Lent, Day 16: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

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While I am not partial to the doctrine of transubstantiation, St. Gregory's vision reminds me that our communion service and worship in general must be more than a formality, that our Christian life thrives only as we come back to this reality: Jesus died a cruel death for us. There may be no easy explanation why but there should be no difficulty in accepting that this is the center of what we confess. If it ceases to be the center, our hope becomes senseless.