The following is from The Godbearing Life (see open books list) and was a recommended read, and in my (humble) opinion it is a must for all!
"A communities identity depends on common characteristics, interests and history. Communions, however, strive for more than having things in common. While communities can exist without intimacy, communions cannot. In communities we are generally nice to one another; and while this is true of communions, in communions we also take on the lives of one another - we participate in a common life, united by Jesus Christ, not by mutual interests or similar personalities, and experience the joys and pains of others as though they were are own... "
"This is far more difficult than being nice. Communions require repentance and forgiveness, speaking the truth in love, hospitality and reconciliation, the tender trust of knowing and being known, the assurance that our friends would lay down their lives for us...All of the practices of communion, especially the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, unite us with Christ, and through Christ, with one another."(1)
What more can I say...
(1) Kenday Creasy Dean and Ron Foster, The Godbearing Life (USA, Upper Room Books: 2004), p. 112.
Comments