{"id":1848,"date":"2021-09-03T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T16:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/?p=1848"},"modified":"2021-09-03T12:00:02","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T16:00:02","slug":"preparing-for-communion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/?p=1848","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for Communion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I love what Frederick Buechner says about life in his book <em>Wishful Thinking.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>A sacrament is when something holy happens. It is transparent time, time which you can see through to something deep inside time.<\/p><p>Generally speaking, Protestants have two official sacraments (the Lord&#8217;s Supper, Baptism) and Roman Catholics these two plus five others (Confirmation, Penance, Extreme Unction, Ordination, and Matrimony). In other words, at such milestone moments as seeing a baby baptized or being baptized yourself, confessing your sins, getting married, dying, you are apt to catch a glimpse of the almost unbearable preciousness and mystery of life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/image.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"355\" src=\"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1849\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/image.png 800w, https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/image-300x133.png 300w, https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/image-768x341.png 768w, https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/image-500x222.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><span style=\"font-size: revert;\">Needless to say the church isn&#8217;t the only place where the holy happens. Sacramental moments can occur at any moment, any place, and to anybody. Watching something get born. Making love. A high-school graduation. Somebody coming to see you when you are sick. A meal with people you love. Looking into a stranger&#8217;s eyes and finding out he&#8217;s not a stranger.<\/span><\/p><p>If we weren&#8217;t blind as bats, we might see that life itself is sacramental.<\/p><cite>from Wishful Thinking by Frederick Buechner<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>We look forward to experiencing the sacrament of communion on Sunday as we enjoy the sacrament of living every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love what Frederick Buechner says about life in his book Wishful Thinking. A sacrament is when something holy happens. It is transparent time, time which you can see through to something deep inside time. Generally speaking, Protestants have two &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/?p=1848\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-formation","category-worship-services"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XvLb-tO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1850,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions\/1850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}