The Eucharist and the Bridegroom

I am grateful to Louise Aldred for the following reflection on an experience of Carmel.

'A while ago the Nottingham and Lincoln groups met at Buckden Towers near St Neots in Cambridgeshire for their annual retreat. During our retreat we used the YouTube talk by Dr Brant Pitre, an American biblical scholar and author of many books, on Christ as Bridegroom.  The group, including 5 people relatively new to Carmel, found this very thought provoking and a great help in understanding our salvation story and our Jewish roots, so I thought I would recommend it to others.

How many people today think of the Eucharist in this way, as “the Sacrament of the Bridegroom and the Bride”? Yet if love is defined as the gift of oneself to another person, then the Eucharist is the highest possible expression of Jesus’ spousal love for the Church. In the Eucharist Jesus not only tells the Church he loves her; he shows his love by really and truly giving himself to her, in both body and spirit, as the divine Bridegroom. Note well that this kind of self-gift is only really possible if the Eucharist is not just a symbol of Jesus—like a wedding ring, for example—but Jesus himself: his actual body, blood, soul, and divinity.

Brandt Pitre, Jesus the Bridegroom: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

We are also planning to study further and make use of other books and videos by Dr Pitre.  Some recommendations are:

Jesus the Bridegroom: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary: Unveiling the Mother of the Messiah

The Son of God, by becoming incarnate and giving his life, has united to himself in a certain way all mankind saved by him.… The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1612, 1617)'

Intercessions:

Im, recovering from a very demanding operation

S, an infant with severe health problems

A, a baby born prematurely, and his mother E.