During the Early Eucharist

The Eucharistic prayers are now over. We enter into the climax of the liturgy. We enter that strange time within our ordinary time. We are not obliged to intrude with human speech. Indeed, we are obliged not to intrude. Now is the waiting in thought and prayer, the slow movement forward, the kneeling to receive, and the return to waiting. Thus we participate in the substance of life. People wait while others move forward, receive, and return. There is a quietly expectant mood, amidst sounds of feet, clothes, and murmured words. These are the only words, what priest and layperson say when administering bread and wine. And these are not our words, but God’s words to us and for us. The prior busy speech we have offered is now muted, for we focus on these words, these elements. Priest and laity, amidst the details, the colors, the movement, the waiting, are now here for nothing else but these words and these elements. Christ’s plain and majestic chant of sorrow and joy, of death and life, comes to us in the breaking of bread, the pouring of wine. And we receive quietly, exultantly.