The beauty of a community (Veronica Szczgiel)

    There is a sanctity in literally breaking bread with others — whether it be for a special occasion or as part of an everyday routine. Regardless, being distraction-free and fully focused on the present moment — and God’s presence in our company — makes each meal full of grace.  

    Mealtimes emphasize the beauty of a community. Everyone takes time out of their busy lives to come together as one. It’s no wonder that Jesus chose a meal to establish the first Mass, the holiest of meals. In fact, every Mass is a meal. We gather together to listen to God’s word and eat and drink his body and blood in the form of bread and wine. 

    As Jesus literally broke bread [at the Last Supper seder meal], he told his disciples: “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). He did it again as he passed around the cup of wine: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). This was one of the most singularly important announcements in the world: that Jesus is fully present in the bread and wine that is shared in Mass, all around the world, from that very first seder meal to today. 

--Veronica Szczygiel 

Image source: Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Potluck, July 14, 2024, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=909846294514119&set=a.909848687847213
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Communities in faith (Dorothy Day)

    We are communities in time and in a place, I know, but we are communities in faith as well -- and sometimes time can stop shadowing us. Our lives are touched by those who lived centuries ago, and we hope that our lives will mean something to people who won’t be alive until centuries from now. It’s a great ‘chain of being,’ someone once told me, and I think our job is to do the best we can to hold up our small segment of the chain. That’s one kind of localism, I guess, and one kind of politics -- doing your utmost to keep that chain connected, unbroken. 

--Servant of God Dorothy Day,
The Reckless Way of Love:
 Notes on Following Jesus

Image source: George Walsh, stained glass, St, Kentigern’s Roman Catholic Church, Eyeries, West Cork, Ireland, https://www.docbrown.info/docspics/irishscenes/ispage134f.htm 
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Interaction with others (Ted Chiang)

    We are all products of what has come before us, but it’s by living our lives in interaction with others that we bring meaning into the world. That is something that an auto-complete algorithm can never do, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. 

--Ted Chiang,
"Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art"

Image source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-ai-make-human-relationships-even-more-important-paul-swettenham-fnhyc/
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Christian identity (Pope Leo / Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe)

The Christian life is not lived in isolation,
confined to our minds and hearts.
It is lived with others,
because the Risen Christ is present among
the disciples gathered in His name.
We are part of a people,
a body that the Lord has established.
No one is a Christian alone! 

 --Pope Leo XIV, June 6, 2025 

   For some the idea of a universal welcome, in which everyone is accepted regardless of who they are, is felt as destructive of the Church’s identity. As in a nineteenth-century English song, ‘If everybody is somebody then nobody is anybody.’ They believe that identity demands boundaries. But for others, it is the very heart of the Church’s identity to be open. Pope Francis said, ‘The Church is called on to be the house of the Father, with doors always wide open ... where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems and to move towards those who feel the need to take up again their path of faith.’ 

    This tension has always been at the heart of our faith, since Abraham left Ur. The Old Testament holds two things in perpetual tension: the idea of election, God’s chosen people, the people with whom God dwells. This is an identity which is cherished. But also universalism, openness to all the nations, an identity which is yet to be discovered. Christian identity is both known and unknown, given and to be sought. St. John says, ‘Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.’ (1 John 3. 1 – 2). We know who we are and yet we do not know who we shall be. 

    For some of us, the Christian identity is above all given, the Church we know and love. For others Christian identity is always provisional, lying ahead as we journey towards the Kingdom in which all walls will fall. Both are necessary! If we stress only our identity is given – This is what it means to be Catholic – we risk becoming a sect. If we just stress the adventure towards an identity yet to be discovered, we risk becoming a vague Jesus movement. But the Church is a sign and sacrament of the unity of all humanity in Christ (LG. 1) in being both. We dwell on the mountain and taste the glory now. But we walk to Jerusalem, that first synod of the Church. 

    How are we to live this necessary tension? All theology springs from tension, which bends the bow to shoot the arrow. This tension is at the heart of St. John’s gospel. God makes his home in us: ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.’ (14.23) But Jesus also promises us our home in God: ‘ In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? (John 14.2). 

    When we think of the Church as home, some of us primarily think of God as coming home to us, and others of us coming to home in God. Both are true. We must enlarge the tent of our sympathy to those who think differently. We treasure the inner circle on the mountain, but we come down and walk to Jerusalem, wanderers and homeless. ‘Listen to him’. 

--Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe

Image source: https://emailmeditations.com/2014/08/14/490-early-christian-testimonies/
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Cherished belonging (Fr. Greg Boyle)

We want to commit to creating
a culture and community of
cherished belonging. 

--Fr. Greg Boyle SJ

Image source 1: Belonging, mural, Guelph, Ontario, https://is-gw.ca/stories-of-belonging/
Image source 2: Fr. Greg Boyle with members of his Homeboy community, https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/09/19/greg-boyle-homeboy-industries-241462/
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Our common life (Henri Nouwen)

    How do we live out our common life as a God-centered, love-motivated community of faith? How will we express our particular faith in prayers and worship that include all people? How will we live our unity in authentic ways, fully recognizing the divisions and separations that continue to exist among us? My own growing awareness is that spiritual needs and desires are present and common to all, that we share a universal quest for deeper meaning and purpose, and that we are all beloved children of God. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: OLMC’s “Chosen” group prays for our world, December 2025, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1328667335965344&set=pb.100064662700877.-2207520000
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 12, 2026: All who believed were together and had all things in common...

All who believed were together and had all things in common…
 Do we find our common identity in Christ? 

   When, in John’s Gospel, the resurrected Jesus appears to the disciples behind locked doors, he enters into a community of believers, but believers wracked by fear. Peace be with you, he says to them (twice). Jesus wants to put his faithful flock, those who have maintained their faith in him and remain true to him, at ease. Breathing on them, Jesus invites them into new life in him: Receive the Holy Spirit. This gift will allow the disciples to be the first community through whom God will be revealed; their faith – including Thomas’ – will allow them to believe past the limitations we normally place on our world, so that they might bring his mercy to that world. For this, they will, as Psalm 118 states, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting. 

    It is the union that grows among this community of believers that we find depicted shortly thereafter, in the Acts of the Apostles. They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers, Luke tells us. That communal life becomes integral to their identity; the meals they share are celebratory, exultant, for in them they express true devotion to each other and and to the common good, growing in their identity as the Body of Christ. 

    By the time of the writing of the First Letter of Peter, the Christian community is one that has not known Jesus firsthand: although you have not seen him, you love him. Yet, through baptism, a new birth to a living hope, they too have been transformed through the death and rising of Jesus. Their communal identity develops both from the trials they are facing together and from their indescribable and glorious joy at knowing they are saved. Like this community, we have not seen Christ yet we love him. And like them, we too can give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting!

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com