Yes, I know that it is.

My chaplains Bill and Pam and I were welcomed warmly today at St. Theodore of  St. Theodore of Canterbury's church, meeting in Club House Number 3 in Leisure World, Seal Beach. People were busy setting up -- how the club house is transformed into a warm, intimate sanctuary is amazing to behold! Others within another room setting up for a luncheon afterwards.

As is my custom, I stood at the front door and greeted people. Some I knew from St. Gregory's. Others I remember from when I came and spoke with a group at St. Theodore's a few years ago. Sisters, oblates and associates of the Sisters of the Transfiguration were also gathering here this morning. What a blessing!

The service of the Word started: hymns were sung, readings were heard, prayers were said, the peace was exchanged.. The service of the Table was said, and communion was distributed. That's when it happened. Now, I have been ordained for almost 16 years, and this was a first for me. As I gave a person there for his first time the bread of communion, I said to him, "The Body of Christ, the Bread of Heaven." His response? "Yes, I know that it is."

Not amen, not alleluia, not thank you or thanks you very much. I have heard all of those before. Rather, "Yes, I know that it is." He said it in such a way that made me know, deep down inside, that he truly did understand exactly what he was receiving. I sensed such a deep, abiding faith in him. It was as if he was saying: "Ma'am, I understand that God is truly in this -- God is truly among us."

May this eve of the Epiphany, when God in Man is made Manifest, fill your heart with truly knowing so that you can say every day in your heart, "Yes, I know God is in this".

What a wonderful, Spirit-filled visitation today at St. Theodore's! I wonder what great pearls of wisdom I'll hear the next time I'm there!