One Person's Experience of Worship

by Vern Rice

One of the things I like about Holy Communion is seeing the people. While I do not get to know them personally, I take in how they look, how they change. Children blossom in their fresh youthfulness; elders develop an identity that strikes me as beautiful and important.

And then there are people I miss. Some that I used to see aren't there, maybe not there one Sunday only to reappear some Sundays later. But some people I don't see any more and I miss them. Sometimes I call them up. I ask how they are doing. I tell them I miss them; their stories are precious. Their lives are always changing. Some are just gone for awhile; some have moved on.  Most often I have the sense that they are glad someone misses them, someone cares. At the end of one conversation, a woman said, "That was nice." It makes me feel good that I have experienced them again and that they are not gone from my life or the life of the church.

The lines of the song we often sing during communion come back to me: "As we eat this bread and we drink this cup, we're becoming the body of Christ." Yes, I feel this and see it as we come to communion over and over again, every Sunday!