02 | June | 2016 | betsybeadhead

The Eucharist is the Christian ceremony that commemorates the Last Supper, (also known as the First Lord’s Supper) in which bread and wine are consecrated and consumed. The term also refers to the consecrated elements, especially the bread.

According to the online dictionary on Google, the term comes from the late Middle English: from Old French eucariste, based on ecclesiastical Greek eukharistia ‘thanksgiving,’ from Greek eukharistos ‘grateful,’ from eu ‘well’ + kharizesthai ‘offer graciously’ (from kharis ‘grace’).

It is literally a meal of thankfulness. We are eating thanks.

The last meal that Jesus shared with his disciples is described in all four Gospels (Mt. 26:17-30, Mk. 14:12-26, Lk. 22:7-39 and Jn. 13:1-17:26). In each story, he follows the Jewish practice by first giving thanks for the elements of the meal before consuming them. He blesses the food by blessing God, the creator of that food.

There is an echo of the miracles of feeding the large crowds of people.

The first instance, “the Feeding of the 5,000”, is in all four Gospels: Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:31-44, Luke 9:10-17 and John 6:5-15. The second instance, The “Feeding of the 4,000”, is reported by Matthew 15:32-16:10 and Mark 8:1-9. Both times, he gives thanks first. He is pointing out to his disciples and us that we must give thanks before we receive anything. Thankfulness must come first for miracles to occur.

While writing a story yesterday, I realized that I am / was expecting something of my brother that he did not agree to. I expected the “Hallmark” family and instead I got an abuser as my role model. I now suspect that he did not want to be anybody’s brother. Perhaps he wanted to be an only child. Perhaps he didn’t want to share his time or toys, didn’t want to share our parents attention and energy.

Basically, I’m accusing him of violating the contract he didn’t sign. He didn’t agree to having a sister, so he never said he would act like a brother.

This is the very same thing I’m saying that my sister-in-law is doing to me. She is mad that I wouldn’t help out with our in-laws estate, when I never said I would. In fact, I told my husband (the only person I need to tell) that I wouldn’t, because it was his task to do with his brother. I had done the same task, alone, at 25. Perhaps she has a script that says “daughters-in-law should take care of all family matters”, like I have a script that says “brothers should not abuse their sisters”.

I’m coming to understand that it is best to start with a clean slate, to not be prejudiced for or against situations / people / experiences.