Communion Beyond Communication: The Importance of Communal Meals

Family

July 8, 2022

Katherine Savage, Head of School at Philadelphia Classical School, shares her experience and inspiration on why communal meals are so important in the lives of believers in our latest Cultivate podcast episode. Listen to it here. Read on to learn more about why this is important to us at Veritas.)

When the world shut down in March of 2020, millions of us battened down the hatches willingly with the idea that we were going to stay in and stay separated for "two weeks to flatten the curve."

Two weeks turned into 30 days. 30 days turned into months.

And we missed each other acutely.

The meteoric rise of Zoom did little to assuage our need for real connection. Sure, seeing the faces of friends, family, coworkers, and classmates on the screen as we talked was better than nothing, but the lack of presence - sharing space with one another - had reverberating effects on peoples' mental, emotional, spiritual, and even physical health.

Because we need more than just conversation. We need community, shared time and space with one another. It's how God - who Himself is always in community as the triune Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - created us.

One of the most natural places to experience this kind of community is around the table. Food, friends, and family just go together, and a meal is not well-shared via screens.

"Communication without the communion of being together is not enough to sustain our Christian institutions through the onslaught of the secular world in which we live." - Katherine Savage, Philadelphia Christian School (Cultivate podcast)

The families of Veritas Academy know this well. Among all the schools in the area, we can pretty confidently say that Veritas has the most "feasting" events in our curriculum. It's pretty much one of the unstated hallmarks of classical Christian education - taking every opportunity possible to celebrate a moment, honor a tradition, or cement a lesson with a thoughtfully planned feast.

So, when Veritas went all-online for the final quarter of 2020, we mourned not only the loss of time together with classmates, but more specifically all of the special, traditional feasts commonly held in the springtime here. 7th grade Narnia, 8th grade Rivendell, 9th grade 1920's Gatsby mystery dinner, 2nd grade Egyptian, 3rd grade Zeus's Family Reunion Feast, and so many more shared tables were deserted for that one season...and we were ever so grateful to return to those tables when the following school year came around!

Since the value of shared fellowship around a table is so firmly entrenched in Veritas culture, our latest podcast episode was a natural fit. Katherine Savage, Head of School at Philadelphia Classical School, joined Ty Fischer to talk about why communal meals are so important to our faith and families, and how we can implement them in our own homes and lives.

"Communal living is essential for Christians," Katherine says in the podcast. "It tethers us to our beliefs, encourages us to be strong when we feel weak, and helps us better understand the people around us."

In the podcast episode, Katherine speaks to parents who think they're too busy to host meals, offering tips on how their family has made it work (to their great joy and blessing) over the years. The conversation not only will inspire you to incorporate more frequent fellowship around your table, but also will help get you thinking on how this can work in your family as a habit that will bring abundant life to all of you.

Cultivate Podcast Listening Links:

(Go a little deeper with this concept by watching this video below, which is a presentation given by Dr. Andrew Mitchell of Grove City College titled "Hungry Souls in a Self-Affirming Culture: Rediscovering the Beauty of Food and Feasting." This lecture was a Veritas event held in March 2019.)