Jul 15: Sacred Meals

Dieric Bouts the Elder: Passover
Sint-Pieterskerk, Leuven, 1642-47

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, bishop and doctor of the Church

Reading I: Ex 11:10-12:14

"This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD (Ex 12:11).”

Father, you are beyond place and yet in what you create you are everywhere. We find you in everything that we are and everything that we do. In the moment you share your life with us and so we have found you especially present in the meals in which we nourish the body, yes, but in which more significantly we share our lives, and your life, with one another. You are with the Jews as they celebrate Passover in the Seder meal. You are with Christians as we break bread together and celebrate your giving of life to us through the Word, now made flesh in Jesus the Christ. May the sacred meals we share bring us closer to you and to one another in loving service.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.