“There are two ways of remembering. One way is to make an excursion from the living present back into the dead past. The other way is to summon the dead past back into the living present. The young widow remembers her husband, and he is there beside her. When Jesus said, ‘Do this in remembrance of me,’ he was not prescribing a periodic slug of nostalgia.” —Frederick Buechner in Wishful Thinking (Harper & Row, 1973).
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Buechner gives us two ways to remember, going back and bringing memories forward. The going back to past memories can allow us to relive a scene from our lives. Anthony de Mello writes that perhaps that scene was too powerful to experience the first time. As we relive it, we can participate in it again and again, each time acquiring a greater sense of its meaning.
Bringing memories forward is like doing active imagination with a living friend or with someone you deeply loved who has died. You imagine the person’s presence with you. My experience is that sometimes you will feel that presence even without trying to imagine it.
Buechner believes that when Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24b), he was calling us to bring him back into our presence—to know and feel his love, so that we might go out and bring others in to share it.
Some believe that Jesus is actually present in the bread and wine at the Eucharist. Others believe that the bread and wine are messengers or symbols reminding us of Jesus’ presence and love in our lives. Either way, the God of love is present.
Joanna. Joannaseibert.com
Release party!!!!!!!!!!!
Come and get a signed copy of the new book
Just in time for the holidays
A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany
The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter
Both are $18
All Money from sale of the books goes either to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast
Seibert’s, 27 River Ridge Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72227
10 to noon, Saturday September 14, 2019
RSVP joannaseibert@me.com