Scriptures for today.
Psalm 16 · Acts 2.14a, 22-32 · 1 Peter 1.3-9 · John 20.19-31
Prayer for today.
Almighty Father, you have given your only Son to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification: grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Question for today.
How much space is there in your heart this week to say with the author "O my God, thou art true, O my soul thou art happy"? Laying aside some of the distractions that mar unity among those who receive the Holy Communion may also be curative for other distractions of our souls.
Richard Hooker was a leading consolidator of Anglican belief and practice in the formative days of the church. Here he describes the proper stopping point between trying to understand the mystery of Holy Communion and proclaiming it truthfully with the mystery of God's work in the sacrament that bids us receive in trust.
"Let it herefore be sufficient for me presenting myself at the Lord's table to know what there I receive from him, without searching or inquiring of the manner how Christ performeth his promise let disputes and questions, enemies to piety, abatements of true devotions, and hitherto in this cause but over-patiently heard, let them take their rest;
let curious and sharp-witted men beat their heads about what questions themselves will...what these elements are in themselves it skillet not, it is enough that to me which take them they are the body and blood of Christ, his promise in witness hereof sufficeth, his word he knoweth which way to accomplish; why should any cogitation possess the mind of a faithful communicant but this, O my God, thou art true, O my soul thou art happy."
