Chair's September Blog: Rediscovering Loaves of Real Bread

Rediscovering Loaves of Real Bread - Some Thoughts on CPW Eucharist

By Anne Dixon

”What a pity that in the anticipation of the heavenly banquet, the memorial banquet of Jesus, we use paltry, artificial stuff! We need to rediscover loaves of real bread in our liturgies; then break and share them.”

Thomas O’Loughlin, Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham, from a short article entitled ‘Sharing the Loaf’ 

At CPW we embrace this rediscovery of the symbols of Eucharist. We celebrate, give thanks and share with exuberance. For many of us it is one of the most authentic experiences of the sacrament. We are truly a Eucharistic Community.

“the scattered grains which when gathered are transformed into a new unity - a loaf”

Professor O’Loughlin has written extensively about the subject of the Eucharist and Eucharistic Hospitality for more than 20 years. In the short article quoted above he focusses on the symbol of “the scattered grains which when gathered are transformed into a new unity - a loaf”. He is speaking about the paucity of the understanding of Eucharist when it is reduced by legalistic thinking into a reward for the privileged, and suggests that the symbols we apply may reflect this attitude.

His words were written at a time when we could gather easily in our parishes and move and receive without fear of endangering ourselves or our neighbour. What are we to make of them now in our present circumstances?

In some ways the CPW Eucharistic Community has never been more ‘scattered’. We are unable to come together in one place, as one body and share one loaf, and this is deeply painful. Through the wonder of technology we see beloved faces and hear their voices but touch is literally out of reach and watching others eat is not shared food. So what is to be done?

We have all felt the pain of separation and the joy of reunion. The depth of the first heightens the experience of the second, but both are fed by sustained connection. We need to stay in touch. We need to continue to hear each others stories. We mustn’t let the connection grow cold, because the danger then is that we begin to care just a little bit less. We know this. We’ve lived this. We know it in our prayer life. We know it in our family life.

Here is a suggestion. What if our scattered grains in this time are our own stories? We bring them together and we tell them and our listening to each other breaks down these grains, warms them and makes them into our shared story, our loaf. We stay connected. We communicate. Isn’t this what the Early Christian Communities did when they shared the scriptures and letters from their teachers (who were not present either)?

Is this the moment for a re-think, as suggested at our day of celebration in August? Can we re-think our celebration as a Eucharistic Community and create and nourish each other with a Loaf all can share? What do you think? 

Finally, thank you to our chaplain, Tim Redmond, for providing us with a particularly apt quotation from the poet John O’Donohue to guide our creativity in celebration.

“So there is a great fiesta time ahead, and we would want to be practising if we haven’t been any good at it in this world. We would want to be practising, even against our will, a certain little bit of happiness, because we could be really deluged with pleasure in the next life”

Excerpt from a meditation entitled ‘Coming Home’ in John O’Donohue’s “Walking on the Pastures of Wonder”, edited by John Quinn, 20