Sacraments for the Soul

We often come to worship and experience the different elements without much thought or care. We sing, we pray, we commune at the Table. But rarely do we pause to expound on our experience of worship or the sacraments. In the early church, they had a process of catechism that would prepare new converts for baptism. It was a long process where they would teach Scripture, theology, and Christian living. After this long process of catechism, the neophytes, or the newly-baptized, would then enter the next part of the process where they would be taught about the “mysteries.” These mysteries are the sacraments, communion, and baptism. After they would experience them for the first time, the teachers of the faith would then expound upon what they had just experienced. This was not so much to teach a theology of the sacraments or to define it as much as it was to explore it, point to, hint at, or glimpse the mystery. This week we together are going to seek a deeper meaning and experience of the sacraments, particularly communion, so that we can seek and find the Lord more deeply in our experience of eating the bread and the cup.