Eastern OrthodoxPoetry

Coffee Hour

An essential part of any Orthodox Sunday morning liturgy is the coffee hour. Whether it’s literally just coffee and baked goods, or a full meal, this is where the Church, renewed as Christ’s body through the Eucharist, practices self-care before going out to work in the world.

Everything culminates in coffee hour
Not that being on time isn’t important,
But the Kingdom will be blessed before you’re there
Just like the food will be blessed if you miss the prayer
And the people will gather where they are fed
With wine and borscht and coffee and bread
Everything culminates in coffee hour

Everything culminates in coffee hour
Not that common work isn’t important,
But like the preparation of the common meal
There are those whose vocation it is to deal
And the people will work up an appetite fine
For coffee and bread and borscht and wine
Everything culminates in coffee hour

Everything culminates in coffee hour
Not that the Word isn’t important,
But just like the secret prayers of the priest
And conversations you can’t hear over the feast
Communion is had without being forced
Over bread and coffee and wine and borscht
Everything culminates in coffee hour

Everything culminates in coffee hour
What we do together is most important
We’re never more together than over food
And encouraging one another to do good
But we must work together to be family
Over borscht and wine and bread and coffee
Everything culminates in coffee hour

Kenneth O'Shaughnessy

Kenneth O'Shaughnessy

A Northerner by upbringing, Kenneth has lived in the South since his (first) college days. After returning to college, he began to do more than just dabble with writing, and has self-published a children's picture book, a middle-reader's book, and several collections of poetry. Baptized in the Roman Catholic church, raised in the fundamentalist Baptist church, and having spent time in the Reformed Baptist church, Kenneth settled down in the Eastern Orthodox church in 2006.

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