Communal Practices

Each season we are invited to create space for new practices. These are opportunities to share in common rhythms that invite the Spirit into our lives throughout the week.

Too often “values” are merely a pleasant list of ideas we like. They have little rootedness in our everyday lives and end up being nice aspirations we hope to live up to someday.

Our actual values are revealed by what we do. So in Table Community we try to embody practices rather than ascribe to ideas. Practices root us in everyday relationships in Christ, to ourselves, with each other and as part of the creation.

Our practices reveal our values.

Each year we covenant ourselves to a SET of common practices that demonstrate our values…and then based on each Liturgical Season we curate specific practices that help shape our communal lives together. During Ordinary Time we invite our local church community to consider engaging with our Seasonal Autumn Practices below…

S.E.T. the Table

S - SLOWING:

Slowing with a daily rhythm of Crossuflection.

This Autumn, we are invited to practice a SLOWING rhythm of Embodied Prayer that we have labeled as “Crossuflection”. Our sisters and brothers in the Catholic tradition have long embraced Genuflection (taking a knee & making the cross) as a sign of reverence and worship. In our Protestant/evangelical stream, we have often seen this ritual as rote and thereby, it has largely gone unpracticed. Perhaps during this election season full of tension, division, wars, and anxiety, we might find solace in the daily reminder of Christ’s reign over all of creation. And so, Crossuflection is simply a posture of bending one knee to the ground (or bowing if one is unable to bend) AND praying that involves touching our head, gut, and ending on our heart.

The Sign of the Cross

Head + Gut + Heart

Genuflection

Genu - knee | flecture - to bend, flexible, pliable

Cross-u-flection

An embodied form of casting a vote for an alternative Ruler to the Empire (Caesar | Pharaoh | Solomon | Temple | Nationalism)

A Crossing over | Portal | Invitation | Examen (Consider birds+lilles) into God’s sphere.

A tutelage in the Ecology* of Christ’s reign - Where is God’s house/kin(g)dom/Rule?

+ Sky (upper world / heavens / birds / head)

+ Sea (under world / depths / whales / gut)

+ Soil (middle world / east to west / lilies / heart)

*Ecology - from Ancient greek: oikos - house | logia - study of


Crossuflecting Prayers for a daily rhythm of Slowing:

Consider Crossuflecting & praying through the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) in the morning.

Consider Crossuflecting & praying “Thy Kingdom Come (breathing in) and “Thy Will be Done” (breathing out) from the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) in the afternoon.

Consider Crossuflecting & praying Jesus’ Birds & Lillies Examen (Matthew 6:25-34) in the evening.



As we practice SLOWING down through the Prayers, may Christ’s Spirit also open us to further the practice of EATING & DRINKING a sacramental meal/snack/beverage together AND open us up to practice experimental forms of TRUST.


E - EATING & DRINKING:

Eating a Sacramental Snack weekly with one another.

Consider inviting at least 1 person (outside of your family) for 1 sacramental snack, meal, or beverage with an intention of embodying Christ’s presence with one other.  Acts 2:42-47 reminds us that the early Church devoted themselves to the fellowship and to breaking bread and we can practice this with the invitation to share our lives over a homemade taco or with a cone from Maine Maple Creemee or sharing a cookie and Little Tandem Coffee.


Resources for Eucharistic Table Conversation



T - TRUSTING:

Trusting in the commission of Christ by being Sent out to hear Spirit Soundtracks of rejoicing+weeping as we go into Portlandia.

Trusting is chiefly about extending a Christlike presence and hearing our surroundings through the Spirit’s ears and seeing our surroundings through God’s eyes. In tune with the Spirit and St. Pau’s encouragement in Romans 12:15 to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice…As we GO to and from our weekly happenings, consider asking questions like,

“What would God celebrate here (in my neighborhood / my workplace / the beach / etc)?

What would God cry about here?  What might God want to heal or reconcile?

What tangible action might the Spirit be prompting me to consider by what I have heard or seen in Greater Portland?”


Consider writing these “lyrics” from the Spirit Soundtracks in a journal and sharing them with each other over a sacramental snack!

Resources for Extending the Table as sent out Guests:






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