"Bread" | Reflection by Maureen Wagner

“Do this for the remembrance of me.”

When my daughters were little, I decided to learn how to make bread. Raised on Wonder Bread, I wanted a healthier option for my children. I experimented with different combinations of flour, yeast, salt, and water and added local honey for a touch of sweetness.

As the girls got older, they helped with the bread making. Kneaded to perfect elasticity with exacting precision in its rising and baking, the loaves of honey whole wheat bread we created were delicious. We used the yeasty, sweet bread for French toast, frog-in-a-hole, and peanut butter and honey sandwiches. This was my way to ensure that my daughters were not only eating a healthy lunch at school, but that they also felt connected to our family in that eating. It was important to me that the remembrance of home would be present in the smell and taste of our bread.  

That same connection is present when we gather at the Eucharistic table. The celebrant while raising the bread speaks Jesus’ words to the gathered church family: “Take, eat, this is my Body which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me (BCP Rite II).” In this powerful phrase, we remember that Jesus is the Bread of Life, and that when we receive Holy Communion, it serves as a reminder of all the tables where we eat bread together, and all the places where Jesus broke bread with his disciples throughout his brief life on earth. Bread, as the staff of life, connects us as members of a family unit and members of a congregation of the faithful. 

“For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread (KJV).”   I Corinthians 10:17