FOR this there is to be a collection of crumbled and dry cake, bread, biscuit or grain-mix which is later to have the chalice contents poured and mixed into it, from which individuals will take from the platen at the end.
To pick up the moistened crumbs with the thumb and the finger of index finger of the hand of the will [dominant hand] is an important part of the activity - in a conscious and deliberate manner, taking what is offered. This is of course, is not obligatory. No man or woman should take Communion when inwardly hesitant. Come in joy or not at all, for to come only for sake of duty pains the Heavens. Though sincere, the action of duty without joy works against itself and thus injures the man and the world he strives to love.
The trees do not climb out towards the heavens because of duty, but rather through the love found mutually in the warmth, the sunlight, the ethers, the waters, they respond to. To know this life and love firsthand requires an inner honesty of self, and though an assumption of holiness can be vital to everyday activities, it can be a dangerous pretence when assumed in matters which are required to be genuine. Routine and repetitive ritual can enhance the properties of devotion for a variety of reasons, however the spiritual occurrence which is of the highest significance depends upon the very pivot of self from which the individuals themselves work out from.
This divinity of self within requires to be livingly connected with the spiritual endeavor at hand, and is in peril if for whatever reason the timing or connection is not feeling right, or with the joy one would expect and most hope for in this prayerful calling.
Duty alone cannot speak to the soul of the participant or administrant, because one is at risk of overriding the better instincts in respect to the subtle exchanges which are required. If for example, the administrant himself is unwell in faith on the day, or unsavory in temperament and spiritually contaminating the contents of longed-for remedy, and intuitively one knows this and is dissuaded from engaging in this Communion, then it is by far preferable that the individual cease there and then and return on a more fortuitous occasion.
Equally so, if there are conditions within the individual, non-specific but calling out a hesitation, the intuition here asks us to listen, the spirit requires our attention, and it is unrealistic to take our higher nature into a place it does not want to go. You cannot deny yourself in the same moment you seek to fulfill yourself. If you are not responsive to your own soul's indications you have effectively silenced it from participation.
We may go to the altar in sadness, as oft do, but there will be a higher joy apparent though, that knows that Father God is there with us to soothe and smile and answer that pain.
This learning to respect our intuitions and loves is an important knowing for the man who cares not for himself at the expense of himself; because primarily his soul will die if it tries to be all self perpetuating. Stifling the true soul for the sake of 'duty' is a false economy of spiritual performance. Real food, real substance, real love - both given and returned, is imperative - discernments that we might acknowledge firsthand, what is to be hoped-for for every man within the world to come.
There certainly is little point living for and acting out pretence. Pretence also disappoints the spiritual worlds terribly (and lets down the company you are with as well.) A Mass that is empty of the lively connection we describe, truly saddens the beings that attend. Men can become like withered flowers when the ritual becomes routine and their own selves are quashed out of the event that they dearly should have been so present in, were that it was the correct place or company for them to have been in.
Therefore it is vital for a man or woman to attend that meeting with precisely the company of souls they best resonate with, so that the insecurity of insincerity will not dissuade them from their spiritual paths and connectings that should be.
Christ, the Divining,
Specific to each bit and part,
Christ, the Combining,
Adherent to the Whole,
Presently bearing the weight of the World,
Current in singularity,
Ennobling the distinct and the different,
In the consciousness,
In the wakefulness,
In desires both known,
And then answered.
Represented in skilful contrast,
Represented in both great and gentle beauty,
Represented in belief's courage and realized triumphs,
In a synergy of prolapsed nerves, nourishing experience,
From star life into this world.
Insoluble Water present, represent our Heavenly Father,
With now our Christ that is the Greater,
Present, represent in the forces of the substance introduced,
And now empowered within,
Be also intelligent to this mass,
And binding, making one piece,
That Combined, we have a great and glorious corporation,
Made saturate with Your Love.
Bring forth the attributes one by one,
In a divine likeness, to that of Your own,
In realization to a far greater consistency …
(Here the fluid is mingled with the crumbs and patted into a flat cake to be apportioned out.)
Surveyor of the Living Laws,
Creator of the heart's impulse,
This now before us: our meal made holy,
As Divine and Perfect remedy,
To all that is needed and yearned for,
Within and without,
This world and ourselves,
This confabulation of greater and lesser stuff,
Is verily the labor and produce of Yours,
Dear Christ,
Upheld by Our Father.
I hold now these offerings,
And ask of thee great Charity,
That we, Oh Christ, may take them today,
Humbly into ourselves - and this World,
And inoculate against all harm,
Revivified by what You Give,
Accomplished in Your Grace,
Subject what is of death to rest,
That new life might survive into furtherance,
And new love shall be born of this Life.
Out from my heart's own reasoning,
My soul's wisdom,
My ego's freedom,
I speak these words,
To You now:
"Become in Me,
Your Love in Me,
That I also Love well,
And full realizing what this means,
For myself and the world,
By all that is Christ,
Upheld by our Father."
Greater Life to Life,
I have the World,
I am the World,
And out from the Chalice,
Singing forth from my throat,
I will name my sweet hopes:
(All attending speak, before taking the meal:)
"Become in Me,
Your Love in Me,
That I also Love well,
And full realizing what this means,
For myself and the world,
By all that is Christ,
Upheld by our Father."
Amen