A friend of mine, somewhat cynical about the church, recently remarked: “What the institutional church today is trying to do is to put its best face on the fact that it’s dying. Basically, it’s trying to manage a death.”
We break bread around our church parish altars to unite ourselves to Jesus and each other. We become his body, his church. Through our Eucharist we renew our hope and strengthen our faith. The eucharistic community is our home.
It’s hard for a child to have to go to bed in the middle of an evening when the rest of the family is still celebrating. Nobody wants to go to bed while everyone else is still up. No one wants to miss out on life.
I, not long ago, had a milestone birthday and it has made me look back at certain things. Y’all, I’m not by any definition old unless you ask my kids: “Well you do have a lot more white hairs and you don’t play basketball as much.”