From time to time I share bits of liturgy here. This is what I wrote for yesterday's communion, inspired by the JPIT 'This is a Time' material. If it's helpful, feel free to borrow or adapt it.
Invitation
This is a place
Where Jesus invites his friends to remember his life
This is a time
Where Jesus’ friends recall his death
This is a time, and this is a place
Here and now
We anticipate the heavenly banquet prepared for all
The Story
Time was running out for Jesus – the authorities had their spies everywhere, watching his every move, trying to trap him with word games and impossible questions. Knowing this, he made plans for the Passover meal…
The coded signal of a man carrying water
The borrowed upper room, away from prying eyes
The familiar prayers and psalms, memories and stories
This was a time for him and those he loved best
This was a place where, however fleetingly, they could be safe…
This is a story for all time, for our time
For this place, and for all places.
The apostle Paul recorded it like this:
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
The Thanksgiving
God of all times and all places
We give you thanks that we are able to meet openly and without fear to share together
God of this time and this place
We give you thanks for this bread and this wine, and all that they mean to us
May the sharing nourish our souls and strengthen our faith,
For we pray in Christ’s name
Amen
Sharing
(According to local custom)
Prayer Afterwards
(Theresa of Avila, adapted)
Christ has no body but ours,
No hands, no feet on earth but ours,
Ours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world
Ours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Ours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Ours are the hands, ours are the feet,
Ours are the eyes, we are his body.
Christ has no body now but ours,
No hands, no feet on earth but ours,
Ours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but ours.