By Kat Hnatyshyn, Council of Twelve Apostles
I am aware of your desire to serve me and my assurance is that as you go forth, your offerings of faith and service are acceptable to me.
A wooden Communion cup carries a whole world inside it for me. It isn’t ornate or polished. It isn’t the kind of cup you’d find in a sanctuary back home. It’s simple, carved, warm to the touch; the kind of object that feels like it was made to be held in a real moment by real hands. And that’s exactly what it was for me.
I received this cup when I was eighteen, freshly graduated from high school and standing on the edge of everything unfamiliar. I was about to head into college, stepping into adulthood, and at the same time traveling to Honduras—a place I had never been, surrounded by people who didn’t all speak my language, navigating a season full of firsts and unknowns. I felt the weight of transition, the excitement and the uncertainty woven together.
And then someone placed that wooden cup in my hands at La Buena Fe during a Communion service.
It wasn’t filled with grape juice like I was used to. It was grape soda. And instead of bread, we shared tortillas. Everything about the moment felt different from the rituals I had grown up with—almost strange, almost playful—and yet somehow honest, grounded, authentic. Because in that moment, the point wasn’t the form. It was the presence.
Holding that cup, I realized something I didn’t yet have words for: God wasn’t waiting for me back in the familiar. God was already with me in the unfamiliar.
In a foreign country, with grape soda fizzing in a wooden cup, I learned that God doesn’t need my comfort zones to show up. God meets me in the in-between places. The Holy speaks through new languages, new tables, new people present even when everything else feels foreign.
That’s why this cup matters to me.
It holds the memory of being young and brave and unsure.
It holds the kindness of the community that welcomed me.
It holds the truth that God’s presence isn’t tied to a place, a ritual, or a language. God is with me anywhere and everywhere.
And maybe that’s why I’ve kept it all these years. Not because it’s beautiful, even though it is, but because it reminds me that I am never alone.
Prayer Phrase
“Let us work for the good of all” (Galatians 6:10).
Spiritual Hunger
Jesus discerned hungers of body and spirit, and he fed them through a physical, verbal, spiritual ministry of presence. In a time of listening prayer, ask God to help you discern physical or spiritual hungers of people in your congregation, community, and global family. Invite the Spirit to move you to one hospitable act that “feeds” someone’s hunger today.
Today’s Prayer for Peace
Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.