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From BACK COVER: This book celebrates the life-giving Eucharist—the imaginative means by which our thinking and our lives are transformed in Jesus Christ. Even as the Eucharist is the sacrament of Christ’s real presence in the midst of the Church, it is also the gift that nourishes our bodies and souls with the food and drink of eternal life. It is the sustaining inspiration by which we grasp the mysteries of faith as they gain momentum, direction, and shape in our lives.
A celebration of the centrality of the Eucharist in a life of faith, The Bread of God examines the way of thinking that links us to the mind of Christ, the mind of the Church, and to each of us in the body of Christ. Early chapters of the book plumb the meaning of the Eucharist as found in the Scriptures and lead us full circle to find the true meaning of the Scriptures in the Eucharist. Further chapters discuss more deeply the characteristics of the Eucharist: sacrifice, communion, judgment, praise, and love. Father Kelly concludes the book with a poetic meditation on the power of the Eucharist to make us truly present to the life of the world and to live that presence as generously as we can.
If you are looking to celebrate a truly living Eucharist—one that deepens and broadens your experience of the paschal feast—The Bread of God is a beacon for the possibilities of our Christian faith.
FORWARD BY BASIL PENNINGTON, OCSO
The Eucharist has had many meanings for the People of God. Not so long ago, it was an awful Majesty worshiped from afar, approached only rarely. The saintly father, Pius X, invited his children to the table. With the ongoing action of the Spirit with the Church, we came closer and closer until another saintly pontiff, John XXIII, help break away the encrustations of centuries. Again, as in the early Church, the Eucharist means the People of God gathered around the table, eagerly entering into Communion not only sacramentally but with one another in reality. This remarkable book urges us along this same path, helping us to not only understand but to experience what the Eucharist calls us to.
The Sacred Scriptures are full of stories and images of all kinds. When the message is too great to be contained within the restraints of definable concepts, authors resort to poetics. So too did the Divine Author. In an outreaching love, he came to be with us to tell us personally of the kingdom from whence he came. In this revealing, he resorted to parables and images. Ultimately he himself in his humanity is the sacrament, the outward expression of the inner reality. And he left himself sacramentally in our midst in the Eucharist. It is the message of this Sign, who is a Person of Infinite Love, that our author seeks to help us not only hear but also experience and to live more fully in the domain of the imagined.
We know as Christians that we have been baptized into Christ, made one with him. We are called to be Christ in the world today. But as we seek to live the Christ-life to the full, many of us never think of entering into the imagination of Christ. We have heard, "Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus"—and have sought to think as Christ thinks and place his value on things. But if we reflect, we realize that we humans are more influenced in our dai1y living by the images that are fed to our eyes and ears, that dwell in our memory and call forth emotions than we are influenced by our rational thoughts. It does not take much reflection on the gospels to realize how fully cognizant Jesus was of this as he sought to teach us by stories and signs that appeal to our imaginations.
For many a reader, Father Kelly is going to open a whole domain for entering fruitfully and effectively into the Christ-life. For this reason, this is a most valuable volume. It can be life-transforming. If the Eucharist, holy Communion, who is a Person as well as a Symbol, is allowed, under the tutelage of this gifted insightful author, to become the Master-Symbol of our lives, we will find a transcending unity that will satisfy our deepest longings while inspiring and empowering us to live in the reality of our oneness with all our sisters and brothers in Christ.
The author makes us realize that this creative unity of "the fruit of the earth and the work of human hands" with the divine self-giving challenges us to a deeper awareness of our responsibility for the ecological well-being of our planet, the earth we constantly mold by the work of our hands. It depends on us as good stewards to assure it is allowed to remain a powerful and beautiful sign of the divine munificence.
If we allow it, I am sure that the reading of this significant volume will not only ground our lives more richly and heighten our ecological awareness. It will profoundly affect our prayer as it leads us into the domain of compassion. For in Eucharist we not only turn with Christ to the Begetter of the Universe, but we are challenged to give ourselves with Christ to all our sisters and brothers through space and time—to give ourselves as life-cherishers. Our world is not the anonymous and indifferent place that science seems to reveal but, in truth, it is the homeland and heartland of an infinitely loving God. For the Father and Son with their Holy Spirit have come to make their home within us. The incarnate Word makes our sufferings his own through this sacrifice truly presenced in the Eucharist even while he gives us the assurance of final transformation by his Resurrection. The Eucharist not only brings all this to mind. It nourishes this reality within us. The Eucharist educates—in the fullest meaning of that word—our imaginations, minds, and hearts to embrace all in all its fullness in its oneness in Christ Jesus.
BASIL PENNINGTON, OCSO
HOLY SPIRIT ABBEY, CONYERS, GEORGIA
