Statement of Purpose

Benedicamus Domino! (Let us bless the Lord!)

This blog is going to be dedicated to an aspect of the Christian life which does not often get a lot of attention lately, and I think it could be useful for anyone trying to live a deeper life than they currently do. While I will be using Christian terminology and imagery here, I think that what I will be talking about here will be relatable to many people, regardless of what faith they practice or what creed or worldview they hold.

First, let's talk about a eucharistic life. What does this mean? The Eucharist is primarily the Holy Communion of those Christians who believe that Christ is present in the bread and wine which are consecrated at a Mass or Liturgy. It comes from a Greek source which means "thanksgiving," and refers to the fact that Christ gave thanks to God at the Last Supper before instituting the rite of Communion. So, when I talk about a eucharistic life here, I mean a life of thankfulness, a life where we offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices and we receive from Him our offerings which have been transfigured by His Grace.

This is beginning to sound very poetic and not very practical, but it can be applied in very very practical ways, and this continual mindfulness of what we are offering to God and to our neighbours, and to ourselves as well, incidentally, can lead to a more joyful and peaceful life. The circumstances of our lives may not change, but our attitude towards them can certainly be changed, and it is this which determines our ability to bounce back from difficulties and to snatch the opportunities that we are given in a more proactive way.

Joy, in my sense of the word, is a rather technical term. It refers to something which is really ungraspable by the logical mind. I don't think I can call it an emotion, because, quite simply, I believe that joy is our right and proper state of being. We are meant to be filled with joy, but joy here is not simple happiness or excitement. It's something deeper, something which is dynamic and forward-moving. "Shantih" and "Ananda" may come close to describing what this joy is, but we've all experienced it.

Have you ever heard a piece of music so beautiful that you feel that if you could die in that moment, you would be perfectly happy to do so? Have you ever been with the one you love and just felt as though you were truly home, truly where you needed to be at that precise moment? It all goes beyond emotion. It's not about happiness or peacefulness. It's about beauty and terror and wonder all at once, and that is what I seek to find in my life.

The thing that I have come to believe is that this joy is always there, always waiting for us to sort of fall into it, like a river that we keep meaning to visit someday but there's always something holding us back, and I feel that a key to finding this joy is thankfulness and mindfulness of presenting ourselves as living sacrifices, as St. Paul would have it. I know that I often see myself as being entitled to things, entitled to freedoms and rewards and stuff and junk food and well, just name your poison. But really, I've been put here, and I think we have all been put here, to learn about ourselves and to become better people, more ready to offer our time and our money, our love and our talents to others, and especially to the One who gave them to us. We are not our own people, or we should not be our own people. We have free will, it is true, but I have come to believe that it is our right state to live eucharistically: giving thanks where thanks is due and giving of ourselves whenever possible.

So, this, in the last analysis, is what this blog will be about. It will be about me and my journey towards living eucharistically. May God bless it, and may its readers find it enjoyable and perhaps even useful.

Deo Gratias! (Thanks be to God!)