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What does this stand for?

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I have shared this prayer with family and friends and pray it at every mass. Also shared on our parish Thankful Thursday. This is me.

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I am sitting in my room quietly, after praying eucharistically. Many Sundays since finding this site, I have just read the prayers instead of actually 'doing' the actions. This is from a combination of lack of privacy, fear and probably laziness. I would love to gather my household in to this amazing thing, but firstly I have to be faithful to it myself. I have made tentative steps to include my love ones, but they need more time to conquer their own fears.
Today, the first Sunday in Lent, I gave myself over to the fullness of this experience. Always, the way Fr. James breaks open the Word astounds and moves me, and that has been such a blessing that I thought it was enough. But there is so much more....thank you for this site. I feel gathered in. I pray that I can gather in others, with God's help.

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“Jesus wept” over Jerusalem, “Would that you knew the things that make for peace.” And it is here at Praying Eucharistically this past turbulent year that I have and continue to be blessed and am seeing and understanding more of who God is. Thank you, James, for taking us under your wing.
Donna, NH, USA

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From my living room window this morning. I was reading the early years of James’ Theology before finishing the last chapter of the book   by John P Edwards. The dawn was beautiful shining in. I can see a cross. I think I’m alone here on this site. But that’s okay. Miss you all and your wonderful words. 💙

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I have been reading “The Dangerousness of Good”, from James’ Theology for 3 days and have been quite troubled by the truths that were revealed in the essay.  Has anyone else read it?  For me there is much more to be said about the truth expressed and a fullness of truth.  I am sharing a famous religious experience of
Thomas Merton’s that happened on a Kentucky  street corner, le  Pointe Vierge. Cynthia  Bourgeault likened Merton’s vision to seeing through the eyes of mercy. Also, the American Dream is different for every person, from the founding myth, to Martin Luther Kings “I have a dream,” to my Irish ancestors who immigrated here.  An Irish play on Broadway stated it well, “Come To America. The streets are paved with gold! ...They never told us we would be the ones paving them”.
Donna, USA

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Thank you, James. I am still so blessed by this site and Praying Eucharistically. “I am come into the Presence“ when I am here..More than at my church.. Why is it so different?  Hearing the gospel in its fullness,?entering the prayers and praise more deeply?  It is more face to face.
The vineyard stories from Isaiah and Matthew were so powerful this past Sunday. So much that is happening this year In America  feels like exile.
Sour grapes. Wanting just the vineyard.
Yet here is happening Conversion, the water to wine at Cana.
Donna

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Dear James, a small group of us had already decided to celebrate the Mass together over the internet before I discovered your website, but the resources you have provided have been very helpful, especially the prayers for the day.

For me, as a woman, celebrating Mass in this way has been amazing - I would go so far as to say life-changing. And very healing. For the first time I feel I have fully, deeply participated in the Mass, rather than be an observer. I hadn't really realised the extent to which I felt an observer - and I certainly had no idea what it would feel like to say the words of consecration myself. I suppose I was just so used to it and there was no choice, so it was best not to go there. It feels as if all of us have suddenly grown up spiritually - we are no longer kept infantile by the Church.

Here, too, women are equal to men in the eyes of God. We also are no longer afflicted by denominational divisions.

I am left wondering how we ever got ourselves into the situation where such a wonderful gift was taken away from us all and left in the hands of a few men, who, we can now see, have been poor custodians. Exclusing the feminine dimension just does not work. Clericalism doesn't work.

I do not believe it will be possible for me ever to return exclusively to Mass, watching a priest, sitting in a pew, with the priest so often conveying little sense of the mysteries - and with my own spiritual vocation oppressed and denied by the Church.

We take it in turns to lead the reflection space after the Gospel and every week I am profoundly moved by the depth of sharing from within our group. It is intimate, deeply worked on, always interesting and new, God speaking through different voices, opening up new paths.

It would be wonderful if we could develop a new sacramental theology and practice - especially the anointing of the sick and the sacrament of reconciliation.

We  would be very grateful if you were to continue providing this ministry to us.

From London, UK

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Thank you, James, for sharing with us once more!
Pax et bonum
Peter

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Pearl of Great Price,
living the parable?              Finding this experiment life changing, not so much my outer life but certainly my inner life.
Seeing and hearing differently...
Having a real experience of the priesthood of all believers...
A padlet forum to taste and see the fruit that this is producing:
Real domestic church,
Life-Giving Liberation,
The Holy Spirit has set us free...
Community in Solitude.
Many  thank you’s for this “Bold, “Outstanding Initiative.
Love the “still, small, (and fast) voice.”

