The Holy Spirit in The Book of Common Prayer by John W. Wesley

Author:John W. Wesley
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781490868790
Publisher: WestBow Press
Published: 2015-03-05T05:00:00+00:00

Both of these Prayer Book references seem to express a theology consistent with what is called the “High Priestly Prayer” of Jesus that occupies the totality of John, chapter 17. In this prayer Jesus prays: “Father, make them one as you and I are one, so the world will know that you sent me.”

Seventh, we are told that Holy Communion is “the foretaste of the heavenly banquet which is our nourishment in eternal life.” (Catechism, p. 860). It is somewhat confusing to me that the only two liturgical references using this phrase are in our Burial Offices, both occurrences found in the postcommunion prayers used in place of the customary postcommunion prayer of thanksgiving (see BCP, pp. 482, 498). While it is true that burial is a specific time we look for special reassurance of the connection between this life and the next, I find it lacking that the connection is not made more strongly in every Eucharistic celebration. If we are trained to see it, the connection is certainly present every time we repeat:

Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven, who forever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your name: Holy, Holy, Holy, etc.

In 1967 I had the pleasure of hearing a well-known theologian speak. He had just a few years earlier started teaching at a distinguished seminary in New York City and had been ordained an Episcopal priest in 1965. In his talk he explained why he was opposed to moving altars away from the wall of the church to the freestanding placement where we find most Episcopal altars today.

He suggested that, at the point in the liturgy where we proclaim the joining of our voices with angels and archangels and the entire company of heavenly occupants, we ought to use our imaginations to envision the back wall (behind the altar) of the church momentarily falling away, giving us a brief realization that what we see as the altar is really the end of a long table extending all the way into heaven. Jesus is seated at the head of the table with the apostles and all the saints in heaven, occupying seats down both sides of the table, stretching all the way into our nave and catching us up for this one moment in time into the host of heavenly beings and voices. This allows us to join with them in their unending hymn of “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Now, to me, that is truly what one of the benefits of Holy Communion means—to experience a “foretaste of the heavenly banquet which is our nourishment in eternal life.”

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