The Cup We Share

This month we continue with the theme of Communion.

We acknowledge there is something sacred about sharing a cup.

Across cultures and traditions, the cup represents hospitality, celebration, covenant, nourishment, and connection. A cup is rarely just about what it contains. It is about the relationship created when we offer it, receive it, and pass it from one person to another.

This month, as we explore Communion, I have been thinking about the cup we share—not simply a physical cup, but the cup of Life.

Ernest Holmes wrote, “There is one Life, that Life is God, that Life is my life now.”

What happens when those words move beyond an affirmation and become a way of seeing?

We begin to recognize that the Life moving through me is the same Life moving through you. We begin to understand that communion is not simply something we practice. It is something we remember.

The Cup Is Not the Source

Communion is more than a ritual. It is the recognition of our connection with the Divine and with one another.

We often experience life as separate: my story and your story, my struggle and your struggle, my success and your success. Yet beneath all our individual experiences is the One Life expressing through countless forms.

Holmes reminds us, “There is a Power for Good in the universe greater than we are and we can use it.”

The cup is not the source.

The cup is the vessel.

And the Source is greater than any one of us.

What Is in Your Cup?

Each of us arrives at the table carrying something.

Perhaps your cup contains wisdom gained through experience. Compassion born from hardship. Creativity. Laughter. Encouragement. A story that someone else needs to hear.

Sometimes, however, we arrive believing our cup is empty.

We compare our lives with what we see in others and forget that every person is carrying something. Your presence may be someone's encouragement. Your experience may become someone's wisdom. Your willingness to listen may become someone's healing.

Communion invites us to recognize not only what we need to receive, but also what we have been given to share.

Learning to Receive

This has become especially meaningful to me this week as we approach the final inspections for our kitchen upgrade project.

What began almost a year ago has been a journey of research, learning, problem-solving, persistence, and community effort. There were questions we didn't know how to answer, requirements we had to understand, things we had to learn along the way, and moments when the finish line seemed farther away than expected.

And now, after nearly a year, we are at the point of final inspection.

The project has reminded me that sometimes communion looks less like a sacred ceremony and more like people gathering around a shared purpose—each person bringing knowledge, skills, questions, resources, patience, and determination.

No one person carried the entire project.

We shared the cup.

Now we are opening to hear the message: Don't Hoard the Overflow

Our theme for this year has been Living in the Overflow, and the image of the cup fits beautifully.

A cup is designed to receive—and, when full, to pour.

Fear tells us to hold tightly to what we have: What if there isn't enough?

Faith reminds us that we are connected to a Source greater than ourselves.

Holmes wrote, “The Spirit within us is not limited.”

When we live from that awareness, abundance becomes more than accumulation. It becomes circulation.

Love circulates.

Wisdom circulates.

Compassion circulates.

Resources circulate.

Healing circulates.

What goes around, comes around.

What has been poured into us becomes part of what we pour into the world.

The Cup Is Passed

Think about the people who have poured into your life.

Someone encouraged you when you were discouraged. Someone believed in you before you believed in yourself. Someone taught you something that changed your direction. Someone offered kindness at precisely the moment you needed it.

Their cup reached your hands.

And now the cup is in your hands.

The question is not whether you have enough to give.

The question is: What will you do with what you have received?

That is the beauty of communion.

We are not isolated vessels trying to fill ourselves. We are part of a sacred circulation of Life.

The table is already set.

The Source is already present.

The cup is already being passed.

And perhaps today, someone is waiting for the very thing that Life has placed in your cup.

So open to receive.

Be open to being nourished.

And when your cup begins to overflow, share it.

This week, consider setting your intention to live in this question:

What has filled your cup—and whose life might be blessed when you allow that overflow to be shared?

Your Affirmations for the Week

I am nourished by the One Life that flows through all of us.

My cup is filled with gifts that are meant to be shared.

I live in communion, knowing that what flows through me can bless the whole.

May you always realize you are living in the overflow,

RevMichael (Kisumma)