In Christian worship, the most solemn part of the Eucharistic Liturgy is when the bread and wine are consecrated and offered up to God, who in turn blesses them and offers Himself as the Body and Blood of Christ. This happens during the anaphora, a Greek word that means “carry back,” indicating an offering up to God from that which He has gifted us. What is offered up, however, is not the raw material of God’s creation– wheat and grapes. Bread and wine are marked by the labors and energies of humanity, with all its soil and toil, ferment and heat, pressure and pain. What is offered, then, is our whole lives– at once profound and ordinary. This Eucharistic movement– receiving, changing, offering, and receiving once more, changed by God– is the archetype of the whole Christian life. To be a Christian is to enact this offering, often in the most mundane ways. This blog is a journal of that offering.

Fr John Reavis is a priest in the Orthodox Church in America and serves as associate priest at Holy Nativity of the Lord Orthodox Church in Shreveport, LA. He holds a Master’s degree in Social work from the University of Kansas and a Master of Divinity Degree from St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. He has extensive experience working with low-income communities and the houseless and currently assists with a parish outreach food program in Shreveport.