Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
WEDNESDAY, April 7 Wednesday in Easter Week
Luke 24:13-35. He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.
Rembrandt etched this scene of recognition. A kind of bright unbroken light pours from the face of Christ as the two disciples know him "in the breaking of the bread." Do you discern the Lord in the breaking of the bread? If not, what is wrong?
In the words of institution at the Last Supper, Jesus set forth the entire meaning of his life's work in speaking of the "new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:20). The bread and wine represent in a visible and physically partaken way the new life he opened up for us by virtue of the Atonement.
When you "take" communion, you grasp onto the greatest possibility in the world: forgiveness, peace, and hope in the now.
If your communion is pallid, or mystifying, or dead in the effect, it is because the meaning behind it has lost contact with your need. You need a more vital explanation of it, or a more penetrating glimpse into your own gaps. When you are given both of these things, the communion will "send" you, and your eyes will be opened again, and you will recognize the Lord in the midst of your life. (1993)
PRAY for the Diocese of Calgary (Rupert's Land, Canada)
Ps 105:1-8 or 118:19-24; Acts 3:1-10
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