Our private Banquet Tables are the places – in other words, our Private Banquet Table is the place where we take our daily Communion. That is our system of our religious ritual. This is God’s Holy Communion Table.
In your churches the ministers and the representatives give the Communion to the immediate members (can you not see the mystery?) – to those who are partakers of the selfsame faith and profession, or those who wish to partake of the Communion, according to the religious conviction of the respective creed or denomination represented.
Communion for Body and Soul
But here we have our Communion as a daily repast, as a Work and as a Mission, sacredly established as something for the sustenance of our bodies and for the benefit of our souls; to keep our bodies and souls together accurately that we might live personally religiously and be true and faithful to our religious conviction personally.
I am not talking about something Supernatural, but the natural religious conviction has been made real, tangible and practical; and My system of serving communion is to feed the hungry when they are hungry; but at our Private Banquet Table especially, we are administering the Lord’s Supper at all of these Tables.
For this cause you see the sign as it hangs across the divers dining rooms where I preside – “God’s Holy Communion Table.” Can you not see the mystery? This is My religious conviction and the way I understand to serve the Communion. I do not understand the way others serve because that is not My calling.
You all remember when you came out to Sayville, a good many of you, I never administered Communion after a manner of men religiously, but I had My own method of administering Communion, the Lord’s Supper and the Love Feast, that it might be for the sustenance of your bodies, of you please, and for the benefit of your souls; to keep your souls and bodies together; and this was done, when it was done, at any and all of My Banquet Tables where I served the Lord’s Supper; it was done without discretion and was done without remuneration. Can you not see the mystery? And even until today, at My Private Banquet Tables where I preside, My communion I am daily administering and giving, it is a free gift to humanity, those who are worthy and ready to receive it.
The True Communion, Not the Symbol Only
Jesus, the great Love Master, said:
“Take, eat: (you know what it said) this do in remembrance of me… till he come…I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.”
Here it is! Here and there and everywhere – no longer made a symbol of the reality but the actual Reality of something for the sustenance of your physical bodies, for your comfort and for your convenience. This is the true Communion.
Of course, others are welcome to participate. You go to the Methodist Churches and a good many of the liberal churches and they grant you the privilege to take Communion with them. Some of the churches say, “All who are of the same faith and belief may come and take of this cup.” Can you not see the mystery?
But this is quite liberal; but it is especially set apart for the co-workers who are wholeheartedly consecrated to God. We invite visiting friends to partake when it is convenient and whensoever they will to partake of the Communion. It is free gift to one and all. Aren’t you glad?
This is, I say, the actual Communion service. In the majority of the churches they have the Communion set. We have our daily Communion sets in all of our places. That is, the Banquet sets, the Banquet Tables are the Communion room where we take the Communion and also break bread with each other, having love feasts from time to time. But daily it must be done in all of My dining rooms.
Father Divine
Excerpt from Father Divine’s message given at the banquet table at 1887-1889 Madison Avenue, New York City on May 28, 1941 at 7:38 p.m.