conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

Constructive criticism (I hope offered and received in the right spirit)...

'He turned no one away from his ministry, not even those who disagreed with him...'

Depends on the disagreement.

There was Peter. Matthew 16:23 for example.

And there was that unpleasantness in the temple with the money-changers and the crowd who left him because of some hard sayings. To which his reaction was, 'Fine, go then'.

'He is the Lamb of God, victorious over the evil forces of chaos.'

Yes, chaos including contradictory theologies (and here Catholics and Protestants split over what's essential and what's not) - as he also said in Matthew, a house divided against itself and so on.

'We give thanks to you, our [Lord], for the holy vine of your servant David, which you made known to us through your child Jesus; glory to you for evermore.'

I can guess the answer but why the brackets?

Then there's the whole matter of sonship and what it means in itself and in Jewish culture at that time. True God and true man, and a Son both eternally and in time.

New rites - ideally, evolving slowly and naturally - are fine as long as they follow the same principles and have the same essential content as the old ones (the Gregorian or Roman Canon, the Assyrian one without the institution narrative, the Byzantine Rite ones, etc.). Which of course opens the door to inculturation.

The last priest offering the last Mass in a shattering universe at the Parousia may well be praying, 'Te igitur, clementissime Pater', 'thine own of thine own we offer unto thee on behalf of all and for all' or words that St Basil, St Gregory, you or I may never have heard but, if he can understand the language, a Christian will recognise in his mind and heart as the Son offering himself.

Good points all. I think Bernadin's message works well as an invitation to CCW. It is as Baptist as I have heard a Catholic sound! "Come to me and then we'll work it out." Now, I must confess that Bernadin was not necessarily thinking about the table when he wrote these words. I borrowed them for that purpose. He was speaking about peace and reconciation. I see an easy bridge to the table, but yeah.

The Didache is an interesting document. The brackets were to keep off the masculine language thing. I have to pick my poison there. Lord is oppressive to some for different reasons. But I have to choose something.

God breathed over the chaos and from it came life. This is the chaos that I understand. It is not about messiness or confusion. It is about the uncreated...the lifeless.

A little context: this was used initially for the Baptist congregation I serve. So, we steer clear of the sacrificial language at the table. I admit that this presents certain difficulties, but it is our frustration.

Again, good comments.

Re: the brackets, that's what I thought. Oh, dear. :)

And re: sacrificial lingo, makes sense as you were writing for Baptists. Another big Catholic/Protestant difference, though IMO easily cleared up. We're not killing Jesus over and over; we're making his one oblation of himself present and in that sense offering it.

And thanks.

I like it. I've only been to Baptist communion at Reconciler and, to my Catho-Lutheran sensibility, it always seems sudden, abrupt.

I feel myself thinking, "It's time for the Meal and . . . holy smokes, the Bread of Heaven is in front of me. That was quick."

I like this Baptist Anaphora.