Incommunion

Poetry IC 66

a poem:

Christ Has No Body

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are his body.  (Teresa of Avila, 1515–1582)

a prayer:

Lord, teach me

to live as one who calls the whole world home, abiding

humbly, grateful, as a guest and a stranger,

mindful that my home is elsewhere;

to share fully yet humbly the responsibility

of community life with a few

and the work of neighborly peace with all;

to serve all with whom I share

the habitation of this world,

as a citizen of your heavenly kingdom;

to serve your people fraternally,

wherever we find each other,

as a citizen of your Church

and a member together with them of the family of God.   
Amen (An OPF member)

a reading:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.  (1 Peter 2:9-21)