Saturday, December 22, 2007

On the Road..............

Poodledoc, Jr and I started out on our annual pilgrimage to visit the Poodledoc family in Chattanooga, TN. It is kind of nice that they are all conveniently located in one place. So there's my mom, Grandma Poodledoc, brother Chris Poodledoc and his family and my sister, Carol Poodledoc. We're spending Christmas and New Years with them. Should be............interesting. Guess we'll go to the Christmas Eve service at their Methodist Church.

Apparently they perform the Eucharist. My mom asked me if I "took communion any more now that I'm a Quaker". Interesting question. I said, well, it depends on how it's "presented". This could be another post. Do Quaker's take communion? Hmmmmmm. The short answer is that I see it as a communion with all living things, all the creatures, that have God in them. And all the other parts of creation that aren't living. But still have God in them. Then I feel moved to "take communion". It also feels more meaningful to me if it is presented to me/us as a communion with our community. But community is a big word. For some, it can be an inclusive word. And for some, it can be an exclusive word. So, the Eucharist can be a powerful symbolic ritual, even for me as a Quaker, or it can be a hollow exercise in which we get to eat little pieces of white bread and grape juice and repeat the same old same old. For me, as a Quaker, looking back on my Methodist upbringing, Eucharist and all, digging just a little deeper into the ritual can bring me feelings of connection with the Divine. The stuff behind the ritual. Stuff that got lost, at least for me. Which ultimately led me to become a Quaker. So, we'll see what choice I make on Christmas Eve. Or maybe I need to be open for a nudge from God, make space for God. Sometimes I don't leave room for God at my "spiritual table".

Anyway, I'll go to the Methodist church with Poodledoc, Jr on Christmas Eve and then go to Quaker Meeting the next weekend. I've been to the Chattanooga Friends Meeting once before and enjoyed it a great deal. I'm sure it will be ..........interesting....

3 comments:

gartenfische said...

Oh I love the Eucharist. And I agree completely about digging deeper. It's not about eating a bit of bread and drinking a sip of wine. For me, it represents my connection with Christ and I love that. It never got lost, for me, probably because I did not grow up with it!

Hope you have a beautiful Christmas with your family.

Btw, I'm loving our Standard Poodle. She is the smartest dog I've ever owned (co-owned in this case). And so lovable! She's just amazing.

poodledoc said...

Hi Garten:

So I didn't partake of Eucharist on Christmas Eve. It didn't feel ok to me. Perhaps I'll post on that in the near future. I felt like the pastor was saying that we were the sheep, he was the shepherd and his job was to bing the Word to us and protect us from "predators". Felt uncomfortable to me.......sadly.

Glad your poodle is bringing you happiness. I miss my guy, but the friend who's taking care of him sent me some nice photos of him hanging out with the two other Standard Poodles there. He looked happy...

Suzy said...

My apologies, we "sullied" your abode with dalmation cooties. Does Duke really curl up to fit in that tiny bed?