Lenten Invitation to Communion

During Lent, I will be using words I first heard at the Monastery at SSJE during the season of Lent:

Behold what you are.  May we become what we receive.   

The words used at the presentation of the Bread and Cup derive from St. Augustine’s Sermon 57, On the Holy Eucharist, a sustained teaching pointing to one of the deep truths of Christian faith:  through our participation in the sacraments (particularly baptism and Eucharist), we are transformed into the Body of Christ, given for the world.  St. Augustine (354 – 430 c.e.), together with St. Paul and Thomas Aquinas, is one of the most influential voices in the Christian tradition, and the clerestory windows of the monastery feature a window in his honor. (from SSJE)

“You are the body of Christ,” St. Augustine said. “In you and through you the work of the incarnation must go forward. You are to be taken; you are to be blessed, broken, and given; that you may be the means of grace and the vehicles of the Eternal love. Behold what you are. Become what you receive.”