was starting it is so wonderful to see how it has grown. I would never have guessed.

This Sunday’s readings are for me the most powerful of the whole year. I was blessed that our parish priest seemed to be in the same place and rang the bells for me. It was not his homily but his Faith and you could see that this was an exceptional day for him personally. I enjoyed being in his presence and sharing in his Faith. After all this is what CO is all about. We have it in the Eucharist, Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina and Welcoming Prayer. It is as revolutionary as those who heard Jesus for the first time. We have the advantage of time and understanding more clearly. What gifts we are given. What miracles and graces. This Sunday shows why this is so and the most precious legacy that Jesus left us. All we have to do is enter into it and Everything is ours. What a gift. And CO spreads the message and distributes all the gifts we so desperately need in this world today!

“Become what you receive”. I have often thought of the Eucharist as the “chi” or life force of Christ. When this chi is united with my chi,  a unique Christ is manifested. It is my responsibility to tend this chi, to give it the silence and the companions it needs.

This really resonates with me, Sue. Like you, I have intuited the Eucharist as live force, but didn’t quite have the further connection of a unique Christ manifesting in me, although it seems completely obvious as I read your reflection.  Thank you so much.

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