Donna, NH, USA

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Dear James (and everyone):

I'm writing from the States, where I normally attend a joint Lutheran-Episcopal parish (and occasionally drop in at a progressive Roman Catholic congregation not far away). I've enjoyed reading you for years now, but the Praying Eucharistically experience did something new for me: I keep coming back to your comments, in the introductory material for the website, concerning the priesthood of all of us; never before in my life have I felt so encouraged to take upon myself that sense of participation in the mystery that every eucharist celebrates. Your liturgies, with their blend of traditions and their sensitivity to the moment, gave me words to speak and sing when I felt the closed doors of our churches had taken them largely away. I guess it took this crisis--and your response, among others, to it--to make me understand how passive I'd become in my approach to worship; how inclined to go through familiar motions, surrounded by familiar faces, as if on a kind of pious autopilot.

My church, like many, has opted for a very slow reopening (in fact, we are not yet physically open, even at the end of July). Many Episcopal and Lutheran congregations over here (including mine) are abstaining altogether from eucharistic celebration. Your website has been a balm when I have felt alone with my sense that solitude and eucharist shouldn't have to exclude one another; and I feel less alone knowing that I am sharing this experience with sisters and brothers of a variety of different traditions and backgrounds.

I don't know if this makes sense to say, but I have still felt alone as I've prayed with you online; yet it's been a different kind of aloneness, one with room to breathe--and a sense that all of our breath circulates within that larger breathing that is, finally, God's. If the internet can be alienating (I cannot treat a face on a screen like a face in the world) it can also give, through experiences like this one, a glimpse of how we are connected to one another more thoroughly and resolutely than, under normal circumstances, we might be able to say.

So thanks, above all, and I'll shut up now.

Cary (Upstate New York, USA)

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Dear Brother James,

From a member of “your Danish Lutheran congregation” a warm, heartfelt THANK YOU for your “bold” initiative, for the enormous amount of work you have put into it, and not least for your ecumenical invitation. It has been a great joy and a blessing to pray eucharistically together with you and only God knows with how many other sisters and brothers, and to listen to your homilies that are as profound as they are short.

My personal experience is, that the rich liturgy of your Church – including the very fine n-o-a´s of this edition – can be used also as an inspiration for more personal praying, enriching it and making it clearer that living eucharistically is part of the invitation to us from the Lord, a perspective often lost in my department of Una Sancta.

(Also thanks for the – unintentional, I'm sure - more practical linguistic benefit from your great (!!) homilies – they are sometimes very good exercises in listening to a “still small” - and fast - voice.)

Churches in Denmark are slowly opening again – with a lot of hand disinfection and space between us – but I will continue reading, listening, and praying together with you for as long as you are able to continue. May God bless you and give you strength.

Pax et bonum

Peter Grarup

(Retired Danish minister)

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Thoughts on using this site even when Mass has resumed...

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Thoughts on using this site even when Mass has resumed...

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Today I attended Mass in our local church in a rural Irish parish for the first time since early March. (I discovered this site around Easter, and found it a great source of comfort.) I found myself rushing back to it after this morning's Mass...indeed I found my thoughts returning here during that Mass. On reflection, I feel praying eucharistically here has altered and enriched my experience of Mass attendance, not just because attending now feels very different because of the social distancing and mask-wearing, but through a deepening of awe at what is going on. I was going to say a greater understanding but I hesitate because I don't really understand, but I feel on the edge of a breakthrough, if that makes any sense to anybody! I am going to write out some of Fr. James' n-o-a prayers to use when I am at Mass, because they are so beautiful, especially the one that begins: 'I am come into the presence of the Lord...' and I will treasure his sermons and listen carefully as long as he makes them available.

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I am so delighted by this way of celebrating! It is the only initiative I know of in the Catholic Church, that takes the chances to renew our faith in these challenging times. Worthy and so much more enriching than watching a live stream on YouTube. Thank you, James, for this. As you know I translated all of your website in Dutch, enabling me to pray in my own language. It's just as Mark from London says: it is a deep and empowering experience to celebrate myself. Please, continue!

Pouwel from the Netherlands

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De website over eucharistisch bidden ( Praying eucharistically) is een initiatief van theoloog en priester James Alison. De vertaling en aanpassing die je hier vindt, zijn verzorgd door Thuismonnik: de website van Pouwel Woldendorp over kloosters als inspiratie voor het dagelijks leven in een seculiere samenleving.

