Community in communion

Although I have only been here just over 3 years, I was very conscious, as we celebrated communion together this morning, of the sense of loving and being loved - not just God - but the community I've been called to serve.
As I looked around I could see familiar faces, folk whom I have grown to love and who have allowed me to be a part of their work and worship and living.
I could also see folk who challenge me to be even more loving, for that's what it takes.
And, as I noticed, too, those missing from our company, those who have gone on the be part of that great communion of saints, I was filled with compassion but also an awesome awareness of their presence sharing the sacrament that unites us in love - love that goes beyond death.
I am thankful to be part of a real community. The reality means that it is not always easy, it is not without conflict and challenge - for that is part of being in community - but reality also involves keeping on loving - in the easy times and in the difficult.
Today, there was real community in communion.