Offeiriad calon toredig yn torri bara am byd toredig. Broken hearted priest breaks bread for a broken world. This is the stuff of deep magic.

It was with some hesitancy that I took the service of Holy Communion on Sunday 14 February at St Cybi’s, Holyhead using the medium of the Welsh language. I am still out of sorts. I am guessing that this will be a state that will continue for some time.

That said, there was something about breaking bread out of my own brokenness and loss for me at least. It would be interesting to know from those who received whether it was different for them, indeed some of them would have been oblivious, and rightly so, to any pain that I might feel.

Maybe it was in that moment, I realised again that the Eucharist is a cosmic feast. It is one that unites heaven and earth. The ecumenical creed acknowledges that the church is made up of living and departed and our eucharistic prayer suggests that we are joining with the worship of angels or rather angels are peering in to what we are doing. I prefer it that way round. It is slightly more scriptural.

It is not that the invasion of heaven makes our problems disappear or even places them into perspective; rather when caught in the divine embrace, we realise that scars are welcomed. They are sign of strength and experience that are never to be airbrushed away.

Yr ydym yn torri’r bara hwn i rannu yng Nghorff Crist

We break this bread to share in the body of Christ.

Perhaps we come closer to sharing in the sorrows of others too.