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Thank you
Next Sunday, the church I will attend will resume services. I suppose this means the ‘exigent circumstances’ that permitted us to pray Eucharistically will come to an end and sadly, this coming Sunday might be our last. It has been a wonderful thing to do as a household. My husband is a Roman Catholic, I’m an Anglican - we rarely share the Eucharist. For the past couple of months, we have celebrated together every Sunday and I (a women!) lead the prayer.  
Our Sunday mornings follow a peaceful rhythm. No rushing to get to church and deal with all the responsibilities there – instead I start the morning baking the bread and unhurriedly setting up with our hotchpotch selection of tableware. As we are together in household, we have enjoyed singing and exchanging the peace – something unlikely to happen for months in the church.  
The recorded Gospel reading and homily are a great addition. As there are only two of us, it is good to include another voice. The homilies are spot on and have given us a lot to reflect on.  
The Eucharistic prayer is a beautiful prayer. Saying it as opposed to listening to it, has been moving and powerful. At the same time,  as a result of so many years of listening to it, it feels completely natural. 
Thank you for putting this idea out there and all your work on the resources. Being able to participate fully, knowing that we are a part of a wider ecumenical Eucharistic community doing the same thing, has allowed me to navigate this difficult time and more than that – it has been a wonderful gift. 
PS. We even delight in making good coffee afterwards!

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“Lord I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. Just say but the word and I shall be healed.”  Every mass we speak these words of the centurion in Luke.
I understand that worthiness is given but not “a given.”  Something received not taken and always with humility which is something I always see and hear in James’ homilies.

Donna

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Heavenly Father,
Enable us to stand free and not to be frightened by all that we see and hear around us.
Enable us to learn to speak freely and to think healthily so that we can work out what this creation is that we are in and how we can best participate in it.  Amen

I feel better now...knowing that there is “us” and not just me and will share this prayer with friends and family.
😍 Donna

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Please continue if you can. Sorry I can't write more. Finding isolation hard on this feast day! But being brought into the praise of Praying Eucharistically life giving during these weeks . Thank you James and thank you my unknown companions.

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I live alone in a large apartment complex and have been strictly adhering to lockdown rules.  From the very first live-streamed Mass from our Parish I felt an alienation that never left. The priest is holy and wonderful. It wasn't him it was my being placed in the position of a voyeur watching someone alone enjoying the climax of the liturgical celebration. These weeks Praying Eucharistically has nourished and enriched my faith. I open my patio doors onto the development as I celebrate Sunday eucharist to symbolically allow the world to enter my flat and life and so that whatever is happening spiritually within can also flow freely amongst all my neighbours and peoples near and far away. It has been profound. James your own part in this is exceptional and deeply transforming. Thanking you isn't enough! Keep it up!
Gerry, Liverpool UK

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We started celebrating the Eucharist at home the first Sunday of lockdown because the streamed Masses (a man standing alone in an empty church talking to himself! ) brought home to us the ghastly clerical nature of our church.  I don't quite know how it happened but we're now 6 people meeting up across 2 countries with each of us consecrating our own bread and wine, and taking it in turns to reflect on the readings. Church and Sacrament have taken on a new and much deeper meaning for me. I don't know if I'll be back when the churches reopen!  Please keep going...
Ali, London

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Hello James,Mark, Maureen and Sue,         I am still ingesting Trinity Sunday’s homily so I will speak about the 1st week back for mass at our church. It was Covid friendly, 40 people, masks and no singing.(sang quietly). What’s been on my mind is Holy Water.  Why? 4 year old twin granddaughters. We brought them every Monday this past year.  We taught them the Sign of the Cross with Holy Water and taught them about their Baptism. They loved the Communion Blessing and Peace Be With You with the old people. I asked our pastor to sprinkle Holy Water for Trinity Sunday But Easter Season is over. It rained that night so I blessed the rain.     Donna, USA

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Hello James,Mark, Maureen and Sue,         I am still ingesting Trinity Sunday’s homily so I will speak about the 1st week back for mass at our church. It was Covid friendly, 40 people, masks and no singing.(sang quietly). What’s been on my mind is Holy Water.  Why? 4 year old twin granddaughters. We brought them every Monday this past year.  We taught them the Sign of the Cross with Holy Water and taught them about their Baptism. They loved the Communion Blessing and Peace Be With You with the old people. I asked our pastor to sprinkle Holy Water for Trinity Sunday But Easter Season is over. It rained that night so I blessed the rain.     Donna, USA

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Before the pandemic I had not been to mass for five years. This  project offered me a deeper and more empowering experience of the Eucharist as the gift of God’s life and an opportunity to experience the priesthood of all believers. The depth and richness of your superb homilies have been the highlight of each week.  What a great gift you have given us.  Please go on!
Mark ,London

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Thank you so much - theologically nourishing and challenging as well immersing us/me in a  deep spirituality that is robust and life-giving.
Please continue if you can.....
Maureen (Sister of Sion) London UK

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Your reflections and homilies have been a source of great nourishment to my faith. Unfortunately the church does not have many preachers who can draw us into the great Love that is God. You do so in a very intimate and energising way that speaks of your own personal mysticism.  Very very grateful. Please continue as long as you are able.
Sue
Australia
Retired