The year before I entered religious life, I lived with a young Catholic family in the North Side of Chicago. Often, on my way home from work, I’d call Kelly from the bus and ask if I could pick up anything for her at the market. It always felt good to stop there for a few potatoes or an avocado, knowing that shortly we’d all be sitting around the little table in the breakfast room once again.
During those busy days full of work and prayer, my eyes were set on the goal of one day joining the Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago. At the same time, I was also acutely aware—especially as I gathered each night with Kelly’s family around the table to pray, eat, and enjoy each other’s company—that I was living in a very intentional Christian community. Sometimes we sang together at the beginning of the meal, sometimes we were silent for a few moments. As I got used to the rhythm of this family meal, I began to see connections between the time we spent at dinner and the time we spent at Mass together each Sunday.
For Mass, we would often sit in the very front pew. As Father raised the host during the Consecration, I would hear Kelly whisper to Benedict, who was almost two years old at the time: “There is Jesus.” Just moments later, the little boy would join us in the Communion procession, and quietly watch as we received the Bread of Life.
Those memories are among the many treasures I carry in my heart to this day. It really wasn’t a stretch for this small child to know God was feeding us at Mass because each day he experienced the goodness of a family coming together to be nourished by food and, more importantly, by our love for one another.
So many years later, I still have the joy of traveling to the North Side to gather with my dear friends around that same little table. Although there are now eight children instead of one, we would rather sit around that small table so much more than be spread out around a larger one in the dining room. I’ve had the joy of sitting around so many tables in so many places around the world, and yet the fondness in my heart for that little table is so unique. And, truth be told, I carry the same fondness for the times I am able to join this Catholic family at Sunday Mass.
Perhaps you, too, can think of one table that stands out in your own experience. Perhaps it was the table you sat at during your wedding reception, or the table where you held your child’s first birthday party when he happily smashed the densely frosted cake. Maybe you can recall the family table you sat around during your childhood, or a long table in the corner of a dining hall where you and your college friends often gathered at the end of a long day.
As all these vignettes illuminate, tables naturally make us think of food and conversation, nourishment and relationships. And, isn’t it wonderful that a simple table can draw our minds and hearts to ponder the most special kind of table in the world, the altar enshrined in a Catholic Church? For around this table, we gather as God’s family, we gather as the Christian Community par excellence, and we are nourished by the very Flesh and Blood of Christ, through whom we have communion with one another. How amazing!
Curiously, within the very first “moments” of salvation history, we see a woman standing at a tree eating forbidden fruit. Eve was not at table and not with her husband, Adam. This event was antithetical to what she’d been created for and—with Adam’s cooperation—led to the Fall of mankind.
Fast-forward to approximately the year 33 A.D. Jesus and his disciples gather around a table. There is a closeness among them as they share food and intimate conversation. They are celebrating the Passover, the ancient Jewish ritual meal commemorating the night when Israel was freed from slavery in Egypt.
On the sacred night before Jesus died on the Cross, that ritual meal was transformed, and Jesus gave us the gift of the Mass as the memorial of his Death and Resurrection. Nourishment and relationships were elevated by Christ to the supernatural realm in a way never known before.
Now, in a mysterious way, the love that we show each other around our everyday tables can be a participation in the love of Jesus shown to us through the Paschal Mystery—his Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension—which we relive at every celebration of the Eucharist.
Whenever we gather around the altar table, we anticipate the joy of sitting with all the elect at the banquet table in the Kingdom of Heaven. As a matter of fact, around that altar where Jesus nourishes us with his own Body and Blood, we are closer to heaven, our true home, than anywhere else on earth!
Truth be told, often I don’t feel that joyful anticipation when I go to Mass. I frequently forget that I’m surrounded by my brothers and sisters in Christ. The reality of Christian community tragically escapes me, and I can even struggle at times to be present as I receive the Lord in the Bread of Life.
This, my dear friends, is where our sacred memories of tables and loved ones can help us! Just like the nourishment and kinship we share around a table can elevate our minds and hearts to the deeper realities of God’s love, so too can these ordinary, yet sacred, moments help us to key in more deeply to the depths of the mysteries we celebrate at Mass.
So, next time you go to Mass, why not ask the Holy Spirit to remind you of a special table in your life, surrounded by people you love very much? Allow yourself, in a sense, to relive the feelings of tenderness and gratitude connected to that memory. And then, ask the Lord to help you experience, in a new way (even if you can’t feel it), the joy of gathering around the altar with your brothers and sisters in your parish community. Ask him to help you sense the strength you receive as you are nourished by the Eucharist when you receive Holy Communion. Ask for the faith to live anew, refreshed, and renewed to go out and share the good news that we need not hunger for food or thirst for love: we can be satisfied, always, around the altar-table of the Lord!
Download Looking for Jesus, a Companion Children's Guide (available in English and Spanish), and coloring page (English | Spanish) created by Katie Bogner.
Sr. Alicia Torres is a member of the Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago. In addition to participating in the apostolic works of her religious community, she has been serving the National Eucharistic Revival since 2021.
Katherine Bogner is a Catholic school teacher from Central Illinois who is passionate about equipping parents, catechists, and teachers to share the beauty and truth of Christ and his Church with children. She is the author of Through the Year with Jesus. Visit www.LookToHimAndBeRadiant.com for resources for teaching the faith.
