Weekday Communion Services - Teaching Notes for September 15, 2013

Weekday Communion Services

During the weekdays at St. John’s a most wonderful, amazing, and glorious thing happens, and it is witnessed and attended by relatively few people, some of whom aren’t even members here.

On most Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 12:15 PM, and Thursdays at 10:30 AM, Jesus Christ is present.  He is present in a wonderful, sacramental way.  It is during those times that the Holy Communion is celebrated.

As Catholic Christians (which Anglicans are – see the last few lines of the Nicene Creed) we consider the reception of the Blessed Sacrament a weekly, Sunday obligation.  It is Jesus’ gift to us, His own Body and Blood, to nourish and equip us by Grace to become saints and share the Good News of God’s love with others.  But it is also our privilege as members of the Church to receive this Sacrament more frequently.

Although our Sunday celebration is our primary worship, and performed at 10:00 AM with solemnity, ritual, and music, the weekday celebration of the Holy Communion is closer in comparison to the 8:00 AM celebration on Sunday.

Fr. David Ousley wrote, while he was an Episcopal Priest in Philadelphia, that the difference between the Sunday Solemn High Mass and a weekday service (called “Low Mass”) is like the difference between a formal state banquet with a King and a quiet dinner at home with the same potentate.  Although one is fed in both instances, the grand occasion of the larger gathering with guests calls for greater ceremonial, whereas the regular dinner is just as nourishing but simpler and more intimate.

A weekday Low Mass at St. John’s is an intimate encounter with Jesus our King.  Come spend 30 minutes during the week worshiping Him, being instructed, and being fed with His own Body and Blood at a weekday Mass in addition to Sunday.