| Worship, Monthly Requiem |
The monthly requiem MassThe Christian Church is a fellowship of love and prayer united in Jesus Christ. We show our love and care for each other by remembering each other in our prayers. Most of all we show this care by remembering each other at the altar - by bringing those in our thoughts and prayers and uniting them to the perpetual ministry of intercession that Jesus Christ our Eternal High Priest continually offers to his Father and ours.Perhaps the most poignant prayer of all is for those who have died. We continue to pray for the departed members of our families and our friends, and even though they have passed from our sight and from this world, we are still united to them in Christ, and, probably most movingly, with them at the Eucharist. Our altar becomes a place of meeting, not just with our Lord - (vitally important though that is) - but also with all those who rest in him. If people were to reflect more on the truth of this Sacrament, they would find the moment of Communion a very personal and intimate time of meeting. In the Eucharist we are not only united to Christ in his intercession, but also to his passion, death and resurrection. Just as he died and was raised to new life, so we have died and been raised with him to new life in our baptism. This is his pledge to us and our hope as his people - Christ in us, the hope of glory. It is this gift which is continually stirred up in us every time we come to receive the Sacrament of the Altar. And it is this gift that is also stirred up in those whom we remember at the altar, so that the departed continue to grow in the knowledge and love of God, ultimately becoming the individuals that God in his love and wisdom wills them to be. Father Ian. |