In the Eucharistic Prayer we ask the Holy Spirit to come down upon us to do two things. First, we ask the Spirit to transform the

gifts presented so that the bread and the cup become the eucharistic presence of Jesus, our high priest. Secondly, we ask the Spirit to come upon us, a group of rag tag individualists, so that we might be church, might be one. In short, we experience a two fold consecration. First, The Spirit overshadows the eucharistic elements so that they become the body of Christ and the blood of the Lord poured out for us. Secondly, the Spirit overshadows the gathered assembly so that we become the body of Christ. The Spirit consecrates our lives with one another -- together as a church gathered together and in our homes as small, domestic churches.

Occasional gatherings seem to create human community. For example, fans at Red Sox games or Fleet Center basketball and hockey events feel a group solidarity akin to community. But achieving ecclesial unity (even in evangelical and mega-churches) is not easy. In fact, whatever unity we have is remarkable because our church buildings are incapable of fostering human interaction when many congregants, by choice or habit, sit fairly distant from one another. Plus our pews disable us from really seeing and hearing one another as the body of Christ. We recognize the eucharistic bread as the body of Christ; we have more trouble seeing ourselves as the body of Christ.

Our cultural patterns also hinder human interaction. Domestic and public places do not minister human community. Norman Crowe states ("The Human Touch") that changes in our buildings and cities since World War II "have insulated people from casually interacting with one another in ways we once took for granted." We forget we are part of a community when we no longer walk down a street to get to our homes, when no one recognizes one's neighbor, when we drive into our houses through an attached garage. "The driveway, not a front walk,...connects our house with the public way. In many cases the sidewalk is gone altogether and the house is moved far back from the public street." In addition we use ATMs, drive many places alone in silence or enveloped by incredible sound systems in our Grand Cherokees, study in isolated spaces, and work in windowless buildings. We can live without communion with others

What we pray for is so difficult to achieve in reality. "May all of us who share in the body and blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit...Grant that we, who are nourished by his body and blood, may be filled with his Holy Spirit, and become one body, one spirit in Christ...(B)y your Holy Spirit, gather all who share this one bread and one cup into the one body of Christ, a living sacrifice of praise."

We say that unity, both as family and church, is a value. If that is true, then we have to be more intentional in our church and our family settings. Intentional community does not just happen. We choose how we and our buildings will create human and eucharistic communion.